Chapter 8 – Peter
Chapter Eight
Peter
It only takes me seven days to track Flora down to Lorenzo and Geralynn Taviani’s house.
She claims she was hiding out from whoever drugged us, but I don’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth.
I don’t care what she says until I torture her enough to feel confident I’m hearing the truth from her.
Unfortunately, I need to get Flora in my custody completely to begin torture.
Geralynn stands in my way – and Renzo’s way quite frankly. Flora sits on their couch with her face in her hands.
“She showed up here out of her mind.”
“And dressed like a skank,” Renzo says. “It reminds me of Nicki the night she drugged you. Why are you so quick to trust her?”
“She’s crying! Plus, I spent the past seven days with her and I can tell she’s not lying,” Geralynn says.
“I should take you upstairs and spank you for your insolence. Step away from Flora and let her brother sell her to a Moroccan slaver if he chooses.”
This clearly sets off Geralynn in a way that gets in the way of me getting my hands on Flora.
I’m boiling with rage. If she hadn’t performed whatever fucked up sleight of hand she got up to at Belladonna’s, maybe Aricia wouldn’t have disappeared on me.
I would have said all the right things to keep her coming back.
I don’t even remember what the fuck happened that night, which pisses me off almost as much as it embarrasses me.
“Just when I think you’re making progress on your racism, you say something so goddamn outrageous,” Geralynn snaps at him, taking Flora’s hand into her lap as my sister sobs louder.
I glare at her, searching for signs of deception on her weeping face.
Geralynn believes her, but clearly Renzo wants her gone, though he’s hardly objective.
“I’ve said nothing wrong. Listen, Peter. I’ll let you have her for only twenty-five grand so I can get Geralynn that new Cartier watch she wants and she’ll forget about Flora by tomorrow.”
Flora whimpers, “I didn’t, I swear!”
“Some CREEP followed her outside the bar and she luckily stole some idiot’s motorcycle and ended up here where I kept her safe,” Geralynn says. “Trust me, Peter. I know you don’t know me but I saw her and there was something wrong.”
“She had alcohol in her system.”
“It wasn’t just that,” Geralynn says, offering Flora a sympathetic look.
“Flora. Your words. What happened?” I ask her. I don’t want to believe what Geralynn says, but Flora keeps sticking to the same story.
She sobs and doesn’t look at me, which pisses me off.
“TALK.”
“I took the shots with you both. I had no intention of leaving, Peter. I swear. I don’t want to end up in Pittsburgh like CC and I thought that her plan to drug Myra was stupid. I would never do something like that.”
“I believe you, Flora. But it would help if you have more details so that Peter can… calm down.”
“What details? I was drugged! I was scared out of my fucking mind and… what if it was that woman?” Flora sobs again and Geralynn wraps her arms around my sister’s shoulder. It’s strange that someone as cold as Lorenzo Taviani could end up with a girl like her.
Flora leans into her arms and the whole scene upsets me deeply, especially the last two words Flora just said.
“What woman?” I grumble. I don’t like the way Renzo looks at me when she says it. Even if Flora lets it go, Renzo definitely won’t. I hate feeling like I’m on the spot, especially when the situation with Aricia ended with her practically jumping out my fucking window.
Most women feel impressed by my apartment but she didn’t even bother taking her damn underwear when she left…
“The weirdly hot black woman!? I should have known she was way too good looking to be interested in you.”
“She had nothing to do with this.”
“What happened to her then?” Flora snaps at me. “She took the shots with us and then you both disappeared and… I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
My blood keeps boiling. Discussing this isn’t optional in the slightest. I have to know what happened last night.
“It wasn’t her.”
“How do you know?”
Renzo snickers. “Are you stupid, Flora? They fucked. Obviously.”
“Renzo, do you need to go outside?” Geralynn asks her husband with a glare on his face.
“No, babe. I’m fine.”
Flora doesn’t drop her gaze from mine. “Is he right?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You are unbelievable. You abandoned me to get your dick wet?” Flora’s offense is real. Considering she was hiding out for the past week, I built it up in my head that she wanted to get away from me.
“I was drugged, you unbelievable wretch.”
“Peter!” Geralynn chastises me while Renzo snickers and nearly earns his own chastisement from her.
