Shaking, Daegan crawled back to the fold-down couch that served as his bed. Above the cushions a picture of John F. Kennedy was hung reverently next to a portrait of the Virgin Mary with her arms spread wide, a halo glowing around her head.

Daegan huddled under the blanket, his head pushed into the pillow as he tried to block out the sounds of rutting from the bedroom. Fists clenched, he concentrated on the noises of the city-horns blaring, tires spinning, people laughing and yelling from the tavern beneath their apartment, the low belch of a foghorn from a ship in the harbor, the scratch of mice in the walls, anything, anything anything but the moans of pleasure and pain that erupted from the bedroom. but the moans of pleasure and pain that erupted from the bedroom.

Feeling like a coward, he tried to sleep and woke up later to hear his mother pouring a drink. They-his parents-were standing in the kitchen in the dark, the lights of the city allowing enough illumination so that Daegan, even through nearly closed eyes, could watch them.

Frank was standing behind her, his head was bowed into her shoulder, his arms firmly around her waist, pulling her b.u.t.tocks tight against him. "I didn't mean what I said earlier-about the boy."

Never did Frank refer to him by name.

"If only you'd love him." Her voice had that forlorn, world-weary tone Daegan had come to hate.

"I've tried to, Mary Ellen, really I have. But he's so different from my other kids. I'm not much good with them, either."

"But Daegan's special."

"Probably. So are the others. Christ. It's all so G.o.dd.a.m.ned complicated."

She twisted in his arms and handed him the drink. "He needs a father, Frank."

"I know, I know, kitten, but it can't be me."

"He's your flesh and blood."

"So you say."

"You know it. He looks just like you." A pause. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the lips. "You love me, don't you?" she wheedled and there was a weighty pause that nearly broke Daegan's heart.

"You know I do."

"Let Daegan know you care."

"I-" He slid a glance over at the divan and Daegan squeezed his eyes shut. "I don't know how."

"But you know what it's like. Your father-"

"Was a self-centered son of a b.i.t.c.h. We addressed him as sir; he never smiled. Since I was third in line, I didn't count much-not even when William was killed. He sent me to boarding school at six and in the summers I was away at camp."

"So you know how it feels to be ignored by your father."

"Listen, baby," he said gently and Daegan chanced opening one eye a crack. "You have to understand something. No matter what I feel about you-or the kid-nothing's ever gonna change." He kissed her on the neck and shoulders before sliding the strap of her negligee downward and pressing his lips to the top of her breast.

Daegan nearly threw up. Why did she let him touch her that way? Why?

"I want you to marry me, Frank."

"I'm already married, you know that."

"Divorce her."

"I can't."

"You don't love her." Another breathless, silent heartbeat.

"What's love got to do with marriage?"

"Frank, please-"

"She'd take me to the cleaners, Mary Ellen."

"You'd still be rich and we could be together."

"You just don't get it, do you? This"-he motioned broadly to the apartment and Daegan-"isn't what it's all about." He glanced around the dingy room and scowled. "I'll get you a better place."

"I don't want a better place. I want you."

"Oh, baby, quit dreaming, would ya? I'll try to be nicer to the boy, get you into a bigger apartment, but I'll never divorce Maureen."

"But I love you." There were tears in her voice, and Daegan cringed.

"That's why I keep coming back."

"But you sleep with her." her."

"Not much. I already told you, we have separate bedrooms. Most of the time her door is locked."

"And when it isn't?"

"Then I go to her. She's cold as a fish, just lays there like a statue, her legs spread, her eyes shut, her mouth turned down at the corners, but she thinks it's her duty to sleep with me once in a while. I don't really get it, but I do it."

"I wish you never touched her!"

"Do you? Why don't you show me how much?"

She giggled. "Again?"

"That's why I come here, baby." Lifting her off her feet, Frank carried her into the bedroom and kicked the door shut.

Daegan hated the nights his father came visiting, detested feigning sleep at the sound of Frank Sullivan's heavy tread and the smell of smoke, whiskey, and cologne that followed the big brute of a man into the apartment.

