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“Come on. We’ve known each other most of our lives. You’re really going to tell me you want to rip our family in half?”
“I don’t want that at all, but if I don’t do something about you, I’m afraid the family’s doomed either way.”
“We’re expanding. We’re getting stronger. I know you don’t like Valentina, but?—”
“That girl is just a symptom.” He looks at me finally, and it’s like I barely recognize the man behind those eyes. It hurts me more than I expected.
He’s my cousin. Not blood, but close enough, and some of the men that went over with himareactually related to me.
“Tell me why then.”
“We were a community, Ronan.” He leans back against the bench and folds his hands in his lap. “You remember what the family was like when we were growing up, right? Everyone knew each other. All the businesses we invested in were owned or operated by Hayes Group members. Your father got the product coming over from Ireland, and all the profits were split equally among the members. Everyone was happy. But it started to change.”
“That’s how life goes,” I say even if I share his sense of nostalgia. Only nostalgia isn’t reality—it’s only a yearning for a past that may or may not have been real. “And we werekidsback then. Life always seems amazing and easy when you’re a kid.”
“It’s more than that. Your father started to make changes toward the end of his life. He brought in more outsiders. Hired more people for the businesses that weren’t on the inside. Half of them weren’t even fucking Irish.”
“If we’re going to grow, that’s what has to happen.”
“Then maybe we don’t grow. Maybe we call what we have good enough and take care of everyone we care about before we start obsessing about getting bigger. That’s what I want. That’s what I think the family needs. No more outsiders. No more change.”
I feel helpless as I think through the ramifications of that strategy. Cormac probably doesn’t realize that the family wasn’t always in good financial health, and it was only by expanding at the end of my father’s life that we managed to get back into good shape. But it’s not like that was widely known—Dad made sure to keep it to a few key uncles and core family members, including me, because he didn’t want our enemies to realize we were weak.
“There’s no turning back,” I tell him, hoping he hears the sincerity in my voice. “We can’t bury our heads and pretend like the world isn’t moving on. If we want to make our family strong, we need to open up to new businesses. We need to keep up with our enemies. You know what happened with Gregory and the Righteous Servants, don’t you? That could happen again, and if we’re not prepared?—”
“That only happened because you decided to stick your dick where it doesn’t belong.” The force of Cormac’s anger surprises me. I always picture him as cold and conniving, but there’s a real heat in him right now that I didn’t know existed.
“It has nothing to do with Valentina.”
“You’re right. The girl’s fine. I don’t even dislike her. But she’s everything I’m against. She’s an outsider, she’s expansion, she’s getting involved in shit we shouldn’t get involved in at all. That’s why I took the drugs, and that’s why I’m going to do everything I can to save what’s left of our family.”
I let his words sink in and a hopeless despair threatens to overwhelm me. I hoped I could come out here and discuss some changes with him and convince him that I’m doing everything I can to make everyone happy—but that’s clearly not going to happen.
I misjudged the depth of his passion.
“What do you want? What can I do to avoid hurting my own cousins?”
“Step down.” Cormac’s face is hard. He buries all those feelings with a startling quickness. “Announce to everyone that you’ll no longer be boss.”
“So you can take my place?”
“Me or someone that thinks like me. I’m not doing this for myself though.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
He doesn’t take the bait. “Once you step down, you leave town. Get out of Chicago, go somewhere else. I don’t care where you go. Take the Santoro girl with you. Once you’re gone and the uncles all agree on a new boss, I’ll return the product and life can go on without any problems. Nobody has to get hurt. Nobody has to suffer. Except for you, Ronan.”
I knew it would come to this. It was always about getting me out of the way. He says he doesn’t care who takes my place, but we both know that’s total bullshit. He wants the job, and if not him, then he wants someone he can manipulate. Which is just as good as him taking the family over.
“I’m sorry, Cormac, but I won’t be blackmailed. I’m not going to step down.”
“Then it’ll be a civil war. I know you can’t let me get away with keeping the product, and you know I can’t just sit back and do nothing. I made promises to the guys that followed me.”
“I don’t want that. Nobody wants to hurt the people they grew up with.”
“And yet here we are. Step down, Ronan, and save a lot of lives.” He gets to his feet. I stand as well and struggle to hide the sorrow raging through my chest.
“I’m prepared for war if that’s where this is going, but I really hope you change your mind. Bring the product back. Apologizeto the uncles and take a pay cut for a year. We can move past this, Cormac. Nobody has to get hurt.”
