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Reed’s dad looks at us for a few moments, his eyes going back and forth between us, fear jacking up in his eyes, on his face. His mind whirling.
“You fuckers,” he breathes out. “What, you think they’re gonna believe you? I’ve dealt with them for years. They know me. They —”
“Which is exactly the point,” Reed says, leaning forward. “They know you. They know what a piece of shit you are. They know that you’d do anything for the money, including being stupid enough to dupe them.”
“Do you think marrying her off was the only trick I had up my sleeve?” he spits out. “That whore may have —”
Putting my hands on the desk, I lean forward and he flinches. “You don’t listen, do you?”
“You —”
“And apparently, you don’t have a very good memory either. So let me explain some things to you, yeah?” He opens his mouth again but I don’t let him talk. “You’re not the boss here. Not anymore. Not when you mess with her and definitely not when you keep messing with her. Because I’ve got half a mind to cut the middleman and finish what I started two days ago myself.” I glance down to his neck brace. “You at least remember that, don’t you? I could very easily break the rest of your ribs and leave you gasping for breath in your million-dollar mansion. So I’d be very careful what you say next. Because if I hear one thing against my wife coming out of your filthy fucking mouth, I’ll also yank out your tongue and make you eat it.”
He’s vibrating with rage now.
And fear.
True and pure panic.
“And trust me, Dad,” Reed tacks on, “it would be my pleasure to help him. In fact, I’d enjoy this more than making that phone call to the Russians. There’s just something about doing the job yourself instead of having someone else take care of it.”
His father is mashing his teeth now, hatred dripping from his eyes.
“You have a day to decide,” I say to him. “And should you choose to make a decision we’re unhappy with, you better start planning your funeral. Because I don’t think anyone would care enough to do it for you.”
With that I turn around and leave.
Reed follows, because I think he’s as done with his father as I am.
We step into the night and I can finally breathe now. I can breathe because I did it. I at last did the job and protected her.
Something that I should’ve done two days ago.
Something that I went there to do in the first place. But as always, my anger, my selfishness took over and I ended up destroying everything.
“That was epic,” Reed breathes out, probably feeling the same thing.
“Your father should eat glass.”
“You won’t hear any objection from me.”
I glance at him. “You have good contacts.”
He glances back at me. “I worked with my father for years. I know where he hides his dirt and who to get it from.”
Which is how we came to know about the Russians and his gambling debts, and why he was using her in the first place.
“But it wouldn’t have worked without you,” he finishes on a shrug.
Maybe not.
Maybe at least one good thing came out of my fucking crime.
“Well, I’m still glad,” I say.
He shrugs. “You’re welcome.”
“I didn’t say thank you,” I reply more out of habit than anything else.
“You wanted to,” he shoots out, probably more out of habit than anything else too.
I turn to face him. “I don’t think so.”
He faces me as well. “Well, you’re right. You’d need to learn manners for that. And I think you skipped school when they were teaching that.”
“Yeah, I did. Right alongside you.”
We stare at each other for a bit.
Then, I say, “She says we’re similar.”
“Who?”
“My wife.”
I probably shouldn’t be saying it but I guess I want to say it as much as I can before it stops being true.
Reed’s eyes narrow as if he doesn’t like it. “My wife says the same thing.”
I know he doesn’t.
Because I don’t like it either. That my sister is his wife.
“We’re not friends,” I tell him.
“Fuck no.”
“But if he ever comes back.”
“We’ll deal with it.”
“Together.”
He gives me a short nod. “Absolutely.”
“For Firefly.”
“For Fae.” Then, “Although I don’t know if I like the name you’ve got for my sister.”
“I know I fucking hate the name you’ve got for mine.”
“Let’s agree to disagree then.”
“Let’s.”
We stare at each other some more. Then, Reed speaks. “I can’t believe you married my sister.”
“Yeah, I can’t believe I did that either,” I say, my voice sounding wooden, my chest feeling tight.
“She’s beyond pissed,” he adds.
“I don’t blame her.”
“You really going to…” He grimaces. “Divorce her?”
The tightness intensifies but I manage to reply, “Yeah.”
“That’s fucked up though.” He shakes his head. “You guys… You’re having babies together.”
“And from what I recall, you weren’t too happy about that.”
