“I moved her out of the motel and sent her somewhere safe.”
“Thank you. I was worried about that. I gave her the card Pop gave me; I hope he wouldn’t mind.”
“He won’t don’t stress it. And you don’t have to worry about her anymore. I’ll take care of it.”
She gave me a strange look before nodding her head in acceptance. I moved our empty plates out of the way and sat next to her with my arm around her. I can tell that she’s fighting to hold it together, “do you want to talk about it?”
“Not right now. It’s still hard for me to think about. I feel sick every time I imagine it. Although I was too young to do anything, the guilt won’t go away.”
“Survivor’s guilt is like that; it doesn’t have an age limit. Plus, she was your mom. People usually talk about the bond between a mother and her child from the parent’s perspective; not many focus on the other side of that coin.” Something must’ve shown in my voice because she picked her head up off my shoulder to look at me, and I avoided her eyes.
I couldn’t tell her that I understood to some extent what she felt because my mother’s story is not mine to share, but it’s because I knew her pain had to be ten times worse than mine that I was going all out to destroy the one responsible. My mother was still here, just missing a little piece of her soul that had been ripped away from her while hers was gone from this world.
I can’t give her back to her, but now more than ever, as the man who’d taken her child’s innocence, I owe it to both of them to fuck Becky’s shit up. I owe her a hell of a lot more than that for sharing her beautiful self with me, but we’ll start there.
“Why don’t you try to get some sleep?” It was way too early, but I knew she was about to crash from emotional exhaustion, not to mention the wear and tear on her body. I was proud of myself for putting aside my baser needs while she needed me, but as soon as I thought of what we’d shared, my body awakened.
Too bad there was no way I was going to do that to her, not after all that damn blood. Technically I know that that’s a consequence of losing her virginity, but emotionally I could’ve gone my whole life without seeing her hurt like that, no matter the reason. I ignored the softening around my heart, now is not the time, not for what I have planned for the rest of the night.
I laid with her until she fell asleep, but even then, she refused to release her hold on me, so I gave it a few minutes more before it was safe to leave. I hadn’t even seen Lancelot before he left, and the twins damn near rushed me when I stepped out of the room. “Shh, she’s asleep. Do me a favor, keep an eye out. If she wakes up before I get back, call me immediately.”
“Okay, but is she okay? What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later. I gotta go before she wakes up and realizes I’m gone.” I left and headed downstairs to find Pop.
“You going somewhere?”
“To Fontane’s. I need a favor.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Pop!”
“Not up for discussion. Let’s go. You can tell me about that favor on the way.”
“I’m going to send something to your phone; when the cops ask, just show it to them.”
“Cops?”
“She killed Gianna’s mother.”
“What?”
“That’s not what tonight is about, though. I’ll explain everything on the way there.”
I headed to the garage for her car, and he raised his brows before getting in. I had to rearrange stuff in my head since he insisted on coming along to fit in with what I was about to do.
“Cops, Gabe?”
“Yeah, it’s time. I’m not dragging this out any longer than I need to, and I don’t have time to wait around for Fontane to get his shit together. It’s either this, or she comes up missing. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No reason, son. No reason at all. Let me make a few calls to set this up.”
“Gramps already took care of it.”
“Bet!”
Our first stop was the police station where the lieutenant gramps had set up the meet with waited. I knew I should’ve left Pop in the car because old boy was intimidated almost to the point of stuttering and all my dad did was sit there and listen while I talked. “Is this all okay with you, Mr. Russo?”
“My son’s the one in charge. I’ll let you know if something’s not to my liking.”
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Pop flex. I sometimes forget that there’s this whole other side to him. The side that would make a grown man sweat in his own house without even making a threat. We left with the understanding that the cops would give us at least half an hour before heading out.