Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (31 page)

“Where are you?”
she asked instead.

“Our place. I
thought it might help or something. I don’t know.”

“Help with what?”

“My crazy ass,
that’s what. It’s not important. Talk to me.”

“The cops came to
my school today. Detectives, I guess. I think they said their names were Crawn
or Crain … something.”

“Crown?” Tommas
asked, a dangerous edge to his tone.

Abriella flinched.
“Yeah. Why?”

“Was the other one
Delog?”

“Yes.”

Now, Abriella felt
worse than ever.

“Tell me
everything,” Tommas demanded.

Abriella quickly
recapped the events for her lover, keeping an eye on the door all the while.
She was sure her father would keep quiet if he caught her, but she didn’t want
to put her father in that position, either.

“Remember when I
texted you about my phone and book?” Abriella asked at the end.

Tommas made a disgruntled
noise. “No.”

“Tommy, come on. I
messaged you not thirty minutes after you dropped me off. I left my phone and—”

“Your book in the
car. Yeah, I noticed them after I dropped my mother off at her meeting. They
were shoved under the seat a little. I planned on getting them to you sometime
this week if I could manage it. But I didn’t get any messages from you, Ella.”

“Yes, you did. I
used a friend’s phone. You messaged me back a couple of times. The point is
that the detectives knew about the phone and book in your car. They knew it was
there and that I’d forgotten it. How do they know that?”

Silence answered
Abriella back a second before something crashed on Tommas’ end of the call. She
jumped at the sound, but kept her squeak of surprise muffled by her hand.

“Tommy?”

“That fucking
bitch,” Tommas growled.

“What?”

“Just … just wait
a second.”

Abriella did as he
said. She couldn’t hear his soft breathing, but she did hear the click of keys.
A minute later, Tommas was back on the line.

“I think the
person you were messaging with was my mother,” Tommas muttered. “I found the
messages. They were deleted from the main unknown contact, but not the log. I
stopped to grab a pack of smokes from the store for her after I picked her up.”

“Oh.”

“I left my bag in
the car. Nate stepped out for a smoke while I went into the store. I think it
was her, Ella.”

“The detectives …”

“I’ll handle it,
baby.”

What did this all
mean?

Abriella wished
she could calm down enough and think.

“I’m sorry,
Tommy.”

“God, for what?”

Abriella didn’t
know.

“Be careful,
okay,” she said.

“Always. And stay
away from those fucking pigs.”

“I will.”

No matter what.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

“Y
ou good?” Damian
asked.

Tommas nodded, but
his lie was as clear as day. “Yeah.”

“I can do it,
Tommy.”

“You’ve done
enough. This is my mess.”

Damian slapped a
hand down on the hood of the car and pushed away. “If you say so. After
everything that woman put me through, it’s not like this would keep me up at
night. It wouldn’t be a problem, that’s all I’m saying.”

“I know, but I
need to do it.”

“All right, man.
Call me later, let me know it’s done.”

Tommas agreed to
Damian’s request, and then watched his cousin stroll down the quiet Melrose
street. It was late enough that most of the houses on the block were shrouded
in darkness. The people within were likely sleeping, their bodies prepping for
another day of life.

Strangely, Tommas
didn’t feel sad about the fact that he was going to end one of those people’s
lives tonight. He was angry over the information he’d learned, disbelieving in
a way that his mother would do such a thing, but he mostly, he was resigned.

Another duty.

The Outfit always
won.

Turning the Jaguar
off, Tommas slipped out of his car and tightened his coat. The cold wind nipped
at his exposed skin, promising another cold morning was yet to come. He’d be
glad when the summer months rolled around and stayed for a while.

Tommas checked the
street, taking note of every vehicle parked in driveways and on the side of the
road. Having grown up on the street, he could name which vehicle belonged to
whom. It let him know that no one had followed him and no one was watching his
mother’s house.

The cop detail
that had been situated across the street after Tommas had killed his father was
long gone. Tommas had made sure that little to no business and visitors from
the Outfit side of things came to his mother’s place. He wanted the attention
gone as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, it
went without much trouble.

