Page 71 of Stolen Mafia Vows
“They think I have her. I know she isn’t there. Which leaves you.”
He pulls the thread tight and finishes it off with a tiny knot. “Well, I never thought I’d see the day when a son of mine believes a fucking Murray over his own father.”
He stands up, the chair legs scraping across the tiled floor.
My uncles watch me closely from the other side of the table.
“Emily abandoned my car. Where else would she go?”
A niggling buzz has taken up residence inside my head, fighting the throbbing pain of torn flesh and the numbing effect of the whisky. When I left the cottage, I was certain that my father had found Emily and either brought her back here or taken her to a safe house to use as leverage in this war against the Murrays.
Now, I’m not so sure…
“Did it not occur to you that they were lying?”
“Declan.” Gran steps in, and I register the shock in my father’s eyes around the same time as I realize that I’ve never heard her interfere before. “Let the lad speak.”
He returns his attention to me, palms spread, gesturing for me to continue.
“Terry Keegan gave me an ultimatum: bring Emily home by tonight or he won’t be so easy on me next time. He doesn’t know where she is.”
“Well, isn’t that a fucking conundrum.” My father exchanges glances with my uncles. “You’ve lost your wife already, and in the middle of a war.”
I rise onto my feet, swaying with the rush of blood to my head. “You swear you had nothing to do with this?”
“She’s your wife, son. I expected you to take better care of her.”
“I need to find her.”
“You’re not going alone.”
I notice that my uncles are armed. While I’ve been trying to save my marriage, my father has been gathering his army without me. Ruairi is dead, and there’s only one reaction worthy of a mafia Boss: retaliate.
My thoughts are itchy, like they’ve been left out in the sun for too long and are burning up. Emily doesn’t believe that Caleb killed Ruairi. Terry Keegan didn’t come to Ireland to fight the Byrnes he came for his daughter. And now Emily is missing.
Why?
Where is she?
Who killed my brother?
“What if someone else killed Ruairi?” The words spill out as if I’m already in sight of the finish line but with my family blocking my way. “What if the same mob has Emily now?”
My father shakes his head. “Wake up and smell the fucking roses, son. They’re lying to you. They killed your brother, and now they’re lying to you.”
But now that the idea is within grasping distance, I can’t let go. “Perhaps someone else is trying to restart the war between the Murrays and the Byrnes. A third party.” I glance at my uncles, whose expressions are unreadable. “Who would benefit from us destroyingeach other?”
“The winner.” My Pa’s voice cracks the atmosphere in the room.
“What if there is no winner? We’ve already lost Ruairi. They’ll lose Caleb. While someone else sits back and watches from the sidelines with their finger on the button that will transfer both empires to them.”
Pa opens his mouth to protest that I’m chatting shite because I’m a fucking coward, but Uncle Dermott intervenes. “It’s a fair point, Dec. We could check out the smaller mobs first.”
“They wouldn’t dare touch us.” Pa finds a glass in one of the cabinets and fills it with whisky, downing it in one mouthful.
“The Noonans have been making some noise,” Dermott says. “Getting too big for their boots, forgetting where the lines are drawn. We’ve had to pull them up a few times.”
“This would be way beyond their reach.”
