Page 43 of Tristian (The Doherty Mafia)
“This your plan?” he continued. “To extend this task for as long as possible because you think that’s going to keep you alive? You don’t think I can be done with you at any point and replace you with any accountant I pick up off the streets.”
“I don’t care if I live or die anymore,” I hissed.
Aldo nodded, washing down another bite of the sandwich with the juice.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, darling. I don’t feel so bad about what I’m going to do to you.”
I finally made peace with the idea of my death. Aldo was going to murder me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. My end was inevitable, just like my father’s and mother’s had been.
But I wasn’t going to help him. I wouldn’t do what he wanted me to do. He could kill me, torture me…whatever he wanted to do, but he’d have to find someone else to do his dirty work for him.
Twenty-Four
Tristian
Killian, Colin, Nolan and I landed up at Brendan’s place in the middle of the night. I knew it wouldn’t go down well with him now that he had a family. I had firsthand experience of how protective he was of his son and I didn’t blame him.
However, I needed his cooperation on this one.
Brendan opened the door, surprised to see us, but he welcomed us in.
“You boys hungry?” Rosalie called out from the kitchen.
It looked like they’d just cleaned up their meal for the night, and it left me with a painful pang in the middle of my chest. It reminded me of how Elsie and I had shared a meal not too long ago.
How adorably greedily she’d wolfed down that pizza. I wanted to lick the tomato sauce off her lips. It was the only thing I’d thought about as I watched her eat.
“Not here to eat,” I said.
Brendan looked suspiciously at me; maybe he had already figured out what this was about. Nobody in the world knew me as well as he did. We had grown up together. He was the one I was closest to in the family.
So I turned to him.
“I need to speak to Davey.”
Rosalie came up behind him while Brendan’s eyes grew dark and narrow.
“Davey is asleep. It’s past fuckin’ midnight. Why do you need to speak to him?” he growled.
“I want to try and figure out if he can give us any clues on where he was held.”
Brendan banged a fist on the kitchen table. It was a sudden outburst and startled Rosalie, but I wasn’t surprised by it.
“You need to keep my son out of whatever shitshow you have going on with that chick, Tristian. You were just supposed to watch her, make sure she wasn’t spying on us for the Barons. Do you have any absolute proof she isn’t an informant?” Brendan’s face grew hot and red as he spoke. He grew angrier and angrier by the second.
“This is a shitshow because she’s missing and I know she’s been captured by them again. She is not an informant. She needs our help before it’s too late. I don’t need to explain to you what Aldo is capable of doing to her to pay for rescuing Davey.”
Brendan’s shoulders heaved with anger.
“I’m not letting Davey relive his experience with Aldo Baron. I’m not putting my son through it. Not even for the sake of your new fuckbuddy.”
I stepped up to him, my fists clenched and ready for a fight. Brendan didn’t back off, but Rosalie stepped in.
She grabbed Brendan’s arm, forcing him to turn to look at her.
“Davey can handle it. We need to do our part to return the favor. She saved our son’s life. It’s the least we can do. The least Davey can do.”
Brendan’s face tightened with anger but I had a feeling he wouldn’t contest her. Rosalie turned to me next.
“I can wake him up and you can try talking to him, but I don’t know how much help he’ll be. He’s only three,” she said.
“He’ll be more helpful than any of my other informants have been,” I replied.
She nodded, throwing Brendan a look before she went away to go fetch my nephew.
Davey took some time to fully wake up. His mother had to make him a large mug of hot cocoa and offer him a few cookies before he was awake and excited enough to talk to us.
If he was intimidated by seeing all these people around him, he didn’t show it. For a three year old, he was pretty gutsy, had to hand it to him. Even though we were all family, he didn’t actually know any of us because he hadn’t even known Brendan was his dad.
Now, Brendan pulled him into his lap and Davey sat in front of me, nibbling on a cookie in one hand and clutching a teddy bear with the other.