Daegan always knew when Frank was coming over. The apartment was cleaner than usual, and he was told to do his homework quickly and eat a hurried meal of macaroni and cheese and creamed corn while his mother spent hours getting ready, listening to Frank Sinatra records, wearing her best dress, nylon stockings with seams up the back-the kind Frank liked-and heels that elevated her four or five inches. She washed and set her red hair, then worked feverishly plucking her eyebrows, and applying foundation, rouge, lipstick, and G.o.d only knew what else from a dozen jars and tubes.

When her hair was combed just right and her earrings in place, she splashed perfume over her neck and shoulders, all because Frank was coming over to spend a few lousy hours in her bedroom humping her and drinking whiskey before leaving as quickly as he'd come, slinking down the stairs and driving off in his Jaguar to the three-storied house on the hill to his wife and real children.

His mother didn't like Frank's wife. "Maureen Smythe-a sn.o.b, let me tell you. Oh, she gave Frank a son, but the boy's not strong and handsome like you-takes after her side just like those two snot-nosed daughters with pale skin and pinched faces. But me...I gave him a beautiful son who looks like him," she'd said proudly despite the tears standing in her eyes. "A strong, beautiful, good son."

Daegan hated it when she called him beautiful, hated it even worse when she reminded him that he was Frank Sullivan's b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He wasn't even sure being good was all it was cracked up to be. Being good was a h.e.l.luva lot of trouble and not much fun.

By the time Daegan was in the seventh grade, Lucas Bennett was already shoplifting records from the local store and some of the kids were making out. Sandy Kavenaugh, a tenth grader who lived in a dingy apartment on the other side of the alley, bragged that he'd gotten all the way to third base with Kristy Manning, but then the girls always fell for Kavenaugh.

It didn't take long for Daegan to discover that walking on the right side of the law wasn't all that exciting.

At eleven, he started stealing cigarettes and smoking them with his buddies in the littered baseball field behind St. Mark's. By the time he was twelve, he was swiping hubcaps while carousing at night and had already sampled from the priest's stock of wine in the sacristy when, as an altar boy, he was supposed to be cleaning up after service. The temptation of sin was opening to him as he reached adolescence and he was embracing every minute of it.

During lunch break in the eighth grade, he was lucky enough to slip into the cloak room with Tracy Hanc.o.c.k-a tenth-grade girl with pillowy b.r.e.a.s.t.s as big as cantaloupes. He'd kissed her with his open mouth, felt her lips part eagerly, and had thrilled when his tongue had touched hers. She'd nearly sucked it out of his mouth and he wondered how much farther she would go. He took a chance and she started breathing fast and didn't slap his hands away when he felt her up, his fumbling fingers reaching into her st.i.tched cotton bra and grazing soft, willing flesh. Her nipples felt like warm little b.u.t.tons and his c.o.c.k was so hard it ached as it strained against his fly. He couldn't think, just moved with her, and his mind was blazing with the images he'd seen in a tattered copy of Playboy Playboy that Sam Crosby kept hidden in his backpack and loaned out for a quarter a night. that Sam Crosby kept hidden in his backpack and loaned out for a quarter a night.

Tracy panted in his ear.

He pushed up her sweater and tore at the b.u.t.tons of her blouse, anxiously shoving the white fabric away with his sweaty hands so that he could look at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s-and they promised to live up to their reputation. Pale skin with a faint webbing of blue veins just beneath the surface. Her face was red, her mouth open, her eyes glazed as he rubbed a hand right over her bra. "More," she whispered anxiously, writhing on the floor.

He was afraid he might come in his slacks. Impulsively he'd kissed her collarbone and she moaned, her legs wrapping around his middle. Then, with thick fingers, he unlatched her bra and saw the famous Hanc.o.c.k b.o.o.bs in all their glory. Huge and white, with little pink nipples that stood proudly at attention. Heaven. He was in heaven. She arched upward, inviting him to touch her even more, proud of the biggest bra size in all of St Mark's.

They felt so good. They filled up his hands as he rubbed. "Good, that's good," she whispered from the back of her throat. So hard he felt like he was about to explode, he started kissing her and tasting her and licking at her nipples. With a soft moan, she started moving her hips against him, practically begging for it as he suckled. His blood was pounding in his ears, his crotch aching. Oh, G.o.d, were they going to do it? do it? Right here in the cloak room with nuns in the lower hallway and pictures of Jesus hung near the door? Right here in the cloak room with nuns in the lower hallway and pictures of Jesus hung near the door?

