Frankie was standing next to him and Freddo. Frankie was a welcomed sight. He’d been nice to me over the last few weeks.
I needed nice and he’d made it possible for Xander and I to see each other.
Pa greeted Armand in the usual way. I couldn’t believe it though when he came to give me a hug and a kiss.
Just this afternoon he’d treated me as little more than a rag doll when he shoved me onto the balcony and tried to get me to rat on Xander.
He was acting now like nothing had happened.
Like this was some meeting we always had and he was simply seeing me off.
“Everything okay?” he asked Armand.
“Everything is perfect and ready to go.” Pride danced on Armand’s stupid face.
“Wonderful. Is there anything you two need?” Pa’s eyes glittered with the satisfaction of this moment I still couldn’t believe was happening.
I was at the airport. I was actually here walking through the motion of this nightmare.
Armand shook his head in response and I just stared back at Pa, blank and expressionless. I just stared at him and stiffened like a statue.
Pa set his eyes on me and he narrowed them. “Jia, a little less tension from you would be appreciated.”
“Did you kill him?” I asked ignoring his shit comments. “Is he dead?”
Pa looked uncomfortable at the question, but he did that usual hard man thing by trying to look like he didn’t care. The thing was, I knew he didn’t care about Xander. What he cared about was what I thought about him. He cared that I’d stopped looking up to him.
“My dear girl, it is time to stop thinking about our enemies. Time to move forward and focus ahead.”
“Did you kill him?” I repeated, ignoring his bullshit. As far as I was concerned Pa was everybody’s enemy. He got involved with the wrong people and this was a symptom of that.
“He will be dead before the stroke of midnight I’m sure. If not, a bullet to the head should do the trick.”
I bit down hard on my back teeth and gave him a long hardened look of despair.
“I hate you,” I seethed. Resentment burned my chest. “I hate you.”
My father had done a number of things in my life, all enough to make me hate him. It was because of him, him with his enemies, that my mother died. They came at her to get to him. It was his fault. He’d done enough questionable things. Despite that, never once had I told him that I hated him.
Not once.
From the rage in his eyes and the line etched across his jaw, I could see my words stung.
“That’s okay my love. You can hate me if you want to, that’s fine. It happens just like shit. It happens. You simply don’t understand. That is all. I can’t expect you to fall in line with everything I say. But at least I know I got to keep you safe and with someone who can do it.” He looked from me to Armand.
I needed… some space.
God…I needed space. Lightheadedness and tension took me from the angst of everything.
Some time away from them was what I needed, even a minute to breathe.
“I need … two minutes.” I panted, running a hand through my hair which was now a matted mess.
“What for?” Pa flared.
“Please, I just need two minutes and then I’ll come back. The ladies room. I just need to go.”
“I’ll go with her,” Frankie offered.
