Chapter 9
I woke up facing his massive erection, pointing up in front of my line of vision. My head was on his tummy and he was tenderly caressing my head with one hand and had his other hand between my legs. I turned my head over and looked at him. He was lying on his back and looking down at me with the biggest, sexiest smile on his half-asleep face.
I smiled and rubbed my eyes. “Um, hi.”
“Mornin’, baby,” he said with a smirk. “All aboard?”
I blushed. He was gorgeous with a sleepy smile, a twinkle in his eyes, and a bit of bedhead. The way he looked at me made tingles work their way up my spine. He reached for me and then pulled me up by my underarms, so I was straddling him. He pulled the crotch of my shorts to the side with one hand, pulled his boxer briefs down with his other hand, connected us, and… wow.
He said, “Unauthorized sleepwear again. I might have to punish you.”
Before I registered the words and let them scare me, I saw humor in his eyes, so I smiled and ran my hands up his gorgeous chest and then had his jaw in my hands. I leaned over, about to kiss him, but then a big bang pierced the air. I thought it was firecrackers but the second I thought that my brain autocorrected it – not firecrackers, gunfire.
In a flash I’d gone from being on top of him on the bed to being swung through the air in his strong arms and then on the floor beside the bed lying directly under him. Covering me with his body, he reached under the bed and upwards and then he had a gun in his hand.
I was about to gasp but his hand was over my mouth gently. He made a soundless Shh and motioned for me to get under the bed as he carefully rolled off me and then silently moved around, commando-style crawling, to the other side of the bed, closer to the door.
I stayed put under the bed and tried hard not to hyperventilate. I could see that the area under the bed had another gun strapped up as well as a big-ass knife. Holy crap.
When and how did my life become an action movie? Amid my shock and fear about the commotion and about the fact that he now had a gun in his hand was the realization that he, as an initial reaction to the gunfire, had actually turtled over me to protect me. Wow.
As that was permeating, I heard the door open and saw his feet leave the room. My heart thudded loudly in my chest. He was in nothing but underwear, holding a gun, and I was under the bed, afraid for my life!
I heard a storm of gunfire and it sounded like it was right outside the door. I plugged my ears with my index fingers and squeezed my eyes shut tight. Then there was silence. Deafening silence. Then voices. But I couldn’t make out whose voices or what they said.
After what seemed like forever, I heard footsteps. I looked and they weren’t Tommy’s bare feet. They were a pair of black boots. My heart thudded wildly in my throat. I silently reached up for the knife strapped to the bottom of the box spring and slid it out from the strap that held it up.
“Tia?” It was a deep voice. I didn’t recognize it. I had the knife in my grip.
“Tommy asked me to escort you somewhere safe. Please come out,” the voice said.
I didn’t believe anything I was hearing. Where was Tommy? Was he shot dead in the hallway? Was this someone else wanting to kidnap me? If they wanted me dead, they would just shoot though, right?
I heard more footsteps, then saw a pair of men’s black leather dress shoes, “What’s going on?”
Was that Dario’s voice? I wasn’t sure.
“She won’t come out,” the first guy said.
I saw some suit pant-clad knees, then Dario’s face. I was lying under the bed with the knife pointed toward him. He looked at my face, the knife, then my face. He smiled. “You okay?”
I was frozen, I couldn’t move. I just laid there pointing the knife at him.
“C’mon,” he said, and he looked amused.
I slid out from under the bed and he helped me up. The knife fell. I was shaking. Dario threw a robe at me and I put it on, glad he was thinking straight because I sure wasn’t. I was still in those tiny lacy sleeping clothes and they were more than revealing.
Nino, that biker-looking guy, was standing there with Dario, his eyes politely fixed on the floor.
“Quickly, come,” Dario said. He and Nino ushered me out of the room.
Two men were on the carpet in the hall and one was face down, one wasn’t. The one who wasn’t I recognized as one of the burly guys from day one, the unibrow guy. I felt bad for thinking that thought. I wondered what his name was, if he had any family. It was not only bloody, but there were holes in the walls. Tommy was nowhere to be seen.
