J. Fynn - The Long Game

Tommy smiled to himself. “That’s the one,” he said. “She talked about the place as if she’d grown up there. Your mother was quite the storyteller.”

“Still is.”

Tommy chuckled, but then his expression turned dark. “I have to say, I’m pretty surprised Maggie let you come up here and do this.”

“She couldn’t have stopped me if she wanted to,” I said.

Tommy nodded but said nothing. Ian returned, carrying a pint of the same thick, dark liquid the old man had been drinking and set it down in front of Tommy. “Can I get you lads anything else?” We shook our heads, and he shrugged. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Tommy thanked him and took a large swig of the stout. Ian hesitated a moment. He looked first at Tommy, then at me before shrugging again and moving back to the other side of the bar where a new group had just sat down.

I waited for a moment before I spoke again. “Can I ask you something?” There was no response from Tommy, so I continued. “What did Spencer say when you told her about me?”

Tommy’s brow knitted, and his jaw tightened. “I didn’t.”

It wasn’t what I’d expected, and I gaped at him in open-mouthed shock.

“I didn’t tell her for her sake, not yours, so don’t get any ideas,” Tommy hastened to add. “If you try to contact her again, it’ll be the first thing I do.”

“For her sake or yours?” I asked. “Telling her who I am would raise a few questions about who you are.”

“She knows who I am,” he said and took another swig of his drink.

“She doesn’t know where you came from.”

“Would you have preferred I told her?” Tommy turned to look at me for the first time since he’d sat down.

“Maybe. She deserves to know the truth, but I don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Enough.” Tommy dropped the pint back onto the bar. The dark liquid sloshed but didn’t spill. “I’m not here for your advice on how to deal with my daughter. I managed to protect her for nineteen years before you showed up, and I’ll do it long after you’re out of her life.”

“Fine,” I said. “Then why did you want to meet me?”

“Because I want you—all of you—out of her life now. For good,” Tommy said. “And I think there’s only one way I’ll get what I want.” He shifted on his stool and reached into the briefcase. When his hand reappeared, he was holding a battered old book with a leather cord wrapped around its thick middle. “Here.” He dropped the book on the bar between us, and it landed with a dull thud. “Take it and get the fuck out of my city.”

Tommy’s abrupt demand stung more than I would’ve expected. Despite the situation and despite what Tommy had done to my da, I realized I actually respected the man. The idea unsettled me a bit, but I tried not to show it as I put a hand on the book to slide it my way. Tommy watched me, stone-faced.

“What’s the big deal about this thing anyway?” I lifted it and turned it over in my hands. There were no markings on the faded green cover, nothing impressive about the binding or the outside edge of the yellowing pages.

“You mean you don’t even know what you came all this way for?” Tommy scoffed. “So you’re just Michael’s errand boy.”

I scowled at him. Truth was, though, he wasn’t too far off. Pop had sent me to get his book back, but I wasn’t even allowed to open the damn thing. I wasn’t good for more than playing fetch, just like Judd had said. “He trusted me to get something he’s been waiting on for twenty years. I think that makes me a little more than an errand boy.”

Tommy considered this for a moment. “Open it.”

My fingers hesitated over the leather cord. I had my instructions, but then, I’m pretty sure Pop hadn’t intended me to fall in love with Tommy’s daughter and get caught trying to break into a safe either, so what was one more screw up? I hooked a finger through the cord and undid the loose knot. I unwound the cord and let it drop into my lap. The book fell open to a page marked with a green ribbon. A list of company names ran down one column of the ledger’s page, and dollar amounts—big ones—were written in another. I scanned the page, frowning at the familiar names. I’d seen them before, but where?

“They’re shell companies. Michael used them to launder the money he and his sons bring in, along with the percentage he takes from other clan members. A lot of them don’t exist anymore, but there are a handful he still uses and a few more that may still be operating under a different name. It only takes a little paperwork to have a brand-new company.”

