Vengeful Secret (The Burkes Mafia #3)

22. Gray

22

GRAY

It’s been two days since Sutton was attacked, and I’ve kept the asshole who did it in my father’s panic room the whole time.

The panic room doesn’t actually function the way one might think. We have it down in the basement, locked away from prying eyes. We don’t use it for protection.

Quite the opposite. It’s basically a holding cell for those we need to interrogate or kill. And I plan to do both to this fucker who attacked the love of my life.

I hum, pulling up my sleeves as I walk down into the basement.

Kael’s already down there. I’ve had him keep an eye on the guy, provide him with food and water. Wouldn’t want him to croak from dehydration before I got to him.

“How’s our friend?” I ask, and Kael looks up from his car magazine. He throws it on the table, snorting.

“He's been begging and crying for hours.” There’s a derisive tone in Kael’s voice. The Irish aren’t supposed to be punks—they're not supposed to cry and snivel and beg.

Apparently, the Murphys are a different breed.

“Aye,” I drawl, cracking my neck and smiling slightly. “I’m going in.”

“You want some help, boss?”

I blink.

It’s still strange having my little brother’s best friend, who is also my sister’s fiancé, call me boss, but I guess it’s something I’ll have to get used to. At least until Da is better.

“I don’t think so, no. I’d like to do this myself.”

Kael claps me on the back and then walks up the stairs.

I take a deep breath and input the code—my mother’s birthday—and the door buzzes and clicks open.

As soon as I open the soundproof door, I can hear him sniffling.

I roll my eyes.

He’s huddled against the far wall, his hands ziptied in front of him instead of behind him.

The first day, he’d been hog-tied. Kael has a heart after all.

Unfortunately for the man shivering in the corner, I don’t. Not when it comes to the Murphys and how they’ve attacked my family.

“What’s your name?”

I expect him to beg and whine, but instead he just looks up at me with wet, clear brown eyes.

“Darragh.”

“Murphy?”

He shakes his head. “Kennedy.”

I hum. The Kennedys were cousins of Niall Murphy.

“Did Niall send you after Sutton?”

“He sent me after all the Burke girls,” he corrects, and when I take a step closer, he cowers, trying to make himself small.

“You know how this goes,” I say slowly. “So, it’d be easier and less painful for you if you tell me what I need to know.”

His Adam’s apple bobs. “Either you kill me, or Murphy kills me. Doesn’t seem like much of a choice.”

I take another step toward him, putting my boot on his crotch and grinding down on his testicles.

He chokes and lets out a little scream.

“Oh, but I’ll kill you slow , boyo,” I drawl. “I promise you I’ll make you suffer more than Murphy will.”

He nods, starting to sweat, as I slowly move my boot off him.

“If I talk, you won’t… you won’t hurt me?” he asks in a thin, screamy voice, panting.

I give him my best crooked smile. “Of course not. I’m not a monster.”

Little does he know.

He takes in a breath.

“Niall sent me and a few other guys?—”

“Names,” I bark, and Darragh chokes and then takes in another shaking breath.

“Shaun O’Brien. Gabe Bryne.”

“None of your cousins?” I narrow my eyes. “No Murphys?”

“Gabe is my cousin,” he says quickly, clearly not wanting to upset me. “But Shaun’s a new clan member from South Beach.”

I think about it for a moment.

He could be lying to me, but he’s still sweating and trembling from how I hurt him only slightly.

Murphy hires some real pussies.

“If you’re lying to me—” I warn, and he holds his tied hands up.

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” he says breathlessly. “I’m at your mercy.”

His lip trembles. “I don’t wanna die.”

If he thinks he’s appealing to something in me, he’s wrong. The Murphys aren’t people. They’re all snakes, and I want them eradicated from my city.

“Should have thought of that before you took a job stalking my girl. A single mother.” My voice gets lower, and I approach him, putting my hands on his shoulders as he sobs low in his throat.

“I wasn’t gonna hurt her again. Murphy said we couldn’t lay a hand on them, just to get them in the car and take them to him.”

“Take them where?”

Darragh looks up at me with swimming, terrified eyes. “Warehouse on fifth. Big one, right behind the?—”

“The deli.”

He nods eagerly. “Yeah. Yeah, that‘s the one.”

“Gabe and Shaun—what are their orders?”

“Gabe is supposed to watch Paige, the younger one. Supposed to watch out for Sullivan. Shaun is supposed to keep an eye on Bree and Lara, but with orders not to take Bree.”

I tilt my head, confused.

I would have thought Murphy might want his daughter most of all, but I guess she’s been disowned at this point.

“Where are they now?”

He shrugs. “I-I don’t know. Hotels, probably.”

I sigh. “Darragh. Which ones?”

I squeeze his shoulders until he winces.

“Not the fancy ones. No Ritz or Four Seasons. Motels. Shitty roach motels.”

I nod slowly. “What else can you tell me about Murphy? About his plans?”

He looks at me almost mournfully. “All I know is that he’s declared an all-out war on the Burkes. He wants scorched earth.”

“He’ll get it,” I say in a soft voice before I put my hands around Darragh’s neck and squeeze, popping his windpipe like a balloon as his legs uselessly kick out and he writhes around.

