Page 3 of Duncan (Irish Mob of Boston #1)

Duncan

I hated New York.

The honking horns of the taxis. People talking on their phones with no regard for those around them.

I didn’t need to know that George was cheating on his wife with his secretary.

Then there was the pounding of jackhammers from the constant construction that seemed to always be going on in this city.

The steam rising from the sewer. And the smell, God the smell. Manhattan may be near the water like Boston, but it wasn’t the same. In Boston, you could smell the salt water in the harbor. The pungent smell of fresh seafood brought in daily.

In New York, all you could smell was bureaucracy and greed. And God-awful cologne. It was everywhere. Men in suits showered in Tom Ford cologne, thinking it made them appear important.

Then there were the people. In New York, you had to push your way through thousands of people who lined the streets.

Dog walkers, socialites with a thousand shopping bags taking up every inch around them, so you had no other option than to be beaten by bags of shoes as you walked by.

The crowded streets, filled with light poles, stores that had to have their inventory outside in front of the door, and overflowing trash cans from people littering, made the situation worse.

Every goddamn day. There was no day off in the city that never slept. Boston, unlike New York, provided a respite during the week. Though tourists filled the city during the weekends there.

But here, every goddamn time I got bumped, I checked to make sure no one had lifted my wallet and keys from inside my jacket. I would bet my penthouse that the homeless population in New York far exceeded the population of those with homes in Boston.

My hands went to the arms of the woman who just slammed into me, preventing her from being trampled by the number of patrons crowding the street.

When I looked down at her, the first thing I noticed was how my dick immediately stiffened. This woman was fucking gorgeous with her long, dark hair and violet eyes.

“Excuse me, I’m so sorry,” she said, and her sultry voice washed over me. “My foot slipped on the ice.”

My voice had deserted me as I stared at the woman until a throat cleared next to me. Cian elbowed my side and tipped his head to let me know I still had my hands on the woman.

“Sorry,” I said and stepped back, reluctantly letting her go. My eyes roamed over her, committing her to memory.

“Please don’t apologize. There aren’t many chivalrous men left that would have taken the time to catch me before I fell.”

“It was my pleasure, mo bandia.”

This time it was Mac who snorted. These fuckers were killing my game.

“We need to get to the house,” Cian reminded me.

“Thank you, again.” When she smiled, she was even more beautiful.

I turned and watched as she rushed off before I could get her name. Her skirt swished around her ankles. The rest of her body covered by the long coat she wore. She turned back and smiled at me again, before being swallowed by the crowd.

“Come on, Loverboy. We’ve got shit to do. I don’t want to be in the city all fuckin’ night.”

He was right. Releasing a heavy sigh, I turned and continued on.

With any luck, Caity had everything boxed up and ready to go, and we would be home in a few hours. None of us wanted to be here any longer than we had to.

We took a shortcut across the park, my mind still on the beautiful woman who fell into my arms. But with no way of knowing who she was or how to find her, I needed to let her go.

Knocking on the door of the brownstone, it was only a moment before we heard the locks disengage, and the door opened to reveal Sal’s niece, Madigan.

She hated that name, preferring everyone call her Maddie.

“What are you doing here?”

“Is that how you answer the door? No wonder you still live with your mom.”

When her eyes cast down, I felt like an asshole. Maddie lived with her mom because her father was a controlling asshole. She had a man briefly. But thanks to Nolan Kelley, he was gone now.

“I’m sorry, Maddie. I hate the city, but I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.”

She moved aside without a word, letting us into the brownstone. As I looked around, my anger boiled.

That son of a bitch never called his sister.

“Where’s your mom, Maddie?” Cian asked.

“Right here. What are you doing here?” We turned at Caity’s voice, and Cian stiffened. Caity stood in the doorway, hands on her hips, glaring at us.

“Sal was supposed to call you,” Cian told her.

“He did,” she confirmed.

“Then why isn’t anything packed?”

“Because I told him I wasn’t going anywhere. This is my home, and I’m staying put until that bastard comes back.”

“Dammit, Caity, he isn’t coming back.”

Mac and I stood there as Cian and Caity argued back and forth. He was the one she tolerated and even he was getting the brunt of that O’Malley temper.

“What are you talking about?” Maddie asked.

“Your uncle wants you and your mom to move back to Boston.”

“I can’t leave,” Maddie cried. “If I leave, I’ll never see him again.”

“We aren’t leaving, Maddie.”

Cian glared at Caity, who was trying to console her daughter.

“It’s not fuckin’ safe for you here. Not after what he did. If it gets out...” Cian took a deep breath, and I knew he was counting in his head. He was probably the most levelheaded of all of us. But fuck, we all had that Irish temper.

“Caity, who was Kelley’s second?” I asked, hoping to defuse the situation.

“He didn’t have one.”

“What do you mean, he didn’t have one? He had to have someone,” I said.

“He didn’t trust anyone. Especially after that shit with the Russian’s wife went down.”

Of course he didn’t. Because he wouldn’t want anyone to find out what the fuck he’d done. Turning over Illyria Valentinetti’s brother to Boris Petrovich was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Once Sal found out, it had signed Kelley’s death warrant.

There was no coming back from that.

“Who’s been running things since he left?” Cian asked the stubborn woman. She was just like her brother. He should have told us she refused to move.

“Callum Malone,” she answered begrudgingly.

“Mac, call Cal and tell him we need half a dozen guys here to pack up the house.” Pulling his phone from inside his coat, he walked out the door to make the call.

“I told Sal I wasn’t moving, Duncan.”

“You don’t have a choice, Caity.”

“The hell I don’t.”

Cian grabbed Caity’s elbow and dragged her into the kitchen. Hopefully, he could make her see reason. We needed to get this house packed up and get back to Boston.

“We’re really moving?” Maddie asked.

“Yea, sweetheart.”

“I have to go. I need to see him one last time.”

“We’re only a few hours from the city. You can still see him. Watch him grow up.”

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.

“Sure thing. You stay here with the she-devil.”

“Fuck off, both of you.”

Mac and I knew why Cian had volunteered to stay here. There would be no one else in the house but him and Caity. He wouldn’t make a move. Not while she was still married. But he could watch her. Soak in her presence without anyone being the wiser.

Or so he thought.

Sal might be oblivious to how Cian felt about his sister, but I wasn’t. I knew exactly how much he wanted to find Kelley and make her a widow. And it wasn’t for the good of the family.

No, Cian’s motives were purely selfish. He wanted Caity for himself. I knew when the time was right, he would talk to Sal. And when he did, Mac and I would back him up. No one would treat Caity better.