I had Tommy drop me off at my folk’s place, and these two were in their conservatory sipping tea like they hadn’t a care in the world. Why that should piss me off, I have no idea. “Really, Pop?”
“Oh hi, the boy is here. Come have a seat Pauly, bring him one of those fancy things he likes.”
“It’s a cappuccino, you Italian reject.”
“Don’t be rude to your father, Draco. Now come over here and sit down; tell us what you’ve been up to.”
“MA!” Breathe, Draco, breathe; if you yell at this old woman, Pop would probably cap you.
“What? Why are you so high-strung? Have the girls been giving you trouble again?”
“My kids are fine; the only people giving me trouble are in this room.” I walked over and took the chair between them. Pop reached over and ran his hand over my hair like we were pals. I gave him a look and shifted, which made him grin. “I’m not playing with the two of you. Ma, have you heard from my son?”
“Yes!” She had the nerve to stop there.
“And?”
“And what? The boy is fine. He has his great uncles and cousins over there looking after him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you didn’t think I was going to send him there without having someone look after him, did you? They’re keeping their distance, and he doesn’t know they’re there, but he’s fine.”
That actually made me relax a little. Her murdering ass family won’t let anything happen to Gabe, but still. “So, what’s he been doing?”
“He met the pig’s father.” It took me a minute to get what she meant.
“The father, not him himself?”
“Not yet; that comes later.”
“Lady, what the…. What’re you talking about?” I changed my words when Pop gave me a look. I’m grown to everyone else in the world but these two.
“I didn’t want this for him.” I sound like a broken record.
“Then you shouldn’t have raised a little tiger.” Thanks, Ma, throw it all back in my face. It’s true I’d been the one to make sure my son had the kind of life that would allow him to pull off something like this. But when I was signing him up for martial arts classes and getting him the books he wanted when he was a young teenage boy, I had no idea the shits would turn him into what he is.
Pauly came back with the drink and a smile. I gave some thought to getting him alone and getting some information out of him, but I know from experience that won’t work. His face is in the dictionary next to blind loyalty. At least they had the foresight to send someone to watch Gabe’s back, but I’m still not letting them off the hook.
Just for shits and giggles and the fact that I didn’t like the way the two of them were smiling at each other like they’d bested me, I called the doc right then and there. “Gar, you won’t believe what Ma and Pop did.” Ma started waving her hands around, trying to get me to hang up and Pop looked like he’d sucked on a bag of lemons.
I spilled the beans, leaving out a lot of details but sharing the most pertinent facts. I had to pull the phone away from my ear before he hung up on me. Seconds later, the house phone rang. “I got a thing; see you two later.”
“Bastardo.”
“You would know I wasn’t there, Pop. Ma, did you hear what your husband just said about you?”
“No, Angel, I’m sorry, the boy made me do it.” Barf!
‘Draco, go home to your family and stop making trouble. You and your brother give me agita.”
I was already halfway out of the room, so she didn’t need to kick me out.
I was on the phone with my cousin Guy in Sicily before my ass hit the seat in the back of the car. That old lady probably told them not to tell me anything, but I won’t know until I try.
* * *
JIMMY
* * *
“Dad, Dad, look, I made another one.” Victoria came into the kitchen where I was making dinner with another one of her drawings that looked like a five-year-old did it. I made the right noises and pretended an interest even though I was at my wit’s end. I’m not sure what happened to her in that place she’d been taken off to, but she came back like one of those Stepford wives.
She’d been gone so long I almost didn’t expect to ever see her again. So much had happened in the last while that I’m in a constant state of agitation. Rebecca had gone and got herself killed. Can’t say I blame that Fontane guy once everything came out, which was way worse than I’d ever imagined. Then one day, I came home from my job at the garage to find some stranger sitting in my living room with this new creature.