Page 57

Sal closed his eyes, and I watched as his breathing picked up. Something was going on with him. He wasn’t blowing up like he normally did. His lips moved and I swear he was counting.

“You seeing a shrink?”

His eyes snapped to mine. “No, I’m not seeing a shrink.”

“Then what the fuck is going on with you?”

“My fuckin’ son.” Sal stood and downed the whiskey. “One of his guys is fuckin’ a shrink, and he’s making me talk to her.”

I pulled my lips between my teeth, trying not to laugh, when Mac said, “So you are seeing a shrink.”

Sal glared at him. He ignored Mac and looked at Cian. “Are we sure it’s him?”

“The phone turned on at ten in the morning. No customers that early.”

“Worker maybe? Someone outside the building stopped to make a call? Any of that possible?”

Shit, I hadn’t thought of that.

“It’s possible. But...”

“But what?” Sal asked, waiting for Cian to finish.

“Not probable,” Cian finished.

“Then we give Sean the benefit of the doubt until we’re sure.”

I looked at Cian and then at Mac. We all knew the likelihood of it being someone unrelated was slim. But Sal was right. Innocent until proven guilty or some shit. We couldn’t just kill someone without being sure. Especially someone like Sean.

When Sal killed his father, Sean backed him up. Despite how close he’d been with Eamon, his involvement in the Trick Pony had sealed his fate. Shit like that would not be tolerated.

It wasn’t until Eamon lay dying that he told us about Eduardo being his son. Most people assumed that was the reason Sal killed him. And we let them believe the fallacy.

When we came back from Nebraska, after Tyran had disappeared, we went through his office. Turned out Eamon had been taking Ty with him on those trips. Ty had been fifteen the first time Eamon took him down there.

We’d known Eamon was a bastard. We just didn’t understand how depraved the son of a bitch was. Ty wasn’t any better, but he’d hidden it well for twenty years.

Knowing what we knew about Ty, it didn’t make sense that Sean would help him. Even if we hadn’t made it clear as fucking crystal what Ty was involved in and what would happen to anyone found helping him.

We thought Sean was solid. So maybe giving him the benefit of the doubt and letting him explain was a good idea.

“Ok, let’s go talk to him then.”

Sal knocked on the back door of the pub. When the door opened, it wasn’t Sean that stood there. It was his granddaughter, Bellamy.

“What do you want?” she asked, eyeing us warily.

“Where’s Sean?”

“He’s not here.” She stepped forward, trying to close the door behind her, effectively keeping us from moving inside.

Mac stepped between Sal and Bellamy and put his hand on the door before it closed. He pushed it back and she went with it.

“You can’t just barge in here.”

“Like fuck I can’t. I own the goddamn thing.” Sal stormed past her into the bar. “SEAN!”

“I told you, he’s not here.”