Page 16 of Starting Over

I didn’t wait for the answer. I marched right into church and walked to the front of the room, pacing while I waited for everyone to show up.

The officers piled in, with King bringing up the rear.

“What the fuck, Dec?” my little brother growled.

He would always be my little brother, despite being as tall as I was.

I looked around the room at the men sitting at the table.

“Where’s Ghost?”

“He’s in Oklahoma,” King said, moving to take his seat at the head of the table.

“Why?”

“None of your fucking business. What crawled up your ass this morning?”

“Maureen fucking Murphy.”

King rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me right now? Have you been stirring about this shit all night? Look, I don’t know what she said to you, but get a fucking grip.”

“It isn’t about what she said. It’s about who she is and where she came from.”

I tossed the file on the table, making sure it slid over in front of my brother.

“You looked her up?” he said, shaking his head at me.

“I ran her plate to see who she was. Then I did a quick search. The shit we’ve been dealing with from women showing up in this town has given me a touch of PTSD.”

A few of the officers chuckled.

“I will again remind you, one of those women turned out to be your daughter, and learning of her existence was the best fucking day of your life,” King groaned.

He was right. Finding my daughter was the best day of my life. Keeping her safe became my mission. This was how I kept her safe.

“Maureen Murphy is a Mob widow out of Boston.”

“Fuck.”

I looked over at Blade, and he had dropped his head to the table.

“Easy, brother. Could be a coincidence.”

I swung around to King. “What did you just say? Is he caught up with the Irish Mob?” I asked, pointing at my daughter’s old man.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Blade repeated, banging his head on the table.

“What the fuck did you get my daughter involved in?” I demanded.

“You better tell him the truth before he blows a gasket,” Jack said quietly next to Blade.

He never lifted his head from the table, probably afraid to look me in the eye. He fucking should be.

“You know my family was in WITSEC. Well, the reason why was my dad was an accountant for the Mob. He stole some money, and they found out. He turned on them so the FEDS would protect him. Had some of the older guys sent up. When I was eighteen, they found us again. They had already killed my mom, and I watched them kill my dad.”

“Why didn’t they kill you?” I asked, not believing his story.

“I don’t know. The guys said I was a baby when it happened, so they didn’t consider me a threat since I didn’t know anything, and Dad had already given them everything he knew. About every six months, the boss calls me to touch base, making sure I have done nothing to change their opinion of me.”

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