I'm Nothing (The Family Book 2)(15)

The doctor was led out of the apartment after being paid in full. Tonio decided to leave his shirt on. “What did I miss?” he asked.

“You’re sure you’re ready to know?” Donnie asked.

“I didn’t get that much of a buzz. Someone trying to kill me, and I need to put a stop to it. I may as well get to work.”

Luiz came back into the room. “The footage is on the way over here. Should be here within the hour.”

“Jake’s father has been … released,” Donnie said.

Tonio looked toward Jake. “What the fuck?”

“He didn’t agree with a bunch of boys taking over,” Jake said. “Fucker said we were soldiers for a reason, and that we are in way over our heads.”

This did surprise Tonio.

“We should have killed him when we did your fathers. He didn’t believe in progress, only pain and vengeance,” Jake said. “I struck the final blow.”

“We were cleaning up the mess when you called.”

“Should you be talking about this in front of me?” Zara asked.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Donnie said.

“Huh?”

“Lucien clearly had plans for you in the beginning. You want to go to the cops, go. You won’t last two minutes out there. We’ve got cops on our books, as do our enemies. You’d be dead by the end of the day.”

She shivered and nodded her head. “Your secrets are safe with me. I’m happy pretending I don’t know shit.”

Tonio laughed. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

“Whatever. I’ve got nothing else to do. I’ll make coffee. I can make coffee, and I’m hungry again.”

She left them, heading toward the kitchen. Tonio watched her ass sway from side to side.

“You’re into her,” Luiz said.

“So? You got a problem?”

“Not a problem, just saying, I don’t recall you being into women. I thought dick was more your style.” Luiz grabbed his crotch.

Tonio laughed. “Yeah, right, you wish. So, Jake’s father was against us this whole time. What are you thinking? Invite a party?”

“We got the whole scene on camera. Jake tortured him, and we’re going to show strength. No kids invited, only adults, and I don’t give a fuck if there are women there.”

“Paige and Charlene won’t be there,” Jake said.

“You’re good to have that shit for others to see?” Tonio asked.

“Why not? Fuckers are happy to do it about us. It’s time they saw who the real bosses were.”

“Damn, I like you all vengeful and shit,” Luiz said.

“So, we organize a party, and then we take on Lucien.”

“Zara’s father was going to tell. It’s why he ended up dead. He had all the details, all the books, everything. Lucien killed him at my father’s orders, and since then, he’s been ordering her mother. Zara was supposed to go away to college, but she stayed behind to help her mother. Then Lucien took a shining to her, too, wanting to pop that cherry as a bonus,” Donnie said.

“Lucien is dead,” Tonio said.

“Agreed. Along with the three that we know have been plotting against us. We take all four of them out, we show our force. First, we need to lure them to the party. I doubt anyone would come if they thought there was going to be a bloodbath.”

“I can organize that. Don’t worry about it,” Luiz said. “I can get them to come.”

There was a knock at the door just as Zara was bringing in coffee.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I should be asking you. You’re the one who is cut up and bleeding.”

“I’m fine.” He took the coffee she offered, and she sat beside him, drinking her own. “Sorry your buzz had to end.”

“Yeah, well, nothing lasts forever, does it?”

“I guess not.”

“What’s going on now?”

“We’re checking out who the redhead is, and we’re going to see what is going on.”

He settled in as Luiz came back with the footage, loading it into the DVD player.

Several cameras came into focus, and he had a big enough screen to see them all.

“There’s the redhead,” Zara said, pointing at the top left hand corner.

“We’re there,” Tonio said, pointing to the center of the screen.

“As much as I’d love to see your ass dancing, let’s fast forward.”

Over two hours worth of footage played, and the redhead moved around the club, always in sight of them.

How had he not seen it?

It made no sense to him.

“You two kissed?” Jake asked.

“Clearly they did.”

“There, there,” Zara said. “Press play.”

It showed Zara going into the toilet, and then her coming out after several minutes passed. They moved off, and then the redhead came out. She had a cell phone and started to follow them. He’d not even noticed but she kept a careful distance.

“We’ll find out who she is.”

“She’s old,” Zara said. “When I saw her up close, she wore a lot of makeup. It was kind of scary.”

“She wasn’t eye fucking me, baby,” Tonio said. “She was looking at her paycheck.”

“I’m sorry. I clearly don’t read people all that well.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He patted her knee.

Glancing toward his friends, he saw all three was watching him. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nothing, just observing. You can’t go back to the pizza place. We’ve closed it down, and we’ve also dealt with the massage parlor next door,” Luiz said.

“What do I do?”

“Until we have this party, stay here, and don’t leave without one of us. It’s not safe out there alone,” Donnie said.

“There’s nowhere for me to go.”

“You’re not going to ask about your mother.”

She shook her head. “No, and I don’t want to know. I don’t care if that makes me a bad person, right now, I don’t care.”

****

Later that night, Jake, Donnie, and Luiz left Tonio’s apartment.

“She’s good for him,” Luiz said.

“Yeah, he doesn’t look as troubled, and she’s only been in his life a couple of days,” Jake said.

“He doesn’t know that we know,” Donnie said.

“When he’s ready, he’ll tell us,” Luiz said, hating that he was having to keep a secret from his friend. They had learned long ago what Tonio had been through. His own sister had told him just minutes before she took her own life. He’d been out, and she’d called him, telling him everything. Luiz had found the evidence already, but hearing about it from Maria, it was hard. What was even worse, none of them had ever known the truth of what Tonio was going through.

Years of torture, abuse, and rapes had turned their friend into someone who was so withdrawn, there were times Luiz expected to walk in on his friend’s suicide.

“I found the files that his father sent to mine,” Luiz said. “They made him do some sick shit. On some of the videos, they left the camera running, and he got beat a lot.”

“We all promised that we’d keep this to ourselves until Tonio came to us.”

“You know he spends most of his time on that damn computer looking for it, right?” Luiz asked.

“It’s the same computer we replaced so we could gain access to it. He doesn’t need to remember this shit,” Jake said.

Jake and Donnie had distracted Tonio long enough for Luiz to go in, find the files, and attach them to a file that was hidden and secure. All trace of those files had ended months ago.

“If something happens to Zara, he’s going to hurt everyone,” Jake said.

“I never thought for a second that the girl he always cheated from would be the one that could possibly save our friend,” Luiz said.

“Tonio needs to keep his eye on the ball. It’ll get him killed otherwise, and I don’t want to be putting Tonio in the ground. When we took over, it was supposed to help us live a better life, not fuck it over,” Donnie said. “This can’t hurt Paige.”

“How is everything going with the baby?” Jake asked.

“Fine. I keep her relaxed, and everything will be fine.”

Their first child among the four of them, and Luiz was excited. This was the dream they always had, and he was going to fight to make sure they got it.

****

One week later

Zara stayed close to the house, never leaving not even to get food. She sent a shopping list to Tonio, and made him stay on video chat while he was shopping. She wanted to be part of it, but she wasn’t interested in dying. While living with Tonio, she cooked, did his laundry, and she even pressed his clothes. Yes, she was bored, and he helped by supplying her with the internet, so she could shop.

It was weird spending his money, and it was only when Tonio started to spend the money on complete crap that he literally tossed out when it came, she figured she’d be better at saving than he was. Of course, most of the things she got, he watched with her. She bought movies, or books, and she read to him.

They had been with each other for a little over a week, and she felt it had been longer. With Tonio she could be herself, and he always made her feel welcome.