Oranges & Roses

I Love You Too

Chapter Three

I was good at schooling my features so I hid my surprise as Rey joined Dom in pointing a gun at me. What the hell was going on?

“Are you armed?” Dom asked.

I stared at him with fear and betrayal and my voice reflected that. “I can’t lift my arms above my chest without an enormous amount of pain and I feel like I’m going to vomit. Do you really think I was stupid enough to bring a gun?”

“Could have a knife.”

“Then pat me down you punk ass bitch and stop insulting my intelligence.”

I heard Marco laugh and it echoed around the room. “She’s not a knife person, Domino. You know that. Come here, Arrietty.”

I was going to spit at Dom’s feet but I decided that may not be the best idea, not in the situation I now found myself in. I turned my eyes from Dom to the floor, making sure my path was clear so I wouldn’t trip over anything. I was light headed, barely able to stay on my feet and Dom seriously thought I would bring a weapon? He was an idiot. How had I not seen it before? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because he’d always been around and I felt like I knew him as well as I knew my own brother.

When I stopped, I teetered and Dom caught my arm. In reaction to his touch, I jerked away and glared at him, not wanting his help. “Don’t touch me,” I snapped.

The man who I’d once considered a brother curled his lip at me in anger. At this point I wasn’t a hundred percent certain about anything but I knew Dom had to find out about my brother’s deal with the cops in order to turn on him like this. Both of them considered the other family which meant they were loyal down to the bone when it came to the other.

“Go hug your brother, Arrietty,” Marcus instructed. “He’s been worried about you.”

I did what I was told and took the few steps I needed in order to hug him. Rather tightly, my brother held me against him almost like he was reassuring himself that I was real.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” I looked up at him and for the first time noticed he had fading bruises all over his face. “What happened to you?”

“Like you, he was punished for speaking with the cops.” I looked over at Marco. “I know about his little deal but I’ve forgiven him. After all, he did it for a good cause and it gives us a slight advantage for later but we’ll get to that in a minute.”

I considered my words carefully before I said them. “Is that why you shot me?”

“No.” His lips turned up for a second. “No, you were shot because you noticed that pesky seven and one. You’re smart, my dear. I knew your brother wouldn’t notice because of his little problem. He normally just glances over it and moves on but you, you were always good with numbers. Juan…well, he’s getting up there. Sometimes he forgets what he’s supposed to do and I have to constantly call to remind him. I should’ve known Vince would have you look over the books when you got home but I can honestly say I had other things on my mind. You weren’t supposed to take a look at those books for a few years and by then, what I was doing would be done.”

“You seriously shot me over a one and a seven? Did retirement fry your brain or something?”

The casual amusement with which he was regarding me went out the window after I said that. His eyes lost the warm fuzziness and was replaced with cool contemplation.

“Victor, bring me the cop,” he called out.

The reflex to look at Rey was strong but thankfully I checked it and looked at my brother instead. Since the only cop I thought they were talking about was Rey, I was a little confused. But then I thought about it, really thought about it, and it took me less than two seconds to figure out who it was and one second more for the horror to settle in my stomach as I heard shuffling across the warehouse floor. One of the lights was suddenly turned on and I watched as Victor walked into the circle of light with Jorge in tow, his arms bound behind his back. He had a hood over his head but I knew it was him because of the outfit he was wearing. A Dodgers tee shirt with a faint ketchup stain over top of the ‘G’.