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“Turn your phone off and put it on the table.”
“Paranoid, old man?”
“Do it or I walk.”
I make a production of taking my phone out of my jacket pocket, turning it off, and setting it on the tabletop. “Satisfied?”
“We’ll see.” He lifts his whiskey and drinks deep. “You seem a little tense, son.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been sitting here for the last half hour reflecting on the past. Do you know how much money I’ve given you over the years?”
“Not nearly enough.”
“Because I owe you.”
“Damn right you do. Look at your life, boy. Look at all you got ’cause of me.”
“It wasn’t the life I wanted.”
“Save your bitching and whining for someone who gives a fuck, that sure ain’t me. You got nothing to complain about. Cars. A condo that’s worth a fortune. Fame. Anything you want, any time. Yeah, I’m really crying for you.”
“None of that ever mattered to me. I wanted to go to NYU. I wanted to write, not play ball. But you threatened to tell Cayo and Rita about the way you belted me around. About the welts you left all over my chest and back.”
“You’re still whining about that too? My man knocked me around and you don’t hear me complaining. It made me tougher. But you…” He spares me a look of disgust before he tosses back more whiskey. “Didn’t make you tough or much of a man. Sure, you stopped crying after the first few times I beat your skinny little ass. You tried to take it. Didn’t want to give in, didn’t want to break. But I broke you anyway. You did what I wanted. What I told you to do.”
“To protect Cayo and Rita.”
“Because you’re weak. Because you gave a fuck about those mealy-ass do-gooders who thought discipline was timeouts and taking away privileges. Fuck that. I would love to have told them about how I knocked you around while they were sitting pretty, right next door without a fucking clue. To see the pathetic look on their faces. Helpless and horrified that they hadn’t looked out for their golden boy nearly as well as they thought they had. Yeah, that would have been real sweet.”
“You weren’t concerned that if you were to tell them they might have exposed you?”
“Fuck, no,” he answers with a smug sneer that I itch to knock off his face. “My word against theirs. I’m the Sheriff. Who do you think people would have believed?”
“Guess you’re right.” I play along. “You had the power.”
“Fucking right I do. Power is everything, boy.”
“You had it over my mother.”
“She deserved what she got for trapping me.”
“She was so afraid of you. She took your beatings standing up for me. I wish I’d done the same for her.”
“Boo-hoo. Get yourself a shrink and work out your daddy issues. I’m through with this trip down memory lane. What’s the deal?”
“I’m getting to that. Over the years I’ve paid you millions to keep you from telling Rita and Cayo.”
“And you’ll keep paying as long as Rita is alive and if you want to protect the girl. Gotta say, Deeana Rae surprised me. She’s not half bad looking if you’re into that. I prefer my women small and tight, know what I mean? But she’s got a nice rack on her that I never noticed before under those baggy clothes, and she’s gotten fiery. No wonder you’re so stupid for her pussy. She must be hot in bed.”
I work to keep my cool. Can’t let him get to me.
“It’s a shame,” he continues, “that you have to call it quits.”
“What guarantee do I have that you’ll keep your word if I do?”
“None,” he says with relish. “But I can guarantee you this, if you don’t pay up and dump the girl, I will ruin Deeana Rae Chase. I will sing loud about all the things I know. And embellish at my whim. Trust me on that, boy. O’Malley will get the story of his career. How’s it going to look that the supposed bleeding-heart child advocate for foster children fucked over her own foster parents and is using her famous ex for his millions?”
“All I have to do to ensure this tale of fiction never sees the light of day is to stop seeing Dee and give you $10 million?”
