An Offer He Cant Refuse - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,97
with you." She cleared her throat. "I mean, you can't want me to go home with you."
"Why the hell not?" He was already racing down the street.
"Because..." She wanted to cool things between them. Because he had to be disturbed by what he knew about her family.
"You can't think this changes my attraction to you, Tea."
Of course she thought it changed his attraction to her! She was counting on it! Panic started to flutter in her belly again. Her family wasn't known as part of the Mafia because they were Italian and liked their pasta. It was because the FBI had found inexplicable sums of cash in the walls... and because of the Loanshark book.
"You don't understand. You don't know everything," she heard herself say.
He sped through a stale yellow light. "What don't I know?"
"Don't kid yourself." She'd done that, of course. But not anymore. "My father didn't have an aversion to banks, Johnny. He had a business that dealt in cash. An illegal business that was documented in the Loanshark book."
"Eve mentioned this Loanshark book. But if it was never found, then how does anyone know what it actually documented?"
Johnny was already pulling into his driveway. In another couple of minutes they'd be in his house and in his bedroom and she didn't know if she'd be able to deny herself another night with him... or where another night with him might take her heart.
So she had to tell him the truth now - or at least most of it, she thought, desperate. Get it out, so that he'd have his eyes opened about who she really was. Then certainly he'd be done with her.
"I know what the Loanshark book actually documented, Johnny, because I did all the record-keeping for my father."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"I Didn't Know What Time It Was" Bobby Darin Love Swings (1961)
Johnny screeched to a stop in the apex of the circular parking area adjacent to his garage. "What? What did you say?"
"I've never told another soul." Tea found herself whispering it, as if the night might now be listening. "I'm trusting you not to tell anyone either."
"You kept the books for your father's business? A high-interest, unsecured loan business, I assume." He sounded both puzzled and upset. "Why the hell did he have you do that?"
"The business was loan-sharking, bookmaking, a little blackmail." She gave a shrug, trying to play it nonchalant. "And I did it because I was good with numbers."
"Jesus, Tea! You were a kid, a little girl." In the moonlight she saw him squeeze the steering wheel as if he was throttling it. "Your father should be shot."
"He probably was," she said.
"Oh, shit." He rubbed both hands up and down his face. "What a fucking mess."
"It's my mess. My mess, my family, my sin."
"Your sin." He rubbed his face again. "My God, Tea. My God."
Which only reminded her of that bargain she'd made so long ago - that if she would stay away from trouble, then He would let her get away with her crimes. Johnny, with all his golden good looks, had dazzled her, rendering her blind to reality. He was trouble. He had to be, right? Because she'd just confessed to him her past.
"None of this is your fault," he said. "None of it."
She wouldn't let him sugarcoat it. "I knew what I was doing, Johnny, don't think I didn't. I saw the names, the sums, the payments made and the debts enlarge. I wanted to help my dad and I wanted to do something for him that my sisters couldn't. I didn't care what that entailed or whether it was right or wrong. I only knew he was proud of me, and that I was special for the secret we kept together."
"But you didn't understand - "
"Of course I understood it was wrong." It made her feel sick to say it, but that was the truth. She took a breath. "And later, I admitted to myself that I was wicked."
"Tea."
"Now if you'd drive me home, I'd like to get on with the rest of my life." Her voice was steady but her body was trembling. She wrapped her arms around herself to stop her bones from rattling like a skeleton's. "I hope none of what I've told you will affect our professional relationship, but I'll understand if you think it does."
"If you expect I'll walk away from you tonight, after this - "
"I don't need a hero, Johnny."
He laughed, short and harsh. "You'd be out of luck if you did."