I breathed out a big breath as Dario ushered me forward but leaned back, “Get her shoes and get Tommy some pants, fast,” he told Nino.
“Where’s Tommy. He okay?” I breathed.
“Yep, no worries. Settle down.” Dario gave my shoulder a squeeze.
We got to the bottom of the stairs and I heard Tommy’s voice booming like thunder. “You tell me right fucking now or I cut off your balls first!”
He sounded utterly murderous. I froze for a second.
“Dare!” Tommy shouted, “Bring her.”
Dario motioned toward the slightly ajar office door.
I opened it, seeing a very bloody redheaded guy slumped in a chair and Tommy standing over him, two other men, one of them I recognized as sometimes being outside on guard standing behind him. Tommy was still just in his underwear. Nino came up behind me and passed Tommy a pair of jeans. Tommy threw them on the desk and took me into his arms and inhaled my hair. “You okay, baby?”
I sank into him, nodding but still trembling. Then I looked up at him, “You?”
“No. Not even a little bit,” Tommy glared toward the guy in the chair and then yelled, “See her? She’s mine. You and your fucking buddies put her in danger. See this frightened look on her face? No one makes her face look like that but me, you fucking understand? You come into my house and shoot up my bedroom door while I’m fucking my girl? You kill one of my men in my fucking house? Motherfucker!” Tommy let go of me and punched the guy right in the face.
Oh. My. Lord. I wanted to collapse. He was fricking scary. I stumbled backward and Nino prevented my fall by catching me by the elbows and holding me up.
Tommy’s eyes shot to my face. “It’s okay, baby. Dario’s taking you to my father’s house. I’ll pick you up there later. Tia…”
“Yeah?”
The guy in the chair coughed into his hands and had blood on his fingers. I shivered.
Tommy reached onto his desk and then caught me by the hand and pulled me to him, slipped the engagement ring on my finger, and then traced a fingertip from the hand without blood on it, across my lips. “This doesn’t leave your finger again. Ever. Say nothing to the girls.”
I think I nodded. He kissed my hand and squeezed it, kissed me on the mouth quickly, then passed me back to Dario. He actually took me by the shoulders and moved me toward his brother who then took my shoulders and led me out. Tommy’s mouth was set in a grim line and his nostrils flared when he looked back at the bloody redheaded guy in the chair.
As Dario led me out into the hallway, Nino put some flip flops on the floor in front of me.
“I’m going to your father’s house in my pajamas?” I asked Dario while stepping into them.
“Tell Nino what you need; he’ll bring it to the car.”
“Umm…”
“Don’t worry; I’ll get you something,” Nino trotted up the stairs without waiting for me to answer. I was glad I didn’t have to go back up there and walk past dead bodies.
Dario and I went out to a waiting red SUV.
“What on earth?” I asked when we got into the back seat.
Dario shook his head, “Don’t ask me questions. Talk to your fiancé later. He’ll decide what you need to know.”
Decide what I need to know? Wow. Does any one of these men know this is the 21st century? And okay, not only did I hear gunshots and see dead bodies again, what was that now, four? But my supposed fiancé had just very frankly made the fact that he liked to see fear on my face known to his brother, his employees, and a guy who maybe wasn’t making it out of the office alive. I was now being ushered, in skimpy pajamas and Tommy’s robe, to his father’s house.
When I got there Lisa was in the doorway to receive me, literally. She hugged me and pulled me into the house, ignoring Dario and the two muscle guys behind him. “Are you okay?”
I heard Dario, on the phone say, “Bro, we’re here.” He then he looked to Lisa. “Yeah, she’s fine. Lisa has her.” Dario and the two guys followed us in and disappeared into that office that I was ushered into on graduation day, which felt like a million years ago.
Lisa was in a robe, too, her hair pulled up into a messy bun. She walked me to her kitchen where an older grandmotherly-looking Black woman was frying bacon.
