Peaceful vowes

CHAPTER 2

KIM

“YOU KNOW we won’t quit until every last one of them stops breathing.” I
held tightly to Aunt Fiona as the last of the family filtered to their cars after
saying their final goodbyes to Uncle Brody. Only the immediate theerapanyakul
family remained, which was still about three dozen of us. Hundreds had
turned out for the funeral. Even my grandparents had been driven the hour
outside the city for their son’s burial, though they rarely left their house
anymore.
My uncle’s widow shook with muffled sobs. It made me want to light
the entire city on fire.
The Albanians had put five rounds into Brody’s chest outside one of
our clubs. We’d immediately gone after them and struck back, taking down
a half dozen of their men, but those fuckers were like cockroaches. We
hadn’t seen the last of them.

“Come on, Ma. Let’s get you home.” Oran, the eldest of Fiona and
Brody’s kids, took his mother into his side and gave me a grim nod of
thanks before leading her to their car.
As I watched them walk away, my uncle Dante came to stand at my
side. While the three theerapanyakul brothers and my father had jointly brought our
organization back from obscurity, Dante was the unspoken leader. He was
also my godfather and the man I aspired to be. I respected and loved my
dad, but Dante 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 Italian owned Hell’s Kitchen, no
one would dare fuck 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
Thai's or Russians.” Dante 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 Thai's? 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 Dante’s
request to meet my birth mother for the first time. Not only was she fucking
Thai but she was also a goddamn win's —wife of the kittisawat family
consigliere, ink win. I’d been having dinner like the fucking
Brady Bunch while Uncle Brody was bleeding out on the sidewalk. I was
pissed I hadn’t been there to help him, but Uncle Dante 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 ink was interested in

meeting her son, Dante swore it was fate. The start of a new era in which
the Italians and Thai's were allied.
I was skeptical.
But as I’d said, I trusted Dante and was prepared to do what he asked
of me.
“It went as well as could be expected. Win 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.
Dante stopped again, this time pinning me with his impenetrable
stare. “I know how you feel about your past, Kim. It’s understandable.
But you’re rooted in our family now. Ties with the Thai's won’t change
that.”
Logically, I knew he was right. But aside from being adopted, I wasn’t
even a theerapanyakul in name. My adopted mother was the only sister of the theerapanyakul
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 Thai's 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 Thai's bonded by holy matrimony.