His jaw got tight before he said, “He lied to her. Brought her into the life and didn’t say dick. You don’t do that to a woman. Not with that life. Not with any f**kin’ life. You don’t hold shit back. Ever.”
I sure was glad he thought like that.
I nodded. “I get it.”
“What I also got is hooked to a woman whose father and brother are cops.”
This surprised me so much I leaned back and took in a sharp breath.
“Yeah,” he stated, still watching me intently. “So Vito’s mutterin’ about me makin’ inroads into the other side of the business, my ma will lose her mind if I take over and the woman I was fallin’ in love with is tangled up in blue.”
“Tangled up in blue?” I asked.
“Cop blue,” he answered.
“Right,” I mumbled.
“So what do I do?” he queried.
“I don’t know, honey. What do you do?”
“It’s not what do I do. It’s what I did do. And what I did was told Vito we’re movin’ the whole thing to legit. He eventually bows out, Dom tows my line or he gets another job, and we’re done with the business.”
Holy shit!
I knew my mouth had dropped open, and I knew Ren didn’t miss it because he was still watching me closely, but he ignored my reaction and kept going.
“That didn’t go over too well.”
Oh man.
I bet it didn’t.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Vito lost his shit is what happened,” he answered.
I pressed my lips together.
“The good news is, he loves me. I get out of the life, he won’t order a hit on me.”
Oh my God!
A hit?
“The bad news is, he’s all over me to change my mind, and if I don’t, I’m excommunicated.”
Okay, that was bad news. But a hit was a whole lot worse.
“I know you’re tight with your family, Ren, but is that really a bad thing?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, honey, because I’m tight with my family. But it’s better than dead.”
It totally was.
“But, even with this and all the shit before, bottom line, Vito has been good to me, my sisters, my ma. He’s the only father I ever had, Ally. He’s f**ked up along the way, like now, bein’ stubborn and tryin’ to bend me to his will. But mostly, he’s been a good one. I don’t wanna lose him and it looks like he’s givin’ me no choice.” He paused then finished, “It also means I got no job.”
Oh man!