“Hello, Tia, I’m Nita!” the woman said to me cheerily with a Jamaican accent. “Coffee, right?”
I thanked her as I sat at the table with Lisa. Nino came into the kitchen with a bag in his hand. “Clothes, Miss O’Connor,” he said, and I peeked in the bag and saw a jean skirt, top, matching underwear and bra, and my purse. He also handed me an iPhone box, shrink wrap half on and half off. “Mr. Ferrano wants this with you at all times,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said and put it on the table in front of me.
He took two steps back and stood against the counter. I looked up at him and then to Lisa.
“Nino?” Lisa asked.
“I have orders to stay within three feet of Tia at all times, Leese,” he said softly.
Obviously, they were good friends by the way he spoke to her. She nodded at him, resigned-looking, then Nita passed me a cup of coffee. “Two sugars, Sarah told me?”
I shook my head and smiled. Two sugars. “I’ll need one more, thanks,” I said sweetly.
She smiled what looked to me like a knowing smile. She must be in the know about Sarah’s sugar hatred. I wasn’t going to let this happen, I had so little control over my life right now the one thing I could control was how many fucking sugars I’d get in my coffee, so I was taking that third sugar.
“So,” Lisa started.
I looked at her. Nita was passing Nino a coffee and pulling another package of bacon out of the fridge.
“I hear we get to help you plan your wedding and that it’ll be here!”
My face must’ve said, “Duh, what?” because a familiar voice chimed in, Tommy’s father, coming into the kitchen.
“Ah, my little dove, that wasn’t common knowledge yet.”
“Oh?” Lisa blushed. “Sorry.” She smiled at her husband and shrugged.
He leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head.
“Good morning, Athena,” he greeted.
He was dressed in a suit, as per what seemed to be the usual. He poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Mornin’,” I said and my voice came out hoarse.
He smiled at me and sat down at the large bistro style table with us.
“Everyone, leave me and Athena for a moment,” he said and everyone left the room, including Nino and Nita who lifted her pan onto another burner and then abandoned the stove.
He put his hand over mine. “Are you okay, dear?”
I nodded, ignoring the urge to yank my hand back.
“Dario tells me you threatened him and Nino with a knife.” He had light in his eyes, a playfulness very much like what I sometimes saw in Tommy’s eyes.
I tried to crack a smile, but I don’t think it looked very genuine.
“Tommy tells me you’re perfect. I can see that. You seem calm and together right now despite probably wanting to run for the hills, screaming.”
If only I could. I thought this, but didn’t speak it.
“You’re a spitfire. Beating up my son, pulling a knife on a guard. I think you’ll fit in here just fine. Dario’s been calling you Tia Tyson. You are a fighter.” He tapped my hand gently and then stood up. “My boy has demons. I think you could be the one to exorcise them.” He smiled expectantly. I didn’t know what to say.
“And your father tells me you can cook like nobody’s business. That’s always a good quality in a wife.” He winked at me.
I opened my mouth, wanting to speak but his eyes narrowed just slightly, and I decided against it. I clamped my mouth shut. He looked pleased. It was almost as if I’d just passed a test. I frowned. What a bizarre thing to say right now and what…the …heck?
He stood. “Your husband-to-be should be here any minute. We’ll all have breakfast.”
He left the room.
A moment later Nino returned, saying, “If you’d like to get dressed I can escort you to a guest room.”
I followed him, carrying the bag he’d brought me, mulling over the fact that my father must’ve had a conversation recently with Thomas Ferrano, one where he talked about me at length in a way that would result in my dad talking about my hobbies, my talents. That sort of conversation didn’t typically come into play when someone was threatening you – no, that sort of conversation came with bargaining with someone, trying to sales pitch them. Did my father sales pitch me to Thomas Ferrano?
