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I almost laugh at my father’s use of the word scratch, but I don’t. I’ve heard this part before. I want something new from him. We know Samson had money. He was skimming off the top, but there is so much more. How did he get involved in all of this? Because I know without a doubt I never saw him any of the times I visited women.
“My cousin was the one involved with the police and the city. Keeping them happy and off our backs. When money started exchanging hands with the elected officials a litter lighter than normal, it caused me to pause.”
“And that’s when you called me,” I murmur.
He nods once. “That is when I called you,” he confirms my thoughts. “Those envelopes he gave them should have been thicker, not thinner.”
“Did he go to you for the money?” Coleman asks.
Dad dips his chin. “Those envelopes are requested, and I fulfill the order with cash.”
“Why wouldn’t he ask for the same amount and then just take what he didn’t give them if they wanted less because they had been taking sex as payment?” Wells asks.
It’s a solid question. “To appear on the up-and-up,” Dad states. “People who steal that way are usually honest in another. That’s where his honesty was. In those transactions.”
“Except he still wasn’t being honest,” I point out.
“You are correct,” he murmurs. “Another reason I needed more information. I knew this shit was going to fuck me over.”
“What else was he trying to do?” I ask.
My father’s lips curve up into a grin. “What two things go hand in hand?” he asks. I don’t answer, even though I’m completely and totally aware of said answer. “Money and power,” he finishes.
“And Samson thought if he had all these high-end government officials in his back pocket, he would somehow take over the family?”
Dad shakes his head slowly. “I think he was telling the truth when he said he didn’t want to take over the family. I honestly believe he was telling the truth about that. But I also think he wanted more power than what he could ever have as a director.”
“You think he wanted to go into government? Be elected as something?”
“Elected,” Dad snorts. “Sure. I was going with set in place, but whatever you want to call it.”
Interesting. In fact, I’m not sure I would have ever put that together, but I can definitely see it. “And now?”
“I want you to keep that house under tight surveillance. Tatum is just a kid, but that doesn’t mean he will ever get over me shooting his father in the chest in front of him. I know I was an adult and had a hard time with that same fact when it happened to my own father.”
Neither of my brothers says anything, nor do I. I know I’m staring at him in shock, so I assume my brothers are as well. Our father has never told us how our grandfather died. Not ever. We never knew him. He was gone before we were born, so it hasn’t really been something we’ve talked about.
I open my mouth to ask him who shot his father when he starts to speak, and I snap my lips closed.
“It was me,” Dad mutters.
“You?” Coleman asks.
“I killed my own father. He was going against the family. He needed to step down, yet he wouldn’t. So I made that happen.”
I hope to fuck that nothing like that ever happens with our father because I know I won’t be able to shoot my own dad. I respect and love him too much. But maybe that all changes when you lose that respect aspect for someone.
I can’t imagine my father doing anything that would make me lose every ounce of respect I have for him. Granted, I have lost some respect here and there for certain things he’s said and done, but not every single ounce. That would take a fuck of a lot of lost respect.
That hasn’t happened to me yet, and I hope it never does.
ALLISON
The car ride home is silent, and I’m okay with that. I don’t know why, but I expect to be dropped off at home. I’m not. Instead, I’m taken to Hendrick’s, and together we continue into his condo in silence.
Once we’re inside, and the alarm is turned off, I turn to face him. We’re finally alone and I’m not sure what I want to say. This whole thing seems so out of this world. I can’t believe this is happening the way it has.
“I don’t know what happens now,” I confess.
