There was a lot there, some of it made no fucking sense to me. Some of it, too much sense. So much sense that it made me feel really fucking sour.
“Know why I stopped seeing Oliver?” I snapped.
“No. I don’t. Because you haven’t said anything.”
“Did you ask me?”
She stared at me a second, then said, “I saw the rejected Skype calls and he left two voicemails on our landline.”
“Did you fucking ask me?” I asked, my voice nearly guttural.
“No. Did you fucking tell me?” she challenged, full of sass.
I fought the urge to throw her over my knee.
“He’s a fed, Athena. He was planted. He’s wrapped up in all this shit with Zack and the place Dare’s wife came from. We sent Lisa to his fucking victim’s retreat to help her and they interviewed her to get all sorts of shit about the Ferrano family are using her to testify now, too. I’m in the line of fire in multiple directions, baby, not knowing if the bad guys in Thailand are gonna order hits on all of us or if we’re gonna have to change our names and live in hiding. I haven’t even decided what to do about Lisa, whether it’s safe to ask her what she told them or not. I’m in front of multiple firing squads here, this little fuck screwing with our family and raping Tess, but fuck, I didn’t think I was in your sights, too.”
She looked away.
I grabbed her by the chin and made her look at me, “This is bullshit what you’re doing to me right now, and once you think about it you’ll realize it. The way me and you started out was painful, I know I fucked up. You know I was fucked in the head and I’ve been trying very hard to get unfucked. I find out the counselor has been using me. I have good reasons to have trust issues. I thought the one thing I fucking had in the bullshit that is my fucked up life was you. Now this?”
She had the decency to look remorseful. But she still wasn’t talking to me.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
She shrugged.
“I can’t believe this shit,” I let go of her. She wiped her eyes.
I shut the lamp back off.
“You didn’t tell me any of that, Tommy. You were vague about Angel’s past, about the Feds thing. I ask questions and you are vague or you change the subject. You think I haven’t noticed? What kind of life is our baby going to live in, Tommy? When we went to Costa Rica…”
“Wait a fucking second. Is this about the shit swirling around us now or about how you and me started?”
“Both, I guess. I don’t know.”
“Unfuckingbelieveable. Keep piling the shit on me, Tia. That’s real helpful.”
She didn’t respond so I kept going,
“And you know what I wanted when we went to Costa Rica but clearly, I couldn’t leave my brother chin deep in this shit Pop left us with.”
“Forget it. Let’s just sleep.” She rolled away. I grabbed her and yanked her back to me.
“What do you want?” I asked her.
“I want this trip over.”
“I need you at my side at that opening. I won’t focus unless I see you’re safe while shit gets done. For Tessa. For all of us. You think that little fuck wouldn’t have wanted to get his hands on you instead? I know he did. I’ve had you under protection so he went after her. That was my sister and that’s not fucking okay and baby, it was almost you. You pregnant with my baby and he could’ve taken you instead. Or as well.”
She put her palms over her eyes.
“I won’t let anyone fucking take you from me. You hear me? Never.”
“So, I get to live in a prison for the rest of my life because of your father’s bullshit. I get it.”
“Maybe we’re both stuck in that prison my Pop built, yeah. But I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”