Page 31 of The Wrong Guy

He pats me on the shoulder to tell me to go. “One more thing. You must always keep your mouth shut about what happened.”

“Yes, Dad.”

It was twenty minutes later when I heard my father in his room digging through all of his stuff, looking for something. And that’s when he started talking to someone on the phone.

“Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” Dad’s voice loudly screamed from his bedroom. “I’m going to handle this shit, and then we’re all going to bounce out. You hear me?”

What is he talking about? Handle what? I sat outside the door, waiting for news regarding Uncle Tony. Uncle Tony was my dad’s best friend, and they spent a lot of time together. Uncle Tony was also the type who would buy me beer for the parties I wasn’t supposed to be attending but ended up going to anyway.

“Yeah, yeah. You’s guys are messing with the wrong assholes. I’m not playing with you. I need a list of who was out here, and I need it now.”

It is quiet for about a minute, but I hear my father’s favorite pen scrape against a piece of paper as he jots down what is being said to him.

Someone murdered my uncle? Someone gunned down my uncle outside, and now someone has to pay.

“You’ll meet me outside of the warehouse in twenty minutes. I don’t give a fuck if your mother is in the hospital. You’ll meet me.”

I return to my room so my father misses me snooping. What the hell is happening? Why would someone kill my uncle outside of my home? I get why my dad would be mad about everything, but why would someone kill my uncle?

“Stavros! I’ll be back a little later,” he calls out to me as he jogs out of the house. “Don’t leave the house. Stay inside, and I’ll see you a little later.”

I waited in the house until he got home. I pretended not to notice the cleaning crew outside to clean up my uncle. I also acted not to be freaking the hell out that something is happening around me.

A loud bang occurs outside at midnight. I don’t go to the door to see what’s out, but I immediately know it’s my father. He’s covered in blood when he comes in, and he’s wiping off his gun. The gun splatters all over his face, telling me he wasn’t hit.

Does it make me a bad person that I’m glad it isn’t his blood but the blood of others?

“Dad, what happened to Uncle Tony?” I demanded while he walked past me to his room. I vowed not to give up and get the answers I needed.

He still doesn’t say anything but tries to shut me out of the room.

“Dad!” I yell.

He spins to look at me with danger in his eyes. “If you want the whole truth, that means you’re in. If you don’t want the truth, stay out of my business. I’m not going to set my son up.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You have to make a decision. Stav, you in or you out?”

“I’m in. What happened to Uncle Tony?”

“Uncle Tony was murdered to prove a point to me. Those rat mother fuckers got what they deserved.”

And with that, he slammed the door in my face and didn’t discuss it again.

Greg is the only non-Greek my father trusts to handle his business. Uncle Tony was my father’s best friend, and he never recovered from the loss of his best friend.

I don’t answer the phone for Greg because I know it means my father is ready to cash in on his favor.

Andreas is looking at his phone with a scowl on his face. Their parents are looking out the window, and I can see they're doing their best in this situation.

Inside of me? I’m brewing with rage. What kind of asshole goes after a vulnerable girl? I’m sure Audrina hasn’t always been perfect, but she didn’t deserve this.

“Audrina Bancroft’s family?”

We all perk our heads up to look at the medical personnel before us.

“I wanted to give you an update on surgery. The bleach mixed with the fire caused some damage to Audrina, but she will be okay. She’s going to be in a lot of pain and is going to wonder what happened to her. She woke up a couple of times and then started to get agitated. We put her in a medically-induced coma to get her through the next night to provide her with enough time to rest.”

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