Crossing the
street, Tommas tugged on a pair of black leather driving gloves. He pulled out
a pair of house keys from his pocket, knowing his mother hadn’t changed the
locks in years. The alcoholism shared by his parents had made them forget the
most basic things in life. Alcoholism turned them into desperate creatures who
would do anything if they thought it would save their own asses.

Tommas was ashamed
that his blood had come from them. He was embarrassed that he shared their last
name. Above all else, Tommas wanted something to be proud of again.

Anything.

Correcting his
mother’s wrongs would be a step forward. One step. What he couldn’t understand,
was why his mother had turned rat. It didn’t make sense. Serena had always been
a vocal woman against others who turned to the officials for protection, or for
a way out of the Outfit. Nothing Tommas came up with explained away his
mother’s actions.

Sliding the key into
the lock of his childhood home, Tommas unlocked the deadbolt, and pushed the
front door open. The quietness of the house came as no surprise, and neither
did the darkness of the place. If it weren’t for Tommas paying the light,
phone, and heating bills every month, his mother would live in the squalor of
her own alcohol and vomit.

What had the
police used to get his mother to turn rat?

What did they have
on her?

The woman did
nothing but drink!

Refusing to let
the anger overtake his emotions, Tommas pushed those questions aside, wiped his
shoes off on the rug, and went in search of his mother. The familiar stale
smell of the home was diluted slightly, but only because Tommas had hired a
twice-weekly maid to go in and clean the place. The girl reported back to
Tommas that Serena rarely, if ever, noticed she was there doing her job.

Nonetheless, the
faint smell of old alcohol and cigarette smoke still lingered in every hall
Tommas walked down and in each room he checked. So did his memories.

Bruised with
abuse.

Blackened with
neglect.

Healed, but still
sore, with scars.

He could see still
see his red-headed, quiet sisters playing under the stairwell with their
matching dolls and their dirty dresses. They had barely made a sound growing up
for fear that being too loud would earn them something painful. He could still
remember walking down the stairs for his high school graduation and giving his
cousin and sister a ride to the auditorium because his parents were passed out
on the couch.

Empty cupboards.

Filthy floors.

Forgotten
children.

That was the home
that addiction raised.

Tommas ignored the
nagging ache in his chest as he continued his search for his mother. The living
room was empty, devoid of life but for the flicker of a rerun television series
playing on the flat screen. Upstairs, the master bedroom was just as quiet and
dead.

Finally, Tommas
found his mother in the upstairs bathroom at the very end of the hall. Serena
rested, naked and seemingly asleep, in a bathtub full of cold, murky water. A
nearly emptied bottle of cheap vodka rested on the ledge beside a pack of
cigarettes, a lighter, and a woman’s shaver.

Leaning in the
doorway, Tommas focused on the shaver instead of his mother’s naked form. It
wasn’t the first time he’d seen her without clothes on, given her moral
standards were low as shit when she was drunk, but it still bothered him all
the same. The pink shaver looked like someone had attempted to pry it open.
Speckles of a rusty brown littered the item, while deeper red droplets had
splattered on the edge of the tub and the floor.

Serena’s hand,
draped over the edge and hanging out of the tub, explained the blood. Tiny cuts
marred the tips of her fingers.

For a second,
Tommas almost wished his mother had succeeded in getting the blade out and
finishing the job. It might have made this godforsaken night a little easier on
him if she had been able to get it done.

“Ma,” Tommas said
loudly.

The volume of his voice
echoed off the dingy tiled walls. There was no way on earth his mother hadn’t
heard it.

Serena’s glassy
gaze flew wide as her arms flailed, and she shrieked. The pale tone of her skin
and bluish tint around her lips said that she had been in the cold water for
quite a while. Instantly, Serena’s teeth began to chatter when she found her
son leaning in the doorway.

“Tommas,” Serena
mumbled drowsily. “What are you doing here?”

“I come here more
often than you’re aware, Ma.”

“Funny, I never
see you.”

“Maybe if you
popped your head out of the bottle every once in a while—”

“Hey, watch your
fucking tone,” Serena barked, more awake than before.

Tommas recognized
the fire in his mother’s eyes, but he wouldn’t back down. He wasn’t a child,
now. She didn’t frighten him. His little sisters no longer needed his
protection.

“When did you get
in the tub, Ma?” Tommas asked.