He reached under the waistband of her skirt, felt her shiver in antic.i.p.ation, and touched a warmth so divine he thought he might die and go to heaven. Tracy's fingers worked at his fly. Oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d, oh Oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d, oh-the sound of leather sc.r.a.ping against wood caught his attention. Footsteps. Coming fast and hard. Tracy didn't seem to notice, she was sprawled beneath him, her legs in knee-high stockings spread wide. Instinctively, he yanked her sweater down, hiding her t.i.ts. There was a sharp, judgmental gasp as the hangers and coats parted with a whoosh.

"What're you doin'...?" Tommy Shoenborn, a needle-nosed little kid with a big mouth and dirty fingernails who was still praying he'd go through p.u.b.erty someday, had come searching for his parka and found them panting and groping on the floor of the closet. "Oh, my G.o.d, oh my G.o.d, oh my G.o.d! Sister Clare! Sister Clare!" Tommy, a suck-up from day one, stared down at them. "Daegan and Tracy are fornicating!"

Daegan scrambled to his feet, grabbing Tommy by his collar and shoving him up against the wall. "Shh! Say a word and I swear I'll kill you."

Tracy, red-faced and mortified, slapped Daegan soundly, her b.o.o.bs swaying deliciously before she reached under her sweater, hooked her bra deftly, and tossed her hair away from her face. "Stay away from me, Daegan O'Rourke," she said. "If you ever try that again, I'll send my brother after you!" She shouldered her way past the coats and a gaped-faced Tommy and Daegan.

His first s.e.xual experience had cost him. Pitying, reproachful looks from the nuns, extra homework, his hands whipped with the pointer until they bled, and about a million whispered rosaries, all acts of contrition to seek forgiveness for his sins, but with each "Hail Mary" he uttered, he sent up a silent prayer of thanks to G.o.d for allowing him a chance to touch the spectacular Hanc.o.c.k b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

In a vain attempt to restore her tattered reputation, Tracy had never even glanced his way again, but the girls at St. Mark's had been intrigued. Already a curiosity because he was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Daegan had gained a certain fascination. The girls had all thought he was naughty and seductive, and with his new prestige as a nasty boy interested in s.e.x, he'd become suddenly popular. Only a few prim and proper girls hadn't openly wanted to experiment with him.

The boys had been awed that he'd actually touched Tracy's nubile body and wanted intimate accounts of the size, shape, and texture of her b.o.o.bs. Derrick Cawfield, a kid with freckles the color of his short hair, swore that he beat off every night just thinking about the twin pleasure mounds. Even Sandy Kavenaugh, older and the most s.e.xually advanced of all the boys Daegan knew, was impressed. Sandy made it his personal mission to try and feel Tracy up and give her a hickey on one of those incredible t.i.ts.

Daegan's teachers were concerned, and the flashes of insight he caught from them told him that they thought he'd never amount to anything. Beneath Sister Clare's patient smile was a thought that bothered him. Poor dear. He can't help himself. Its a shame he was born to such a loose woman. Such a smart boy, but so willful. Poor dear. He can't help himself. Its a shame he was born to such a loose woman. Such a smart boy, but so willful.

Sister Evangeline was worse. Should never have agreed to let him enroll. A bad seed if there ever was one. Devil child, born to a s.l.u.t who sleeps with a married man. If it weren't for the money Frank Sullivan offered for a new gymnasium, I'd expel him on the spot. G.o.d would understand. This one, Daegan O'Rourke, is a child of Satan. Should never have agreed to let him enroll. A bad seed if there ever was one. Devil child, born to a s.l.u.t who sleeps with a married man. If it weren't for the money Frank Sullivan offered for a new gymnasium, I'd expel him on the spot. G.o.d would understand. This one, Daegan O'Rourke, is a child of Satan.

And Tracy Hanc.o.c.k was no better. Though she never outwardly gave him the time of day again, he saw a glimmer in her mind as she wondered what it would be like to go all the way with him.

Daegan's teachers began advising his mother that he was wandering down the treacherous and painful road of sin.

