Not a smart move. At all. Fear grips me not for myself but for what might happen to this man who thinks a badge is going to stop Tony from being who he is at the core.
Without breaking stride,Tony lunges at the man, grabs him by the throat, and pins him against the wall.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Flashing your little badge around like you’re important while my son is hurt. My boy is all that matters. Not you and the credentials which you think make you amount to something of a man when I can clearly see you’re nothing but a little bitch.” The venom Tony spits is real as he foams at the mouth and the man’s face turns purple.
"You know the charge for injuring an F.B.I. agent you prick?” The man manages to force out between gasps for air.
Tony keeps him pinned to the wall a few seconds longer before finally letting go, his long strides eating up hallway tiles as he closes the distance between himself and the doctor, Luca, and me.
“Mason Brady with the FBI,” the man shouts from behind us. “I'm with the new child services branch."
Now I have a lump in my throat. F.B.I…child services…none of these words are sitting well with me. I was doing homework a few hours ago. Now I'm in some sort of Scorsese movie.
Tony stops for a moment and looks back over his shoulder as his eyes throw daggers at this Brady fellow. Tony looks like he's about to punch him in the face this time, the choking from a second ago a warning the man Tony considers a dipshit clearly not hitting hard enough.
Tony keeps moving forward, his eyes back on Luca and not focused on the annoyance behind him. "I don't have time for your bullshit."
"You've gotten away with a lot of stuff over the years, Tony. You’ll think it’s funny and wear it like a badge of honor but I’m telling you now you piece of trash, the F.B.I. created a whole department for you and we will nail you.” We keep walking and F.B.I. Agent Brady continues, “Your kid had a really bad accident huh? Onyourwatch, underyourcare. Sure would be easy to classify that as child endangerment. Get an investigation started that unravels the whole ball of yarn you’ve spun up in your pathetic life."
Tony spins around really quick, and I grab for his wrist. My hands are tiny, but my touch against his skin seems to hit the mark, doing what I need it to do right now. Tony stops, doing nothing and saying nothing. Whatever he was going to do he doesn't do it. And it's because of me, setting off a whole different wave of accomplishment inside of me.
"Who's this your new girlfriend, tough guy? She's got you calmed down, huh? Listen, Tony. We're going to have a follow-up with you. First, we're going to talk to the doctors to see what's wrong with your kid. And then we're going to see you in a couple of days to talk about your case and decide what to do about the little stunt you just pulled, the assault that was witnessed by that girl of yours."
"Keep her name out of your filthy fucking mouth or I’ll jam my cock so far down your throat and fuck you dry, prison style into you’re bleeding out of your ears you little bitch.”
Mason looks over at Luca and then smiles at Tony, the next words coming out of his mouth let me know that things are about to get a lot more interesting for Tony. "Keep talking, Tony and we’ll just keep adding to your file. We’ve got a threat to a federal agent now. You’re getting really good at this. Hell, I’m not even going to have to build a case against you. You’re going to do it all yourself. We may not be able to get you on all the crimes that you've committed but…We'll hit you where it hurts, Tony, and finally, get you behind bars where we’ll see who’s fucking who."
My grasp on his wrist grows tighter, but considering I can’t even get my hand all the way around it it’s not like I’m going to be able to do anything if he charges at this guy like a bull in a China shop, shot out of a cannon.
"Don't give in and give him what he wants…ammunition,” I say softly, Tony’s stone-hard fist slowly softening.
Mason walks off, the situation finally diffusing as I blow out the breath I was holding for an entire six count.
We catch up to the doctor, who already has Luca in a room and is running tests on him to see what's wrong.
It isn't long before the doctor says, "It's a concussion. From the looks of it, he's also sprained an ankle and broken a pinky. We're going to have to admit him."
Tony's fuming. The doctor's words flaming the fires of hell. I know all that rage is being directed at himself as well. If only I could get a glimpse into his head.
A second doctor enters the room and both of them stay in the room for a long time as nurses come and go.
I have plenty of opportunities to leave, but I don’t, needing to see this through, already feeling a connection to Luca…and Tony.
Part of me doesn’t know why I’m still here, but I am, sitting in a chair beside Tony as he watches his son sleep.
"I know the answer to this already, but are you okay? I know that the FBI agent made things a lot worse."
It takes a while for him to respond. "I've been dealing with fucks like him my entire life. He doesn't scare me."
For the first time, I know that he's lying and putting on a front. I don't know what he does in his life for an F.B.I. agent to say the things that he said to him. But it seems like Tony is used to dealing with agents on the regular, as part of his way of life. But he's not used to dealing with such people when it comes to his son…and that’s what’s driving that fear that wouldn’t exist if this was about him, not Luca and the prospect that law enforcement is hell-bent on separating the two of them.
"I'm not used to people asking me these types of questions all right? Why do you care so much? What's your angle?"
These are all good questions that I'm asking myself as he's asking me. "I'm just acting on instinct."
"Well, what if I fuckin acted on instinct?"
"It depends. There's good instinct and there's bad instinct."