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“You didn’t.” Aidan cracked his knuckles. “You were a boy. Just because he treated us like men doesn’t change the years on the clock.”
“He blamed you when he was blaming himself. He was the reason she got taken. The Aryans had beef with him and he fucked up by not being prepared for every eventuality.
“Ma should never have been kidnapped. That’s why we’ve got our wives locked and loaded with more guards than the president. Especially after what happened with Aidan and Savannah, which only went down anyway because we trusted those asswipes,” Eoghan rumbled. Then, to Brennan, he continued, “There’s nothing wrong with missing the old bastard. It’s like Stockholm syndrome. There ain’t an instant cure.”
Brennan chuckled. “Stockholm syndrome. Never thought of it that way.”
Eoghan took a sip of his drink. “I think Kid’s idea is a great one.”
None of us were surprised by the change of subject, but I still corrected, “It was Ma’s idea. Star perpetuated it.”
“Yeah, but you put in the work. Does it have to be soccer?”
“Start small. You know it’s the league with the least interest in the States, but it can have a global impact with the international tournaments.”
“What’s the aim, Conor?” Aidan tapped his pen against the table. “Match-fixing?”
I shrugged. “I figure we have several routes we can take. Match-fixing, eventually. But we need to be associated with wins.
"I think we take the Saturns, for example, a team that regularly underperforms, and make our mark by sending them soaring to the top of the league.
“It's the next phase of ‘Shay for the Oval Office.’”
“You know, if he knew he was a phase, we’d never get him out of his room because of his fat head.”
“Don’t lie, Dec. You never get him out of his room anyway,” Aidan retorted. “I remember that age. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, does he?”
“No.”
“So his left fist is—”
Declan groaned. “Do we have to talk about this?”
Aidan grinned. “Like you don’t know he’s doing it.”
“Aela’s glad she’s not the housekeeper. Let’s put it that way.” He smiled sheepishly. “I told her he can’t knock up a sock. Shay overheard and now, he won’t maintain eye contact with either of us.”
I chuckled. “Ah, the joys of youth.”
“Youth, my ass. It’s ten times harder now than it was for us. At least the only thing Da cared about was us becoming a Five Pointer. You should see the crap you need to do to get into Harvard. I don’t think even you’d cope, Kid.”
“I foresee a wager,” Eoghan drawled.
I rubbed my hands together. “Can’t be that difficult being a mature student, can it?”
Aidan chuckled. “You’re about to find out. But before you become Harvard’s next MVP, can we get on with this conversation, please? What can we hold over Maloney’s head to make the purchase?”
“Nothing. We just buy it." At their blank looks, I snickered. "Your faces. Honestly, did you think we could go into this by blackmailing him? Legitimacy has to start somewhere."
Brennan frowned. “That’s going to be expensive—”
“And a presidential election campaign isn’t?”
He conceded that with a grunt.
“I’m telling you this is the way forward. We formulate a Super PAC with O’Grady subsidiaries as major cash cows for the election campaign, funds that come from legitimate income streams like Ellie’s Bakery, and then we get the O’Donnellys linked with sports.”
“I’ve started checking out locations for new branches of the bakery,” Finn said. “Aoife’s being difficult, but it’s her baby so she can be.”
