Page 82 of Tommy
Which just ratchets everything up a notch.
He crosses his leg over the opposite ankle as he stretches back in his seat. He picked the single armchair, leaving me the couch. I thought nothing of it, but now I wonder if it’s because it gives him a powerful stance, whereas a couch only makes you feel open and vulnerable. I would kill for a tight chair to sit up straight in and be forced into attention right now. Something to keep me feeling as if things are in control. Because I have a sick feeling that something bad is about to happen.
“Your parents worked for thefamiglia.”
“What?”
I must have heard him wrong. There’s no way my family worked for them… for the Mafia. No way.
He picks at some invisible lint on his knee. “Came to us about two years ago. They were in finance, right?”
I nod, but I doubt he’s really asking. Not with his subtle smirk, like he knows more than I do. Which, from the way he’s talking, he might.
If it were true… but it can’t be.
Can it?
“They worked for Bobby’s department. Not directly under him, but employed within his company.”
I don’t believe him. My heart pounds in my ears as I shake my head in protest.
“They worked at the same firm my entire life. I went there to have lunch with them when I was in class.”
This has to be fake. A lie. I would have known if they worked a side job, right? They would have told me if there was an issue. Wouldn’t they?
I clench my hands into fists. Not because I care that they’re shaking, but to keep myself grounded enough not to panic all at once. The pain of my nails biting into my palms slows my breathing enough that I can hear Danny over the ringing in my ears.
He shrugs as he glances at me, then looks away as if it’s of no interest to him. “Maybe they did in the day, but they also worked for us. We have the records.”
He points to the table, and only then do I look at the folder. I noticed it before, but I didn’t pay attention to it. Why would I? This is someone else’s house, and I don’t snoop.
“What’s in it?”
“Proof.” That’s all he says.
I bite my lip, debating how much I want to know. Would opening it change anything? I still have a debt. But maybe it would give me a clue as to what happened to them. Maybe it wasn’t as random as the cops said. What if it was a way to hurt Tommy and his family? How deep were my parents in? Were they more than what Danny said? They must be if they got killed, right?
I reach for the folder and quickly open it. Paper after paper shows me pictures of them with people I don’t know. But also their names on employee forms. And then just numbers. Page after page of numbers. Similar to what I saw in Tommy’s books, but still nothing I understand.
“What is all this?”
I danced. I don’t have the gift for numbers. Though Mom never called it a gift, just patience for looking at them all day. Dad always said it was his love language, a joke between them. One I never understood.
“You don’t know?” His eyes narrow on me, and I shake my head.
“My parents never told me about any of this.”
“Why would they? You were the one they were stealing the money for.”
“Stealing?” I shake my head, confused, and close the folder, putting it back on the table as I look back at him and ignore the sick feeling coating my stomach at his words. “This doesn’t make any sense. My parents didn’t steal anything. Maybe they worked for yourfamigliaor whatever you call yourselves, but they weren’t the type of people to steal.”
No way is any of this true. Maybe I have him all wrong. Maybe Danny’s the trickster in the family, creating false stories and just waiting for the right moment to say “gotcha.”
“Type of people? The desperate kind, you mean?” He rests his hand on the arm of the chair and puts his chin in his palm as he thinks something over. His eyes turn cold and dark, as if any light might have been snuffed out. If this is his big reveal, it’s not funny.
It’s heartbreaking.
“They were in debt far longer than you knew. They sank everything into your dancing lifestyle. You think it was a coincidence that the Kings took a chance on you? You were no one. They don’t deal in no ones. They didn’t see you as anything but leverage. They knew about you because of your family. Because of their connection with thefamiglia. They just didn’t know that the only way for you to get them the money was to steal from us. It’s a good thing Tommy stepped in when he did; otherwise, you would have started a war. Unless that was your goal along with everything else.”
