Page 48 of The Gambler
“I don’t have time for you to daydream lady, where is Jenna?”
“I’m getting to that. Okay, so after mom got involved, some other things started happening. We found out that Bonata was using Jenna, he was hiring her out I guess you can say, to other men in his position and even some that you wouldn’t think would have anything to do with the likes of Alphonso. Jenna started acting really strange, she still couldn’t quite put her words in order, but she was learning how to communicate better. She would do that texting thing, have you seen her? The girl is amazing.”
“Then she started showing an interest in all these things that she’d never done before. We couldn’t tell anyone what was going on, not even mom. Bonata had made some threats after Paulie and I tried to keep Jenna from going over there any more. We’d socked away most of the money he’d paid us in a special account for our girl, it wasn’t enough for the rest of her life, but it was a nice little nest egg. Bonata wouldn’t have it. Things started getting out of hand quick, then a few days ago, they took my husband so that Jenna would have to do the job she’d been hired for.” She became agitated at this point and couldn’t sit still. It had all come down to this…
“What job?”He sat forward in his seat as his heart gave a sickening thud in his chest. All this time he wasn’t sure where the fuck Paulie Petridis had been. He’d been sure that like his son, the older man was one of Bonata’s lackeys; but if she was to be believed, the whole family seems to have been held hostage by one man’s sick greed.
“You think they would tell me? All I know is that it was for some very important people. Jenna, for the first time, was really adamant about not wanting to do it. She had stopped confiding in me at this point, so I didn’t know all the details, but I knew it was big. Then she came up with a plan, it was all hers by the way. She told me in her own way that she was going to find her angel; that her angel would help. That night at the casino, when you met, that was no accident. She knew you would be there, I don’t know how, maybe that was your usual night to be there, I don’t know. Anyhow, I had to convince Alec to take her with him; she never played there for whatever reason and we never asked. Anyway, she believed that if she could just get close to you, that she could do the rest…”
“I’m sure she didn’t plan for your asshole son to knock her around.”
“I have no idea what she’d planned to do once she’d found you.”
“Okay so she found me, why didn’t she tell me about her father, why did she leave me in the middle of the fucking night?”
“Oh she’d never do that.”
“What?”
“She needed you to save her grandmother, but she’d never put you in danger by sending you after her father, you’re her angel.” She looked at him like he was supposed to understand that shit.
“What the fuck are you talking about lady? If she didn’t come after me to save her father then what?Where did she go?”
“To kill them.”
He sat back hard, his mouth hanging open. He thought, for the first time in a long, long time, something had finally shocked the shit out of him.
“Come again.”
“She’s very proficient at fighting, she taught herself. She’d just watch hours and hours of those fighting exercises on the computer. She studies their movements she said, and in ten minutes, she can copy it. She tried teaching me but I’m no good at it, but our girl...” She shook her head in wonder.
Andros meanwhile was wondering what the fuck was going on around him? Everything he thought he knew was shit compared to what had been revealed. Had it only been a few days? And now his woman might be in danger. “Where is she?”
“I honestly don’t know, I have no idea where they’re keeping him; but I do know that whatever it is they want her to do, she won’t do it; so she’s gonna try to eliminate them.
Whatever they’re up to, they were willing to murder a US senator to shut her up. If she’d done theexpose` it would’ve shone the spotlight on certain people. Not to mention Jenna would’ve been caught up in the whole thing. I think their aim was to kill mom to shut her up once and for all, but I don’t think even she knows about this deal, whatever it is. I did get out of Jenna that it has something to do with a code though.”
He was up and moving before she was finished; she didn’t know where Jenna had gone to, but maybe there was something in Bonata’s files. He hoped so, because he had no other alternative.
He refused to panic, or to give up hope that he’d figure this shit out. He called in Garret and Jameson to help him go through the files once again, and hoped like fuck he found what he was looking for. The thought of her out there, one little girl trying to save her dad, made him proud and scared as fuck at the same time.
“I’m going to tan her little ass as soon as I find her.” He mumbled the words to himself as he walked into his office.
Chapter 28
He and his men combed through everything they could find, looking for a clue. When her grandparents woke up he didn’t tell them what was going on, he just let them believe that Jenna was tired from her long night, and was still in bed. That wouldn’t last too long though, so he’d have to come up with something fast.
He was losing patience, when three hours went by and they still had nothing. They found out a lot more about Bonata and his dealings than he wanted to know, but nothing on this job Jenna was supposed to be doing. His phone rang and he answered it distractedly while he scanned the screen in front of him.
“Hey boyo who’s in Cuba?”
“Gramps I can’t talk right now I’ve got a situation.”
“In Cuba?”
“What the fuck are you talking about gramps?”
“Well I have a tracker on your jet as you know, in case you go down or some fuck, and the incompetent fools can’t find you. It alarms or some shit when it goes into international airspace, I didn’t know that. Fucking pentagon. Anyway it says that you’re heading to Havana, what gives?”