I couldn’t think about this right now; I had to go back out there and try to act normal around these people. I had to try to act normal because I wasn’t allowed to talk about what had happened this morning, to act as freaked out as I felt. It came crashing down on me, then, that I couldn’t ever confide in anyone about my life without breaking his rules.
I loved my friends, I loved our sessions where we sat and shared information, gossiped, talked hopes, dreams, and uncertainties. How could I not ever share my innermost feelings and what was happening in my life with anyone else? I also thought about Dad and wondered again if he’d had any idea what’d happened to me after I didn’t meet him at the food court in the mall.
It was weird that Nino stood outside the room door while I changed. I reached into my purse and found the basics. I put my hair it in a ponytail, put on some lip gloss, mascara, and eyeliner, and then put my sleeping clothes into the bag and popped the iPhone into the jean skirt pocket and followed him back to the kitchen. There was laughter from a room nearby.
Nino took my bag for me, telling me he’d put it in Tommy’s car, and motioned for me to go ahead through an arched doorway into a dining room.
Tommy was sitting at a large dining room table with Lisa, his father, and Dario. They were all laughing. Platters sat in the middle of the large table filled with breakfast foods. There was enough food to feed ten, rather than five of us.
Tommy’s eyes sparkled as I entered the room and he motioned for me to sit in the empty chair beside him. He looked completely composed, was dressed in a collared dark gray shirt and pair of dark distressed button fly jeans, black motorcycle boots, and he was eating a piece of bacon. I sat beside him and his lips touched my cheek. “You good, baby?” he asked me.
I nodded while shrugging at the same time. “You?”
“Peachy,” he said and wiggled his eyebrows. Then he leaned over and passed me the plate of waffles. He smelled freshly showered and I felt drawn to him, I wanted to climb into his lap, tuck my head under his chin and hold on tight. Of course I didn’t.
We’d just been through a shooting incident where we almost got shot, then where he’d commando-style retaliated and obviously just either killed one or two or had at least watched one or two men die. I’d just witnessed two dead men outside the bedroom and then watched him, clad in only his underwear, interrogate and sucker punch someone who was already black and blue and bloody. I glanced down as he spread jam on a piece of toast. His knuckles were bruised-looking.
Yeah, he’d probably bloodied that guy being interrogated and who knew what’d happened to the guy afterwards? And what he’d said to the guy about me, that the only person who was allowed to put fear into my eyes was him? I felt a raw sensation spread deep inside of me.
I wasn’t hungry. Death tended to lower my appetite, I guess. I passed the plate of waffles along to Dario, who sat across from me, and just put a few pieces of cubed fruit on my plate.
“That all you’re going to eat?” Tommy whispered in my ear.
I nodded. “Not feeling so hungry.”
“Excuse us,” Tommy said to the room and put his napkin on the table and reached for my hand. I took it and followed him out of the kitchen, down a hall, and out a set of sliding doors onto a deck that overlooked a swimming pool.
He took me into his arms and lifted me up a few inches off the patio, holding me tight, “You okay?” he whispered into my hair. I started shaking again.
He set me back on my feet and tipped my chin up with his thumb and index finger and then kissed my forehead softly. “Everything is fine. I dealt with that security breach and it won’t happen again. You don’t have to worry. By the time we get back home the house’ll be 100% safe.”
“It the same people as Mexico?”
“Don’t worry, baby. It’s dealt with. We’ll have brunch with these guys and then we’ll go for a drive and get out of the city for a bit, okay?”
I nodded, looked down, but melted into him feeling oddly safe.
“Tia, smile, please. Come and eat. Okay? I won’t let anything happen to you. Anything. Ever.”
He smelled so good. I inhaled him at the chest and nodded, then followed him back into the house. He hadn’t seemed threatening with me, but that hadn’t settled my nerves much, either. I saw Tommy’s father in the doorway. He’d been watching us. He had a smile on his face. It was sort of a sick smile and gave me chills.
The rest of the meal was jovial. Not because of me, but because of Tom Sr. and Dario, mostly. When we got back to the table Tommy heaped scrambled eggs and bacon on my plate and then went back to eating. I picked at the food, but didn’t consume much.
