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I have no clue what to make of this information. Sometimes people run from their pasts and change their names. But adding an accent while assuming the name of a dead woman is a whole new layer of disturbing.
“Have you told Haven any of this?” I ask my cousin.
“No. I’ll leave that to you.” He clears his throat. Then clears it again. “Con, you stay alert, you hear me?”
“Will do.” I turn the phone over and look out the window.
Outside the restaurant, the day is vibrant and sunny.
The sense that shadows await somewhere close by must be all in my mind.
Chapter32
Haven
Conner argued that retired quarterbacks make great bodyguards. I laughed and insisted I didn’t need a bodyguard to visit the Central State Correctional Facility. He grumbled but I kissed his worries away and promised I’d be home early.
I understand why he’s uneasy. There’s shit that needs to be dealt with on the east side and I need to figure out my next step. Conner wants to sit down with Gage and come up with a plan in case Jared and Talon are stupid enough to risk open warfare. That will need to wait until tomorrow. Today I’m bringing my sister to visit our father, who hasn’t seen her in over ten years.
Lita is nervous in the passenger seat. Her hands are restless in her lap and she keeps checking her reflection in the rearview mirror. Ahead of us, the sprawling prison looks less like a fortress and more like an industrial park featuring barbed wire around the perimeter.
The parking lot is moderately crowded and as I swing into an empty space, my sister heaves a loud sigh.
“We don’t have to go in,” I tell her.
She raises her chin and squints at the ugly prison. “It’s hard to picture him in there.”
That thought has crossed my mind. Part of me is ashamed that I have not missed my father at all in the months since he started serving his sentence. A good daughter would have made more of an effort to communicate and would surely feel some distress at the thought of her father locked up in a place like this.
Then again, a good father wouldn’t recruit his children to join a vicious criminal enterprise.
I suppose that means we’re even.
My hand is on the door handle but I’m not in a hurry to open it, even though I’d also like to get this visit over with. The buzzing of my phone delivers a momentary reprieve and I’m hoping the caller is Conner, simply because I don’t want to hear from anyone else.
No such luck.
Lita looks over with puzzled eyes when I release a hiss of irritation.
“Sophie,” I explain and nearly ignore the call before having a change of heart. Though Sophie remains annoying, she’s still worth pitying and I suppose she keeps calling me because she doesn’t have anyone else to call.
I hold up one finger to tell Lita this will just take a minute.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Sophie sounds like she’s chewing on six pieces of gum at once.
“Nothing special,” I answer because I don’t feel like giving her more information than I have to.
She’s not chewing gum. She’s taking loud bites of an apple. “We should go shopping or something today.”
“Sorry, but I can’t.”
She stops chewing. “You just said you weren’t doing anything.”
Lita, who can hear every word of the call, rolls her eyes.
“I’ve got some errands to run,” I tell Sophie.
“Fine.” She sighs. “Fiona’s still mad at me, isn’t she?”
