“Ava, don’t hang up,” Dom said quickly.
“You’re a dickhead,” I told him.
“Our last thing didn’t go too well…”
I wanted to shout “Ya think?” but he kept talking.
“I’m sorry about that but Ava, you gotta listen to me. There’s some serious shit goin’ down. You and me, we gotta get out of town, you gotta meet me at –”
“Fuck that, Dom. You’re nuts.”
“No, this is some serious shit.”
“Yes, it’s your serious shit. Keep me out of it,” I snapped.
“That’s what I’m tryin’ to do,” he snapped back.
“Can you please tell me why I’m in it?”
“They’re tryin’ to get to me.”
“No kidding, they’re trying so hard, they nearly kidnapped Sissy this morning. Punched her in the nose, blood everywhere. We thought it was broken. She was a mess.”
Silence.
“Dom?”
“What’d you just say?”
“Some big guy in a dark blue SUV punched your wife in the nose this morning while trying to kidnap her.”
Silence again.
I was losing patience, and time, quickly.
“Dom! I don’t have time for this.”
“He hit Sissy?” Dom asked quietly.
Something about the way he said it made my mind still. “Yeah,” I told him.
“He’s got at least a foot and probably a hundred pounds on her.”
“Do you know this guy?” I asked but he ignored my question.
“And he hit her?” Dom was sounding a bit scary.
“Dom, tell me, who is this guy?”
Dom still wasn’t listening. “You say her nose isn’t broken?”
“She’s fine. It’s swollen, her eyes are black but she’s okay.”
Was I reassuring Dominic Vincetti about his wife’s well-being? Was it me who’d stepped into an alternate universe?
“I’ll call her,” Dom told me.
Oh no.