AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That it is,” I sigh.
“So…wait…are you like the Godfather now?”
I laugh. “That’s not quite how it works in real life.”
“Yeah, but I’ll bet it’s probablykind oflike that.”
“I thought we agreed a long time ago to not talk business?”
She chuckles. “Hey, you’re the one who brought it up. But fine. Point taken. Let me just say congrats, then.”
I hear someone in the background on her end, and then Loraine murmuring “Castle got a big promotion.”
“Congrats, Castle!” I hear a much younger voice call.
I grin. “Tell Tea I say thanks.”
Bryce was like a big brother to me, and Loraine’s like the big sister I never had. She’s also one hell of a mother. Like, tour de force. She already was, raising Teagan alone while Bryce was off with me and the other guys on our various shit show missions. But she grew even stronger after he died.
I would have killed for a mother like her.
Because mine was a drunk, apathetic enabler to a monster. One who didn’t lift a goddamn finger when that piece of shit beat their own daughter to death right in front of her. One who wanted to put me in prison for killing that son of a bitch when I was seventeen.
Dominic Farrell, the head of one of the Kildare’s most trusted vassal families, is the one who got me out of that particular jam. I’d done some odd work for him over the years, and he pulled some strings and got me enlisted instead of going to prison. Bootcamp for a hotheaded New York street kid was shit, but it was a fuck of a lot better than going to jail for murder.
“Hey, Castle?”
Loraine’s voice lowers. My brow furrows.
“Yeah?”
“I…sorry, I hate bringing this up, but…”
“What’s going on, Loraine?”
She sighs. “I haven’t gotten the check yet this month.”
When I became Cillian’s number two, I started making more money in a week than I had made in a year in the army. Even before that, working as Neve and Eilish’s bodyguard, I was making a goddamn fortune.
What the fuck was I going to do with a fortune?
So I set up a trust—for Loraine and Teagan—enough that Tea could go to college and come out with enough money left over to start whatever life she wanted, and that Loraine wouldn’t want for anything, either.
Because I know if I’d been lucky enough to have a family like Bryce’s, andunlucky enough to die like he did, he’d have done the exact same thing for me.
The trust also sends out checks every month to Matty’s widow Shawna, and Jason’s widow Megan.
I frown. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, look, I’m sorry, it’s not a big deal—”
“Yeah, it is.” My brows knit. “Shit, Loraine, I’m so sorry. I’ll look into—”
“Castle.” She sighs, and I can almost hear her smile. “You don’t always gotta be the hero, you know. I can call the law offices myself. I just wanted to mention it in case there was anything going on that I should know about.”
Hero.
Why the fuck does everyone insist on calling me that? Hearing it from the widow of one of the men for whom I wasnota hero just makes it hurt even worse.
