On the Rocks Page 7

  When I got out of the bathroom, I was sure that I would see him. Again, I was surprised that he was nowhere to be found, and I moved quicker to the room I was sharing with Jack. I was almost there when Dinal stepped out of the shadows. I was so close, but he blocked my way and instead I came up short as we met each other’s gaze. Why did the man hate me so much? It was like my very existence was somehow going to affect his outcome in life. I was a threat just existing.

  “What are you two doing in there, Tommy boy? Have you found you a little play toy?”

  “Let me pass, Dinal. I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  “That would be a first. You know that your dad is going to be here soon. I am sure he is going to love to hear about how much of a failure you really are.”

  I tried to push past him, and he pushed me down. I was holding the towel tightly against me, but it came unloose a little and I made a sound as I covered up. “Just let me through! I am not doing this with you today, Dinal!”

  I was yelling because I wanted him to leave me alone. He smiled though, unfazed by my hollering. If anything, he seemed to enjoy it. “No one is here to save you, Tommy. There is never anyone here to save you. I told you before that all you are going to do is make your throat raw when you yell for help like that.”

  He started towards me with a look in his eyes that I had seen many times before. Dinal was a sadist, and for whatever reason, I was his favorite person to hurt. It was most likely because I was gay, but I didn’t care anymore. That was why I was always away. I hated my family, and everyone who worked in it.

  The door behind Dinal opened, and he stopped his pursuit of me. “What is going on out here?”

  Dinal waved Jack off. “Nothing. I was just giving Tommy a message from his father, so he doesn’t forget what he is doing here.”

  Jack shook his head and pushed past Dinal. “No need. I have already talked to Nick, and I have my orders. I am supposed to keep his son from all harm, even you.”

  Dinal was offended, but Jack was bigger and had an intimidating look in his eyes. No one was going to argue with him. No one that had any sense, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I was ushered back into the room with Jack’s help. It was the first time I had ever seen Dinal step down. It was worth the beating I would get next time I saw him. If he had a chance again. That part I wasn’t so sure of, but that little bit I had to keep to myself. Some things could never be said out loud, not even byme. I trusted Jack, but that didn’t mean that I trusted the outcome of all of this. I would have to wait and see. I was going to have to do a better job of getting my way, though. I wasn’t supposed to be here.

  “Let’s get out of here. I am still hungry as hell.”

  Jack grinned, “Yeah, me too.”

  He looked like he wanted to get out of here as much as I did, and I was thankful that he didn’t see anything wrong with getting out and away from here. It was for our own good. I was sure of it. Now what would happen would happen. I didn’t have to be there to witness it. I didn’t want to be.

  Chapter 14

  Jack

  Tommy was like a different person today. After our talk earlier, he didn’t seem to have the same compulsion to try and shock me with his outrageous behavior. While I was sure he was trying to flirt with me, that hadn’t changed, but the way he was doing it had changed rather dramatically. It wasn’t so, well dramatic and I was finding myself turned on without the negative aggravation from before.

  It was because of the talk we had, but I think some of it had to do with the fact that we were away from that house. When we got to the restaurant, he excused himself, and I found it a little funny that he had to use the bathroom again. When he took a while, I almost went in there but then he came back out, pushing something into his pocket. He had a look of guilt on his face, and I wanted to know what was going on.

  “Nothing, Jack. I just called my mom. She wanted to know that everything was okay. and that Dad didn’t leave me with some idiot like Dinal. She is worried about me and wants me to come home.”

  “That wouldn’t be best.”

  “I know and that is what I told her. I don’t want to bring any danger to her. Most of the time, when mobs fight each other, which is what this looks like, they leave the kids and the wives out of it. They won’t touch her.”

  He seemed sure about it, and I wasn’t going to rain on his parade. There were lots of times that no one cared about the rules. They were trying to take Nick out of power and take over his territory. They weren’t going to care who they had to tread on along the way. This part I knew for certain, but from the way Tommy talked about his mom, he really loved her, and I didn’t want to put any more worry in his head. He had to be scared, even if he did an excellent job of hiding it.

  “So, what do you want to eat?”

  Tommy looked at me with that hungry look, and I had an idea of what he was thinking about. It looks like I spoke too soon on the calming down of the flirting. I could see exactly where he was going to take this, and I waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, I shook my head.

  “You know what I want, Jack, so I am not even going to pretend like you don’t know. I want you for dinner, but if I can’t have that, just a burger and fries will do. I don’t know of anything else that I have ever gotten here before that tasted too good.”

  The menu was small, and I settled on the same thing with a soda when the waitress came along. She wasn’t back but a minute later with a drink, and she smiled at me in about the same way that Tommy had. Tommy noticed it, and he grabbed my hand in front of her so that she would know that I belonged to him. It was a crass move, but it was kind of sweet in its own way. He was jealous.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “I was just saving you some hassle. She was looking at you like she wanted to eat you alive.”