They were debating almost non-stop for almost two hours on a variety of subjects. Tommy was quiet other than dropping the odd wise crack in there to cut up one, the other, or both of them. I was quiet, but I tried not to be broody. He seemed deep in thought, too. Lisa sort of just sat there looking pretty, but she rolled her eyes at me a few times, too, due to the topics or the passion with which an argument was delivered.
Finally, Tommy rose from the table. “Well kids, I hate to break up the party but me and my girl need to see a man about a hog.” He fist bumped his father and his brother and then gave Lisa a kiss on the cheek. Dario and Thomas both kissed me on the cheek and Lisa and I hugged. I thanked them for their hospitality and Tommy and I left hand-in-hand.
“You’re off the grid, then?” Dario asked him, following us to the door.
He answered, “’Till tomorrow.”
Dario saluted him and Tommy saluted him back.
Outside was a silver Jeep Wrangler. He opened the passenger door and ushered me in, moving the bag with my pjs from the passenger seat onto the back seat.
“A man about a hog?” I asked.
He smiled at me. “You’ll see.”
We left the city. He played the radio so we didn’t chat, but he held my hand on the console between us. After about an hour, we turned into a dirt driveway toward a farmhouse and barn and I started to wonder if the ‘man about a hog’ thing wasn’t just a figure of speech.
He parked the Jeep and motioned for me to follow him. It was a pretty place. Big barn, little stone farmhouse, a bit overgrown but wildflowers everywhere, and no visible neighbors. He unlocked and then opened a set of double barn doors on the big, powder blue barn and inside there was a path down the center and horse stalls all the way down on either side. I heard no noise and smelled nothing that resembled animals, but then he opened a stall door and revealed a very shiny-looking candy apple red and chrome Harley Davidson motorcycle. Ah, a hog.
“Care to put something exciting between your legs?” he asked, suggestively, smiling at me.
I looked down at my clothes, “I’m wearing a skirt,” I said.
He shrugged, “You’ll be against my back. No one’ll see your cute little baby blue panties,” he winked.
“Obviously you saw them.” I wondered how he knew. Maybe he approved what Nino had brought me.
“But, I’m allowed to. Let’s do this.”
He walked the bike out and then got into the Jeep and backed into the barn, closed the doors, and locked them.
He passed me a metallic candy apple red helmet and put a black one on his head and then we got on the road and he vroomed out of the driveway.
I held him tight, loving the feel of his muscular back and enjoying the scenery. It was a beautiful day. We drove about half an hour through the countryside, up and down winding country roads, and finally stopped at a little riverside park. There were picnickers, cyclists, fisherman, and hikers. He parked the bike and took my hand, helping me off, blocking the view of my undies as I was getting off the bike and ensuring my leg didn’t touch the hot exhaust pipe.
He walked me through a very picturesque area to a snack bar beside the river and asked, “What kind of ice cream?” His eyes were sparkling with mischief.
I blushed and looked up at a big whiteboard with a few dozen choices written in alternating orange and blue marker. “Blackjack Berry Thunder,” I said, with conviction.
He chuckled, “Two please,” he said to the older woman manning the stand and whispered into my ear. “That’s got to be the polar opposite of vanilla.” He kissed me behind the earlobe.
“Let’s just say my palate has gotten accustomed to more, err, flavor these days.” I flushed red, but stared at him challengingly.
He looked tickled pink; his eyes sparkling with mischief. “You ain’t tasted nothin’ yet,” he told me while kissing my knuckles.
Then the lady passed us our ice cream and Tommy paid. We strolled away, hand in hand.
“And maybe if I pick non-boring ice cream, maybe my life will stop being so darn exciting,” I added as we got to the riverbank.
Tommy sat on a large, smooth rock big enough to be carved into a bench and with some comfy grooves that’d serve well to sit on. I sat beside him. The ice cream was remarkably good. I stared at the water, deep in thought.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked.
