“You don’t put your fucking hands on her again.” I warned, “If you weren’t who you are to me you’d be in the fucking ground for that shit.”
He didn’t reply, just kept looking at me with hatred.
“I guess Dare and I have your answer.” I said as my brother re-entered the room.
“You might wanna rethink this, boys,” He gave me a sick smile.
“What’s up your sleeve?” Dario asked him.
“Re-think this.” Pop threatened.
I shook my head, “No. I’m done.”
I walked outside.
I walked by my two sisters who were huddled
with Lisa by the gazebo near the door and saw the Jeep. It was empty. I looked back at the girls.
“Three of Pop’s men drove off with her, Tommy.” Tessa whispered, “Lisa said they pulled her out of your car and left in a black Impala.”
I ran back into the house toward the room I’d been in with Pop and Dare. Dario met me in the hall.
I pushed past him, “Where the fuck?”
The room was empty.
“Where’d he go?” I yelled to my brother.
Dario looked back, “I dunno. He left the room after you. I made a call.”
“He fucking took her!” I snarled.
I tore through the house looking for Pop but he wasn’t there. I finally found Nino, who’d been in the garden off that room and he’d seen Pop come outside and head toward the driveway. He had been watching his son play with the other kids while Bianca was in the kitchen with some of the other women so he hadn’t paid attention. Just saw Pop casually leave the property. Most of the men were still on Pop’s payroll. The house security had been part of that until last week when he cut me off. Nino and Dex stayed with me, I was paying them.
I got on my phone and dialed Pop’s cell.
“You’re in time out, my boy,” is how Pop answered the phone. I tried to get a lock on the rage that was building in me but no, it wasn’t happening,
“Where the fuck---” I started but he cut me off.
“I’ll call you later and we’ll discuss the extra payment you’ll have to make if you want her back. Like you’ve changed your mind about loyalty to me, I’ve changed my mind, too. I’ve decided that $35K for Athena wasn’t quite enough.” He hung up. He hung up on me.
Tia
“I almost kept you for myself, Athena.” Tom said to me, “Almost. Now that… that woulda been the ultimate fuck you to your father.”
We were in a living room of a cabin in the woods where we’d been dropped off by his three thugs. It was just the two of us in there, the thugs were mulling about, armed, outside. He was pouring me a glass of wine.
I visibly shuddered. He continued talking, “Saw you on that street and it felt like I could have a do over with Carlita. But then I remembered you clutching your little dolly in my car that night, begging to go home to your Mommy. If it weren’t for that image burned in my brain, I wouldn’t have given you to my son.”
I tried to hold my emotions in check. But he went on, “Your father, piece of shit moron that he is, he thinks this was all his idea. I told him it was time to pay his debts, planted a few seeds, and he practically offered you on a silver platter.”
My armor split right down the middle and I started to lose my foothold, started to lose my foothold on everything.
“He’d have agreed to it being me, being Tommy, or you given to my pool guy if it’d mean saving his ass.”
I was going to throw up.