Chapter 30—Payton
“Thank you,” I say with a soft smile as Danny sets a glass of water in front of me. I sip at the cold drink and set it back down on the coaster on the coffee table between us.
I try to relax as I look around. The room he brought me to after Tommy went to see his brothers is nice, just like everything they own. It’s spacious enough but feels stuffier than a true home. Quiet. It smells like leather and cleaning products. Like a parlor compared to a living room.
Still, I try to keep my thoughts to myself on the matter and enjoy the moment with Danny. This is Tommy’s brother. Someone who I might see more of if Tommy and I continue to see each other.
I blush at the thought and look away. It feels wrong to look at a family member while memories of his brother still linger in my head.
“You and my brother have gotten close.”
I nod as I push any sexual thoughts out of my mind and look back at him. He’s an imposing man. Not only in size but stature too.
He doesn’t seem like the conversational type, but I find hope in our future relationship that he’s talking to me at all. He barely spoke at lunch. At first, I thought it was just me being there that set him off, but it wasn’t that at all. He’s just quiet. Like me.
A common interest, something we can maybe share in future family lunches.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His question surprises me, and a feeling of unease trickles up my spine at the lack of a smile on his face.
“Because we care about each other,” I whisper.
He leans his head to the side and gives me a slow once-over. I know I’m covered in every way possible. I still have on Tommy’s sweater and leggings I wore to the gun range.
Gun range. Jesus, I still can’t believe I held a gun, much less fired one. Just thinking about it makes my hands shake a bit, and I push them under my legs to keep Danny from seeing them. But I know he noticed. He notices everything, I bet.
He might think the tremor is because of him and not about what happened. And from the slight twitch of his mouth, I wonder if he finds enjoyment in seeing me uneasy.
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 the famiglia.”
“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 your famiglia or 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 the famiglia.
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. ”
Fear trickles down my spine. “Wait, what? What are you talking about? War? Stealing from you? None of this makes sense.”
He has to be wrong. My parents weren’t bad people. They might not have been the most loving, but stealing? Never.
I stand, but he’s quick to rise, too, grabbing my arm and holding me in place.
“Let me go.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To get Tommy.”
“No.”
I rip my arm out of his grasp, managing to hold back my gasp at the pain from the way he pinched my flesh in his tight grip.
“No? What gives you the right?”
“I have every right. I protect this family. From everyone. You think you’re the first woman to try and use my brother?” He scoffs. “Not by a long shot. You were just the first to do it in pointed shoes and a tutu.”
His words sting more than they should. I know Tommy has a past. Everyone does. I didn’t care. I still don’t. But being compared to the others? That I’m just like everyone who used him or tried to get something from him? It makes me sick to my stomach.
Because it’s true.
I used him. He was shelter. He was safety.
With him, I didn’t have to think. I could pretend that it was like before, when all I had to worry about was what clothes to wear.
When my parents were alive, I never worried about when I would eat again.
Or if I had to stretch a dollar to pay both the rent and electricity.
It was just there. Like with Tommy. Things were just there.
I might not have asked for any of them, but I never said no, which makes it worse.
It became an expectation. A thing I relied on.
I knew this dream would end one day, but I didn’t think it would be so soon. Or because of all these lies.
“I’ve never stolen anything. Neither did my parents.”
I turn away but then pause, a thought screaming at me that steals my breath.
“Did you?” I ask the universe, but only Danny answers.
“Did I what?” he snarls.
I turn back to glare at him. He’s standing all high and mighty, as if he’s judged me in everything without knowing me.
He might be the quiet brother, but he seems to be the cruelest. Hiding behind the silence is a man who doesn’t care about anything except what he thinks. And he thinks very little of me.
“Did you kill them?”
He rolls his eyes and, with a shake of his head, takes a few steps toward the bar. It seems they have one in every room this family owns. “So quickly you change the subject.”
“Did you!” I yell, not in question but accusation. “Did you or someone in this stupid famiglia kill my parents? Did you think they stole from you, so you stole them from me? Did you do that? Did you?”
He turns, a glass already in his hand, and sips at it casually as he assesses me. “The famiglia doesn’t allow thieves to keep stealing.”
It’s not a confirmation, but it’s the only answer I’m going to get from him. My legs shake as I take a step back, then another, till I hit someone.
I turn and see Tommy, but there’s nothing of the Tommy I know in his expression.
“Why’d you do it?”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
“Why look at the books?”
The night he sent me to the club. Alone. Before Carl showed. I looked. I peeked. I snooped when I shouldn’t have.
I look at him, then blink and glance behind him to see his other brothers have come into the room. They look at me but don’t offer an ounce of kindness in their expressions.
“I just saw what was on your desk. I didn’t do more than glance at them.”
“How did you get them open? They were locked in my office drawer, along with the cash. How did you figure out my combination?”
I shake my head. “They were just on the desk. I didn’t open anything. Carl took the money. I didn’t even touch it.”
“But you touched the books,” Vinny says casually, holding me to that one point as fear seeps into my mind.
“Yes,” I confess.
“When I gave Tommy the job, I told him there was a thief in the club. We all thought it was Carl because he was the obvious choice. Despite that, money kept going missing. We didn’t know who till Danny added a few extra cameras without anyone knowing.
Not even Tommy. Guess it worked in our favor, huh?
” Vinny says pleasantly, but there’s something off about the way he speaks.
All calm and steady, which just makes my fear more palpable.
It seems to be worse knowing a man—the head of the Mafia, no less—is so carefree about this while his brothers are not. It’s a front. A false security.
“I didn’t take anything.”
“Right. Just like your parents didn’t,” Danny snarks, and I turn my head the other way to glare at him.
“They didn’t.”
“And yet there lies the evidence.” He points to the file on the table with the hand wrapped around the glass tumbler.
“All that explains is that they worked for you. There’s nothing in there that says they stole.
Just like I know the tapes didn’t show me taking any money or opening any desk drawers.
I looked. I did. I was curious, but I didn’t understand the numbers.
My parents were in finance, not me. I danced.
I didn’t and still don’t get numbers. Tommy,” I look back at him and reach for his hand.
But he steps back, out of reach, and tears gather in my eyes.
I don’t want to be alone again, but the universe is cruel and likes to play games. This is just another joke.
“You know me,” I plead to him, and only him. We had a connection. We were more than just what people saw. There were feelings involved. I know he had them for me. He still has to. You can’t just stop caring about a person.
And I know I care for him. More than care.
I love him.
I love everything about him. I don’t care about what his family is tied up in; I love him regardless.
I don’t know if his family killed mine, and I’m still processing the implications that Danny is suggesting. It makes sense and doesn’t all at once. I’m confused and hurt. I just need time to think and understand. But I don’t think I’ll get either.
“I’ve known you for less than two months. Your family has been stealing from mine for years.”
Tommy’s monotone voice cuts deep. I shake my head, and the tears finally fall.
“And it ends today.”