Page 55 of Demon
“Do you think your dad will be able to give them Switchblade?”
“I wish I could tell you.I haven’t been around all that much in the last ten years.I haven’t kept track of what Dad’s up to and honestly?I only got involved this time because of her.”He tilted the top of his head toward the bedroom where Ronnie slept.“If Dad is involved with Switchblade and others of his ilk, more than in the parameters of his legal business, because I know there will be some involvement with less than savory types when you do something like bail bonds, then he gets whatever is coming.He made his bed, now he can lie in it.”
“But not Ronnie?”
“Ronnie didn’t make that bed.I’m not going to let her get hurt because our father is a piece of shit.”
“Tell me how you really feel about him,” Demon invited.
Gavin shook his head.“I just did.I spent the morning coordinating with the team doing the take down on your cousin, and reviewing the file several agencies have compiled about my father.”He dropped his head and stared at the floor for several seconds before looking up and meeting Demon’s gaze.“What do you know about our mother?”
Demon tilted his head to one side as he tried to recall if Ronnie had ever said anything about her mom, but came up with nothing.
“Nothing.I assume you had one, especially since there are two of you, but we haven’t spent a lot of time exchanging life histories.”
Gavin took a deep breath and let it out in a rush as he leaned back and let his head fall back against the back of the couch, so it looked like he was talking to the ceiling instead of Demon.Demon got the feeling this was not going to be good news.
“Our father is an asshole.”
Demon snorted.That was an understatement.Even he knew that, and he’d never even met the man.He’d known it from the way he treated his daughter, using her to pay off a debt.But he didn’t say anything.He wanted to let the other man finish what he was saying.Interrupting him with useless commentary wouldn’t get it done, and hopefully before Ronnie woke up.
“He was never easy to live with.I can’t speak for Ronnie, but when I was a kid I thought the yelling, the throwing things, the erratic behavior, the Dad hitting Mom, or us, for what I now know was stupid shit, I though all that was normal.”He glanced down at Demon as if making sure he was paying attention, then continued.“I guess it all came to a head when I was sixteen, Ronnie was fourteen or there abouts.Dad came home in one of his moods.I could tell as soon as he came through the door by the way he slammed it.I finally had an escape, I had a license, and I could get out of there instead of being a target for whatever was coming.But I wasn’t going alone.I didn’t bother going to Mom, she wouldn’t have gone, and she would have stopped me, but I did get Ronnie, and we got the hell out of there.”
“Where did you go?”If he’d gotten them out of their father’s house when he was sixteen, why was Ronnie working for her father now?
“Just to my grandmother’s.It was only for a few nights but at least it got us out of the thick of things, at least that night.”He went quiet, but stayed where he was, flopped out on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling, though Demon suspected he wasn’t seeing the popcorn insulation up there, but was instead looking into the past.
“The next day after school, Mom met us at the door.She told Ronnie and me that she was done.That she was leaving Dad.She didn’t know yet what she was going to do, or where she would go, but once she was established somewhere, she’d send for us.She took her suitcase and walked out the door.”
“I take it she never sent for you?”
Gavin shook his head without looking at Demon.“Nope.Not only that, but that was the last time either of us ever heard from her.”
Demon’s mouth fell open.He stared at Gavin for several seconds, half hoping he’d grin and tell him it was all a joke, but the ball of dread in his stomach told him that the nightmare was all too true.
The faint sound of fabric sliding against fabric came from the hallway.
“Give me just a sec.”Demon stood and went to the hall.Nothing there.He continued down the hall to where he’d left Ronnie’s bedroom door just touching, and eased it open a couple of inches, just until he could see the bed.
Ronnie lay sprawled out, face down, in the center of the bed.Something had happened to the sheet he’d left covering her.It lay wadded up in a ball on the floor at the foot of the bed.He wondered what she was dreaming about.Whatever it was, she seemed to be sleeping fine now.He pulled the door shut, turning the knob and easing it shut so their talking wouldn’t disturb her, then went back to the living room.
“She’s fine,” he said as he stepped into the room, only to realize that Gavin was no longer on the sofa.A sound from the kitchen had Demon taking the few steps to investigate.There he found Ronnie’s brother standing in front of the open refrigerator.
Relaxing, he fetched his nearly empty coffee cup and drained it on his way to the kitchen.This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation and being more awake might not make it more fun, but it would make it easier, at least a little.When his coffee finished, he took the cup to what he’d come to think of as his barstool and sat.He watched as Gavin moved around, warming food then sitting down.
“You look like you have some thing to say,” Gavin said after a moment.
“I do.I’m not sure if I should but I know you need to know.Even if all I have is coincidence and suspicion.”
Gavin narrowed his eyes and stared at him.
“Now you have to tell me.”
“I know.”Demon sighed and took a sip from his mug as he tried to decide where to start.“You know that after she stopped me, thinking I was Jim Bob, I had her and your dad’s whole business investigated, right?”
Gavin scowled.It was clear he didn’t like the idea that me and my handler had been looking into his sister.After a moment, he nodded.“I get it.You had to make sure she wasn’t someone actually looking for you.And that the business was legit.That was likely the digging gave you the intel about Ronnie being in trouble.”
Demon nodded once.He’d expected the other man to be angry, but wasn’t going to complain that he understood.