It takes longer than I would have thought. Figured he’d give up after a bit, but it’s a good ten, fifteen minutes before he finally stills, the life going out of him.

I don’t feel guilty when I kill, because it‘s always someone who deserves it, but it's distasteful.

I grimace as I stand, wiping my hands off on my thighs because they’re covered in Darragh’s fear-sweat.

I roll my shoulders around before opening the door and shutting it behind me.

I text our cleaner, Murray, a deaf-mute who’s roughly the size of a barn but somehow always gets the job done despite his disabilities.

He sends back a thumbs-up emoji, and I chuckle down at my phone.

I head upstairs, where Lara is hugging Paige goodbye.

I frown. “You and Kael aren’t staying for dinner?”

She shakes her head. “I’m exhausted. I just want to put my swollen feet up.”

I smile. “Can’t believe you and Bree are going to have babies only a few months apart.”

“It’ll be just like Irish twins,” Paige chirps, in a good mood like usual despite her pregnancy.

She gives me a smile and kisses my cheek before leaving. Kael follows her before raising an eyebrow at me to make sure I don’t need him.

I shake my head, and he waves and walks out to the car.

“Are you willing to babysit Ciara tomorrow night?” Lara asks me.

I snort. It isn’t exactly be babysitting, since she’s my daughter, but Lara doesn’t know that yet.

“Sure, but why? It’s not like you can take Sutton out on the town.”

“I can’t, but I can make it fun for her here! A dinner party with all my girlfriends.”

I smile. We’ve kind of been recluses since Da was hurt, simply because of necessity. We don’t want Murphy to know how bad it is.

“I think that’s a great idea. No boys allowed?”

“Only the one in Bree’s belly.” She giggles and bounces off toward the stairs, presumably to ask Sutton about the dinner party.

I shake my head at her exuberance, but I’m still smiling.

Paige has always been the friendly one, and it usually takes Lara a bit to open up to friends. I’m glad that she's latched on to Sutton the way she has. Makes me feel like I’m making the right decision.

Not that falling in love with Sutton was a decision at all. It just happened the moment I saw her.

I find myself trailing into Da’s room, wondering if he’s up yet. It’s still pretty early in the morning, and he sleeps as much as he can to try and heal. It seems to be working, but progress is slow.

“That you, son?” he calls.

“One of them.” I smile, stepping into his room.

The whoosh of his oxygen concentrator sounds in the room.

“How are you feeling today, Da?”

He struggles a bit to sit up, and I try to help him, but he holds a hand up.

“I’m feeling right as rain, boyo. Don’t you worry about old Patrick!”

“Who says I’m worried, old man?” I tease, and Da barks out a laugh.

“Aye, I suppose you’ve got more things to worry about, don’t you?”

He raises his eyebrows at me, and I chuckle darkly.

“Plenty,” I pause. “I got some info out of one of Murphy’s cousins. The one who went after Sutton.”

“Did you? What’d you find out?” Da sounds excited.

“That he has three men out, one for Lara and Bree, one for Paige, and one for Sutton.”

“Names?”

“I got them,” I say, thinking that Da doesn’t need to know names. He might make some calls, and that would ruin our element of surprise.

I expect him to frown and argue, but he doesn’t.

“Good. Good.”

“Thank you for being so kind about me bringing Sutton here.” I’ve been wanting to thank him for a while, but things have just been so crazy.

He waves a hand dismissively. “There’s no need to thank me. Whoever you love, I love, Gray. You’re my son.”

My chest feels a little tight with emotion.

“It still warrants a thank you, Da.”

“She’s a sweet little thing,” he mumbles. “And that little girl of hers? Smart as a whip!”

I grin. “She is, isn’t she?”

“You always were too. Always telling your little stories.”

I cock my head. “Stories?”

He chuckles. “You don’t remember telling me and your mother stories about Randy the frog?”

I blink. “Randy the what now?”

He laughs out loud. “Randy the frog was your imaginary friend. He was the one you blamed for every bad thing you did, and he went on quite a lot of adventures.”

I flush, feeling a little silly but somehow closer to Ciara.

“I’m just happy that everyone gets along.”

“Should I be listening out for wedding bells?” he asks with a smirk, and I sober a bit.

“I want to take things slow this time,” I say quietly. “Because we didn’t, before, and look what happened.”

Da nods. “Taking it slow is always the best thing to do. Trust me.”

I stand up, patting Da on the shoulder. “I’m going down to breakfast.”

He chuckles. “Getting right used to Marisol bringing mine, I think.”

I laugh and head back downstairs, feeling a hundred times better about things than I had before the interrogation.

It feels like I have some type of purpose, some way to go, ideas on who exactly I need to punish, and it feels good.

I slide back into bed with Sutton, and she mumbles something under her breath, turning into my chest and sighing when I put my arms around her.

She makes little grumbling noises as she falls back into sleep, and it makes my heart swell, how much I love her.

Part of me wanted to tell Da that if it were up to me, we would have been married five years ago, but I didn’t want to bring that up. I don’t want them looking into it, realizing that she’d lied to me.

Surely, they must suspect, but they don’t seem to care. I still don’t want to draw attention to it.

Sutton puts her head on my chest and as I close my eyes, I just hope that I can protect and love her forever.