“I swear, I was only hiding out because I had no idea who did this to me and I couldn’t even find my phone.”
“Great.”
“Was there anyone else you spoke to that night?” Geralynn asks her. “Do you think we should call your cousin Luigi to figure out what happened?”
“I don’t want to waste Luigi’s time if this is something Flora did. I can’t imagine he would be thrilled at her creating more drama.”
“He might send her to Pittsburgh,” Renzo says idly. It’s the most helpful he’s been in a while towards pushing Flora to talk. Nobody wants to think about what might be happening to Cosima or Angela in Pittsburgh. It’s bad, and Luigi doesn’t want to overextend himself by getting them back.
“I swear, Peter. I’m not an idiot. I didn’t screw this up. I went to the club because I don’t want to be a shut-in just because of our family drama.”
There are too many unanswered questions for me to allow this explanation to slide.
Flora was there, but if she were drugged too, she wouldn’t remember much.
The question of trust lingers. She’s never been as rebellious as her sister Cosima.
She spent much of her teenage years wrapped up in an entirely inappropriate first marriage.
It is hard to imagine she would put her status in the family at risk considering what happened to Angela and Cosima so recently.
Even now, her story adds up because she stayed close to family when it comes down to it.
But still, the unanswered questions and the behavior pattern are all too common with my family.
“What happened then? Who did this to us?” I ask her. Flora stares back at me blankly with an uncanny emptiness that scares the crap out of me more than I would like to admit. Geralynn interjects with a soft voice, as if she were calming a stable of riled up horses before a thunder storm.
“We can find out together,” Geralynn says. “Instead of shooting at each other.”
“I don’t mind if he shoots her,” Renzo mutters, earning a seething side-eye from Geralynn, who seems far too morally pure to have ended up with an unnerving creature like my cousin.
Considering Renzo’s comment, I can’t blame Geralynn for the insinuation that we’re violent thugs only capable of solving our problems with weapons. I still find the implication resentful. Flora’s withdrawn stature doesn’t change, but my willingness to believe her budges slightly.
If she’s lying, I’ll work it out eventually. For now, I’m glad that I don’t have the problem of tracking her down on my hands, when I already want to spend the next few weeks tracking down Aricia.
“I have to go to work tonight,” I remind them. “Flora. Come with me. You’re still under my protection. I’ll talk to Michael about everything and you can help me with the accounting after we close.”
Flora gives a wary glance at Geralynn, doubtful that she can trust me. I have no interest in hurting my sister unless she blatantly lies to me and wastes my time in my serious quest for answers.
“Finally,” Renzo sighs with genuine relief that he could have expressed privately. “I hated having a house guest.”
Flora rolls her eyes in annoyance, which at least her and I agree on when it comes to Renzo. Geralynn doesn’t consider the matter resolved.
“Promise you won’t hurt her,” Geralynn says with earnestness that puts her closeness to our family on display. She knows how dangerous Italians can get…
“I promise. But she will promise not to rest until we find out who really did this.”
“It was that woman!” Flora says. “If you really think about it, there’s something suspicious about her attraction to you. I’m serious.”
“It’s not a viable theory.”
She was a criminal defense attorney. Aricia… How hard can it be to track her down?
Renzo clears his throat, clearly eager to clear everything up and get on with his life.
“It sounds like you both have an agreement and should probably get going, right? I’ll show you the door.”
“I know where the door is.”
“Perfect,” Renzo says, grinning. But then both our phones ring at the same time, which can only mean family business. My eyes meet my cousin’s and then we grab our cellphones. Fuck.
It’s a text message from Luigi – my first cousin and the official next in line for the Taviani mafia family in Buffalo, a position he earned after his father passed.
Luigi: Urgent – Gino arrested. I need a criminal defense attorney.
Renzo: Racketeering??? Should we destroy phones?
Luigi: No. Yes.
Luigi: Someone outside of the family.
Outside the family? Why? What happened? Whatever happened, this situation is fucked beyond belief.
Luigi: Manslaughter. Criminal possession. We’ll talk tomorrow.
Me: I can find the attorney.
Luigi: Tomorrow. Michael’s. 9 p.m. Come prepared.