Page 70 of Real Tree / Fake Boyfriend

Tyler finally stood up, too scared to look closely at the blood-stained Julien’s shirt. He’d been shot. He had beenshot, but he wasn’t dead. Still, Tyler couldn’t move away from him if he suddenly collapsed.

“Mom, please,”he begged.

He didn’t know what they were supposed to do, but if Julien got on the wrong side of some mafia guys, Tyler didn’t know what could happen to him. He could go to jail himself, or worse. He didn’t want to even think of the worst.

“Then what are we going to do?” his mother asked, with such an even tone. Tyler wondered if she had been in a situation like this before.

Julien leaned heavily on the table and pulled out his phone. “I think I have an idea.”

Chapter 27

Julien

Julien pressed Lou Rossi’s name on his phone. He felt satisfied as Anthony squirmed on the floor and clutched his ribs.

Blood dripped from Rossi’s temple, and he didn’t dare to even speak, even when Julien showed him whom he was calling.

“Jules? What is it? I’m in the middle of Christmas Eve dinner right now,” Lou said when he, thankfully, picked up.

Julien could hear a giant crowd talking and laughing from the phone, and he had to wonder how much of Tony’s plans his Uncle Lou knew about.

“Sorry, I’ll make this quick,” Julien said. “Tony paid me a visit. I gave him your money. Then he showed up at my family Christmas Eve dinner with a gun demanding an extra fifteen Gs,” he said. “Did you know about this, Lou?”

The way Tony lowered his head suggested that Lou didn’t know about this.

On the other end of the phone, Lou sighed, and the sounds of his party went quiet as a door slammed. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me right now? What the fuck is he thinking? He was supposed to get that payment and come back here. I thought he could leave you to a nice Christmas now that you don’t owe us,” Lou told him.

Julien didn’t think the man had tried to be that generous, so much as he wanted what he owed as soon as possible. But he was in no position to question what Lou said. He never had been and wouldn’t start now.

Tyler stared at him, his blue eyes wide and terrified. Julien wanted to reach out to reassure him, but he also knew that he had to get Tony out of the house without ending up in more trouble than he had started.

“Well, he changed the plan. He shot at me in front of my boyfriend’s niece and nephew,” Julien said, absolutely ratting the bastard out.

If he knew one thing about Lou, it was that he didn’t fuck around when it came to kids. He had eight of his own andprobably a thousand grandkids. Hopefully, it would sway him to understand where Jules was coming from.

Lou swore. “Oh god damn, Jules. I had nothing to do with this. You know I run a legitimate business. Mostly. Put Tony on the phone. I need to talk to him.”

Julien reached over, and Tony flinched before he took the phone and pressed it against his ear.

Mrs. Ashford raised her eyebrows, and Julien gave her a slight nod. He doubted there would be any kindness from the woman ever again, but at least he hoped the family would be safe now.

“Yeah,” Tony said, his voice quiet. “I know. I know.” His tone turned a little whiny, but he quickly shut up.

The muffled sounds of Lou yelling weren’t clear enough for Julien to comprehend, but from the look on Tony’s face, it wasn’t going well for him.

The whole family stayed silent until Tony hung the phone up and tentatively handed it to Jules.

Brad smacked the bat against his palm. “I think you have somewhere to be, Pal,” hegrinned again.

Tony quickly scrambled to his feet. “You guys are all insane.” His face contorted with pain as he hurried to the door.

Julien rushed to follow him to make sure he actually fucking left. Wally, Brad, and Mr. Ashford followed in kind.

“Merry Christmas, Tone,” Julien spat as Rossi struggled to open the door.

“You… you just have to pull it,” Wally said helpfully, though the gun was still pointed at Rossi. “No, you need to unlatch it first. The top one. It’s tricky.”

Julien sighed and went over to unlatch the door. Once it was open, Rossi burst out into the night.

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