Page 32 of The Gambler
Unless she got married and had a family of her own, but even then he knew he would’ve been a part her life always, since he didn’t trust anyone else to care for her.
Now he had someone else for whom to build a habitat for butterflies, because he had no doubt that they’d now become a part of his future wife’s life.
He switched gears as he approached the door where the mother was being held under lock and key.He’s already replaced Vito with someone else, since he’d been on her for the last twenty-four hours. He nodded to the new guy and opened the door.
She was having her breakfast and watching TV it looked like; and not looking too worried about her kid if you asked him. She looked a little wary at his presence, as he walked into the room and closed the door. He didn’t trust himself around her too long, so he got right to it.
“How much time did she spend around Bonata and his men?”
“I already told you since she was a teenager.”
“That’s not what I meant, you said she did jobs for them, how often and where were these jobs done?”
“Well, I’m not sure how often, I didn’t keep track; a couple days a week, sometimes more. My husband told me they took her to a room in Alphonso’s place and set her up, and then usually left her to it until she was done and they had what they wanted.”
“So she was left alone in a strange room for hours.”
“It wasn’t like that, the men were…they were a little afraid of her I think. She had the sight.” She crossed herself and he almost shot her then and there.
“What do you mean?”
“I told you; they thought she could see things and so they spent as little time with her as possible. I thought that was for the best, since she did better when she was alone.”
She looked at him as if hewere a snake about to strike; he figured she could feel the hate coming off of him. He didn’t even want to think about the young girl being left in a room all alone for hours, doing who knows what the fuck.
“Did she ever not want to do the things they asked of her?”
“Well yes, sometimes.”
“And?”
“Well, we figured she was just having an off day, she always came around in the end.” That was his fucking limit. He had her by the throat before she even saw him move.
“You greedy conniving bitch, you sold your daughter out to the highest bidder for a few pennies. The only reason you’re still breathing is because of her. But guess what, she hasn’t asked for you once today and if two more days go by with no mention of you, I’m gonna bury you in the fucking backyard.”
“It wasn’t like that…”
He threw her back on the chair and walked out, pissed way the fuck off. Hethought it best not to pay her another one of those visits unless it was to end her; because each time he saw her, he hated her guts more. Of everyone involved, he held her most responsible. She was her mother, it was her duty to shield and protect. Instead it seemed all she did was exploit and abuse. It burned a hole in his gut that he couldn’t just end the bitch.
By the time he made it back to the home office, his men had started setting up the computers and shit. There were boxes of files scattered all over the floor. Gramps and Jenna were bent over her toy doing who knows what. At least she didn’t seem to have learned any new words.
“Fuck, I lost.” Well shit. Of course gramps high fived her for getting her new word right, and he could just see his sweet little flower going out the window with too much exposure to the old coot.
“Gramps, I’ll send you home and let the chips fall where they may. If there’re any loose ends out there from the Bonata hit and they come looking for you, oh well.” The old man knew he was full of shit and just ignored him.
He decided to ignore the two of them and see what he could find in the mountain of shit they had to go through. The files were full of information on Bonata’s holdings and his dealings. He wasn’t much interested in those, because he was pretty sure the other families were already picking over that carcass.
He was looking for anything that had to do with Jenna, any link that could tie back to her in anyway. He didn’t want any of the new fucks coming after her to use as a guinea pig, he’d shed enough blood for the fucking year.
When he didn’t find anything on her, or the senator, he next tried to tackle the computer. They had it set up and hooked up to the net, but that was as far as they could go. The shit was locked, and there was no way to get in.
“Boss maybe your Jenna knows.” She picked her head up at the mention of her name and her eyes landed on the monstrosity that the men had set up on the little table. He’d wanted to keep her out of it as much as possible, but that seemed like a pipe dream now.
She left gramps and walked over to the computer looking it up and down. It was obvious she’d seen it before as she sat down and started doing her thing. Pretty soon the screen opened up and he just showed her the picture of the senator that he’d printed and she tapped in some words and voila.
Chapter 19
There was a shit load of things to read through and he figured now was as good a time as any. He picked her up from the seat and sent her back to gramps to play, while he muddled through what was written on the screen.