Page 21 of Sinner's Fury

“Yes, Justin confirmed my suspicions when he bro-hugged me and whispered that I should play along. So, I did. It wasn’t until later that night, when Gio and I were about to retire for the night that we were alerted that we had a visitor.”

“Justin?”

“Yes. Justin apologized for the subterfuge and only said that he was on duty, gathering information for a client, and that he didn’t know we would be in town. When I asked who his client was, Justin refused to answer.”

“That wasn’t all he said, was it?”

Sal shook his head. “No. Justin wanted to catch up, so we left and went for a drink at a local bar. That night, he told me something that bothered me.”

“What did he say?”

“He said everything was connected, and I needed to be careful.”

“What did he mean by that?”

“I don’t know. I thought it was an odd thing to say, but with everything going on in the underworld at the time, I blew it off. Now, I think Justin was right. I just haven’t been able to prove anything.”

“Is that why you live out here in the wilderness, away from your family?”

“No. I live out here to protect my son.”

“From what?”

“His mother’s family.”

“I thought Henry’s mother was a woman from your club in Vegas.”

“That’s what I told everyone,” he admitted. “The truth is much worse. I am keeping my son’s parentage close to the vest for his own safety.”

“I guess that’s one thing we have in common.”

Jerking awake, I blinked, my heart racing a mile a minute.

What if Sal was right? What if everything was connected? If so, then that opened up several new avenues to look into.

Leaning back in my chair, I rubbed my hands down my face.

I’d been researching my connection to the Golden Skulls since I was sixteen and learned the truth about Mother, and I still wasn’t any closer to a resolution than when I started. If I didn’t know any better, I would suspect the universe was conspiring against me for my own safety. Generally, I would be okay with that, but I couldn’t let go of the nagging feeling that I was on the cusp of something big, and if I considered everything I knew as a whole, like one big pot of soup, then the Doherty line was just one ingredient.

Which meant I had a lot more digging to do.

Chapter Four

Fury

The very next day...

“You sure about this place, brother?” Vicious asked uneasily, standing at my back while I jimmied the lock to the door. The relentless pursuit of details regarding Shame’s personal life felt like a wild-goose chase. It had consumed the last couple of months of our lives.

Had to give my brother respect.

Fucker knew how to set a false trail. We checked apartment after apartment that was registered to a Justin Peterson, Shame, or any other name we could connect to our brother.

“Nope,” I muttered when I heard the lock click. “We’re in.”

Stepping into the apartment, Vicious quickly shut the door behind him. “I swear, Fury, this is the last... Holy shit.”

Standing near the door, the sheer unbelievable nature of the scene before me caused my eyes to widen, taking in the chaotic jumble of objects and colors. The walls were a collage of smiling faces and urgent scribbled messages, photos of brothers, wives and children from both the Soulless Sinners and the Golden Skulls, their stories whispering from the yellowed paper and cracked frames. But that wasn’t all. There were photos of the Valentinetti Family, Maxim’s crew, the Irish Mafia out of Boston and of others I didn’t recognize. Shame’s network was extensive,detailing the lives and connections of every person within the dark and dangerous underworld.

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