Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
“You letting me walk out of here, son?”
“No.” Tommy’s eyes were cold. Stone cold.
“Then why would I let you have her back?”
I felt Tom shuffle behind me.
“Don’t move!” Tommy hollered but Tom was quick. There was something cold against my temple. His gun.
Tommy’s jaw tightened.
Then Tom cocked the gun. “Drop your gun or there’s a bullet in her brain.”
Tommy didn’t hesitate, he dropped his gun and it slid across the floor. The cold steel left my temple.
“The love of a good woman, huh?” Tom said softly. “It does a lot to a man. I hope you appreciate that I gave this to you. But I’m surprised you’re so weak to choose her over yourself. Thought I raised you better.” He pushed me forward and I landed on the floor. I looked back and he had his gun trained on Tommy.
“Protecting what’s mine isn’t weak, Pop. It’s what a real man does. He prioritizes his family above all else.”
“Yeah? So why are you betraying me, my boy?”
“You’re wrong, Pop. You’ve chosen wrong. You’ve chosen power and ego over family. You taught me wrong. You bred anger and hate and rage into me. Somehow that beautiful girl on the floor at your feet, she changed all that for me. Made me want to put her first. She’s my family, my future. She and I won’t raise our kids the way I’ve been raised, Pop.”
He shook his head. “You think it’s been easy for me? Keep my family safe? Build this business for you and your brother? You think I haven’t had to make some gut-wrenching decisions in my life? You think I’m gonna let you shit on it? You turn your brother against me?” Tom was shaking his head in disgust. “How’d it feel when I took her? You like having something of yours taken away? You’re trying to take my company away from me, the respect your brother has for me. I don’t know what happened to your respect. I tried to get her last week, you know? Disarmed your house. You’re lucky I’ve had a chance to calm down since then or I might’ve shot her dead right in front of the whole family.”
The rage emanating off Tommy intensified. “We both know that was a game, Pop. I saw what you had your guys leave. And was that you fucking with my phone, too? Trying to get Tia to send nude pictures?”
Tom Sr. snickered. “Yeah, my boy. You been digging round in my business, you think I don’t know all you’ve found out? You think I haven’t been a step ahead of you every step you’ve taken? There’s something you haven’t figured out yet, son. A kitten can’t fuck a tomcat.”
“So, what now? You ending my life, Tomcat?” Tommy shrugged. “That’s how little I matter to you? What about Dare? What’s his punishment gonna be? Gonna fuck with the brakes in his car?”
Tom Sr. snickered again.
I stared at Tommy’s gun that he’d dropped. It was two feet from me. I could lunge for it and put a stop to this. I looked up at Tommy, tears in my eyes. He still wasn’t looking at me. I wanted to get a message to him with my eyes, to tell him I could grab for the gun, but he wasn’t looking at me. It was like I was invisible. Tom and Tommy were in a faceoff and they were staring one another down.
“You out of the picture, your brother’ll come back into the fold.” Tom shrugged.
“He’s no puppet,” Tommy answered.
“He looked up to you, but he was jealous of you. Jealous you were my namesake, jealous you were getting the keys to the kingdom. Jealous you got the girl,” Tom Sr. motioned to me with his chin. “You outta the way, he’ll be happy with all he’ll get. Maybe I’ll gift her to him.”
Tommy glanced at me and I glanced at the gun. I saw something in his eyes shift, a flare of his eyes in warning. He didn’t want me reaching for it. But how else were we getting out of this?
Tom casually wandered over to the bar and as he did I inched a little toward the gun. Tom didn’t seem to notice. He poured another drink and drank some, his gun still pointed at his son.
I looked at Tommy’s face and he didn’t look at me but he jerked his head in a ‘no’. He knew my plan to reach for the gun. I moistened my lips and decided on another tactic.
“Tom?” I called out. Tommy’s father’s attention snapped to me. I shifted ahead on my knees and sat back on my heels. My back was to Tommy and now the gun was behind me, between Tommy and me.
“Did you kill my mother?” I asked.
The color seemed to drain out of his face.