He expected a blank stare or, at the very least, an odd look, but instead, Frankie said, “Because we are?”
“I’m sorry?” Nico asked.
“The Chinese zodiac? I was born in the year of the ox, Jason in the year of the pig,” Frankie said. “Why?”
Nico didn’t answer. Jason was the pig. Jason, not Frankie. “Was Leo born in the year of the rat by any chance?” he asked.
Frankie looked surprised. “How did you know?”
Just like that, that final piece clicked into place. Nico looked at Mal. “The charges.”
Mal quirked his head at him. “The what?”
“The charges. The charges on his credit card. The lingerie, the couture… Jason’s the one bribing girls into overlooking his temper.”
Frankie inclined his head in a nod. “Now, you’re catching on.”
“Why does everyone thinkyou’rethe problem?” Nico prompted, staring at Frankie expectantly.
“Because my brother is crazy…and a pathological liar.”
“Explain,” Mal demanded.
“Is it not self-explanatory?” Frankie asked. “I am my brother’s keeper. I’ve been tasked with babysitting him ever since my father went to prison.”
“How so?” Nico asked, sitting forward, literally on the edge of his seat. “We need details. This is important.”
Mal watched as Frankie seemed to war with himself. “You’ve already told us this much. You might as well just get it all out there.”
It was clear Frankie wanted to talk. Mal could see the resentment in him, the anger. Mal didn’t blame him for it.
“My brother was never really…normal. Or maybe he would have been if we’d been born to different parents. But my father was a bad man. He worked for the previous Dai Lo, who was far less civilized than his son.”
“That’s…ominous,” Nico said, shifting uneasily in his seat.
Frankie nodded. “My father thought nothing of breaking people’s arms or severing their fingers right in front of us.He called it ‘learning the family business.’ I learned how to compartmentalize. But Jason…he ate it up. He loved it. The more depraved, the better. My father doted on him because of it.”
“And your mother?” Nico asked.
Frankie’s face softened. “She’s a very gentle person who was forced into a marriage with a bad man. What was she going to do? It’s not like she could leave. We were here in the States. She didn’t speak a word of English. She’s never held a job. She was trapped, exactly how my father liked her. She was essentially a house slave and he treated her like one. Jason thought nothing of doing the same.”
“He abused your mother?” Nico asked.
“He didn’t hit her or anything, but my brother is very good at terrorizing people without having to hurt them. He just also enjoys hurting them. After my father went to prison, my mother was spared the physical abuse but not the emotional torment.”
Mal pondered this new information. “How did your brother react to your father’s crime? The one that got him thrown in prison.”
Frankie’s expression grew dark. “You still don’t get it. My father didn’t kill that girl. Jason did.”
“What?” Nico blurted.
Frankie nodded. “When my brother was seventeen, he became obsessed with this freshman cheerleader, Lori. Probably because she wouldn’t give him the time of day. He asked her out and she rejected him…publicly. Loudly.”
Something soured in Mal’s stomach. It was like watching a sad movie where you already knew the ending.
“He was so humiliated, he lost it, started tearing the house apart. Swore he’d make her pay. My father told him to calm down and to use his head. That there were other ways to get a woman to fall in line.”
“I think I’m going to throw up,” Nico muttered.
