AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You heard the expression, ‘throwing someone to the dogs’?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Well, when Tony was younger, he was an animal. The older gangsters would throw someone at him who they felt had done them wrong, and he would literally pull them to pieces. Didn’t matter how tough a guy was, when faced off against someone as sadistic as Tony the Hound, he would find his face ripped off by Tony’s teeth.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. As he got older, he learned to control the psycho in him, but he had amassed a big following by then. A lot of people admired him, while others just feared him. He started extorting money from some smaller business owners who weren’t already paying out to a mobster—sending in his guys with baseball bats, and destroying their stock, until they agreed to sign half their business over to Tony. Once he’d gotten himself a couple of businesses and had his foot well and truly in the door, he started moving in on the territory of some other mobsters.”
“Like my father,” she said.
“That’s right. He’s been causing your dad, Mickey Five Fingers, a lot of problems recently, and it’s known the two of them are treading on each other’s territory. Your dad is in prison now, but if he’s still causing Tony the Hound problems with his guys on the outside, this might be Tony’s way of controlling the situation.”
“By taking my sister and using her to threaten him.”
“Exactly.”
“And me? Is he going to try to use me in the same way, or is he just going to kill me straight away?”
I looked at her. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
She must have thought of something. “But how do you know so much about the mafia? I mean, I’ve lived around them every day of my life, and you seem to know more than me.”
“Believe it or not, I do think your family has tried to protect you from some of the business. I know that seems laughable considering the current situation we’re in, but I think maybe they tried in their own way.”
“In their own fucked up way, you mean? And only until the shit hit the fan. After that, nothing was right again, or ever will be.” She exhaled a deep sigh. “But you still didn’t say how you know so much.”
“I used to be a cop,” I admitted. “I know who all these people are, but from the opposite side of the fence. I investigated a number of them—not that we could ever get anything to stick, everyone was always too scared to testify against them—but in the end I made some contacts over the years.”
She was staring at me as though I’d suddenly sprouted another head. “You were a cop?”
I nodded. “Yep, but it turned out I liked to shoot people too much.” I gave a shrug. “I was fired, but like I said, I’d made some contacts by then, and word got out that I was good at taking people out. So I became a hired gun. Money was better, and I could work my own hours.” I threw her a wink, and then instantly regretted my blasé gesture. Her sister had been kidnapped by these people, and were after her blood, too. This wasn’t a winking moment.
“You know, I don’t get along with cops,” she said finally.
“You don’t get along with anyone,” I quipped.
My words dragged a small laugh from her throat. “You have a point there.”
“And anyway,” I continued. “I’m not a cop anymore, so we’re good?”
She pointed at me, and then back to herself. “Apart from the ‘trying to kill me’ part, and the ‘me stabbing you’ part?”
I shrugged again. “I’m not one to hold a grudge if you’re not.”
“Oh, I hold grudges. I’m like an Olympic champion at holding grudges, but I don’t think I’ve got much choice but to let this one go for the moment.”
I risked a smile. “Good.”
I noticed how tired she looked, drained. Neither of us had slept in the past twenty-four hours, and I’d only had a couple of gulps of water. I doubted she’d had much more. If we were going up against someone like Tony the Hound, we needed to be feeling stronger than we currently were. I told myself this thought had gone through my head because of the practical issue of needing to be alert, and not because seeing Vee looking emotionally and physically exhausted had twisted something in my chest. I wasn’t used to caring about other people—it was something I’d avoided, to the point of being unsure if it was something I’d even be able to do anymore.
I’d gone my whole life staying emotionally unconnected to anyone. I knew the reason why. My past had made me block off all connection, knowing that emotional attachment only meant pain. I felt like Vee had done the same thing, only not to the same extent. She obviously cared for her sister, even if she felt the emotion wasn’t returned. I thought she was wrong on that point. I didn’t know her sister, but anyone who had that amount of hatred for a family member did so because they still cared. Her sister acted as though she hated her because she was so badly hurt by what had happened. Had Nickie looked up to Vee, and seeing her do what she had meant she’d not only lost her mother in such a horrific way, she’d also lost the image she’d nurtured of her sister? I knew this because when I thought of my own ‘family,’ all I felt was a cold numbness.
I reached out and touched Vee’s leg, my fingertips resting lightly on her jean-clad thigh, commanding her attention. “Let’s keep going a little farther until we come to a rest stop. I know you want to get to your sister, but we’re not going to be any good to her if we’re both exhausted and weak from lack of food.”
Her gaze moved from me and dropped to where my hand touched her leg. I froze, wondering if she’d shove me away, or allow me to give her this small amount of comfort.
Vee wasn’t a woman who took affection easily.
