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“I’m asking the questions.”
“I answered already. I’m working. I am holding down a job. What else do you want?”
“You forget that I know you, Pina. The girl that rarely wore low cut dresses would never choose to strip and serve men for money. What happened to you,pigtails?”
She flinched, retreating into herself.
“Don’t call me that.” I gave her that nickname long after she lost the pigtails Mrs. Bernoulli forced on her for years and I mostly used it because I knew she didn’t like it. Now I was using it to see if there was anything left of that girl. “I haven’t done my hair like that in years. Why do you keep bringing it up?”
“Maybe one day I’ll tell you.” I took another swig of the beer. “Tell me where Martino is.”
She shrugged, looking at me exasperated. “I have no idea.”
“What the hell does that mean? He’s your father.”
“My father rented me a room for two weeks, took out a loan in my name from a shark and skipped town to go find his daughter. Don’t ask me about him, Garon, because I have no answers. All I know is that I have to pay back Tony Balbano one way or another and I don’t need to tell you what will happen if I don’t. That’s why I work at The Flora House and I don’t need you making it worse for me.”
Nothing she said made sense to me. Martino Bernoulli was not a good man, or even a pleasant one, but he was good to his kids. Or so I thought.
“Heleftyou?”
“Are you hard of hearing? Yes. Dad never planned on taking me with him when he skipped town. Me slowing them down wasn’t part of the plan. Until you…” she stopped to take a deep, calming breath. “You said I wasn’t welcome anymore. You threatened me.”
“No, I…” Didn’t I? Didn’t I tell her she’d get to see my anger if she stayed? “What happened after?”
“We drifted around for a while, went to Florence first, but only stayed a couple of nights, and then ended up in Rome. It took me a while to figure out that we weren’t running from something, but Mom and Dad were asking around trying to find Ariana. I guess they thought I was an obstacle.”
“So this is about your sister.” That fucking snake.
“Everything in my family is about my sister, Garon. Do you know what Balbano does to the people that don’t pay back his money? Do you know what he does with thewomen?” She looked down, slowly shaking her head. “Father didn’t care about that when he asked for a loan promising I’ll stay behind and pay it back. If it wasn’t for Leonardo taking mercy on me… I don’t even know.”
Fire. Fire was raining in my veins furiously. I should have killed Martino Bernoulli when I had the chance. I’d told Giovani that he and his wife were not much better than the whore they raised, that he was like poison ivy that latched to the Caputo name for years, but he didn’t listen. Now I wanted nothing more than to have him in my hands and feel the bones in his neck crack.
“That fucking bastard.” I pushed the words through my teeth. “He threw you to the wolves.”
“A quarter million, that’s what I was worth, if you’re curious.”
In the name of God, what did she get herself dragged into.
“A shark lets you pay off two hundred and fifty thousand euros byworking in his club?” This had to be a fucking joke.
“I gave him my jewelry. I had rings, and some gold that my grandma left me when she died, something Ariana wasn’t interested in. It covered about a hundred and ten thousand. Everything else, I have a year to pay off.”
“And if you don’t.”
Her eyes were empty when she looked at me. “I guess Tony will put me on auction at the Flora House to cover the rest.”
“On… what?”
“Isn’t that why you went there? For the women?”
“Pina, I was there because someone brought me. What do you mean, what auction?”
“Tony puts his best girls on sale for one night. You’d be surprised how much money men are willing to pay for a woman if they’re competing for it.” Just like Luca said. With all the fucked-up things I was hearing, I forgot he had told me about this.
“You shouldn’t know that!” My anger spilled out, and the beer bottle turned into a projectile, denting the perfect plaster on the walls. “That’s no place for you to be!”
“Don’t yell at me!”
