have,” I said. “It’s passed a few times.”
“Down!” Mac roared. His voice was usually jagged, but it came out so clear. He pushed Mari to the ground, but all I could do was watch.
My entire body froze, and I had the weirdest fucking thought when it did. Cash Kelly. It wasn’t my mind. It was my heart. It cried out for my husband. Maybe because I knew I was about to swallow a few bullets.
Then I was on the ground. Mac’s body landed on top of mine as bullets sprayed the house, right where I’d been standing. They sounded like fireworks exploding around me in daytime. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
I wasn’t sure what happened as the sound of gunfire faded. It seemed like everything happened in a blur of time, and I was stuck on the ground, still frozen. But I could hear. I could hear so clearly the words moving around me. They were as loud as the gunfire.
“Call Kelly and fill him in,” Mac said. “He needs to know about this. There’s no telling who he fucked with and pissed off. This might be retribution in the form of a life he considers important to him.”
“How did you know about—”
“Get to work, Harry Boy. It’s not safe to chat in the street.”
Sirens grew closer.
“Mac?” my brother called. “You saved my sister.”
“Make sure you tell Kelly he has a tab.”
Hell’s Kitchen was officially boiling over, and I’d finally gotten burned.
24
Cash
I ended the call. I stared at the wall in my office for one, two, three seconds. On the fourth, the boom exploded inside of my skull and I stood, going for the door. Outside, I unlocked the armored matte black Hellcat that I’d bought from a guy Rocco knew. He actually knew a guy who knew a guy—he was the best in the business, and he only answered to men like Rocco. If he put in the order, you were in.
There was some traffic on the streets, but I made it to my destination without an issue. I parked, turned the car off, and then reached into the console for the knife I had stashed there. Since my suits were custom made, I slipped it inside of the pocket I always had the tailors add inside of the jacket.
I entered the building and went up two flights of stairs. Molly, my old man’s widow, answered the door on the second knock.
She said nothing and neither did I for a minute or two.
Molly and I were on all-right terms, but after my old man’s death, the thing we had in common ended. I’d see her around sometimes, but that was the extent of it.
My patience was legendary, so with a sigh, she stepped back and opened the door.
Nothing of my old man lingered inside of the apartment. Not even pictures. It didn’t take her long to move on. Over the years, I’d hear about the men she’d hook up with, but she had been with the man smoking on what used to be my old man’s fire escape the longest. The window was open, and he turned his head, meeting my eye.
“Cash Kelly.” Brian Grady took a puff of his cigarette and blew it out in a long stream. “Come to give me an ultimatum?”
Brian Grady was Cormick’s younger brother and Lee’s uncle. He was a decent fella who didn’t meddle in the family business unless they were in a pinch. Lee looked up to him, though, and I knew when he needed an ear, it was Brian who listened to and counseled him.
“You wouldn’t!” Big Mouth Molly yelled from behind me.
Killian used to call her that. He never warmed up to her. I kept lukewarm, not caring either way, as I usually did. But the reason she suddenly had such an interest in my coming here was because my old man left eighty percent of the building to me. The other twenty percent was hers.
Since I held the most stock, if I decided to sell, she would either have to buy me out or sell out. She had lived here most of her life, and she was comfortable not having to pay rent, living off of whatever my old man left her, so she didn’t want any trouble with me. But her default setting when she was pissed was to yell.
“Move along, Molly,” I said, not even turning to look at her. “That temper will get you nowhere with me.”
Things became quiet, but I could read her reaction