I looked at him. He was smiling at me, licking his ice cream, looking gorgeous and carefree.
“How come you seem so calm and carefree?” I asked, then whispered, “We could’ve been killed this morning.”
He shrugged. “My life has been one long game of chess and almost never boring, Tia. When I give myself a chance to breathe, I breathe. That’s what today is about. Us taking a minute to breathe.”
I frowned. It sounded awful. “Your life always been like this? Your dad never sheltered you?”
He looked thoughtful for a second before answering. “Pop’s company has evolved over the years. I guess I evolved with it. I’ve been working for my father since I was fourteen. I’ve seen a lot, even before I started working for him. I’ve learned a lot. My sisters are a little sheltered, they know about Pop’s business, they know much less, but us boys…” He shook his head. “Constant chess game. I just make one move at a time and try to be as strategic as I can be.”
Clearly, it’d affected him. He had huge anger issues. He had to know this had something to do with it. I felt disdain for his father. What would Tommy be like if he’d had a normal upbringing?
“I’m sure your life experiences have taught you a lot, too,” he said.
I nodded.
“You haven’t had the easiest life,” he added.
“Yeah, true, but nothing like yours. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the constant threat, the violence.”
“It’s not always this amped. And I have plans so that when I take over things’ll transition and eventually most of the risky stuff will be phased out.”
I felt a spark of hope, but it quickly extinguished as I recalled a scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone’s wife talked about how the more legitimate he’d become, the more dangerous he’d become. I’d seen the movies so many times. What’d been apparent so far was that Tommy Ferrano did, definitely, have demons and that he had major mood swings. He was violent but he was also fiercely protective.
“You threw yourself on top of me this morning,” I said, “to protect me from the gunfire.”
“Of course, I did.” He was staring at the river.
“You came to Mexico yourself. You rescued me and then avenged me, well avenged yourself but I think me, too.”
“Yeah.” He looked across the river at kids skipping stones directly across from us. “I’ll always protect you. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”
He glanced at me quickly and I saw something flash in his eyes. Pain, maybe.
“That you covered me this morning surprised me. You keep surprising me. You’re not very predictable.”
“I’m a bit like this ice cream,” he said, twirling the cone and assessing it. “A lot going on here with the berries and the chunks of white chocolate and dark chocolate. Each bite is different from the last.”
I giggled. “And I’m all vanilla, every lick exactly the same as the last?”
“No way.” He tugged my ponytail playfully. “You’re exactly the flavor I want. You’re delicious.”
I blushed.
“I’m serious,” he said. “I’m new to the whole relationship thing. I never bothered with the whole dating or relationship thing and to go from not doing them to being engaged sounds huge. It is huge, but I’m ready. I never had time for that. But now I know it’s because I’ve been biding time waiting for you, baby. I just didn’t know it until I laid eyes on you.”
He reached for me, about to kiss me but I stopped him and blurted, “Tommy, I need my friends. I need Rose and Cal to know I’m okay. I need…”
He cut me off. “All in time.” His lips touched mine gently, sweetly.
“Really?” I felt something twist in my gut.
“I’ll give you everything you need.” He let that sink in for a beat, and then continued. “Let’s get a few things cleared up and it’ll have to be handled delicately, but you can invite them to the wedding. In fact, if you do, I’m sure it’ll settle them down.”
“The wedding?”
“We’d might as well start planning it. Pop offered to let us do it at his house. The girls can help you. We can have whatever you want. Sky’s the limit. It’d be good to be there for security reasons. How about a month away? Tomorrow, you and I can stop by the Crenshaws’ and talk to them. Together. Think about where you want to honeymoon. Sky’s the limit there, too. But you won’t be able to tell anyone. We’ll need to keep the location quiet until we’re back.” He leaned over and kissed me quickly.
I gulped. “We’re still there? This is fast, it’s–”
He cut me off, “Your ice cream is melting.”
I licked all the way around the cone quickly.
