The Dominator (57 page)

She confided in Annette that the pregnancy by my Pop was a product of rape. They traded war stories, stayed in touch almost until your mother died. It was like therapy for the both of them. I still don’t know if he killed her or not.  We know the doctor who did the abortion was killed in a car accident after my father found out, too. Pop had a thing for killing people in their cars. I’m out, baby. I’m out of this life. I just need to make a few moves and it’s over.”

She was quiet. All traces of her comical outburst gone. Way gone.

“Babe?” I looked down at her face. 

She looked contemplative. “Are you confronting him, are you…”

“No fucking way. He would not hesitate to snuff me out.”

“Tommy, surely not…”

“Yeah, Tia. Surely so. My father believes that without 100% loyalty, you’re an enemy. Blood means nothing in the face of betrayal. I found out he killed his cousin a few years before Joe, too, over a stupid business disagreement. He knows I’m digging around. I’ve found out more shit than I wanted to even know. Stuff that would make your stomach turn. What I do about it is what’ll be the ultimate test. You know how I’ve tested you a few times? Guess I learned that from him; learned too much from him. You have no idea how many times he tempted and tested me and my brother over the years to make us prove ourselves. Would you trust your father after all you’ve found out?”

“Point taken.”

“I’m gonna try to get him to retire. Dare and I are making a few key moves, and then we’re out of 30% of the lines of business we’re in right now. That’s the stuff that has risk, anything illegal whatsoever. Pop’s moving outta the country. He doesn’t like what we’ve done, we deal then. This is gonna take time but we’ll be working our exit strategy pronto. We’ll end the shady relationships as soon as is feasible.”

“Dario’s on board?”

“Yep.”

“The idea of you without the crime, Tommy? That’s just…it’s amazing.” Her eyes were glistening with happiness.

I gave her a squeeze, “It won’t be overnight but it
will
happen. I don’t need the risk, the business can be run without it. And if Pop can’t deal, I have enough dough put away to do something else, without him.”

She snuggled into my shoulder and traced my tattoo lines with her fingers. I loved when she did that. We were quiet for a while. I ran my fingers up and down her arm. Then I heard her breathing even out.

She’d passed another test, one I didn’t really realize I’d been giving her at first. I laid there most of the night, absorbing the feel of her, knowing bone deep that even if she’d started to run when I got even to 2 or 3, I’d have stopped her. As much as I wanted her safe, her pain gone, there was just no way would I have ever fucking let her go. I was too fucking selfish. That she didn’t wanna go was a soothing balm for my pain. That she wanted me to chase her down and show her I’d never let her go made my heart sing. I knew that soul mates were real. I had rock solid confirmation that she was made for me. Pop got one thing right, even if it was pure evil that he’d done it at all and even if I was wrong to take it.

My brother wasn’t as surprised as I expected him to be when I had finally talked to him about my findings.  Turns out he had been noticing things over the years, too, things that didn’t add up. He had an okay relationship with his mother but said she was always on edge whenever they saw each other. That it wasn’t a natural relationship. Pop had her afraid of her own shadow.  I needed to make sure that I didn’t become the man Pop was. I was worried I was close. Dario felt the same. The night we got the truth from Annette’s husband, Tony, we sat and got drunk and talked all night about it. My brother said he saw Pop backhand his Ma one night when me and the girls were asleep. He’d come out for a glass of water and saw Pop send her flying across the room. Dare said that when Debbie had cheated on him his first instinct was to beat the shit out of her but instead he beat the guy because he’d decided as a little kid that he’d never hit a woman.

My brother was closer to me than anyone in the world and I couldn’t believe that with all the talks we’d had about how we’d run the company once Pop retired that we never ever sat and talked in any depth about Pop’s violent streak, about how demanding of a prick he was to us, about suspicions that the man was darker than anyone knew. We were raised to be loyal to him and that always seemed to win out.

Dare said he thought Pop was running some side businesses underground and had known it for years, thinking it was because he didn’t wanna jeopardize some of his important relationships with influential people so kept some of the shadier stuff secret. Dare thought Pop was too greedy to not profit off the heavier drugs. He didn’t need the money but he wanted it.  I hadn’t noticed some of the things Dare had noticed because I was too busy trying to prove myself to the megalomaniac.

“Tommy,” she whispered to me while I was deep in thought.

“Yeah, baby?” I’d thought she was asleep.

“I moved your guns.”

“You what?”

“The guns under the bed were freaking me out. I gave them to James. He’s not working tonight so I wanted to tell you.”

“Baby, guns protect you. You shouldn’t be afraid of them.” Why hadn’t Jimmy told me? I’d seen him on my way in today, had a fifteen minute debriefing with him.

“I was…afraid of myself,” she said quietly.

“Oh, babe,” I was going to be the ruin of her. She
was
better off without me. Too bad I didn’t have the decency to make her go.

“I just wanted to tell you so that if someone came in to hurt you… you wouldn’t reach and have nothing to defend yourself but the knife.”

“Don’t stress. Go to sleep, sweetheart.” I gave her a squeeze and got out of bed, “Be right back.”

Tia

When I woke up in the morning, Tommy was gone, I vaguely remembered him kissing me goodbye. I woke up to the sound of the phone text alert.

Tommy:
“Baby, I’m busy with stuff today so I won’t see you till late tonight. My sister wants to pick you up and take you to the salon for nails & then lunch. If you want to go, tell Nino. Let me know. Love you. Xo.”

Me:
“Yes! Thanks, baby.”

Tommy:
“Shit, I’ll have to get you a debit card & copies of my credit cards made. I’ll have cash dropped off for you.”

