“I’ll start from the beginning,” Morgan said, clasping his hands behind his head. “Just to give you a bit of backstory.”
I didn’t answer him; I only waited.
“How much do you know about the mafia?”
My heart just about exploded.
“Excuse me?”
“The mafia,” Morgan repeated. “How much do you know about that circle of people?”
“Absolutely nothin’.”
Morgan snickered. “I figured as much.”
“What has the mafia got to do—”
“The compound where I grew up, where the brothers grew up, was a mafia base, so to speak.”
My mouth went dry.
“The boss of the compound, my uncle Marco, worked with the mafia from time to time, different drug cartels, too. Wherever business was good and there was money to be made, my uncle dabbled in it.”
His uncle sounded absolutely terrifying to me.
“We ran things from drugs, weapons, underground fighting, to prostitution,” Morgan continued. “These were things the Slater brothers were all directly involved in.”
I lifted my hand and covered my mouth.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Yes,” Morgan nodded. “You do.”
“You could be lyin’!”
“But I’m not, and you know I’m not,” he answered. “This is the reason why you’re in the dark about that entire fucked-up family. They don’t want you to know about their past because they don’t trust you with information that could land them in prison.”
“Shut up!”
“All the other women know,” Morgan pressed. “Bronagh, Aideen, Branna, and Keela. They’ve all been directly involved with the ’brothers’ past. Everyone but you … until now, that is.”
I covered my face with my hands and began to rock back and forth, trying to calm myself down.
“Morgan, listen to yourself. This doesn’t sound like real life.”
“To you it doesn’t because you weren’t born and raised in it, but this is the only life I’ve known, and I hate it.”
I dropped my hands but couldn’t stop them from trembling.
“You hate it?”
“More than anything.” Morgan nodded. “Once I leave this country, I’m going home and starting fresh. No more drugs, weapons … no more anything illegal. I want a normal life, and I’m going to have one even if it kills me.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I remained quiet.
“Growing up—” he then sighed “—I hung out with the twins a lot, but mostly I’d keep to myself. My older brother, Trent, loved the lifestyle, the drugs, the violence, the women. He lapped that shit up, and he was gunning to take over for Marco one day since our uncle had no kids of his own.”
Morgan’s eyes turned dark.
“But he never got the chance because your precious Slaters killed him and my uncle.”
“They couldn’t have,” I stressed. “Those men … they wouldn’t take someone’s life.”
Morgan humourlessly laughed.
“Kane has killed more than a few people, angel. Did you think he got his scars from a steady line of work?”
My lower lip trembled. “Stop it.”
“Don’t you want to know the truth?”
I did. God help me, but I did.
“Yes,” I answered quietly.
“Look.” Morgan frowned. “I don’t want to hurt you, so I’ll summarise everything you need to know instead of making a story out of it, okay?”
I could only nod my head in response.
“I know Damien told you his parents died in a car accident, but they didn’t. My uncle killed them both because they were traitors to our organisation. Out of all the brothers, Damien took their death the hardest. Trent was an asshole who loved to kick people when they were down, so he said some fucked-up shit to Damien about their parents deserving their faith, and a fight took place.”
I gripped the arms of the chair I sat on.
“Trent had a gun he stole from our uncle, but it changed hands and ended up in Damien’s. He shot Trent, and for a long time, the Slaters thought that Damien had murdered my brother. My uncle, who was a twisted son of a bitch, decided to keep Trent’s living status a secret from the brothers because they offered to pay off a life debt for what Damien had done since the punishment would have been Damien’s life for Trent’s.”
I shrunk lower into the chair.
“Each of the brothers has their own skillset that my uncle capitalised on. Dominic became his champion fighter in the underground when he was only fifteen. Ryder became his drug and weapons mule, Kane became his enforcer, and Alec became his prostitute. For a few years, they worked and worked hard. They had paid back the life debt and then some when they decided they wanted out. They came here for one last job, liked the place, and decided to settle.”
I had always wondered what brought the brothers to Ireland, and now that I knew, I’d give anything to be in the dark once again.
“Now, these men made my uncle a lot of money, so when they decided that they were done working for him, you can imagine how that displeased him. He came to Ireland to … talk the brothers into staying. That’s where you come into the story.”
I blanched. “Me?”
“Yes, Alannah, you.”
“I’ve never been involved with—”
“You were unconscious at the time, so you wouldn’t remember.”
I widened my eyes. “What?”
“I came to Ireland with my brother, uncle, and some of our men, but hurting people was never my scene. I hated that shit, to be honest. I watched everything from the shadows of Darkness, and after my uncle had you, Damien, and Bronagh at his mercy, I left the club. It’s a damn good thing I did because my brother died that night at the hands of the Slaters, and if I stayed, I would have, too.”
