“Shit,” he said, and took a deep breath. He leaned his head back into his hands and stared up into the trees. “That’s fucked up.”
“One day, some guys showed up and murdered him, then burned down my house, and I had no clue why,” I said.
“I guess Ewan explained it eventually.”
“Eventually,” I said and turned slightly toward him. “If you want information about my father’s business, you’ll have to go somewhere else. I don’t know a thing.”
“That’s a shame,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll tell my dad, but I don’t think he’ll believe you.”
I felt like an anvil fell onto my shoulders. I slumped slightly, and clenched my jaw as Ronan turned toward me with a strange, evil smirk on his lips, like he enjoyed my suffering.
“I’m not going with you,” I said angrily. “I don’t want anything to do with your family. You people were my father’s best customers, weren’t you?”
Ronan shrugged and waved a hand in the air like swatting a fly, like that wasn’t consequential. “I suppose that’s all right,” he said. “Ewan’s probably treating you well. Killed your father, and now you show him loyalty. Hard for me to believe you, if I’m honest. Hard to think you really don’t know anything about your father’s business, and that you’re not feeding it to the Valentinos.”
The whole, horrible truth became clear in a flash of sudden intuition. Why the Healys wanted me so badly, and why the Don wouldn’t let me go.
The Healys thought I was helping the Valentinos. They thought that was why I didn’t run from Ewan or let them save me. Maybe they even thought I was in league with them, and they were paying me for information, or I was even running the trafficking for them.
And the Don thought he could get that information out of me sooner or later.
Everyone was convinced that I knew something I didn’t, everyone except for Ewan. He knew I didn’t have any knowledge of my father’s business, yet he was the only one that actually cared about me.
“I don’t want anything to do with you or your family,” I said and stood. This time, he didn’t grab for me.
“Whatever they’re paying, we’ll double it,” he said. “And we won’t force you to live with your father’s killer.”
“Go to hell,” I said. “I don’t know anything about my father’s business. I don’t know how many times I have to say it.”
Ronan only smiled at me and crossed his ankles. “I hear you,” he said. “But I’ve got to make the offer. Otherwise, my father would be pissed that I didn’t even try. Good luck then, I guess. You must’ve really hated your dad, if you’re fine living with the man that murdered him.”
I balled my hands into fists. I didn’t have to explain myself to this asshole, but the way he looked at me with a cocky smile, and the way he leaned back on that bench like he owned the park pissed me off.
“Stay away from me,” I said, voice hard. “I don’t know anything. Go tell your father I’m not working for the Valentinos, and I’m not going to work for him.”
“He won’t believe you,” Ronan said. “But I’ll try, if you like.”
“Try then.” I turned my back on him. “And leave Ewan alone.”
“Oh, don’t you worry. I’ve seen Ewan’s handiwork to know what he’s capable of.”
I began to walk away, shaking and terrified. I was so scared he’d follow me and take me as soon as I was away from the crowd, but I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of looking back over my shoulder. I kept my chin held high, and strode toward the sidewalk—
“Tara,” Ronan called.
I looked back, hesitating a few feet away.
“Think about the sort of man your Ewan is,” he said. “Think really hard about what kind of man could drown a person in a toilet. Think about that, Tara, and ask yourself why you’d feel any loyalty for someone like that.”
I left then. Several people stared at me and had clearly overheard what Ronan said. I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment and anger, and I walked fast, almost jogging to get away from him.
The trip back to the apartment was terrible. But I reached the front door of Ewan’s building and threw myself back inside, then sprinted to the stairs and took them two at a time.
Ewan sat on the couch watching baseball when I returned. He looked up and smiled slightly, hand raised in greeting.
“Got back early,” he said. “Skipped out on the part of the meeting where they fucked hookers and did blow.”
“That’s a shame,” I said, distracted, breathing hard and sweating and not sure if I should tell him about meeting Ronan out in the park, and terrified that he’d take it the wrong way.
Everyone had an idea about me that wasn’t true. The Healys thought I was in league with my father and the Valentinos, and the Valentinos likely thought I could give them information that I didn’t have. The only person I halfway trusted was Ewan, but even he was a killer.