Serena blinked
around at her surroundings. “Before the four o’clock news.”

“It’s three in the
morning. What else did you take other than the vodka?”

“None of your
business, Tommas. Get the hell out and let me get dressed.”

“No,” Tommas said
quietly. “There was a bottle of pain meds in the living room. The cap was off.
Is that what you took?”

Serena scowled.
“So what if it was?”

“Just getting my
ducks in a row, Ma.”

“I don’t
understand what you mean.”

“You don’t need to
yet.” Tommas nodded at the bloody razor. “That’s what, failed attempt number
seven since I was fourteen or so?”

Serena’s stare
dropped to the razor. “Tommas—”

“Lucky for you
that Dad was around to save you. Seems like lately, I’ve been picking up where
he left off in that regard. What was the problem tonight? Did your hands shake
too much? Did the meds make you too weak to get the blade out? What was it?”

“You wouldn’t even
care if I had slit my wrists and drowned in my own blood, Tommas. You’ve never
cared! You don’t understand what it’s like for me, Tommas, and I tried for
years to be better. But all you did was push me away and make it worse! I hate
you.”

Manipulation
.

Tommas could
recognize that shit anywhere. It was Serena’s specialty. She was damned good at
it.

“You know, that
worked better when I was a child and your words had some ring of truth, Ma. Now
that I’m older, I’ve heard your spiels one too many times. It’s like water off
my back. It doesn’t even make me wet anymore.”

Serena struggled
to get out of the tub, spewing more vile words at the same time. “You fucking
little asshole, I’ll—”

“Sit down.” Tommas
pulled the gun out that he’d tucked into a holster at his back. He clicked the
safety off and rested the gun against his side, watching his mother’s eyes
widen with shock and her brow furrow. “Shut up, and let this be easy. For
fuck’s sake, Ma, for once, let something between us be easy.”

“You wouldn’t …”

Tommas laughed
sadly. “Wouldn’t I?”

“I’m sorry,”
Serena rushed to say. “I didn’t mean what I said. You surprised me and—”

“And the more you
say, the less I care. Whatever you have to do, you’ll do it, right? Anything to
save your ass, you will make it happen. It won’t matter who you hurt in the
process as long as you get what you want from it, Ma. What did they promise
you? What did they have on you?”

Serena stared up
at Tommas, water filling her gaze and her hands shaking against the ledge of
the tub. “What?”

“The detectives,
Ma. The detectives. The fucking pigs. Who else? What did they have on you? Did
they offer to get you in with the FBI as an informant if you could feed them
enough info on us all? What was it that was so bad you couldn’t come to me?
Instead, you played their little agent, going through my fucking cars, my
house, and reporting back on whatever they needed or asked for.
Why
,
Ma?”

Tommas’ last two
words were shouted so loudly that Serena flinched back into the water. The
sight of her fear did nothing for him. Her trembling and her tears made him
deader than ever and numb from the inside out.

He despised this
woman.

He hated her very
breath.

“The detectives
went to Ella,” Tommas continued quieter.

“I didn’t, Tommy.”

“Liar. They
fucking put Ella in a corner, thinking it was going to make me jump through
hoops for them. They knew about her, and that I’ve been fucking around with her
for years. They had information that no one else would have known, like my
second apartment and the note Ella left in my goddamn house. They asked her about
the textbook left in my car. She called me the second she could. And that’s
when I knew, Ma. You always were nosy, but I figured you weren’t paying enough
attention to put it all together. Shame on me, right? You really fucking fooled
me.

“Those bastards
have been hounding me for years, but they messed up going after her,” Tommas
finished darkly.  

Serena gaped. “I
…”

“I don’t want your
useless fucking excuses. I just want to know why, Ma. You almost ruined
everything for me. Had I not figured it out, had they not mentioned the
textbook and phone in my car, I wouldn’t even have looked at you twice for
this.
Tell me why
!”

“Because you took
Laurent.”

The statement had
been hissed so quietly that Tommas strained to hear his mother’s confession.
Her glare burned with the fire and hatred of a woman who felt nothing for the
son she carried and birthed. Her fists clenched on the side of the tub, and her
face crumpled in her grief and anger.

“Because you took
him from me, Tommas!” Serena cried. “So I took something from you!”