Page 42 of Starting Over

Her and her husband took my brother and moved out of my life.

Shortly after, she had another boy.

I may be a bastard, literally and figuratively, but to me family was important. Family meant everything.

Family meant nothing to my father. Shit, his father, Casper O’Malley the former head of the IRA, banished his son to the States so he wouldn’t have to clean up anymore of his fucking messes. It wouldn’t shock me to find out I had other siblings still living in Ireland.

After getting rid of his son, my grandfather married off my aunt to the man he wanted to leave his legacy to. Now, that man’s son ran Ireland.

I also recently learned my grandfather was fucking around on my grandmother. Had two little girls with his mistress, and now I had a cousin who was a fucking Italian.

And a member of the goddamn Soulless Sinners.

Add him to the other half-breed cousins that were in the Golden Skulls, and I would be caught in the middle of a war that had nothing to do with me. Well, almost nothing. Fucking Nolan was dead when I found him.

“What have we learned about the Italian?”

“Not much. They keep things pretty close to the vest over there. Though he was arrested for shooting Montana.”

“That fucker deserved it, I’m sure. He dead?”

“He survived.”

“More’s the pity. They charge him?”

“No.”

“Where is he now?” I asked, wondering what I could gain by helping him if the need arose.

“Don’t know. He disappeared.”

“I told you to watch him.”

Tyran sat there, spinning his glass in his hand. He wouldn’t look at me. Which told me he fucked up.

“Did you lose him because you were looking for Maureen?”

“She’s in fucking Nebraska.”

“You already fucking told me that,” I shouted, slamming my hand on my desk.

He lifted his glass and drained it before getting to his feet. Placing the glass on my desk, he finally looked me in the eye.

“She knows something. Why else would she fucking run?”

Closing my eyes and letting out a ragged breath, I tried to temper my anger.

“She didn’t fucking run,” I said between clenched teeth. “And she doesn’t know shit. Maura never wanted to be in this life. She took the opportunity that was available to her and got out.”

“Then why the fuck did she run to him?”

That was a good question. Did she run to him? If she did know something, what was it and who exactly did she run to? She had options in Nebraska.

“We don’t know she ran to anyone. It could be a coincidence”

Tyran looked at me with an expression I had never seen. One that said I was an idiot. He was a brave motherfucker to question me.

Maura was special. While there was no love lost for Duane, the useless shit, I had a high regard for his brother Duncan. Duncan loved Maura like a little sister, not just because she was married to Duane, but because Maura was good. She was pure. She deserved better than staying in a life she hated.

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