Page 9

Story: Duncan

Shaking her head, she looked at me with tears in her eyes. “No, I have to make a clean break. He’s happy with them. I can’t disrupt his life.”

I pulled her into my arms. I would never understand what she went through. Giving up a child had to be the hardest thing for a woman to do. Knowing what my sister did had me seeing Maddie in a new light.

She let her son live with his dad, hoping to keep him from her father. Knowing Kelley, he would have forced her to get an abortion had he known she was pregnant with the child of an Italian.

The Mafia aspect wouldn’t have been a big deal. And to be honest, if Kelley wasn’t such a bastard, he could have used the opportunity to solidify the Valentinettis with a blood pact.

He differed from Eamon in that way. Eamon had not only ignored the Italian ancestry of the woman he had a kid with, but he had opened his arms when that kid came calling.

And well, look how that turned out.

“I need to go, Duncan.” I couldn’t resist that pain I saw on her face.

“Ok, but take Mac with you.”

“No, if they see him they’ll take him home. I want to sit and watch him play. I’ll be in the park. I do it every week. No one bothers me.”

“With your father gone—”

“He’s been gone for weeks. No one cares but Uncle Sal. His men are probably glad he’s gone.”

Cian came back into the room without Caity. “Maddie, go pack a bag for a week or so.”

“We don’t have to move?” she asked with a hopeful tone that broke my heart. There was no chance Caity had convinced him or Sal to let them stay.

“No, honey, it will take time to get the house packed up. You and your mom are leaving with us tonight. And Callum will have some guys come and pack up the house and bring everything to Boston.”

Her shoulders slumped, and she looked at me. The corner of her lip caught between her teeth.

“Go on, sweetheart. One hour. Not a minute more,” I instructed.

“Thank you, Duncan!” She threw her arms around my waist, squeezing hard in her excitement, before letting go and grabbing her coat.

“One hour,” she confirmed, then dashed out the door.

“Where is she going?” Cian asked.

“She wants to see the kid one last time. Say goodbye.”

“Has she talked to him?”

“I don’t think so. She said she goes to the park and watches him play. She needs this Ci.”

He nodded, his eyes on the door Maddie had just left through.

Mac came back into the house, his phone still in his hand. “Callum’s got a few guys coming by in an hour to get the keys. What do you want to do about Kelley’s office?”

“We’ll pack that up ourselves. Go through everything back in Boston. Does Caity have keys to his other office?”

We all had an office in our home, but another to meet with our men. We might be all about family, but no one wanted criminals in and out of their home every damn day, making a spectacle for the cops to investigate.

“God, I hope so. I hadn’t planned on breaking and entering today,” Mac said with a grin.

It wasn’t like he needed to prepare for it. Cormac Delaney knew how to pick a lock by the time he was seven years old. With an old man like his, one who barely remembered you existed, he often had to fend for himself. That included learning how to steal without getting caught.

If he wanted to eat, he had to find a way to get food. That meant breaking into places at night when no one was around. Eventually, he learned to steal during the day without getting caught. But his lock-picking skills were top-notch.

“Why don’t the two of you head to the office, and I’ll pack up the one here.” Mac and I looked at each other. With a shit-eating grin, we both looked back at Cian.