“Hold on,” I said, shaking my head. “How can you be sure I was there?”
“Because I was with Trent when you walked outside the nightclub and sat down on the kerb,” Morgan answered. “We were told to get you as leverage in case Damien and Bronagh weren’t enough to sway the brothers into keeping their jobs, and then you just walked out of the club like you were gift wrapped for us. It was too easy. Trent punched you in the back of your head, and boom, you were out like a light.”
I lifted my hand and rubbed my fingers over the back of my head.
“I remember,” I said softly. “I thought I just passed out from drinking.”
“Nope, it was all orchestrated,” Morgan replied. “Though, I did stop Trent from raping you.”
I choked on air.
“What?”
“My brother was sick and twisted, Alannah.”
I had to take deep breaths.
“He never touched you,” Morgan pressed. “I carried you into the club, then I left because Trent went to collect Bronagh from one of the back rooms.”
“Oh, my God,” I said, wrapping my arms around my waist. “Oh, my God.”
“I’m pressing on because I’m not finished yet,” Morgan said.
I wasn’t sure if I could handle hearing anymore.
“A few years passed by after that,” Morgan continued. “I’ve been here the whole time, and I kept my ear to the ground once I found out Alec developed a connection with Brandy Daley. I didn’t even reconnect with my uncle, though he was still alive. Everything back home started to fall apart, thanks to Brandy Daley interfering, and the feds started sniffing around, so I knew Marco would have made me do something that would get me killed.”
My entire body was shaking.
“Alec killed my uncle,” Morgan said, devastating me. “Word travels amongst Daley’s circle, and since I know a few h is men, I got information fed to me. That’s how I knew Big Phil showed up a few years later, gunning for revenge for Kane killing his son, and the others for killing Marco and Trent.”
“What?” I asked, my voice cracking. “What the fuck?”
“If I stop to explain every detail, your head will explode, angel.”
“Stop callin’ me that.”
Morgan ignored me. “You know that fire your friend Aideen was in at the school? Big Phil started that to kill her. He failed and got away. But he got Branna, and bloodied her up good, judging from the reports in the news. Big Phil was the man who Kane reported to during his time working for my uncle, and when Kane didn’t do what he was told, he was scarred. Kane killed Big Phil’s son for attacking a kid, and the man was hell-bent on revenge. He never got it … he died; Kane killed him.”
I felt like I was going to be sick.
“You’ll be glad to know that’s where all the killing ends.”
Tears that were pooled in my eyes, fell and splashed on my cheeks when I blinked.
“Ryder was involved with the feds for a while, though I’ve no idea what for, but they’ve backed off him now, and as far as I can tell, life is as normal as can be for the Slaters. Unbeknownst to them that I’m in your life, of course.”
“I should have never hired you.”
“I’m glad you did,” Morgan said with a snort. “Your system was a mess. I cleaned everything up for you, and you know it.”
“Shut up.” I sniffed. “Just stop talkin’.”
“You won’t be able to process all of this information, Alannah, not when you still don’t believe it’s true.”
I focused my blurry vision on Morgan’s face.
“How do ye’know I doubt you?”
“Because I can see it on your face every time I told you a Slater did something awful,” he answered gently. “The men you know aren’t capable of what I’ve described, but that’s my entire point. You don’t know who they are, and they were never going to tell you so I had to.”
“I need to see them,” I said. “To talk to them.”
“Go ahead and call them,” Morgan encouraged. “Invite them around.”
I hesitated.
“Go on,” he urged. “I want to see their faces when they realise that they’ve lost you.”
With a trembling hand, I dialled Damien’s number and prayed he’d answer.
“Hey babe,” he answered on the fourth ring. “I just saw your messages. I’m at work.”
“Da-damien?”
Things went quiet. “Alannah?”
“I need you and all your brothers to come to my apartment right now.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Do ye’know a Carter Miles?”
Silence.
“Damien?”
“Where did you hear that name?”
“From him,” I answered, looking Morgan dead in his eyes. “He is sittin’ right in front of me, and he has told me all sorts of lies about you and your brothers.”
“Lock yourself in your bedroom,” Damien demanded as rushed movements could be heard. “Get away from him, right now.”
“He isn’t goin’ to hurt me. He said so.”
“Alannah, listen to me. Get away from him. Now. You don’t know this guy.”
“But I do.” I frowned, or at least I thought I once did. “He’s been workin’ for me for the past couple of weeks.”