Page 36 of Count Down
Am I fooling myself, or is there any possible way Gina would stay with me if I told her the truth about me? About who I am and what I do?
After I drop Gina off at her apartment, I head up to Northwest Philly. It feels like a bad sign that I’ve been having to leave my area of the city so much. I’m comfortable there. I feel exposed, like I’m sitting with my back to the door, whenever I venture too far from the neighborhoods I know.
But I’m going here for Gina. The Russians are after her and someone is having her followed. She’s being attacked on two fronts and she doesn’t even know it. If I’ve got any chance of protecting her, I’ve got to eliminate one of those fronts.
There’s no way I can knock out the Russians. Not right now and not without igniting the biggest gang war in the history of Philadelphia. I’m going to have to play defense with the Russians. But whoever is having Gina followed, that’s where I can go on the offense.
There’s a good chance Archie is the one spying on her. Rich pricks like him have private investigators on speed dial. They’re rich enough and lazy enough to pay others to do their stalking. Gina jilted him pretty fucking good. It’s just his type to hold a grudge and have her followed.
I put out a few feelers in different places to track him down. We’ve got contacts anywhere people with influence get together. I heard that the Becker family were long-standing members of the Club and Archibald Becker had a tee-time for earlier today. They even gave me the registration on his BMW 3 series.
When I get to the parking lot, I pull into the spot right next to Archie’s car. Nobody bats an eye at my Bentley here. It blends in enough to make me question my own purchase decisions.
I sit and I wait. I’m good at waiting. I don’t get impatient when I know it’s important. Watching things for long periods gives me plenty of time to see below the surface. To see through any pretense people put up.
Finally, I see Archie carrying his clubs past my rearview mirror. He waves goodbye to one of his buddies and opens the trunk of his car, putting the clubs in. I get out of my car as he walks around to the driver’s side of his.
As he gets into his car, I open his door and get into his passenger seat. Before he can even realize what’s happening, I grab his hand. I squeeze it hard enough to force him to let go of the keys and catch them in my other hand.
“Sit right there and shut the fuck up,” I’m still squeezing his hand and he twists in his seat under the pain.
“Things are done between you and Gina. You don’t fucking go near her.” He’s still squirming from the pain I’m sending down his hand. “Do you understand me?”
He looks at me, pain and fear in his eyes. He nods his head. It’s almost pathetic. This fucking guy tried to boss Gina around like he was better than her. The Gina I know told him to fuck off. The Gina I know would tear this guy apart.
Still, I continue. “And you fucking call off your private investigator right now. If I see him anywhere near her again, I’m coming back for you. And if I come back, you’re losing this hand.” I squeeze his hand even harder, feeling the bones of his fingers pop beneath mine.
“Aaagh!” Archie yells. I let him catch his breath so he can answer me.
“Do you understand? Call off the fucking PI.”
This time he shakes his head. “I don’t know anything about a PI.”
I squeeze his hand again, adding a little bit of a twist in. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”
“I SWEAR!” Sweat is running down Archie’s temples, mixing with the couple of teardrops that have overflowed out of his eyes. “I didn’t hire a PI!” he pants.
“Then who the fuck did?” It’s a rhetorical question. I’m asking myself just as much as I’m asking Archie, but he tries to answer it anyway.
“It sounds… a lot like something… her dad… would do.”
I glare at him, trying to figure out if he’s telling the truth or lying.
“Really,” he continues. “Our first date… her dad hired a PI and had us followed.”
He looks like he’s telling the truth. He looks too scared to lie. I know what that looks like, I’ve seen it before.
“Honest. Her dad told me after. He showed me the pictures of us on the date and everything. He threatened me to never tell her… and I didn’t. I never told her.” What the hell? Archie’s trying to win points with me by showing off that he kept her dad’s secret?
“I’ll find out if you’re lying. Like I said, if I have to come back, I’m taking your fucking hand.” I give one last big squeeze and twist, partly to give him my message, and partly because I’m fucking angry that this PI might be from her dad. “And stay the fuck away from Gina.” I shove his hand back at him and he cradles it in front of him.
I open the passenger side of the door and get one leg out before Archie finds the balls I didn’t think he had.
“I won’t go near her,” he spits. I turn to look at him as he continues. “I don’t want anything to do with that stuck-up BIT—“
I punch him straight in the face before he can even say the word. I hear his nose pop, blood splatters down the front of his polo shirt and he lets out an awful wail.
I get out of his car. I’ve still got his key fob in my hand, so I throw it out into whatever fucking hole of the golf course is in front of us. I close his door and get in my car and drive away.