Page 155 of The Dominator

The answer came after a long time. Strawberry? Honey? All those typos? Not Tommy.

I called Dario back and told him someone was texting me from Tommy’s phone or that Tommy’s phone was cloned and he told me to just hurry to meet him. I ignored the next three texts that came from whoever was pretending to be Tommy.

It was nighttime when I pulled up to 15 Sweet Avenue. It was a small run-down looking house on a small and quiet street . All the lights were off. I parked and put the gun into my waistband under my shirt at the back. I knocked on the front door. I saw a figure move behind the curtains on the window adjacent to the door.

Finally, the door opened a little and Dario pulled me in by the wrist.

“We gotta move!” He said, looking angry and tweaked. He walked me through the house, holding my elbow. It was a sparse run-down place with no furniture and everything was in rough shape. He went down the stairs to the basement and now I knew it was Dario’s safe house. The basement apartment was totally redone, high tech, every modern convenience. No one appeared to be here but him. I used his bathroom and then he grabbed a duffle bag and we went back upstairs.

“Stay here!” he said and I waited by the top of the stairs as he headed toward the front of the house. He was gone only about 30 seconds, then he rushed me through the back door where there was an alley with a separate garage. Inside was a black SUV. He ushered me into it. This looked like the same SUV I’d been picked up from my grad in.

“Gimme the phone?”

“Where’s Tommy?” I asked, handing it to him.

He did something on the phone while shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

“He said someone faked a text from Eddy so I was wary.”

“Good.” He pulled out and was driving crazy-fast.

“Where are we going?” I had no idea what that place even was.

“Bianca’s ma’s house, where I’ve got the girls and the kids.”

“Luciana?”

“She’s there, too.”

“How’s your dad?”

“Pop’s hanging in, last I heard.”

“When did you last see Tommy?”

“I haven’t seen him. He was supposed to meet me this morning. He never showed.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

My phone, sitting on the seat between us, rang. It said Tommy on it.

“Tommy!” I looked to Dario.

He jerked his chin at the phone. “Answer it. Careful. Gimme the phone if it’s not him.”

I answered it. “Tommy?”

“Not Tommy,” said a male voice, “But we have him. Get to where Tommy’s brother is and call this number back.”

“What do you want?” I looked at Dario with panic. He took the phone from me and pulled over to the side of the road.

“Who is this? This is him; what do you want?” Dario held the phone for a minute. Then after a minute of listening, he said, “Put him on the phone.” A minute later he said, “Hey. You alright? Yeah, man. Yep, she’s with me. Right. Right.” Then he hung up.

“What do they want?”

“Money,” Dario said, pulling back onto the road.

“Money?”

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