Chapter 16 #2
“She’d come out here and walk every day, even when the weather was bad.”
“Will you tell me what happened to her?”
“It was a few days before Christmas. Luca and I were in the living room in the townhouse our parents owned in the city. Our mother had wanted to do some shopping, so we’d gone there for a few days. The plan was to spend Christmas out here.”
“You said your mother spent more time at this house, right?”
“Right,” Vaughn murmured. “Luca and I went to public school, she did all the cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping herself, even though our father had hired people to do all that… she just wanted to live a quiet life. It wasn’t even really this house that she loved – but the water, it called to her. ”
“Like trees called to you,” I said.
He chuckled, the sound of it rumbling beneath my ear. “Yeah, like that.”
“What about your father?”
“My father,” Vaughn murmured. “He liked winning. He liked knowing people were afraid of him. Power was his drug and he was a full-blown junkie.”
I sighed because I’d heard Remy use that term to describe himself when he’d been hooked on drugs before moving to Seattle.
He’d been clean for two years, but I knew it was something he still struggled with on a daily basis.
I didn’t understand addiction, but I understood power.
Vaughn’s father may not have hurt kids the way Father and Brian had, but he’d gotten off on having that power over someone or lots of someones.
I had a pretty good idea of who was included in that list of someones.
“Did your father live here with you?” I asked.
“He’d make the commute sometimes, but it wasn’t unheard of for him to spend several days in the city. Every once in a while our mother would go to him and leave us with a sitter, but it wasn’t very often. If it hadn’t been Christmas, I doubt we’d have been in the city that day.”
“What happened?”
“She was getting some shopping bags out of her trunk. Luca and I were in the house… I was old enough to watch him. She called us to come help her. We were in the process of getting our coats on when we heard this loud bang. Then another.” Vaughn let out a harsh laugh.
“Luca and I thought it was a car backfiring… we actually told each other it sounded really cool because it’d been so loud. ”
I reached up my hand to search out Vaughn’s where it was resting on my shoulder.
“I saw her first, but I wasn’t fast enough to stop Luca from coming around the car.
Her eyes were open and there was just the smallest amount of blood coming from this tiny hole on her forehead.
But there was so much of it beneath her head and back.
I started screaming for help and tried to shake her awake, but Luca, he just…
he just stood there like he didn’t understand what he was looking at. ”
Vaughn was silent for several seconds before saying, “It was one of our father’s business rivals. Our father had stolen from him and the man had lost everything. So he took our mother’s life, his wife and child’s, then his own.”
“I’m sorry, James,” I said as I sat up so I could look at him. But he was staring at the ocean.
“My father had never been a particularly soft man,” Vaughn said. “But he buried what little kindness he’d had with her.”
“You said he promised your mother he’d always look out for you.”
“No, I said he promised he wouldn’t get rid of me.”
I felt my throat close up. “What does that mean?”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” I said.
He looked at me and then reached out to touch my face like he had to be sure I was really there. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“He used to tell me and Luca that no one could ever take anything from him again. It was bad for business. That pretty much became the family motto after that.” Vaughn’s eyes drifted to the ocean again.
“He had two sons so he figured he’d make use of that.
Luca learned the business side of things because he was the ‘real’ kid and my job was to make sure no one stole from him or our father ever again. ”
My eyes drifted to the gun tucked in Vaughn’s waistband.
The gun he rarely had out of his sight.
“He made you do bad things?” I asked.
“He didn’t make me,” Vaughn said. “I wanted to make my dad proud so I did it all without question. He wanted me to learn how to fight – I learned how to throw a punch with the best of them. He wanted me to carry a gun – I made sure I always hit my target. He wanted me to rough a guy up – I didn’t even ask why I was doing it. ”
I felt sick to my stomach because I couldn’t envision Vaughn hurting people for no reason.
“Fortunately, the old man still had a conscience. My job was mostly just to push people around until they saw my father’s side of things,” Vaughn murmured. “Only fuckers I’ve ever put in the ground were the ones I met after Gio was taken.”
“That’s why Con said you were the best equipped to go after Gio from the inside.”
Vaughn nodded. “King’s good, but he and subtlety aren’t the best of friends.
After I move on to the next ‘client,’ King and his team get the kids out and eliminate the fuckers.
Con gets the kids to safety and Lex helps them either go home or start over.
Luca finances all of it and uses his contacts to take down any network he can, usually by leaking evidence to the cops or task forces around the country.
He also chases down every lead on Gio while still maintaining the outward appearance that he’s just another super-successful businessman. ”
I leaned against the bench and let my fingers roam over the inscription on the back of it.
“You’ve all paid too high of a price,” I said softly.
Vaughn shook his head. “Luca’s suffering is far worse.
That kid was… is his entire life. Luca was on the same path as our father until Gio came into his life.
Then it was like he just woke up.” Vaughn smiled.
“You should have seen our father’s face when Luca told him he was taking all the businesses legit.
Fucker nearly had a coronary on the spot. Finally did six months later.”
“What did you do?” I asked. “After Luca told your father that.”
“You’ll just laugh,” Vaughn said with a smile.
“No, I won’t,” I responded. I nudged his knee with mine. “Tell me.”
“I finished high school first. Got my GED.”
“Your father hadn’t let you finish school?”
“No reason to. You don’t need to understand algebra or biology to know how to shoot a gun or beat the shit out of someone,” he said.
The lightness I’d been feeling dissipated. “How old were you when you got it?” I asked.
“Twenty-seven.”
“What did you do afterwards?”
“I’d always dreamed of being a pilot but to fly for a commercial airline, it meant going to college and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do that at that age.
Luca surprised me with flying lessons. I knew after the first one that it was what I wanted.
I enrolled in college the very next day – full-time.
Luca paid for everything. I tried to argue with him that I should be working while I was going to school so I could pay my own way, but to Luca everything was ours, not just his.
The profits from the business, this house and the other properties he owned, the planes, the cars…
all of it. It was just one of those things we never really agreed on, but I wanted to be a pilot and the sooner I could have that, the better.
So I accepted the money.” Vaughn dropped his gaze and stared at the gun tucked in his waistband.
“Gio was taken three days after I started school.”
“You were close to him?” I asked. I’d already guessed as much, but I wanted to hear about his relationship with his nephew.
Vaughn nodded. “I guess he woke me up too.” He looked at me. “I love that kid so fucking much, Aleks.”
“I know you do, James.” I reached out to brush some hair off his forehead. “We’ll get him back.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want you at that party.”
I sidled up to him and put my arms around his waist and made him the promise I hadn’t been willing to a mere hour earlier. “You won’t lose me, James. I promise.”
He sighed but didn’t relax.
And I couldn’t really blame him.
Because we both knew there was a good chance it was a promise I couldn’t keep.