“I’ll charge you with everything possible, to the full extent of the law. Your ass isn’t leaving here tonight. Or tomorrow. Or the next day.” I focus my eyes on his crooked smile and imagine my fist slamming into it over and over. “Your big shot lawyer isn’t getting you out of this one, Valetti.”
His hands knock into my chest, palms first and push me backward ever so slightly. I’m a big fucker, and that’s a bold fucking move for this little prick. I make a white-knuckled fist with my hand and clench my teeth.
Before I can even think about swinging, I feel the softest touch on my forearm. Gentle, but firm. And then it’s gone. I don’t turn to face her; I don’t make any move that I even registered her touch. Harrison’s yelling in my face, but my anger is gone and instead I find myself angling my body to guard her from this prick.
Why? No fucking clue. She’s one of them. But I know she’s just to my right. I can sense her there, and I don’t like it.
She’s a cop, and as far as I know she could hold her own. But I don’t want her to. I track her to my right, hoping she doesn’t try to get in between us. It might be sexist, but that’s no place for a woman to be.
Harrison still hasn’t caught on to the fact that him screaming in my face and subtly pushing his body against me isn’t affecting me.
The sound of the door opening has Harrison taking a step back and trying to maintain eye contact with me, but I break it to watch her leave. He’s no threat to me, so I couldn’t give two shits about keeping an eye on him. But it wasn’t her opening the door. Instead, my lawyer’s standing in the doorway.
“Is there a problem here, Mr. Valetti?” Scott Kemmer is the familia attorney, and he’s good at what he does.
I give him a tight smile and shove my hands into my pockets. “Not at all. I was just asking if it was time to go.” I look over my shoulder and see the pretty little thing who didn’t even bother to give me her name. Her eyes are shooting daggers at Harrison. I don’t waste my energy to see what he’s doing behind me. I bet she thought she could get me to talk if he wasn’t being a prick and doing the shit he does.
She has no idea what she’s up against, though. She’d never get an ounce of information from me. She must be really fucking new to think she’d get anything from a Valetti.
“Are you ready, Mr. Valetti?” I barely hear the words from my lawyer and that’s when I belatedly realize I’m good to go. I didn’t hear all the bullshit coming from Harrison about how I can’t leave, and my lawyer’s response. It’s the same shit every time.
“All set.” I give him a nod and make my way through the doors, not giving either one of them another look. But I have to admit, I wanna turn back and see her. I at least wanna know her name.
I let myself breathe freely for the first time all day as I leave the station, and see my brother in his car waiting for me, just like he said he would.
“Told you,” Anthony says, lowering his window and giving our lawyer a salute.
“Hey, you wanna do something today?” I ask him.
Wicked curiosity flashes in his eyes.
“I wanna look someone up.” He tilts his head and keeps his eyes on me as I round the car and get into the passenger seat.
“Look someone up?” he asks as I shut the door and lean back, making myself comfortable.
“Yeah, a cop,” I tell him. The humor’s completely wiped from his face until I add, “I think she’s new.”
“Oh, I see.” He chuckles as he puts the car in drive. “Maybe we should’ve left you in there a little longer.”
I laugh and roll my window down so I can put a hand out and feel the breeze.
“I’m just a little bored, and a lot curious,” I say.
“You know what they say about that, don’t you?” He looks at me like what I’m doing is stupid as fuck. And maybe it is. But I at least need to know her name.
Tonya
I feel like a fucking failure. I sigh heavily and lean my back against the wall of the station. I run my hands over my face and feel like shit. Damn it’s been a long couple of days. I got the approval to keep an eye on Thomas, so there’s one positive thing that happened. Tomorrow I’ll get something, even if it’s just learning his routines. I have the next three days off. I can use them to get a good look at the Valettis and try to talk to Thomas. I may be off-duty, but if anything happens, I’ll just say it’s field work.
I really think I could’ve gotten information from him. I could tell he didn’t have shit to do with Georgia's death. I could’ve fed off that emotion. I’m good at reading people, real fucking good at it. I get people to talk. There’s just something about me that puts people at ease. I don’t know what it is, but I love it. It’s a gift, and it’s always worked in my favor.