Sister Mae glowered at him-though he thought she had a curious twinkle in her eyes; priests, after punishing him with a paddle, counseled him on the temptations of the flesh and gave him extra duties around the school, along with long prayer sessions where, on bent knees, he was supposed to be begging the Father's forgiveness, but Daegan had never regretted his experience with Tracy for one second.

As Daegan entered high school and fought against his ever-present l.u.s.t, the entire situation with his father became too much to bear. He saw Frank Sullivan for the useless son of a b.i.t.c.h he was-a spineless coward who made him sick. Too old to pretend that he didn't know what was going on in the bedroom, Daegan left before each of Frank's visits. His mother always protested violently, having some screwed-up idea that they-the three of them-were some kind of pathetic family, but he just grabbed his worn leather jacket and ignored her pleas as he slipped outside, turned up his collar, and climbed down the stairs past the back entrance to the Cat O'Nine Tails Tavern. He'd rather hang out at pool halls and beer joints even though he was underage than listen to his mother and his j.a.c.k.-.o.f.f. of a father go at it.

Those years he worked a little, stole a lot, and swore that if he ever met Frank Sullivan in the light of day, he'd beat the living s.h.i.t out of him.

Matter of fact, he looked forward to the opportunity.

Daegan met his cousins for the first time when he was just shy of eighteen. Though he'd known of them for years, seen them from a distance, he wasn't certain that they'd been told about him when one night, out of the blue, Beatrice approached him.

It was near Christmas and he was hanging out at one of the pool halls in South Boston, smoking and telling disgusting jokes, wishing the owner, Shorty O'Donnell, didn't know he was underage so that he could order a beer. The heater rattled as it pumped hot air from vents dark with smoke and grime.

Above the sounds of laughter and scratchy Christmas music coming from a tiny radio near the window, he heard the door open. A bell jangled announcing a new player-a potential patsy. A whoosh of cold air rushed into the room, and even though he was poised over the shot, he swore he heard, How could anyone stand to be in here for more than two seconds? How could anyone stand to be in here for more than two seconds?

He missed the shot and looked up.

"Would ya look at that?" one man whispered.

Another, the guy with the droopy eye and tattoo of a skull on his arm, let out a long, appreciative whistle. Heads all around him swiveled. Eyes slitted.

Beatrice didn't fit in the cavernous room. Wearing a fur-lined jacket, kid gloves, and matching boots, she didn't look a thing like the rest of the few women who frequented Shorty's. They usually hung around their boyfriends, wore short leather skirts or jeans, sucked on suds, and smoked silently. Their hair was teased, their makeup on the thick side, their teeth not close to being even for the most part.

Beatrice Sullivan's patrician looks reeked of blue blood and money. She spied her cousin and sauntered up to him. "So you're Daegan O'Rourke," she said as he leaned over a pool table marred by neglected cigarettes left burning throughout the years.

"That's right." He made the shot indifferently though his heart was really racing. Why had she come looking for him? The spit in his mouth dried up. The cue ball smacked into the number seven ball, which ricocheted into the corner pocket. He moved around the table, using the chalk, never meeting her eyes, as if he didn't give a d.a.m.n that she'd obviously followed him. What did he care?

A lot, he realized with a sick jolt. He cared a whole lot more than he should have.

"I'm Beatrice. Everyone calls me Bibi."

"I know." He was starting to sweat. The pool cue slipped in his hands.

"We're related."

He made a deprecating sound in the back of his throat. "Not really. Look, I've got a game to play. There's money involved. You want something?"

"How much?"

"What?"

"How much money's involved?"

For the first time in his life he tried to look into someone's mind and failed miserably. As he'd matured, his ability, the one he'd cursed so violently, had weakened. "Why?"

"I've got something more interesting to do."

"I'll bet, baby," a thick-headed guy with a flattop yelled.

"How much?"

Daegan thought about the five bucks he had riding on this game. Nothing to her. A fortune to him. "Enough."

"Leave it."

"Sure," he said sarcastically. As he tried to make his next shot, she leaned her hip against the table, directly in his line of view. Her skirt was wool, her legs long, and she looked as out of place here as a five-carat diamond in a bucket of gravel. "I think we should talk."