Page 87 of Lawbreaker

She looked up at him. His face was like stone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring back bad memories.”

He shrugged. “We live with the past. It never goes away. Luckily, he wasn’t home much. He had his hands in several of the rackets. He hung out with a couple of his guys in a local bar most of the time. He didn’t come around much after I hit my growth spurt,” he added with faint satisfaction.

“Why?”

“He drew back his fist and hit my mother when I just walked in the door. I beat the hell out of him. He was barely able to crawl out to his car. I told him what would happen if he ever touched her again. By then, I had a reputation of my own.” He looked down at her with dark, cold eyes that chilled. “I never bluff.”

“You came out of it well, though,” she said, searching his eyes.

Both eyebrows went up. He stared at her.

“You have your own business. You’re an entrepreneur. You’re cultured, you have the respect of people around you and you can afford to live the way you please.” She leaned her head back against his shoulder and smiled. “I imagine your father could never say that.”

He laughed shortly. “No. I guess he couldn’t.”

Her eyes went to the portrait of him over the mantel and she adored it. “I’ve never seen a painting that was so alive,” she said. “It’s like a synopsis of your life.”

“You think so?”

“The cross on your watch fob.” She pointed at it.

“My mother’s,” he said. “She wore it all her life. I keep it on my pocket watch. I don’t wear it much these days, just on very special occasions.”

“She’d like that, I think.”

He nodded. “She would. She prayed for me every day. She was so afraid I’d end up like my old man. It was a real possibility at the time,” he added.

“Doing bad things like your dad?” she asked.

He shook his head and looked down at her. “Being found in the trunk of a car down by the docks.”

13

Odalie wasn’t quick enough to disguise her sudden intake of breath.

He smoothed back a strand of her long blond hair. “Nobody grieved much at my house,” he confessed. “It turns out that he got greedy and was pulling some dough off the top before he turned in his take.” He kissed her nose. “The big guys don’t tolerate that without a really good reason. My dad didn’t have one. Just greed. And he’d insulted one of the lieutenants who took orders from the big boss down in Jersey.”

“It’s all very complicated.”

He smiled. “You have no idea.” He stared at her. “And you won’t. One of the cardinal rules is that you don’t discuss business with family members who aren’t involved in it.”

“Did your mother know what he did?”

“She didn’t. Not for sure. When the cops came to get him now and then, she was always quick to say that she was a housewife and knew nothing about how Jackie did business or even who he did it with.”

“Did it work?”

“It did. The cops were local boys who grew up in the neighborhood. They knew her family. They knew her. She almost married one of the cops. Big Irish guy with a red nose and a wild sense of humor. We all liked him.”

“Past tense?” she asked, fishing.

He shrugged. “He was pulling over a speeding car. Got out to give a ticket and dropped dead of a heart attack right at the driver’s side door.”

“Oh, gosh!”

“My mother grieved. She said she wished she’d married him when he asked. For a long time, I was as much a victim as she was. It’s hard on kids, having a violent parent. He liked drugs, too, and that made it worse.”

“I guess I had it pretty good, growing up.”

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