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Nora McCormick’s time ended far too soon. Honestly, it was without a doubt my biggest regret. A part of me had always felt like her death had been my fault. I wondered if Caitlin even remembered her or if she was too young to recall anything more than her mother’s loving face.
I sighed, dropping my gaze from Caitlin’s to stare at the ground. I’d made her mother a promise more than a decade ago, and I meant to keep it.
About fifteen years ago, my family hadn’t been in the sort of position we were today. Back then, we were based out of Ireland rather than Boston. The Murphys had settled in a poorer suburb of Dublin, where there were several other much larger families at play all around us. Kieran and I had worked together to carve out a small territory for us, but that hadn’t come without much fight and even greater loss.
The McCormicks were close friends of ours, so close that we considered them family. Years before my time, the two families had become allies through an arranged marriage and had simply grown from there. Caitlin’s father Finn was practically an adopted brother in the family, and we all treated him like one. When he found Nora and married her six months later, she was welcomed with the same kind of love and respect that we gave him.
I stifled a chuckle when I remembered the face she’d made when she had her first taste of real Irish whiskey. She’d always said how much she hated whiskey and at her first family meeting, she’d surprised us all when she’d downed the whole thing in a single gulp before she slammed the glass back down on the table.
She’d been an integral part of our family after that.
I still remembered the delectable taste of Nora’s delicious blueberry scones like I’d had one just yesterday. She was especially talented in the kitchen, and thinking about it only made me miss her even more.
After a few drinks one night, Finn and I had come up with a plan to expand the Murphy Empire. There was a gambling house a few streets over from the pub, just on the border of our territory. It was run by a small-time family in Dublin, the O’Malleys, but they didn’t engage in much of anything. They threatened it several times in the past, but they were all bark and no bite, or at least that was our impression.
Itshouldhave been an easy takeover.
We hadn’t known the Gallaghers had just signed an agreement with the O’Malleys the weekend before, a pact sealed through an arranged marriage and an announcement of an unborn child.
In the following days, Finn and I approached Kieran. Once we had permission, the two of us started preparing. We ensured that we had enough guns and weapons to outfit a small army of men that we would bring along with us. When we were finally ready, we infiltrated the gambling den slowly, one member at a time entering and placing a bet. When enough of us were inside, we took over by force.
Finn took several shots and so did I, but at the end of the day there were only two or three casualties. Unbeknownst to us, one of the men that died was the bride’s brother. We’d thought it was a massive success, and we made bank taking in bets and bribes over the course of the next several days. It was the calm before the storm. The Gallaghers came for us later that week. They wanted me and Finn dead to repay a blood debt for one they considered their own.
We weren’t ready.
They must have been watching us for days. Finn, Nora, and I had booked a car to take us to a local charity event and when we’d pulled up in the VIP area, they’d ambushed us. I’d seen a flicker of motion out of the corner of my eye, but I hadn’t been fast enough. One shot went off and then another. A ferocious burn cut into my abdomen, and I pushed Nora back into the car and hid behind the door. With a rushed sense of calm, I’d pulled my own gun and popped off several bullets myself. Finn did the same from the other side of the car. We were both good shots and it hadn’t taken long for us to take out the six men that had jumped us. Only then did I hazard a glance down to notice there was blood on my shirt.
I’d been shot.
In a haze of fury and adrenaline, I’d spun around only to find Nora slumped over in the seat. I’d cried out with alarm, looking around to ensure that there was no one else that was coming for us. The back alley was abandoned now. The men that had ambushed us were either gone or dead. Truthfully, the only thing that mattered now was Nora.
In a daze, I sat down beside her, almost too terrified to touch her. Her beautiful rose-pink dress was stained with a growing pool of blood, and I hastily ripped it open, trying to find the wound. In my panic, I knew she was losing too much blood, but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Then I saw the wound. The bullet had torn through her chest and her rattled, choking breaths told me that her lungs were filling with blood too quickly for me to even get her to a hospital.
It was too late.
Her hand wrapped around my wrist as I tried to put pressure on the wound. Finn’s door practically slammed open, and his face went stark white at the scene before him.
“Take… care… of my Caitlin,” she whispered, and I blinked back tears.
“We’re going to get you some help,” Finn blurted out, his voice already cracking with panicked grief.
“You take care of her,” Nora pressed again.
Her eyes were desperate, and I realized that she was just barely hanging on. The seconds she had left were precious. As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew that the wound went too deep, and she’d already lost too much blood. Her face was already deathly pale, and I choked back my own sorrow so that she could have a few more precious moments before what I already knew to be inevitable. Every single one needed to count.
“I will watch over her for you. Me and Finn will make sure she grows up safe and sound. I promise you,” I vowed and the fear in her gaze finally faded away to satisfied acceptance.
I pressed more firmly on the wound, and she smiled. My heart broke. She was already so far gone that she wasn’t feeling any more pain. My eyes watered and despite knowing the end was near, I still didn’t let up, keeping my hands firmly against the gunshot wound.
“Nora, sweetheart,” Finn sobbed.
“I love you, Finn,” she whispered, her last words hardly audible, and then she looked back at me. “Take care of him too. He’s going to have a hard time without me.”
Her grip on my wrist had started to loosen and I knew she was close.
“I’ll take care of them both. I promise,” I reassured her.
Her eyes had slipped closed as Finn’s arms shakily surrounded her. By the time we got her to the closest emergency room, she was already dead, and she had taken a part of me along with her. In the weeks following, the entire Murphy family worked to avenge her death. We took her loss from the O’Malley’s in blood and when it was all over, Kieran finally procured an uneasy peace agreement between the three families.