  I shrugged him off and told him that he was just seeing things. I felt a little embarrassment sweep through me.

  “I have a kid, Tommy, you know that, right? I have a kid and an ex-wife that I still see a lot.”

  “So, you like both?”

  I shrugged again, not sure what to say to that. I don’t like both, and to be honest, I don’t know if I ever did. I tried being with Annika because that was what I was supposed to want and then she got pregnant.

  “No, not really. Like I said before, I had to hide who I was, too. It is just part of it, Tommy. I don’t know if that will ever change. The world has made huge strides, but there are millions of people in this country, and some of them are never going to understand it.”

  “I know, trust me. So how did you do it? How did you stay married, and did she find out about it?”

  I never really talked about Annika in this way, and I was a little uncomfortable if I was going to be honest with myself. I don’t know how I had done it, not the deed itself anyways, but there was a part of me that knew the only reason it was possible was because she was so understanding.

  “She knew about it before I really knew about it, I think. She approached me and asked for a divorce because she was never going to be who I wanted. I was hurt at the time, but now I see that she helped us both out more than I care to think about. We weren’t supposed to be married, and now we are good friends. It is better this way, and I can’t regret it. I got a son out of it, and that is all that matters now.”

  “I don’t know if I could do that. I have never been with a woman. They do not appeal to me at all.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with him. I found beauty in both genders, but I was readily turned on by men far more than I was turned on by women. I hadn’t even thought about it since Annika. I don’t think I would ever be attracted to another woman again. I was right. Now I didn’t even try to pretend that I was something that I wasn’t. I was a gay man and though I couldn’t shout it from the rooftops, it didn’t change what I was. I was finally getting to the point that I wasn’t embarrassed about who I was.

  “Well, it is very different, I will give you tha
t.” This conversation was taking a turn that I hadn’t seen coming, and I was lost as to what to say or do about it. Tommy had me thinking about sex nonstop, and now I was thinking about the differences in men and women. I would always pick men if I was given a chance. I can’t even remember how long it had been since I was even attracted to a woman. Annika was always trying to hook me up with one of her friends, but I think we both knew that I wasn’t going to go for it. She did it more out of a courtesy, I think.

  “So, if you are attracted to me, Jack, why do you act like you aren’t? I can see how much you fight it.”

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t attracted to you, Tommy. What I said was that it can’t happen because I am working for your dad. You didn’t have to tell me he was a homophobe, I would have guessed, and the last thing that I need is to get into it with him. He could make a lot of trouble for me and my family. You have to understand that.”

  Tommy didn’t say anything. His eyes went to a faraway look, and I had a feeling that he was thinking about all the trouble his dad would cause. I didn’t want to go down that route, even though I was getting more and more attracted to Tommy. Tommy was a lot deeper than I thought he was and even now I could feel my body’s attention at the idea of it.

  “Why don’t we get out of here?”

  “Where would we go? You were the one that insisted we get out of the safe house, and now you want to go somewhere else?”

  “I don’t think we should go back there. Let’s get a motel or something. I would feel much safer there where no one knows where we are, then back at the safe house with everyone they are looking for. If they want me dead, they will get me at the safe house. We could just leave and find somewhere else to go.”

  “I am not going anywhere, Tommy, until you tell me what is going on. You want to get out of the safe house so badly, why? There has to be a reason besides the fact that you hate the place. Everyone else is scared of getting taken out, and you want to run from the one place that could be safe for you.”

  “It’s not that way, not really. I know it seems like a safe place, but that safe house has been in the family for over a decade. Do you really think that no one else knows about it? Everyone thinks that this is because of someone working it out from the inside. If that is the case, wouldn’t they know about that place and make sure that they hit it up? Now we are all crammed in there like sardines. That is the very last place that I want to go.” He paused for a moment and then said the last bit in a very shallow, low voice.

  “I feel safe because you are here, no other reason.”

  What he said made a whole lot of sense, but I still wasn’t ready to just take his word for it. I wanted to keep him safe, and I had a feeling that I could do it best at the safe house. It was packed with Corrello men right now, but where else was I supposed to take him? If something happened, and I went behind Nick’s back, he would kill me. Of this I was sure.

  “I don’t know, Tommy. I don’t think it is a wise idea. We are going to be safe there, Tommy. I will make sure of it.”

  Tommy just shook his head and sighed out loud. I know that he didn’t want to hear about it, but at the end of the day, he needed to. He was in danger, I knew what kind of people we were messing with and his innocence was going to get him killed. I wasn’t going to let it happen on my watch.

  He was quiet through the meal and his exuberance from earlier was gone. It is a pity because I was already missing that guy. He was the one that made me smile, and I knew that it wasn’t going to be long before I would miss it even more. Our time together was limited, and I didn’t want to spend it arguing with him, not after everything that he had confided in me about. It just didn’t feel right to be sitting here like this.

