“It smells like another A+, to me,” I told her.
I went into the den and reached into my jacket to pull out the jewelry store boxes. I stuffed them into my desk drawer. I flicked the computer on and saw a message from my brother waiting for me.
As I opened it I thought about the fact that Angel hadn’t even quizzed me about Debbie. Was that because she was trusting or was it because she was still under the mindset where she wouldn’t question her Master?
** ** **
She made us a really nice dinner. After dinner I loaded the dishwasher while she changed and then we went out for a stroll, walking off the dinner and getting her out of the apartment. I wanted to start her on a path to getting toward normal. I figured it’d be good to make sure she got out of the apartment every day. We stopped at a store and bought a loaf of bread to take to feed the ducks at the park where I’d seen Deb. Angel didn’t ask me about Deb so I brought it up.
“So, you didn’t ask me about coffee with the ex.”
She looked at me carefully for a moment and then said, “I figured you would tell me about that if you wanted to.”
“Not that you didn’t have a right to ask?” I cocked an eyebrow.
“You told me I had nothing to worry about and so I’m not worried. If you want to talk about it, I’m happy to listen. If you don’t, I respect that.”
“Because that’s what you’re trained to do?”
She shrugged, “Believe it or not that’s always how I’ve kinda been. Sometimes people don’t feel like talking, especially about stuff bothering them. I don’t push. You’ve given me no reason to mistrust you.”
“And I never will. She wanted me back. She wanted me to go back to her place and fuck her. She heard I’m serious with you and told me to forget coming back to you, to come back to her place instead. Said she wished she was my wife, talked about the beautiful babies we’d make together. I think she showed up at the apartment today hoping to intimidate you, scare you off. She got a big surprise when I answered the door instead.”
Angel’s eyes changed, they went kind of fiery there for a sec. It looked like anger, jealousy. It revved my engine up, actually. But then her fire flickered out just as fast. If I hadn’t been watching her I would’ve missed it. That was promising, though. And if that’s who she always was it was a rare quality to be so trusting. Most women I’d been around were jealous, territorial.
“What’d you say?” she asked softly.
“I told her never to darken my door again or I’d fuck her life up.”
Angel got a small but satisfied-looking smile. And I’m sure that as we went around the block back toward home I probably had one, too.
I had no intention of continuing to be the kinda guy to fuck someone’s life over out of revenge if I could help it but by the look on her face I didn’t know if that was pre-Kruna mindset or post-Kruna or both but it was good to see that smile because sometimes tough choices had to be made. And in my position right now I had some major work ahead of me to get my freedom from the mess my Pop left us. Seeing her reaction told me she’d probably be okay with my decision to have to go to the dark side on occasion, if needed. And to get us out of the mess that was my life right now, that might be more than necessary.
Chapter 6
Tommy
Tia was crying when I found her shortly after reading Zack’s email and I didn’t have it in me to be supportive at that moment. I stood over her in the bed and said, “Tomorrow morning you get up and you phone Mia and you call her off.”
She nodded at me, tears in her eyes.
“I need to do some serious fucking damage control, Tia. Thanks a fucking bunch.”
She’d covered her face, sobbing. I stormed out of the bedroom and went to the rooftop to beat the fuck out of the punching bag. And I didn’t sleep that night. I didn’t sleep because if a goddamn teenager could find us then so could my enemies and that meant that I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t feel safe, so I stayed up all night stressing about it.
The next morning after prepping from me and some more harsh words that she probably didn’t need to hear, she called Mia from a burner phone on hands-free and I listened.
“Hello?” the female voice answered.
“Mia? It’s Tia.” Tia sat on the sofa, hands fidgeting in her lap. She looked like she hadn’t slept much either.
“Tia? Holy shit. Tia?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Wow, Tia. Are you okay? Are you still in Costa Rica?”
“I’m fine. What’s new?”