Page 196 of Sins of Innocence

The underboss flicks a look at me and dips his chin, like he understands.

Mick goes on to detail both attempts to kill Áine.

Allison Shaughnessy appears in a still photo from the hospital. Bruising along one side of her face. A cut near her hairline. One arm in a sling. "Allison Shaughnessy was used as cover for the timing of the second attempt on Áine's life," Mick says.

Kenneth's head snaps up. "Leave my wife out of this."

"If you'd left her out of it, she wouldn't be in that condition." Kara's eyes flash with fury.

A door opens at the side of the gym.

Allison walks in, her hand on the forearm of a soldier, who is helping her walk.

She's dressed like the socialite she is, but her hair is pulled back, one side of her face mottled with bruises turning yellow at the edges. Her sling matches her Chanel jacket, but there's no disguising the cast on her lower arm.

She moves like every step hurts but her expression when she looks at her husband says she would rather crawl across broken glass than show weakness in front of Kenneth.

The room watches her climb the two steps to the stage.

Kenneth looks away from his wife. Interesting. He had no conscience where his son was concerned. He has no issue with selling people and betraying his mob and his family, but he can't look his wife in the eye now that she knows he used her.

She doesn't look at him.

Allison turns to face the room. "Kenneth convinced me that talking to Kara and Áine would help me get my son back." She shoots Kenneth a glare over her shoulder. "Instead, he was using me to set up the timing for the attempt on Áine's life."

She waits until the murmuring caused by her statement dies down before adding, "He didn't warn me about the accident that was planned, but he knew I had to drive the same route back to our home." Her mouth flattens. "I couldn't avoid the accident and I nearly lost my life because of my husband's plans."

Kenneth shakes his head. "You don't understand."

Allison doesn't bother to look at him, but the contempt on her face is there for everyone to see. "I understand Kenneth was willing to bury me for a chance at a chair he was never worthy to sit in."

Kenneth goes pale under the bruising.

Allison turns to Brogan. "That's all I have to say."

"Thank you," Brogan says.

The soldier helps Allison down from the stage.

She'll be moving to be near Kenny Jr. and won't be returning to New York. Brogan ordered the exile, but Allison made it clear she had no desire to remain in New York where she will be known as the wife of a traitor.

Like Áine was.

Once Allison is gone, Mick lets the silence hold.

Then he stands behind the table, one hand resting near the laptop, the other loose at his side. "To summarize: Kenneth Shaughnessy is a rat. Worse than a rat, he's a piece of shite human trafficking scum."

Every man present can do the math. If his plans had succeeded, our boss would be dead, our underboss in prison and Kenneth Shaughnessy would have declared himself king.

Kenneth laughs, the sound forced and high. "You expect them to believe this?" He jerks his chin toward Mick. "He's been waiting years to get rid of me."

No one answers.

Kenneth looks from face to face, searching for sympathy and finding none.

"Mick Fitzgerald is a sociopath who made his first kill at the age of eleven. His own family wanted to get him out of Dublin and that's how he ended up here, married to Kara." His voice rises with every sentence. "He has no humanity. No sense of tempered justice. He exiled my son and the other boys for being a little rough with a traitor's daughter."

"Not a traitor's daughter," I bark. "My daughter."