Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,161

a son?"

"You really don't keep tabs on us, do you?" Declan groused. "Why is that?"

"Because you’re friends, tied to us through blood. Your father is insane, everybody knows he's loyal to those who’re loyal to him. We’re loyal, we roll no other way, so I have no need to monitor people who are friends. Not with as many enemies as we have."

"Good to know."

"I guess it is. But if I find out that you’re keeping tabs on us, I wouldn’t appreciate the lack of trust, understand?"

"As far as I'm aware, the only point of contact the Five Points has with you is me. And while I was injured, Brennan. There’s been no need to monitor you. The Rabid Wolves are another matter entirely. I don’t trust those fuckers."

I grunted. “Me either.” I still had no idea why, of all the MCs north of the border, they’d picked those cunts to work with.

Still, that was their business, and I had bigger fish to fry. "Why were the Italians after your son?"

"We only found out recently, but he witnessed a murder."

As a stack of dominoes started to cascade into a free fall in my mind, I rumbled, "When?"

Declan released a breath. "When he was in West Orange and his mother was working on a piece of art for Donovan Lancaster."

Rage filled me, until I felt like my blood vessels were hyper-pressurized with it. If this was what a heart attack felt like— "And you didn't think to tell us?" I ground out. “Didn’t think to ask who the victim might have been?”

"It's not as easy as that. The Italians started a fucking gunfight in the middle of the Coney Island boardwalk. They pinned my kid and woman in place, had a man on the inside working for them...” A snarl escaped him, and suddenly, the change in him made sense. His fury vibrated down the line. “In the aftermath, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's been crazy and you fuckers were the last thing on my mind."

Because I understood, my temper died down some as I asked, "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"Of course. I want answers. But my priorities weren't a cold case. I had active issues to be dealing with, and you said it yourself, my father is insane. He didn't appreciate his grandson and new daughter-in-law being targeted by our enemies."

Because I heard the truth in his words, that was the only thing that calmed me down. But my hand still tightened about my cell phone to the point of pain, to the point where I felt as if the screen would crack under the force of my grip.

"It's not like the Italians to target kids," I pointed out, knowing I sounded shaken, and not because I was distressed, but because I was seething.

"The murder Seamus witnessed, Fieri was directly involved in it."

He might as well have shoved me to the ground, then grabbed a Mac truck and rolled over my head—that was how I felt. Like everything inside my skull had turned into soup.

"Who was it? Do you know?" I rasped.

“It was a woman, but Seamus doesn’t know who. I know West Orange isn’t the kind of place where murder happens every day.”

Fieri had killed my mother.

And a kid had witnessed it.

I knew Declan was waiting on answers, but I didn’t have any to give him right now. My brain was a blur, rapidly firing but somehow, not on what mattered most, and I grated out, "Have you heard of Jason Banks?"

His surprise was clear. "No. At least, I don't think I have. I can look into the name though..."

Who would blame him for being shocked? My uncle wasn’t exactly on-topic. ”If you don't mind?"

"Sure."

"Along the way, have you run into an FBI agent called Caroline Dunbar?"

A sharp intake of breath was his initial response. "What makes you ask about her?"

"I've been trying to get in touch with her."

"Why?"

I heard the wariness in his voice, but shoved it aside. We rarely admitted to trying to get into contact with the Feds, but this was different.

"One of my men is her son. She planted him here with us years ago, but when he became a Prospect, he told us the truth from the beginning."

"So he was playing both sides?"

"He plays her. He can be trusted. He’s one of my best men—the stuff he does for us would get him locked up. I'm not worried about him."

"To be honest, this explains a lot. We were keeping an eye