Part of me wants to try to find some way to forgive my father or to see some kind of bright side to what’s happened. But I can’t. “There’s only one problem with that theory. It didn’t send a message, because no one knows he did it. It just looked like a random berserker attack.”
Tommy sighs. “I’ve been working for your father since I was a kid. He calls the shots. I don’t ask questions.”
“So, he’s got an army of berserkers here, and no one knows why.”
“I swear I didn’t know your mother was one of them. I swear I didn’t.”
I believe him, but it doesn’t matter. I’m feeling shaky—maybe it’s because I’m losing blood, maybe it’s because I’m so angry. I’m not sure which. “What kind of man does something like this? What kind of man specifically modifies a magical virus to make people into berserkers that don’t respond well to benedette magic and then herds them into an abandoned subway tunnel so he can feed them scraps? Does a man like that have any respect for other people?” I gesture at my mother. “He doesn’t care about his own wife.”
“Olivia—”
“What if that was your mother?” I get closer to Tommy. He’s taller than me, but I stand on tiptoe to look him in the eye. “What if my father did that to your mother? How would you feel about him then?”
Tommy looks down at the ground. “It doesn’t matter how I feel about him. He’s the boss.”
A bitter laugh escapes my lips. “He’s a horrible person.”
“Maybe you should give him a chance to explain himself. Maybe he’ll tell you what this is all for,” says Tommy. “You’re his daughter. His second-in-command. Maybe he’d trust you.”
Could he have some kind of explanation for this? I kind of doubt it. No, I don’t think my father could make this better, no matter what he said. But maybe I will give him a chance to explain. Maybe I’ll see what kind of hole he digs himself into. I turn to Tommy. “You’re taking me and my mother to my house. I’m keeping this cage. Got it?”
“Look, we use the cage to get the berserkers from the wards—”
“Wards? There’s more than one ward you pick them up from?” I say.
Tommy shrugs.
“No more,” I say. “You don’t go and get them anymore. If I find out—”
“Olivia, your father—”
“Fuck my father,” I say. “Take me home now. And don’t let me catch you bringing anymore berserkers here. This is disgusting.”
Tommy doesn’t argue, but I can’t be sure he’s actually going to obey me either. He doesn’t want to directly disobey my father. He lets me keep the cage, though, without any further argument.
I tell Josh not to breathe a word of what he’s seen tonight to anyone, not until I can figure out what exactly it is that I’m going to do. He says he won’t. He asks for his peanuts back. I get them out, but they’re covered in my blood. He doesn’t want them anymore, of course.
I have Tommy pull the van around to the back entrance of the basement in my house. I get him and Max help me get the cage inside. Tommy offers me more words of caution about having my mother here, and what kind of danger she poses, and everything else. I tell him I’ll be careful.
I reiterate my order about not picking up any more berserkers. Tommy doesn’t say anything.
Then he and Max leave. I stare into the cage at my mother’s contorted face, her vacant expression. If there was a time in my life to cry, this would be it. But I can’t cry, it seems. I stare at her dry-eyed. And then I go to get Nonna, who has to see this, even though it will kill her.
The Toil and Trouble Trilogy, Book One Page 38