“With what?” I asked.
He kept looking out the window. “Usin’ your f**kin’ mother to get at you. How f**kin’ low. Fuck!” he exploded.
Again, I was confused. In my experience people could do things a lot lower than that.
“This is Harvey Balducci we’re talking about,” I told Hector as if that explained everything which, to me, it did.
Hector’s eyes turned to me.
“I mean, he’s a jerk,” I went on. “And he’s crazy. And, well… he’s a jerk.”
“People don’t do that shit,” Hector told me.
That’s when I laughed. I mean, seriously, people did that “shit” all the time.
“Oh yes they do,” I replied sagely.
Hector dropped the curtain, turned fully to me, his face hard and he said, “Sadie, no. They don’t.”
Instantly, my laughter died. “You know they do, Hector, you lived amongst us. My kind of people sell drugs and guns and kill people and kidnap them and rape them –” I stopped because Hector started toward me.
I lifted my hand to stop him, finally realizing what I had to say, it all came to me in a flash. I was going to tell him we were different, this would never work. I didn’t belong in his world.
Simple as that.
But it was like Hector didn’t see my hand. He kept coming at me until he was right there.
My hand hit his chest, he pulled me into his arms again and said, “Those aren’t your kind of people.”
“Yes, they are. Don’t you remember –?”
“I remember you feeding me information on your father.”
My body went rigid and I gasped (not, I belatedly realized, the kind of response to have when I was trying to keep my clandestine informant status a secret).
I tried to cover. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sadie, I saw you do it.”
I blinked at him.
Oh my God.
Did he see me do it? How could he see me do it? That was just crazy. It was also impossible.
I kept lying. “You must have been mistaken.”
He shook his head. “Mamita, I walked right up to the door and watched you do your thing and for some crazy reason you did it while you kept your father’s office door wide open.”
“That was so I could hear if someone was coming!”
Oh no!
How stupid could I be? I’d given it away.
Blooming heck!
He pulled me closer and the dangerous current slid out of the room and he looked like he was fighting a grin again.