Page 66 of Bullseye
“You said she could be in danger?” Thankfully, she gets right to it.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. Have you seen her?”
“Not for years. What has her brother dragged her into now?” Her beautiful face is strained with worry.
“Her brother?”
“Matt. I assumed this was about him?”
“No… but what can you tell me about him?”
Sighing, she uncrosses her legs. “What’s to tell? It was a typical story at the beginning. Boy with too much money grows up and gets his hands on drugs at his prep school that costs more than most people make in a year. And he likes the drugs way too much.”
Standing, she walks to a window, and pulling the curtain back, gazes out. “My husband insisted we cut him off. Without money, he can’t buy drugs, right?” She turns to me. “Well, he was wrong—my husband—like he is about just about everything. Being broke just sent Matt to work with the dealers.”
“I don’t want to overstep, but why didn’t you pay for him to get treatment and away from the dealers?”
“I wanted to. But do you know what I came into this marriage with?” She draws a circle around her face. “This face. Thirty years ago. Oh sure, he’s found many more faces he’s liked just as much through the years, but I’m still Mrs. Villetrio. For whatever that’s worth. But without it, thanks to our prenup, there’s nothing.” Taking a deep breath, she sighs it out. “And then, when the tragedy struck, we were already so distanced…”
“I’m sorry, tragedy?”
“Yes. When those dealers framed him for the murder of some junkie. I never believed that Matt could have killed anyone, but my husband wouldn’t do anything. But Sloane, she never stopped fighting for him. Visited him in that godforsaken place weekly. Until…”
“Until what…?” My heart is pounding so fast and so loud, I strain to hear her words above it.
“She just up and left for some reason. Told me some of the men he was involved with got short sentences, but Matt was in for life. And because she had tried to free her brother by putting the blame on them, they were pissed, and she was afraid they may be coming after her.” Tears fill her eyes. “I can’t imagine all of this is happening. If I could do it all over again, I’d pack up my babies and run. We might have been poor, but we might have been happy.”
Christ. Flopping back against the couch, I rub my temples. There is no way that fate could be this cruel. Not only did we grow up in the same backyard, just to find ourselves hiding out two thousand miles away in Hoppa, Arizona with the Steel Knights, but… is it possible?
Is her brother the poor kid that got framed during my visit to the junkie that turned into a mob hit gone bad? Closing my eyes, I see it all again.
“Move!”
“No way, man! No freaking way!”
“No!”
That was him. I know it. I can feel it in my gut. And if that’s so, thenIam the reason for all of Seneca’s misery.Iam the reason Matt is in jail and has been this long. If I had told the truth in court—that I was there to give the junkie a message from Don Bordono, and then ratted out Mikey and Tony as the killers—then Don Bordono would have been pissed, yeah, but he wouldn’t have killed me for it. I would have done my three years, but Mikey and Tony would be in for murder, and the kid might have walked.
No, I wasn’t at the kid’s hearing. Maybe if I were, I would have stepped up and done the right thing, but I don’t know.
I wanted out of the Bordono family, and I wanted out of jail. The cold, hard truth is that I chose myself over everyone else, and because of it, Seneca’s brother is rotting in jail.
Can Seneca ever understand? And can she even begin to forgive me?
Fuck Mikey and Tony. Fuck my father for bringing me in. Fuck Ironclad and Don Bordono. Fuck this whole damned world.
And fuck me for what I did.
“Mrs. Villetrio, did Sloane ever mention the names of the men she was scared of?”
“No. I’m sorry. She was very secretive.”
Nodding, energy courses through me like floodgates just opened in my veins. “I understand. No doubt it was to keep you safe.” Standing, I try to calm my racing heart and shaking hands.
Closing my eyes, I take a breath.Come on, Bullseye, get it together. I imagine squeezing the trigger—only this time, I’m not shooting at a target, I’m taking down Mikey…
Tony…
