I wait.
One moment.
Then another, before following behind him, being sure to keep my distance. The alleyway behind the bar is quiet, the streetlamps just beginning to flicker on as darkness descends. I follow him through the large metal door, through the kitchen,and into the bar, where I watch him stalk angrily up the stairs without a backward glance.
So much for that relationship.
I am pretty sure I bombed that worse than my tenth-grade calculus test.
Wonderful.
“I take it driving lessons didn’t go so well?” a voice asks from beside me.
“The driving lessons went great,” I mutter petulantly. “Then I had to go and open my big mouth.”
“You always did have a hard time keeping shit to yourself.”
“Fuck off, Neil,” I growl. “I am still mad at you.”
Neil ignores me. “What did you say that made him so mad?” he asks curiously as he slides behind the bar like he owns the place. “Liam Kavanaugh has always been known to be pretty levelheaded, and he looked like he was about two seconds away from a nuclear explosion.”
“I asked about my mother.”
“And?” Neil pushes as he takes down two of the pint glasses and begins to fill them with beer.
“I may have insinuated that his wife had something to do with my mother’s disappearance.” Saying it out loud makes me cringe.
“That’ll do it.” Neil chuckles as he comes back around the side of the bar, beers in hand. “Here. Let’s sit down, and you can tell me why you think your stepmother is evil, little Cinderella.”
I snort at the reference. “If anything, I’d be Rapunzel,” I point out, taking the beer from him but making no attempt to move. “And second, I’m not telling you jack shit until you tell me the hell you were doing straddling both sides of the fence.”
“Look, Ava…” Neil starts, but I’m not here any of it. Not anymore. I want answers.
“No, Neil,” I bite out. “You suddenly want to bond and talk about what you did to me? After what you let Christian do to me? To Maleah?”
His face darkens at the mention of my best friend’s name.
“You don’t get to pretend like everything is alright,” I fume, holding the beer glass tightly in my hand to steady my raging emotions. “You were one of the few people I thought I could count on. The one who always made things better after they got worse. The one who let me cry on his shoulder, who helped nurse me back to health, and then suddenly you became this emotionless cunt. You want to bond? Start with how the fuck you started spying for Matthias.”
“We’re going to need more beer,” he sighs as he gets up to pour himself another pint. I wait as he does and then follow him to the back of the bar where we won’t be overheard. Not that there is anyone in the bar besides the opening staff, but I can tell Neil is already on edge and I don’t want to push him. Otherwise, I might not get the answers I am looking for. “Elias went mental when you disappeared. He had every available man out searching for you day and night, and after a week, when nothing came of it, things turned for the worse.”
Neil takes a shaky breath.
“I’m not sure what he had over Uncle Dante, but whatever it was must have been big and damaging enough to get him to drag in every family member who’d refused to be inducted.” Neil takes a gulp of his beer. “Anyone who refused or tried to run and hide was beaten down. Made an example of.”
“What? Dante would never do that.”
It is one of the things I admired about the man I’ve called uncle for so long. He and Matthias have similar ways of running their organization, especially when it comes to forced induction.
“If you force a man to do your bidding, he will never truly be loyal,” he told me once.“The first chance he gets, he will stabyou in the back for his freedom. True loyalty and respect are earned. Loyalty and respect caused by fear of death are false.”
Neil shakes his head. “Not Dante.” He grits his teeth. “Elias, forcing his hand.”
That makes more sense.
The man had been a sociopath.
His son is a psychopath.
