Page 21 of Sins of Innocence

"I did not send him to deliver any messages to you. Our intel indicated you and your mother were ignorant of Troy's connection to the mob." The underboss isn't denying he did what he did to Troy, just that he sent Kenneth Shaughnessy to me to tell me about it and threaten the same if I stepped out of line.

"Why would he tell me that you did though?" Did Kenneth think I needed a bigger bogeyman than him to be afraid of in order to keep me in New York and under his thumb?

Maybe he did at that, because if he hadn't told me the word had come down from the underboss of the Shaughnessy Mob, I might have taken my chances and run with the girls and my mom.

Mom wouldn't have been happy about it, but she loves me and the girls too much to let us stay in danger just because she loves the city of her birth almost as much.

"That's a good question," Mick says with flat approval and zero sarcasm.

"Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to claim he spoke on my dad's behalf?" Kara asks her husband thoughtfully. "After all, he's Brogan's lieutenant, not yours."

The underboss leans back in his chair, his eyes narrowed in thought. "Not if the current problem with Kenneth's big mouth is part of a longstanding campaign to undermine my place in the mob."

Kieran grunts beside me, which I take as agreement to his boss's words.

"How did Kenneth know you were interviewed by the feds?" Kara asks me.

I think back to that first traumatizing conversation with Kenneth Shaughnessy and shrug because I don't remember. "Something about one of the agents being a friend to the mob, I think. I don't remember. It scared me to know you had federal agents in your organization."

That I do remember.

"We don't but we do have a few in our pocket," Mick says like he didn't just admit to a felony.

"I don't think you should be telling me that," I point out.

Kara sighs. "Stop trying to scare her. Can't you see she's already terrified?" She looks at me. "You have no proof he said it and your suspicion he killed your husband would carry a heavier penalty if it could be proven."

"What difference does it make if I believe that?" I don't suspect anything. "I can't even prove my husband worked for the Shaughnessys rather than their corporation."

"Did you try?" There's a still quality to the underboss now, like a snake preparing to strike.

"No!" I take a steadying breath. "I'm just trying to point out that me talking to law enforcement wouldn't go anywhere because no matter what I believe, I don't have proof of anything. I'm not a threat and letting me move away from New York isn't going to suddenly make me one."

Kieran's hand tightens around mine, like he's going to keep me here by a physical tether, if not sheer force of will.

"That was true before Kenneth talked to you, but not after," Kara informs me. "He told you too much for an outsider."

"I'm an outsider?" But I was married to Troy.

Doesn't that make me at least mob adjacent? And why would I want to be? I shake my head trying to dispel the ridiculous thoughts from my brain.

"You were. Now, you're not. You may not have proof of anything, but you have a lot of details that could be followed up on and that makes your knowledge dangerous."

"Then why did Kenneth tell me any of it?" I cry.

"Because he was setting you up as a patsy," Kieran says, his tone lethal.

"A patsy? For what?" How could me knowing the little I do make me a fall guy?

"For him getting rid of a rival without it blowing back on him," Kara says grimly. "Not that he is a rival, but in his own head, he thinks he's in competition for the position of boss with my husband."

"There is no competition." Mick's dispassionate voice sends a shiver down my spine.

Kieran grunts. "He plans to rat you out."

"And make it look like Áine did it." Kara looks at me with angry pity.

I don't know what emotion shows on my face because all I feel is total and utter shock. "But then why try to force me to have sex with him? Wouldn't that point the finger toward him too?"