Page 80 of Clean Slade
How does he do it?
“What? Don’t look so shocked. Nothing happens in your life without me knowing about it. You cough, I know it. You shit, I know it. You fuck up, guess what? I know it.”
I’m doomed. That’s it. I’m doomed.
Somehow he was keeping tabs on me, and unless I could figure out how he was doing it, I would never be free. I would never be able to do what was needed to save my family.
“It doesn’t matter. That’s a whole lot of cocaine to sell in a matter of days.”
“I don’t care. You’ll do as I say or else!” he shouted.
“Father,” Nino said. “King is right. As far as they’re concerned, he’s a dog groomer. If he goes back asking for more already, they’ll know something’s up. They’ll think he’s working with the feds or something.”
I stared at my brother in disbelief. Was he really taking my side? Was he really trying to help me?
Maybe he hadn’t been lying when he’d told me he wouldn’t let Father touch Mac.
But could I really believe him? Could I put my faith in him when I couldn’t trust anyone? For all I knew, listening to my brother was part of my father’s plan, and I’d end up dead anyway.
“We’re playing the long game here, remember? You won’t catch Raymond by making rash decisions.”
I watched as my father glared at Nino and knew he didn’t care. He was being impulsive. He wanted results, and he wanted them now.
I’d never seen him like that with anything.
This Raymond Salieri guy had really done a number on him. No one had ever cheated my father and gotten away with it. Salieri was the first. And Father wasn’t used to losing.
I could use that. I didn’t know how, but I was sure I could use this to my advantage.
“You will do as I say—” Father said predictably.
“You should listen to your sons, Tony. You know you can’t see clearly when it comes to Raymond,” someone said.
Her voice was as familiar as a hug and just as addictive, and I turned to find my Grams standing there, with her big black hair hanging around her head like a dark halo and her kind but stern gray eyes that always managed to look into my soul.
“Grams!” I ran to my grandmother and put my arms around her, not caring about appearances or ruses anymore.
I’d missed her. I’d missed her so much. How I’d navigated this world without her all those years, I didn’t know.
I guessed she had raised me so well that I’d heard her in my head every time I doubted myself or felt insecure or close to giving up. I’d hear her in my head telling me to stop and focus. To slow down. To think things through.
“Bambino mio, it’s so good to see you.” Her words were like a salve to my distressed soul.
If it hadn’t been for her, I would have never gotten out. She was the one that told me I needed to do it. I needed to run. She had hooked me up with a forger who had given Mac and me our new identities. Our new lives.
It was her stash of money that had gotten me through the years of despair and uncertainty. Her money had bought me a house and shop in Mayberry Holm, and what was left was locked away at the train station in Boston in case of an emergency.
“I missed you,” I whispered back. “So much.”
“Me too, bambino. I missed you too.”
She pulled away from our hug, and her gaze hardened as she gave me a single nod and walked away from me to join my father.
“Isn’t it enough you’re putting your son at risk? You want to put yourself at risk too?” she asked him. “You need to think. Use your brain.”
She jabbed him in the middle of his forehead a few times to make her point.
She was the only person in the world he would ever allow to do that to him, yet I still didn’t believe he wouldn’t hurt her.
