She curled up on her side and stared out over their back lawn. Congregating on the patio, her sisters lounged poolside, apparently ready to discuss how to handle the Brianna situation.
Tears drifted across her cheeks. She remembered the harsh words Coco had hurled in Drina’s direction. She’d blamed Drina for leaving Brianna at the club and tossed out one accusation after the next.
If she’d only known the truth.
Realizing facts would soon surface with all the girls together, Brianna reached over and lifted the six-pane window. The spring breeze shot through the room, ruffling a few papers on her nearby desk.
Rolling to her back, she stared at the ceiling and awaited the verdict. The general consensus would range from Brianna had been trashed to she’d been at the wrong place, at the wrong time.
Fact was Brianna had chased down trouble like it was her last chance for a real good time. She had a feeling Gemma was about to tell the others precisely what had happened.
“How’s she doing?” Coco’s raspy voice filled the air.
“She’s resting,” Nory said.
Brianna laid perfectly still waiting to see who spoke next. When she couldn’t hear anything, she crept over to the window and rested her chin on the windowsill, peering down on her sisters and hoping they couldn’t see her. She willed them to speak freely, but instead they sat there silently. No one uttered a sound.
Finally, Drina said, “Gemma, what happened exactly?”
“Don’t do that,” Gemma said. “Don’t you dare point your condescending finger at me. You left us. When you hauled ass out of that club like you didn’t give a damn what happened, you lost the advantage of being privy to information.”
“Not when one of our own was nearly killed!”
The area fell silent again.
“Listen to us, why don’t you. We sound like Father.” Coco stood up and paced in front of the pool’s shallow end.
“So what’s next? Do we pick up the phone and call someone to come to Tennessee and handle the problem? I mean, revenge is in our genes. No one would fault us for taking matters into our own hands.”
“No, Gem,” Drina snapped. “We handle this matter ourselves.”
Drina and Gemma were mobster daughters through and through, but their differences were distinct. Drina talked a mean fight, but she wouldn’t throw the first punch. Gemma would strike from the back, come in low and hard, and leave the scene before anyone saw her.
“Daddy might come home,” Nory said, that air of hope lingering in her voice.
The youngest of five, Norina, much like Drina, believed their father was a victim of circumstance. He hadn’t seen them in well over three years and the last time he’d visited home, it was in the middle of the night.
He’d snuck in the week after Christmas, planning to leave packages underneath a bare tree, but instead found Nory sleeping next to the fireplace. Selfish enough to restore her hope so he could then destroy it again, he picked her up and carried her to the sofa. When she awoke, he told adventuresome stories, tales of living overseas in a dangerous, but beautiful land, where the sun was such a brilliant orange, it was blinding to the naked eye when it rose over the desert sand.
Son of a bitch had been living in Detroit. His last known residence was a twenty-thousand-square-foot compound with putting greens, tennis court, and an indoor pool.
“Alberto isn’t coming home,” Coco said bitterly.
“You don’t know for sure,” Drina said.
Coco put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot. “If he didn’t attend any of our graduations, why on earth would he show up now?” Coco shook her head. “He probably doesn’t even know what happened to Brianna, much less care.”
Brianna gulped. The truth in her sister’s statement hit hard and fast, striking with an instant blow that left her eyes watering.
“I don’t know why you’re so hard on him, Coco.” Nory stood. “When he was here a few years ago, he told us all. He wanted nothing more than to spend his life looking out for his family, but he made the ultimate sacrifice and stayed out of sight so he could still provide for us.” She pointed at the fields. “Look at this place. If Dad had come home and faced his charges, we wouldn’t be here now. He’s out there working for us. He isn’t here because he can’t come back. If he does, he’ll face murder charges for a crime he didn’t commit!”
Once again, the silence fell over them like a dark cloud looming, just waiting to empty its very core with a hard-pounding rain. The longer it was quiet down below, the more her older sister would have time to seethe. If Brianna had been placing bets with her bookie, she would’ve quickly thrown down her cash on Coco.
“Nory, sit down,” Drina said gently.
“No. I won’t sit here and listen to you throw accusations around about Dad when we should be more concerned about Brianna. Somebody out there wants her dead. Looks to me like you would want to know who rather than sit there and talk about something that doesn’t even matter right now. We don’t know where Dad is so it’s pointless to guess whether or not he even knows what has happened!”
“That was well said, child.” A man’s voice filled the air. “And spoken like your mother.”