Page 7 of Gotti
“They fucking knowwwww,” she repeated, her voice cracking open.
Jio let her take her anger out on him because he knew that she didn’t have anywhere to put it. He wasn’t shocked, but he knew that he had to act like the victim too.
“Talia turned on me.” Her sister's name came out like betrayal. She had the nerve to say it as if their entire family hadn’t done the same to her.
Jio leaned against the wall and folded his arms.
“What they say?” he asked, rather than letting her know that her sister wasn’t in the wrong.
Nina pushed her body up slowly, wrapping her arms around her legs like she needed to hold herself together to keep from losing it.
“My dad kept asking me if I had lost my mind. If I knew who you were.” Her voice dropped into a mockery of him. “‘Do you know what kind of man he is, Nina?’”
She laughed but wasn’t shit funny.
“As if I didn’t.”
Jio’s jaw flexed.
“My mama…” Nina’s voice softened before it cracked. “She just cried and said over and over again that she was embarrassed and she didn’t understand how I could be so stupid.”
The room filled with the sound of her crying again. Her emotions were raw and uncontrollable.
Her fingers tightened against her arms.
“I turned my back on her,” she whispered.
Jio frowned. “What you mean?”
“I wasn’t there for her like I should’ve been and I know it. We all do...” Her voice trembled under the weight of guilt. “So maybe this is payback.”
“That’s not how life works, sweetheart,” Jio muttered under his breath.
But even as he said it his mind flashed to his own problems that had surfaced over the past twenty-four hours.
Gunshots.
Running.
His brother ducking behind a car.
All those vivid flashbacks caused him to clench his chest.
“Shit was wild man.”
The thought slipped through his head, loud and very much out of place.
Nina was still talking about her judgmental folks.
He heard the words betrayal, family, and how she didn’t feel safe, but internally, he was dealing with his own shit. He almost lost his brother last night, which was still a tough pill to swallow.
“I don’t feel safe anywhere,” Nina said, her voice cutting through just enough to pull him halfway back.
He looked into her eyes, and sadly, his baby wasn’t there.
“I don’t feel safe at home. I don’t feel safe with you. I don’t feel safe with them. I don’t feel like myself right now.” Her comment was supposed to affect him but it did the opposite.
“Jio?”