  “Come on, Tommy, there is no need to be upset. It is going to be okay, and you were right, these burgers were way better than anything that I could have come up with back there.”

  “I am right about the security of the safe house too.”

  He wasn’t going to let it go, and I was about to launch into a spiel about how he wasn’t right when he got a call. It didn’t take much to realize that everything that he was worried about was right. When he hung up, there was a look on his face that didn’t match the news that I had overheard. Did I just hear that right?

  “What’s going on?”

  Tommy looked down like he was collecting his thoughts and then when he met my gaze, there was moisture in his eyes. I couldn’t be sure if it was real or not.

  “The safe house was hit, and they got five more people.”

  “What?!”

  I had pretty much overheard that, but I still wasn’t sure how I felt about all of it. How was that even possible? We had barely been gone an hour and a half. What sort of luck did we have?

  “Who?”

  “Dinal and Sam, three more who came in while we were gone as well.”

  I didn’t know who Sam was, but I did remember who Dinal was and the fact that Tommy hated the guy. He didn’t have any problem showing his happiness now. Was that the smirk I had seen on his face from before?

  “Well we need to get out of here. Whoever did it could still be around here. and we were exposed, out in the open.”

  “It’s fine really. I want to finish my burger.”

  I was getting beyond irritated with Tommy. I knew that he understood what was going on, and I couldn’t believe that he was acting like everything was fine and dandy. Someone was taking out his family, and he really was far more worried about his few leftover fries then he was about anything else.

  “Well, I guess we don’t have to go back to the safe house again. If nothing else, you have to see the bright side of that.”

  I didn’t see the bright side of it at all. All I could think about was how much I was tired and still so confused about what was going on. There didn’t seem to be anywhere safe for us to go.

  “I need to call your father. I am not going to mention your silver lining because I don’t think that he is going to see it your way, but he has to know what is going on.”

  “Don’t call him. I don’t want him knowing where we are. His last suggestion was one that I didn’t like very much, and you said so yourself in the beginning it would be safer for all of us if he didn’t know where we were going.”

  I just shook my head in disagreement. “Your father is the one who hired me. I have to call and find out what is going on. I will be back. You go ahead and finish your fries. I have a feeling it is going to be a while before we get a proper meal again.”

  Chapter 15

  Tommy

  I watched Jack go outside. His eyes were on everything, and I know that he was waiting for the moment that a couple of black town cars would screech to a halt in front of him and started shooting up the place. It wasn’t going to happen, but he was convinced, and I wasn’t going to argue. I knew that it was going to be okay, whether he did or not. If I didn’t, I suspect that I would have been as nervous as he was.

  Now he was on the phone, and I knew that he was talking to my dad. That was going to be a problem. I knew where he was going to want to send us, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to let that happen. If the safe house was compromised, there was one other place where we would be sent. I knew where it was going to be, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to go there. I hoped that Jack was going to listen to me, but I had a feeling that I was going to have to convince him. Considering what just happened at the safe house, I hope that he would be convinced enough to listen to me now. I didn’t expect it though. No one really took me seriously, like being gay stopped me from having critical thoughts or something like that.

  When Jack came back in, the fries that I was so worried about were getting cold, and they were completely forgotten. I wasn’t worried about the fries. I was worried about the fact that Jack was looking like he was.

  “Who called you?”

  It took a minute for my brain to figure out what he was saying... “What do you mean?”

  “I
mean, someone called you, and it wasn’t your dad. He didn’t even know what had happened at the safe house. He wanted to know how I knew. I had to stumble through an answer.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I just told him that I got a call from one of my men. He didn’t seem too happy with it, and I don’t know if he believed me or not. Your dad is very paranoid, so I have to ask you, Tommy, who called you and told you what happened when we were at the restaurant?”

  I couldn’t tell him the truth, but I could try to throw him towards another direction.

  “It was my mom. She heard about it from Tony and wanted to call and make sure that I was okay. She is the one that cares. My dad doesn’t. He knew I was there, and I bet he didn’t even ask about me.”

  Jack didn’t answer that part of my statement, and I had a feeling that I knew why that was.

  “So how did your mom know?”

  I shrugged and tried to play it off like it was no big deal, but it was. This was all a very big deal, and I wanted him to believe me. Jack was going to have to if he was going to believe the next part. I knew what was coming, and I had to wait it out. He already thought that I knew too much, which I did. Jack couldn’t know why. No one could, or it was guaranteed that something was going to happen to me for real.

  “Anyways, your dad wants us to go to Kent.”

  My eyes got wide, and I told him that I didn’t want to go. I knew what was in Kent, and I knew that there was no way that I was going to go. It was a death trap, but how do I express that to him?

  “We can’t go, Jack. It is going to be like the safe house.”

  “Nick says that no one knows about that place.”

  “They do, everyone does, and I don’t think we should go there. If you really want to keep us safe, you will keep us as far away from that place as possible. Trust me, Jack. It is not a good place for us, and I want you to get home to see your son again.”