Page 57 of Warped

“We go back to the motel room and make a plan. Do we even know if your father is out yet?”

She shook her head. “The lawyer said his paperwork was being processed. It would only be a matter of hours, though.”

“So it would make sense for us to go to your sister first.”

“What about Tony?”

“We made a mistake last time by trying to be reasonable with him. This time we need to go in with the attitude of kill or be killed. Take no prisoners.”

Her jaw tightened and she nodded. “That fucking bastard tried to strangle me in my sleep. I woke up and his hands were around my throat, and I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt like they were going to burst—I’m not sure I’ve ever felt anything so painful.”

Her words reminded me of how I felt when I’d been underwater, desperate to take a breath. But the thought of his hands around her throat angered me more.

“I guess we both have a reason to pay him back, then.”

“He’s not normal,” she said. “I don’t think either of us would win any awards for being in touch with our feelings, but him …” She visibly shivered. “I don’t know. Something’s not right about him. He’s utterly cold.”

“He’ll be even colder when he’s dead.”

We left the building and went back to the car. Vee was utterly focused on her own battle—on killing the men who were fucking with her life—but I had my own worries. I didn’t want to tell her, knowing she didn’t need any more mess in her life. When my memory had returned, so had the events leading up to the point where I’d met Vee. If things had gone to plan, I would have avoided coming back to New York, at least for any length of time. It was a big city and easy enough to get lost in, but not easy enough. I was lucky it had only been Harvey who had spotted me in the newspaper. Someone wishing me harm rather than help could just have easily turned up for me.

I remembered why I wasn’t supposed to be in New York. Why I’d planned on keeping moving.

“Everything okay?” Vee asked, pulling me from my thoughts. “You seem a little … distracted.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking things through.”

I debated telling her, but she had so much else to worry about, I didn’t want to land more shit on her lap.

Her eyes narrowed at me. “And what are you thinking?”

I twisted my lips as I put my thoughts together for her. “The shooting that was happening when I got you out of Tony’s place will have left both Tony’s men and your father’s men weakened. I bet they both lost people and ammunition. I’m wondering if we can’t use their hatred of each other against them somehow. Have them waging a war on each other, without you and your sister being caught in the middle.”

“I don’t see how that could happen without me and Nicole getting caught up in it all. Are you talking about using us as bait? Of getting them to fight over which of them gets to either kill us or bequeath us with a life of violence and being used?”

“I’m not sure, Vee. I’m just thinking out loud. I just wish we could get them to kill each other so we didn’t need to get involved.”

“They’d have done that already if they were going to.”

“Yes, but I think this situation has already made your father do things he wouldn’t normally. Sending a car full of men to a rival’s home to shoot the place up isn’t normal behavior, even for a gangster. He’s starting a war right there.”

“Would he have known that the case was going to be thrown out when he ordered that to happen?” she wondered out loud.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“Perhaps that was his last ditch attempt to have me killed, figuring that would end the case, and then when that didn’t work, he got one of his men to tell the cops he’d been present at my mother’s death.”

“Yeah, sounds like he was getting anxious.” I let out a sigh. “You know, if you are no longer able to testify against your father, there is nothing keeping you here. New York is a dangerous place, not just for you, but for me, too. I should never have come back to the city. Harvey told me about something that had happened before I met you, and when he told me, I couldn’t remember. People want me dead, too, Vee. I have plenty of money. We can just leave. Get as far away from here as possible.”

“What about my sister?”

Anger swelled up inside me. “Fuck your sister. You’re always thinking about Nicole, but when does she ever think about you? She went behind your back to Tony. She looks at you as though she hates you.”

She winced at that, and I regretted my words.

“She does hate me,” Vee said. “She watched me shoot our mother. I hate me, too, so I can’t blame her.”

“What happened wasn’t your fault. I’d have liked to have seen what would have happened if she was put in the position that you were.”

“We’d all be dead,” she said simply. “Nickie would never have made the choice, and our father would have killed all three of us.” Then she gave a small laugh, though it contained no humor. “Actually, no, that’s not true. She’d still be alive. He would have killed me and my mother, and left her alive.”

I looked at her curiously. “When he put that gun in your hand, and asked you to choose, why did he make you choose between your mom and your sister, if he loves your sister so much? Why not just make you shoot your mom?”

“Because he knew I wouldn’t have done it. He knew I would never have chosen her, and he knew I would have made the choice to save her. If he hadn’t put her in that room that day, I probably would have just let him shoot both me and Mom. He’d never have forgiven her for cheating on him. It wasn’t just a matter of having his pride hurt. He had a certain expectation surrounding him about how he handled a betrayal of that magnitude. People knew about it before he did—including me. He had to prove to people that he was as coldhearted as a person could get, someone who would stop at nothing to make a point. And that’s exactly what he did.”

“Jesus, Vee. Your father is a piece of work.”

“Yeah, he sure is, and that’s exactly what we’re going to come up against.”

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