Me:
“It’s okay, I have a bit in my account and I have my Lost Wages money in your underwear drawer :D”

Tommy:
“Oh that’s what that was? I saw that and thought you were paying me for sex. ;)”

Me:
“LOL. $5K isn’t enough for the awesome sex you give me. Esp. last night. Oo”

Tommy:
“I’ll give you a discount. Fiance’s rate. ”

Me:
“LOL.  Any requests from the salon?”

Tommy:
“Requests?

Tommy:
“Wait! Don’t cut your hair short!”

Me:
“No, just a trim but I was thinking maybe I’d get my first Brazilian.”

Tommy:
“mmm…but not much of a trim,k? It needs to be long! Your hair on your head, I mean. Lol.”

Me:
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure there’s enough left for you to grab onto. On my head, I mean. Lol. ;)”

Tommy:
“Mmm. Making me hard here and I’m in public. I might have to spank you for that.”

I chewed my lip. Sexting was fun.

I was beaming at how fun and easy these texts were today. So different from the tone around here lately. As I was closing the message I got another message in from a number I didn’t recognize.

“Hey Tia, it’s Tess. Wanna go with moi for a mani/pedi? I have Sarah watching the boys ALL DA
Y
We can have lunch, too. Tommy wants Nino to drive us.”

I replied,

“Hey and YES, absolutely! What time should I be ready?”

Then I wrote back to Tommy,

“I look forward to it. G2G get ready now. Love you. <3!”

Tommy:
“Be safe, baby girl. XO. Love you too.”

Tessa wrote back for me to be ready at 11:00. I asked her if they could do a trim and some waxing, too, and she wrote back it was her friend who owned the salon so she was sure it’d be no problem. It was now 10:15 so I zipped downstairs and made a coffee. I spooned my 3 sugars in knowing Sarah wasn’t here to judge and then went upstairs to get a shower. I was excited about getting out of the house.

The phone blooped again and it was another number.

“It’s Nino. I’m outside and will text you when Tessa gets here so you can meet us at the car.”

I saved his contact info and sent him an,

“Okay, thanks.”

Tessa was excited to get out, too, and told me she hadn’t had a day without the boys in a few weeks and was going to get all gussied up tonight for a dinner date with James. He had to work tonight at our house but that they’d go to dinner and hopefully have a nice and dirty quickie before he had to leave for work. Sarah was at her house today with them and when she’d arrived they’d talked about me and so Tessa had texted Tommy for my number. She said she and Sarah were in talks about her sharing the load between her place and Luc’s place since Tommy didn’t want a live-in any longer. She seemed happy about it, as Sarah had been like family to them and was great with the kids.

We pulled up to the salon and Nino followed us in. Tessa had linked arms with me and told me Tommy insisted Nino drive because I was cargo that was too precious to be subjected to her crazy driving.
Awe!
He was right!

I was glad she didn’t joke about it having anything to do with me taking off. We laughed and then as we stepped inside, Nino grabbed and then was kissing a girl behind the counter.  She was tall, brunette, beautiful. Holy crap, she was my cousin. She and I had the same hair. And I could see my mother in her eyes. It was faint but it was definitely there.

“Tia, this is Bianca. This is her shop.”

I was dumbfounded.

She gave me a knowing smile. I could tell she knew who I was. She reached out and gave me a hug.

“Nice to meet you,” I said softly.

“C’mon girls, let’s go have a cappuccino and a natter and then I’ll make you both even more beautiful.”
 

Bianca was awesome. She was smart and together and fashionable and it was obvious that she was like a big sister to Tessa. They’d grown up together on the same street. Bianca and Nino had a 6 year old son.  She told me she was an only child and had no other cousins on her Dad’s side of the family but lots on her Mom’s side. We had no living grandparents on our side, either. But I had her and that was at least someone and I liked her a lot.

We didn’t talk about anything heavy, like her deceased father, my deceased mother, but she told me about our Nonna, who’d died about a year before my mother died. She said she was an old battleax who was super strict. Bianca said she remembered my mother from when she was small but that she hadn’t seen her since she was about eight or nine years old and that her name wasn’t mentioned much because of some family fall out that no one wanted to discuss.

Her salon was cute. It was small, only had three stylist chairs and she was working alone today, only had one part time employee, said she was just getting started but was doing okay. She was skilled, gave my hair a trim, adding some long layers, then did my nails, and then we talked about waxing.

“So, I didn’t know we were related when I decided to ask for a Brazilian,” I said, blushing with embarrassment.

She laughed, “I’m a professional, I can handle it. But have you had a Brazilian before?”

I shook my head, “No, I usually just, errr, shave.”

“It’s gonna hurt,” Tessa said with a wince.

“And you shouldn’t have sex till tomorrow if you do,” Bianca added.

Tessa laughed and made a gag motion with her finger in her mouth.

“Uh, I don’t know if I should, then. Tommy’s got a very, uh, voracious, appetite.”

“I can’t hear this.” Tessa raised her hands with her still wet nails and left the back room we had gone into.

Bianca laughed and whispered, “So I hear.”

I frowned and blushed, “
What
have you heard?”

“I know a few girls who’ve been with him. Two. Both just one nighters but yeah, I hear he’s got quite an appetite,” She winked at me, “If he wasn’t like a cousin to me I’d have gone for him years ago!”

I didn’t know what she knew and the idea of him with other girls made me feel queasy but I wasn’t about to spill any beans, “I’d better just call him.”

She laughed, “That’s cute.” Then I heard the jingle of the chimes at her front door and she left me alone in the room.

I hit his contact info on the stupid iPhone.

“Hey, baby,” he answered.

“Hiya. How’s your day?”

“It’s good. Yours? Having fun?”

“Yeah, Bianca is… she’s great. I feel like we’re related, if that doesn’t sound too weird.”

“She’s like a cuz to me so I get it. Bee’s cool,” he answered.