I zipped my fly back up, and we both sat.
That had been close. The last thing I needed was a fight in here. Fighters stood out, and I wanted to blend in.
The crowd dispersed, and Jules took his battle club back behind the bar.
“Cliff,” he said, offering his hand.
I shook it. “Luke. I left Augusta just after you got there.”
No hint of recognition crossed his face. “I don’t remember you.”
“I don’t try to be remembered.”
He grunted and chewed his wing.
“How long you been out?” I asked.
“Three months or so,” he said between chews.
“Passin’ through?”
He nodded. “Checking places out, ya know?”
“Hey,” the guy at the pool table yelled. “We finishin’ this or what?”
Cliff stood. “Yeah, yeah, I’m not done beatin’ your ass.” He grabbed two more wings. “Thanks for the eats.”
I lifted my beer to him. “Later.” I was hoping a lot later. Cliff was not going on my Christmas card list.
I spent another two hours at Pete’s shelling peanuts, chewing on wings, and sipping my one Corona. Getting buzzed was not on the agenda. That made it harder to catch the conversations going on around me.
Nobody paid me any heed, which was exactly how I wanted it. I was here often enough that I was like a piece of worn furniture—present, but unnoticed.
Chapter 5
Debbie
Wednesday afternoon, Dom wasn’t home yet, and I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to know the truth. The money in the cookie tins didn’t make sense.
I found Mom at the table in the kitchen nook, looking out the window.
“Mom,” I said as I pulled up a chair. “Can we talk?”
Her hands clasped the mug of tea in front of her. “The goldfinches have found the feeder again,” she said. She loved her birdfeeder when we had the money to keep seed in it, and she’d recently refilled it.
I looked outside at the gaggle of birds attacking the feeder. “Mom, I want to know about the money.”
“The cardinals are back too.”
“Mom. The money?”
She shifted her gaze from outside to me. “What money?”
“The cash,” I said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear.”
“The money for the rent, to start with.”
“Dominic won at Powerball, I told you.” She looked outside again. “They’re very pretty, don’t you think?”
I cocked my head and sighed. “Mom, I checked. He couldn’t have won anything on Powerball Monday night.”
Without looking at me, she picked up her mug and went to the sink. “He won at Powerball.” She rinsed the mug with her back to me. “Now let it be.”
I wasn’t letting this become another thing we didn’t talk about, like the hitting. I walked to the cupboard, opened it, and pulled down one of the cookie tins. It felt heavier than before.
She rushed over. “Leave that be.”
I spun around, took it across the room, and emptied it onto the table. “They pay lottery winnings this big in a check or a wire transfer, not cash. I checked. And, they only do drawings on Wednesday and Saturday.”
Some of the packets had fallen to the floor. “I said to leave it be,” she yelled. She knelt and started to pick up the money on the floor.
The front door opened and closed.
“Quick, help me get this back where it belongs,” she whispered.
“I’m home,” Dom called.
I started to shovel the money bundles back into the tin.
“Be out in a minute,” Mom yelled back.
They wouldn’t all fit without reorganizing the stacks.
Dom appeared at the door before we finished. “What’s going on in here?”
Some of the money still lay on the table.
I gathered up my nerve and faced him. “Where did this come from?” I stood tall.
“None of your business. Now get to your room,” he bellowed, pointing toward the hall.
I stood my ground. “No.”
He moved toward me with fury in his dark eyes. “I said get in your room before I put you there.” I knew that look. It came right before violence.
“Yes, sir.” I scooted around him and went to my room.
Dom’s voice boomed from the kitchen. “What did you tell her?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Nothing, I swear.”
I grabbed my purse from my nightstand and started for the door. I didn’t make it.
Dom’s meaty hand held the door closed as I reached for the handle. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out… We need groceries.” It was the best I could think of.
He grabbed my purse away. “No. Get back in your room. You’re not going anywhere.”
I couldn’t overpower him, there was no way around him, and even if I did get past him, he had my purse with my keys. I turned, speed-walked to my room, and slammed the door.
The sound of his pacing came through the door.
“She knows,” Mom said quietly.
Dom’s pacing continued. “What do I do now? What do I do now?” he said.
Mom didn’t answer him. The question wasn’t meant for either of us.
I was trapped.
A half hour later, my door opened.
It was Dom. He laid cold eyes on me. “We’re going out.”
I didn’t move. “I’m fine here.” My bedroom was my one safe haven in this house.
“Now.” He moved forward and pulled me up. “Get in the car with your mother.”
I didn’t fight him. It would have been futile. “Where are we going?” I walked out toward the cars.
“Out.”
Mom was already in the driver’s seat of her car, which was odd. Normally if it was the three of us, Dom would drive.
Dom carried a black satchel with him and locked the door behind us. He got in the front with Mom, but only after I climbed into the backseat and closed the door.
We headed toward town.
“Where are we going?” I asked, not expecting a response.
“Taking Dominic to work,” Mom said.
I didn’t expect to like the answer, but I asked anyway. “Why do I have to come along?” Probably because I’d said I wanted to leave, and they didn’t trust me.
“Just because,” Dom said. Which confirmed what I’d suspected. He didn’t trust me to be in the house when they got back, and he was right.
Mom stopped for a red light in town.
I could have opened the door and bolted, but what good would that have done me with no car to escape in and not enough money?
We drove through town, still heading east toward DC.
I hadn’t saved as much as I’d planned to, but now I knew I’d take the first chance after we got home to get free.
Dom was up to something that wasn’t good. He hadn’t won the lottery, and God only knew what he was into that got him that much cash all of the sudden. If he’d robbed a drug dealer or something, being in the same house with him wouldn’t be safe.