by Prince, DD
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 DAY 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.
“Okay she’s my cousin and like a cousin to you so that’d make you and me like cousins and that’s just…”
“Wrong!” he said.
We both laughed.
“So I told you I was gonna get a uh…Brazilian, for you,” I started.
“Mm hmmm,” he sounded like he was all dreamy-eyed.
“But Bianca says if I do we can’t have sex till tomorrow. I thought I’d better check with you before going ahead.”
“Awesome, baby.”
“No sex is awesome?”
“Checking with me for permission before closing your body down for business is awesome.” He laughed. I was glad he was in such a good mood.
“I hear it’s quite nice, the effect…” I said softly.
“It absolutely is.”
I deflated, “Gahh.”
“What?”
“I don’t want to know how you know that it absolutely is. In fact it makes me very growly that you know that it absolutely is.”
“Oops sorry,” he said softly but I could hear that he was amused and maybe even enjoying my jealousy.
There was silence for a second while I pushed away thoughts of him with someone else. I heard the door chimes again, then he spoke,
“Tell ya what, you wanna do it, that’s fine. You can just take care of me tonight. I can wait till tomorrow to take care of you if I must.”
I laughed, “Oh, if you must, huh? How chivalrous of you.”
“I try.”
“Hmpf.”
Bianca and Tessa both came into the room at the same time. They both looked freaked out.
“The police are here for you, Tia.” Tessa said.
“What?”
“Tia!” Tommy boomed, he’d obviously heard them.
“The police are here for me,” I whispered, “I didn’t call them, Tommy. Honestly, I didn’t…” The girls were looking weirdly at me.
“Go see what they want. Don’t hang up. Give the phone to my sister.”
“Kay,” I passed the phone to Tessa and then walked stiffly out to the salon and saw two uniformed officers at the front desk.
Tommy
“What’s going on?” I asked my sister.
“These two cops came in and they asked for her.”
“Where’s Nino?”
“Sitting out front, reading a magazine. What could he have done?” Tessa was snarky.
“Fuck. What’s going on now?”
“I’m in the back room, hang on while I go see. They’re leaving with her.”
“Hang up and then give her the phone. Nino’s calling on my other line. I’ll call you back.”
I linked over, “Nino!”
“T, the cops have her. They told her they wanted to ask her questions at the station. She said they should ask her here but they insisted. She programmed my number in her phone this morning and will call me to come get her when she’s done. Tessa gave her the phone. They asked who I was to her and she told them I’m her cousin’s husband. I’m following the squad car to the station and I’ll wait here for her.”
“I’m meeting you there. Which one?” I hung up after he told me and got into my jeep.
Tia
Was this another test? It couldn’t be after our talk last night. Couldn’t be. Could it? Let me out of his sight and then have me sit down with the cops to see what I’d say? I knew that the Ferranos had some cops in their pocket because of what Rose had said to me at the grocery store that day about what’d happened when she called the cops.
When I got into the station, the male and female officer led me to an interview room, just a small room with a circular table with chairs around it.
“Is Tommy Ferrano holding you against your will?” the male cop, who’d introduced himself as Officer Francis, asked. He was a tall older black man. His partner was a 30ish pretty blonde named Officer Spence.
“Tommy Ferrano is my fiancé.” I said, looking at them like they were crazy.
“He’s not holding you against your will?”
“What? No!” I exclaimed.
“Is Tommy Ferrano involved in illegal activities, organized crime?”
“Huh?”
“Mobster-like activities. You know, guns, prostitution, drugs, loan sharking? That sorta thing?”
“Tommy’s family owns a construction company, some restaurants,” I answered.
“Your father was arrested the day before yesterday.” The female cop said.
I blanched, “He was?”
“Trafficking crack cocaine, methamphetamines, DMT, MDMA. He tells us he’s selling drugs for the Ferrano family, that he has no choice because they are holding you for ransom. He wants to go into witness protection and wants you safe and he’s willing to testify to facts related to illegal activities by...” she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small spiral notebook, “Thomas Ferrano Sr., Thomas Ferrano Jr., Dario Ferrano, James Michaelson, Edward Nichols, Nino Russo, and several others.” She flipped the book closed and looked at me expectantly.
I shook my head, “My father has been acting strangely. We suspected he was using drugs. I really don’t think this has anything to do with my fiancé.” I felt like I was going to hurl the contents of my stomach all over her shiny black shoes. Luckily I had nothing in my stomach other than 2 cups of coffee.
The male officer leaned over and put his hand on mine. I frowned, “It’s okay, you’re safe. You can tell us the truth.”
I pulled my hand back and shook my head. If this was a test, I wasn’t failing it. Maybe this wasn’t a Tommy test. Maybe this was his father testing me. Sounded like just the sorta thing he’d do. If this wasn’t a test, I was not giving them anything. There was no way in the world my father was selling drugs for the Ferrano family. No fricking way.
“I’d like to make a phone call please.”
“Why do you need to make a phone call?” The female cop asked.
“To call a lawyer.” I said.
“You aren’t under arrest.” The male cop said.
“Then I’d like to leave,” I answered. My phone was ringing from my pocket, it was Tommy cal
ling.
Tommy
Tia’s phone rang twice and then went to voicemail. Fuck.
I was sitting in the coffee shop across the street from the cop shop. I’d sent Nino away so he and Bee could take their son Joey to T-ball. I called my Pop’s lawyer and left him a voicemail. I called Pop and he said he’d try to find out what was going down. And I sat. And sat.
I texted her,
“I’m in the coffee shop across the street when you’re done. xxx”
An hour passed and I texted her again,
“I’m going home. Call me when you’re done and I’ll come pick you up.”
Two more hours, nothing. No read receipts on my texts. Pop and I talked and he told me that he had word Greg O’Connor had been arrested. I knew there had to be a connection.
“Did you do this to O’Connor, Pop?” I asked.
He was quiet on the other end of the phone.
“Pop?”
“Maybe,” Pop answered.
“Fuck, Pop.” I hung up and hit the wall with my fist. Was Tia gone? Had she been presented with a way to escape me and taken it? No. There was no way. I wanted to believe that what she and I had was real. It felt real. She wouldn’t leave me. Would she?
Tia
For hours they interrogated me, left me waiting in that room, came back and asked the same questions again with different phrasing. They started to talk about the rap sheets of some of the people in Tommy’s father’s “organization” as they called it. They started to talk about murders that they couldn’t pin. They’d said that the Ferrano family was suspected of a lot of different illegal activities. They told me they were even linked with slave trade overseas, with cocaine crops in South America, with mass murder down in Mexico where Earl Johnson, a Ferrano “foot soldier”, was found with a gunshot to the face and three gunshots to his genitals and where a cartel leader had been found decapitated and castrated, his own genitals stuffed in his mouth. I threw up into the waste basket, just some liquid because I hadn’t eaten and of course that made them even more suspicious about whether or not I knew anything about that situation. The cartel’s compound had been found with eight murdered men in addition to Earl and Juan Carlos Castillo. Four women had been set free and had id’d someone matching the description of Tommy Ferrano as having been there with guns, urging them to leave. They said a woman matching my description was reported as being there as well. I shrugged it off saying I hadn’t been to Mexico and didn’t know what they were talking about. There had been no record of Tommy landing there or of him leaving the country but there were eye witness accounts initially but those had since been retracted.