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Forty-One
Finn
“No,you’re not missing anything, but I think we need to get some shit out into the open.”
Junior arched a brow at me. “More shit?”
“There’salwaysshit,” Conor declared. “If we get everything out in the open, then we’ll be here all day.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Declan said on a huff.
Staring at Junior, I ground out, “There’ll come a day when you’re in charge, Aidan, and this is it. It’s us. We’re the council.”
“That’s gloomy.” Brennan frowned. “Da ain’t in his grave, yet.”
“No, but he would have been if I hadn’t dragged him from the cathedral when he and your ma tried to burn themselves to death.” I shot him a pointed look when his mouth gaped. “See? This is the kind of stuff we need to be transparent about.”
“Ma tried to kill herself?”
I wasn’t surprised that Brennan focused on that. He had a better relationship with Lena than the others, but that was forged on guilt. Guilt he only had on his shoulders because his father had given a man’s job to a teenager.
Declan, on the other hand, demanded, “Da was behind the arson attack on the cathedral? Do you know how many pieces of art were lost in that fire?”
Eoghan murmured, “And the Archbishop? Da killed him?”
“Ma tried to kill herself,” Junior rasped, staring down at his shoes. “Da killed the Archbishop, but the Valentini Don kidnapped him for us—”
Brennan snapped, “When were you thinking of telling us all this?”
He shrugged. “When it was important.”
“Jesus Christ,” Brennan hissed.
“Your folks both set fire to the cathedral,” I tacked on calmly.
“But why?” Eoghan muttered. “What the hell made them do that?”
Before I could answer, Conor stated, “I think it’s my secret to tell.”
“What secret?” Eoghan inquired.
“A couple months before Paddy disappeared—” Disapproval laced Kid’s tone at his uncle’s behavior. “—a priest groomed me.”
Tension had Brennan’s shoulders stiffening. “Groomed you?” he repeated, his words like ice.
By contrast to the threat of danger in Bren’s voice, Conor sounded conversational as he explained, “Yes. He raped me multiple times over a period of about six weeks.”
I closed my eyes at that news. Afterthatday, we’d never spoken about it. What we’d seen, what we’d done, I knew it fucked us all up.
Aidan had gotten real angry, so much so that his da had whupped him to ‘beat the devil out of him.’ Unsurprisingly, that didn’t help with his anger issues. Conor had turned to his computers. I’d just tried to ride through it by studying as much as I could, knowing that one day, I’d be able to leave wetwork behind.
“Conor, fuck, you—” Declan rambled, sitting forward like he wanted todosomething but couldn’t.
“Who was the fucking piece of shit bastard son of a bitch?” Brennan growled, jerking to his feet to loom over the lot of us.
“Give me his name,” Eoghan whispered. “I’ll kill him. No one has to know.”
Conor smiled, but it was a weird one. Neither edgy nor gleeful, mostly… entertained? Satisfied? “It’s okay. He’s already dead.”
