Page 33 of Arranged Scars
“I’m not sure I’d go that far.”
Liam laughs and shakes Caroline’s hand. “Nice to meet the woman cursed with this man for life.”
“Uh, thanks, nice to meet you, too.”
“Liam’s been helping me with this project.” The waitress returns with more beers. Caroline doesn’t touch hers. She only stares at it with a deep frown, probably having flashbacks to her vicious hangover yesterday. I lift mine and take a long drink. Violence always makes me thirsty.
Liam places a folder down on the table and flips it open. Inside are photographs of Caroline’s brothers, each of them going about their daily routines, dozens of them showing the brothers at different places. One’s at the dry cleaner’s, one’s in the grocery store. I watch my wife carefully, noting her reaction. Her face pinches slightly and she shies away from the folder like it might infect her.
“You’ve been thorough,” I say as Liam shows me what he’s got. There are charts and lists detailing exactly what each brother does most days. “Don’t tell me you’re starting to fall in love with your subjects?”
“I’m always in love with my victims. It’s part of the appeal.” Liam thumbs through the pages and points at one. It’s a picture of Malachy, the oldest brother, getting out of a car. “I was thinking we could start with him. Make a big splash and get it over with. I have a feeling he’ll be the hardest, so it’s best to get him when he’s not ready.”
“That’s a good point. You found a decent spot to take him?”
“He’s tough to pin down, but I’m working on it.”
I glance at Caroline. She’s shaking her head rapidly, and I’m worried she might be getting cold feet.
It’s one thing to agree to killing her brothers in the abstract. No matter what they did to her in the past, they’re still her flesh and blood. But now she’s being confronted with the hard facts of ending their lives.
“Not Malachy,” she says, and I’m surprised at how sure she sounds.
I look at Liam briefly. “Why not? It’s a solid plan. Take him down before he’s ready for it.”
“No, not him. The second Malachy’s gone, Dad will lose his mind. Malachy’s his pride and joy. Mal’s the heir to everything. If Mal gets killed, Dad will be a paranoid, psychotic wreck, and that’ll make all the others ten times harder to reach. Mal can’t be first.”
I look at Liam again. He only shrugs and seems thoughtful. “Who did you have in mind then?” he asks.
Caroline touches the pages. Her hands are shaking, but she flips through them until she comes to a photograph of a very big,burly man walking down the sidewalk, a phone against his face, a deep scowl on his lips.
“Shane,” she says, and there’s a sharp note of hate to the quaver in her voice.
I wait a moment and let her try to calm down. This is hard, even if she seems like she’s doing pretty good, all things considered. If I had to kill my brothers, I’d at least struggle with it.
“Why him?” I prompt when it’s clear she wasn’t going to elaborate.
“He’s the enforcer. Street-level stuff. Everyone’s always going on about how reckless he can be. I think they all expect Shane to be dead at any minute. At least my mom definitely does. He races cars and likes snowboarding and all that kind of stuff. His death won’t alert everyone. Not at first.”
She’s making a good point. I let that sink in, watching her very closely. Bringing Caroline into this conspiracy was an enormous risk, but the second I saw those scars on her back, I knew it had to happen. I just didn’t know how.
Now it’s obvious. This girl’s as broken as I am. She’s only been dealing with it better than me. But I can’t imagine the hell she must’ve been through living with those animals all those years. I got away eventually. She grew up with them.
“Well, we’ve got good intel on Shane,” Liam offers, flipping to another page. “He’s got some routines. Likes this pizza place, goes to a gym?—”
“I know how to do it.” The certainty in Caroline’s voice rings a few bells.
“It’s one thing to get involved, but it’s another to start planning.” I move closer to her. I touch her arm and lean in so I don’t have to yell as loudly. “Are you sure about this?”
“I know how to do it,” she repeats, her expression grim but determined. “Shane’s a tough guy. He knows how to handle himself. But he’s got one glaring weakness.”
Liam laughs. He throws back his head and howls. He grins at me, wiping one eye. “What a fucked-up family!” he cackles, and I can’t help but grin too. The bastard’s got a point.
Caroline doesn’t think it’s funny.
We stay for the next fight. She watches the brutality with an impassive stare like she’s already very far away. Liam and I speak about logistics and Caroline offers suggestions, and by the time one of the fighters chokes his opponent to death, we have a pretty good plan. The crowd screams with bloodlust as the referee drags the lifeless corpse from the ring.
I hold Caroline’s hand as we leave the warehouse an hour later. Liam says goodnight and disappears into the evening. He’ll start the preparations over the next few days. I pull Caroline close as we head back toward where I parked my BMW a few blocks over.
