Page 6 of Poisoned Promise
“You drove it! Do you think that cop cares which of you busted the lock? No!”
Alex’s brows lift and his eyes dart down to the shadow of a bruise growing on my wrist from the cop’s manhandling.
The uncertainty in my eyes is enough to quell my anger temporarily, and with a deep sigh, I order him to sit.
After pouring myself some coffee, I get him tea and join him at our small, circular dinner table.
“Tell me everything.”
“Why?” Alex mutters. “You’ll just yell at me some more.”
“Well yelling doesn’t seem to be getting through to you, does it?” I sigh deeply. “Alex, I need you to understand how serious this is.”
“Is that cop coming back?”
I hesitate as he looks up at me, unable to hide the worry in his eyes. Taking his hand, I shake my head. “I’ll take care of it. All of it, like I always do. But just so you know, Social Services will be visiting.”
“Again?” Alex groans. “Why?”
“Because you’re fourteen and you stole a car. Does that make me look like a responsible parent?”
“I—.” Alex grunts. “It was just supposed to be a bit of fun. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“Well maybe you can evaluate it all in your room because you are grounded until you graduate, you hear me?”
“What?!”
“Yup. I’m not getting any more terrifying calls like that. Not ever again, Alex. You’re under lock and key until I say otherwise.”
Despite the fight in his eyes, he doesn’t push it and instead relents, then he proceeds to tell me every detail of stealing my spare keys to sneak out (which adds two years onto his grounding), sneaking away with Michael, and everything he can remember about the car he stole and where he stole it from.
Then I send him to bed with a tight hug and a kiss, and settle into the lounge with my head in my hands.
What a nightmare.
I’m running out of ways to tame him, ways to stop him getting into trouble. Everything I do just seems to push him further away.
I can’t blame him for being restless because I was the exact same at his age but back then, my father put a gun in my hands and taught me how to use it.
I won’t give that life to my son.
After another strong coffee, I bury myself in my laptop and start digging.
The cop who threatened me clearly works for someone, but if I’m lucky, he’s just an overzealous bodyguard attached to some trust-fun asshole who wants to make a statement, and not anything else.
Initial searches of the street turn up nothing, and the same goes for the names of the businesses and homeowners on the street, so I dig deeper.
There’s not a lot of info on the car but the leases for a few of the buildings route through a small LLC attached to one name.
Rossi.
A deeper search using terms from my past life brings up the truth I was desperate to avoid, but glares at me in black and white.
My heart sinks.
The car belonged to a nameless man who worked for one Tee Rossi, the leader of a small, rather insignificant Mafia family that overcharges poor tenants and demands that business owners pay protection.
Now the cop makes more sense.
