Carrigan looked up toward the ceiling as if in thought. “You know, funny thing. I haven’t seen Big Hal since that day. Weird.”
“And Big Hal worked for your family, Joey. Rules are rules. You’re either helping me or harassing me. Which is it? Unpack a box, or get fitted for cement shoes.”
Joey’s phone rang and he answered on the second ring, as was their usual standard when family called. “Yeah, Vince. I can be there in ten.” He cast Fallyn a guilty look. “I’m at Fallyn’s new store, checking out the joint.”
Fallyn heard yelling on the other end, and Joey hung up, his tail between his legs. “I’ve gotta go. Vince says congratulations on your new business.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly, knowing there was more to the phone call than that. “And thanks for helping out, Jo-Jo.”
Joey paused at the use of his childhood nickname. Softening his bravado, he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Knock it off, Little Keefer. You don’t fight fair.” Jo-Jo was the name only his family used. In her youth, Fallyn had taken to calling him by the nickname when she had played with him at school. That was before their parents had their big falling out, and the children were conditioned to hate each other.
“That’s the thing about not fighting at all.” She waved goodbye as Joey exited, gusting out her relief that nothing irreparable had happened to ruin her big adventure. “I’m proud of you guys,” she said to quiet Danny, who looked positively choked with rage when he entered the kitchen as Joey exited. “Not a single shot fired. That’s good.”
Danny was in no mood to soften. “You opening a business here’s just going to cause drama. You’ve been away six years, Fally. You don’t know how bad it got for a while there. You didn’t see Vince and his cousin Angelo shoot out a guy’s kneecaps for being short on the take.”
Fallyn scoffed, straightening her long waves and holding her chin up so her brothers couldn’t see her internal trembling. “Hello, I’ve seen Seamus do that exact same thing. You too, in fact. Daddy killed a man in the backroom of the Loan and Trust on my twelfth birthday!”
Danny threw out his arms. “Vince wasted a guy just last month for not cooperating!”
“You mean he shot a cocaine dealer for not closing up shop and leaving town? Gotta say, you’re only making me feel better about this whole thing.”
“Vince is dangerous, Fal. With you all the way in the center of the city, we can’t protect you as well. He threatened Killian, you know. Your oldest brother? Tall guy? Matching freckles? Ring any bells?”
Fallyn leaned her head back, exasperated. “Killian threatened him, too! That was years ago, and you said yourself that Vince is running the business now, and he’s trying to make a change. Killian believes Vince is trying to turn things around, so let’s use that to our advantage, yeah?”
“You’re making a mistake!”
“I’m not trying to hear that, Danny.”
“If Dad didn’t have dementia, Killian wouldn’t be in charge, and we wouldn’t all have to hold hands and make peace with the enemy. It’s because of them Keenan’s locked up. It’s because of them…”
Carrigan raised his hands after he tucked his pistol to the small of his back. “Keenan’s in jail because it was his third B and E. No one made him do that.”
Danny cast his older brother a petulant look. “They turned him in for the second one.”
“We’re always going to find reasons to hate each other, and I’m over it. All of it.” Fallyn was resolute, with as serene a smile as she could muster plastered on her face.
Danny wasn’t ready to give up his side of the back-and-forth. “You know, Dad left Killian a mess when he handed down the loan sharking business, but Killian turned things around.”
“Somehow I don’t think running crackheads out of town is as simple as charging more reasonable interest rates and backing off on the number of storefronts you bust up,” Fallyn simpered, blinking up at her brother. Each of her seven older brothers were far taller than her, but she usually had her high heels to make up for her slight stature. Being barefoot and surrounded by glass did her confidence no good. Her voice quieted as she cast her blue eyes to Danny to plead with him for understanding. “Don’t you see what I’m trying to do here?”
Carrigan wore a grim expression as he motioned to the broom. “Danny, start sweeping up this mess. Fally, where are your shoes?”
Her voice turned mousy. “In my office. I might be a little stuck here.”
Carrigan toed a few larger pieces of glass out of the way so he could make a path to his sister. In one sharp yank, he hefted Fallyn up onto his back and carried her to her office. “There you go. Just like when you were five.”
“Add twenty years to that, and you’re spot on. Thanks, Carrigan.”
“Thank me by telling us who your favorite brother really is.” He set her down so she could slip on her shoes.
Fallyn slid on her pink high heels, smiling up at him, despite the drama of the morning. “You know you’re my best friend.”
“That wasn’t nearly loud enough,” he joked, tweaking her upturned slender nose with a smile that calmed them both.
Her office was a small room off to the side of the kitchen that provided a space for the pleasant clutter to be concealed. There were pictures of pin-up girls with kitchen utensils she’d hung on the wall there, and though they hadn’t opened more than a few boxes yet, she somehow had managed to smear flour on the thick black frames outlining the sultry girls.
Carrigan walked out from her office and stood in the middle of the kitchen, eyebrows pushed together in confusion. “You two done fighting yet, or should I make some popcorn?”
“We’re done,” Fallyn ruled, rejoining her brothers. “Danny has absolutely nothing new to say on the subject.”
Danny shoved ladles into the drawer. “I don’t know how you can be so calm about it all. I’m three seconds away from ripping Joey’s head off every time I see his smug little face.”
Fallyn put away a stack of order papers, praying her brothers didn’t notice how badly her hand was shaking.
* * *
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Books by Tuesday Embers
Liberating Mr. Gable
* * *
Unraveling Molly
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The O’Keefe Family Collection
Exploding
Escaping
Exhaling
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Books by Mary E. Twomey
The Saga of the Spheres
The Silence of Lir
Secrets
The Sword
Sacrifice
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The Volumes of the Vemreaux
The Way
The Truth
The Lie
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Jack and Yani Love Harry Potter
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Undraland
Undraland
Nøkken
Fossegrim
Elvage
The Other Side
* * *
Undraland: Blood Novels
Lucy at Peace
Lucy at War
Lucy at Last
Linus at Large
* * *
Terraway
Taste
Tremble
Torture
Tempt
Treat
Temper
Tease
Trap
* * *
Faîte Falling
Ugly Girl
Lost Girl
Rich Girl
Stupid Girl
Broken Girl
Untouchable Girl
Stubborn Girl
* * *
Faîte Falling: Faîte Rising
Common Girl
Blind Girl
Savage Girl
Dangerous Girl
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Mary also writes contemporary romance under
the name Tuesday Embers.
View her books at www.tuesdayembers.com
Unraveling Molly Page 17