“Oh my God,” he said under his breath.
I looked over at him and he was looking at me, his eyes filled with fiery lust.
I licked the ice cream off my upper lip with the tip of my tongue. “We’re having a serious conversation, here, Mister.” I poked his chest playfully.
He chewed his lower lip. “Lick it again.”
I did. I twirled the cone slowly and lavishly licked the circumference and then slowly licked my lips.
He shook his head. “Mm.”
“What were we saying?” I asked and he let out a little laugh. I felt my belly dip, but a simultaneous internal wince as I wondered if I could do that to him without remembering that horrible man.
“You were saying this was fast and then distracting me with that tongue. I know it’s fast but it’s right. I feel it. I’ll protect you; no one will hurt you ever again. I’ll give you everything. I’m a lot to take on, my family, all of that, I know, but I need you to be mine in every way. You’re already mine. You know you are. Let’s just make it legal.”
“Legal? You care about the law? Really?”
He winked. “Selectively. Lick, baby. Your ice cream is melting.”
“It’s not, you perv. But…” I turned serious. “About all that. The thing with my father, I…”
He waited for me to finish but his jaw tightened.
“I don’t know why all this happened and he promised me an explanation. I called him from that mall that day and he said he would give me answers. I’d like to hear what he has to say. Does he know I’m okay? Does he know all about Mexico and everything? He was supposed to meet me at that food court in the mall when I took off and then you found me first, and…”
“No.” he interrupted me. He got up and tossed his ice cream into the trash bin about five feet away. I was pretty much done, too. I passed mine to him and he threw it in the bin. He came back over and crouched in front of me. He put his palms on my face and rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs, then said, “Your father told me where you were.”
He stopped talking, maybe letting it sink in, and then continued. “That’s how I found you. He had no intentions of coming to meet you and give you answers. None, Tia. You should have zero guilt where he’s concerned. He should not be at our wedding. He doesn’t deserve to be in your life. Your father is a fucking douchebag.”
I winced. I hadn’t even considered how Tommy had found me that day. The whole Mexico thing sort of made all of that evaporate.
He raised his hands. “Sorry, but it’s true. I called him when you took off and he called me a few minutes later to tell me you’d called and then he gave me your location. He sold you out; he’s done it more than once. He’s already given you away. He doesn’t get to hand you to me at our wedding because he already gave you away. You’re already mine. I still don’t know what went down with him and my pop as women as a debt payment ain’t his thing, but I’ve got a PI on it. A good PI. That’s between you and me, Tia. You and me only. My father won’t tell, and I need to know.”
I thrust my hands through my hair, the revelation about my dad ratting me out to Tommy sinking in. He picked up on it. I felt totally rattled.
“I didn’t want your father to ruin today.” He got back up and threw a rock across the river. It skipped eight or ten times and the boys across the river were jumping up and down, excited. Tommy held another flat rock up in their direction and then did a wrist flicking thing a few times to show them his technique. The boys mimicked him and then Tommy threw the rock and it skipped about a dozen times. The one boy’s rock skipped 6 times and the other older boy’s rock only skipped twice. The kid whose rock had done better looked thrilled. He flicked another and it skipped quite a few more times. The other kid was jumping up and down.
I turned my attention to Tommy who now had his back to the river, eyes concentrating on me.
“Tia, he’s not worthy of you. He didn’t fight for you. Didn’t try to protect you from my family. Now it’s up to me to protect you. From him, if necessary.”
I was lightheaded, numb, with a sensation of tiny pins and needles rattling around inside my body. I wanted to curl up and close my eyes and hide from the world.
Tommy leaned in, taking my chin into his grasp. “Don’t. Don’t internalize that. This is his fault. He’s the loser. You’re worth way more than the $25K he sold you for. You are precious, priceless. Do you understand me? I’ll find out the truth for you and then we can put this to bed once and for all.”
“I’m supposed to just let you take over my whole life?” My voice was barely above a whisper.