“When he started showing a real interest in his sister, we were so pleased. We thought he’d started seeing her as more than the simpleton he sometimes called her.” Andros moved in his chair and she didn’t need to look at him to know that he was pissed off by her words. It was very liberating to know that this man was the one looking after her girl. As cold as he was, it was a comfort to her to know that she could finally take a breath, after all these years of worrying. Jenna had been right after all; he really was her angel.
“Okay, then what happened?”
“Well then, that’s when the trips out of town started, and the being gone for days. Suddenly Alec was flushed with cash. I guess he was using her on his own at first, then to get what he wanted, he brought it to Bonata’s attention. We had no control over anything anymore, Paulie and I. They just took over. Paulie tried to say something once or twice; she was still his little girl after all. But Bonata said, or did something to him to scare him, and we had no choice but to drop it. By then, mom was making waves and no matter how we tried to deflect her she wouldn’t quit.”
“Then Jenna started, I don’t know what you’d call it, communicating better. We still couldn’t get anything out of her unless we asked her the right questions, but she could tell us what she wanted. That’s where your name came up again after all those years. She’d mentioned you the first time when she was about sixteen or seventeen, and other than the cutout from the magazine that she had on her wall, we never heard a peep out of her about it again.”
“Things went on as usual, and we started to learn to live with it. I had no idea that mom was doing anything, or that she’d found out so much, but the Bonatas did. I don’t know if Alec warned them or not, I guess now we’ll never know.” Her voice trialed off as she felt a moment’s sorrow for the son she’d lost. She knew she was partly to blame for what had become of him, that maybe if she’d given him more of her time…
“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.”