SILENT VOWS

4

As I watched them walk away, my uncle Jimmy came to stand at my side. While the three Byrne brothers and my father had jointly brought our organization back from obscurity, Jimmy was the unspoken leader. He was also my godfather and the man I aspired to be. I respected and loved my dad, but Jimmy had an untouchable quality to him. The world quieted in his presence. As a kid, I studied everything about him. Now that I was grown, I spent every day striving to earn his respect.

“This never would have happened fifty years ago.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Back in the day, when the Irish owned Hell’s Kitchen, no one would dare f**k with us.”

“I wasn’t around then, but I’ve seen what you’ve been able to create in the last ten years alone. We’re close to regaining the power Paddy and the others knew back then, thanks to you.”

“We’re getting there, but the other organizations still think we’re weak. That’s the only reason they came after us. They’d never dare move on the Italians or Russians.” Jimmy began to slowly stroll toward the street with me beside him. “What does that say about us? It says they think we’re vulnerable. A target.” He paused and stood silent for several beats. When he spoke again, his voice was the low rumble of distant thunder. “Things have to change.”

I met his steely gray stare with unwavering confidence. “You tell me what’s needed, and I’ll do it.”

Chin lowering a fraction in approval, he continued walking. “Tell me, how did your dinner go with the Italians? I never got the chance to ask with everything that's happened.”

The same night my uncle was gunned down, I’d been off at Jimmy’s request to meet my birth mother for the first time. Not only was she f*****g Italian but she was also a goddamn Genovese—wife of the Lucciano family consigliere, Edoardo Genovese. I’d been having dinner like the f*****g Brady Bunch while Uncle Brody was bleeding out on the sidewalk. I was pissed I hadn’t been there to help him, but Uncle Jimmy had been insistent about me going to meet my birth mother. I had no interest in bonding with the woman who had given me away. But from the minute the adoption agency had contacted us to say that Mia Genovese was interested in meeting her son, Jimmy swore it was fate. The start of a new era in which the Irish and Italians were allied.

I was skeptical.

But as I’d said, I trusted Jimmy and was prepared to do what he asked of me.

“It went as well as could be expected. Edoardo Genovese knew from my choice of restaurants that I was connected to you, and he still showed up.” The dinner hadn’t been as terribly awkward as I’d envisioned. I still didn’t plan on extensive bonding with my birth mother’s family, though my half sisters were surprisingly entertaining.

“I’d say that’s a good sign.”

“Sign of what exactly?” I asked, a niggling sense of unease tensing my shoulders.

Jimmy stopped again, this time pinning me with his impenetrable stare. “I know how you feel about your past, Conner. It’s understandable. But you’re rooted in our family now. Ties with the Italians won’t change that.”

Logically, I knew he was right. But aside from being adopted, I wasn’t even a Byrne in name. My adopted mother was the only sister of the Byrne brothers. Her married name was Reid, which only served to separate me further in my mind’s eye. I doubted the others would have agreed if I’d voiced my feelings, but their thoughts on the subject didn’t change the way I felt. I had already spent my life defending my right to sit alongside my cousins. Highlighting my newly discovered Italian heritage only made things worse.

“I hear what you’re telling me. Doesn’t mean I want to hang out with them.”

His features hardened. “It might be time you work on your perspective, son. We’ve been handed a golden opportunity. A way to ally ourselves with the most powerful families in the city. Think of what that would mean for us.”

This time, I was the one to stop and stare. “What exactly are you getting at?”

His chin lifted and chest expanded before he spoke the words that would change my life forever.

“A marriage. The Italians and Irish bonded by holy matrimony.”

I might as well have been sucker punched in the gut. His statement winded me, tilting the world on its axis.

“You want … me … to marry … an Italian?” I asked, struggling to even say the words.

“I know it’s not ideal, Conner, but I can’t think of any other circumstances that would present this unique opportunity. An alliance like that could cinch our place in this city and be crucial to our survival. Think about it. What happens if the other bottom feeders see what the Albanians have been able to do and decide they want to come after us? We don’t have the resources to fight them all off, but with the Italians at our side…” He didn’t have to continue for me to know how vastly different our circumstances would be. While we were one family, the Italians had the power to join their five ruling families against any common enemy. It made them nearly unstoppable.

An alliance like that would be monumental for us, and I was an essential component. It should have made me enormously proud, but I couldn’t stop the whispers in the back of my mind that my Irish family was just trying to get rid of me. Not fully one or the other, I didn’t fit in anywhere.

Stop your f*****g whining and grow up. Who cares if you like the idea?

What Jimmy said was true, and I knew it. This could be huge, and I should be honored to help my family in any way I could. Debating about my feelings was pointless anyway because when it came down to it, I knew I’d do whatever Uncle Jimmy asked of me.

“Tell me what you want me to do.”