The list in Tommy’s notebook. Names with asterisks, questions marks, lines slashed through them. He’d been trying to follow the money. Trying to figure out how Pop’s operation really worked. I flipped through a few more pages, found more names—both for companies and individuals. This ledger was a record of every shady transaction Pop had made for years before Tommy stole it, and there was enough there to earn him and several others a lot of prison time. No wonder he’d pursued Tommy for twenty years. I snapped the book shut and wrapped the leather cord around it again, then laid it on the bar.

I jutted out my chin and pushed it toward him, not wanting to touch it again. “Why are you giving this to me?”

“Like I said before, every decision I make is to protect Spencer. If I thought there was another way to keep her safe, I’d do it, but Pop isn’t going to stop coming after me until he gets this book back, and I’m done running.” It was obvious it annoyed Tommy to give in to blackmail. “But let me be very clear. If you so much as think about my daughter again and I catch wind of it, I will devote the rest of my life to ruining the rest of yours. Understood?”

I nodded, believing him to be a man of his word. I looked down at the ledger on the bar, thinking about what all this meant. I had what I’d come for, but taking it back to Pop meant betraying Spencer all over again. Tommy had taken this ledger as protection for himself and his daughter. It was his only bargaining chip to halt the wrath of Pop Sheedy.

“They’re going to come after you,” I said. I hadn’t realized what the ledger really meant until that moment, but now I was sure what I said was true.

“Probably,” Tommy said. He stared down into the wide mouth of his glass.

“There’s nothing to stop Pop from killing you for what you did to him.”

“Not a damn thing,” Tommy said.

I pushed the ledger to him with my fingertips. “I can’t take it.”

Now it was Tommy’s turn to gape at me. “What do you mean you ‘can’t take it’? You came all this way, tricked my daughter into thinking she was in love with you, then tried to break into my safe in the middle of a dinner party to get it. Now I’m handing it to you, practically giftwrapped, and you ‘can’t take it’?”

The bartender glanced our way, and I gave him an easy smile. Nothing to see here, Ian. He watched us for a second longer, then went back to wiping glasses with his grungy towel.

“I can’t take it,” I repeated, leaning a little closer so I could speak in a quieter voice. “I may have tricked her into thinking she’s in love with me, but I know I’m in love with her. I can’t take this book because it’s the only thing protecting you from Pop. Something tells me he wants more than just that book. If you give it back to him, it won’t be the end. Only the beginning.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you care what happens to me?”

“Whatever Pop does to you, it’ll hurt her. You forget, I know what it’s like not to have a father around. I’m not going to let that happen to her.”

Tommy stared at me as if he couldn’t decide whether to kick my ass or write me into his will. After a few seconds, he slid the ledger back into the briefcase. “This doesn’t mean I’m going to let you see Spencer,” he said, securing the brass latch on the front flap of the case.

“I know. I can’t keep lying to her, and if I tell her the truth, she wouldn’t want to see me anyway. That’s not why I’m doing this.”

“Why are you doing this?”

I slid from the barstool. “I told you. Whatever happens to you hurts Spencer. I’m not going to be a part of that. No matter what you did to my da.”

He frowned skeptically. “And that’s it. That’s all you’re after?”

“Well, there is something I was wondering about.”

“What’s that?”

“You said I’d never be able to guess the combination to your safe, but it’s a number I should know. I just wondered what it was.”

“You want me to tell you my safe combination?” Tommy laughed.

“Hey, you just handed me the book, and I gave it back. I’d say the chances of me trying to get into your safe again are pretty low.”

“Fair enough,” Tommy said. “It’s 1031.” Tommy stood and grabbed his suitcase. He fished a ten-dollar bill from his coat pocket and tossed it onto the bar. “Have a good trip home, Shay. I look forward to never seeing you again.”

Without a backward glance to me, Tommy waved his goodbye to Ian and the pregnant hostess, then pushed through the heavy doors and disappeared. I stood next to my own stool, rolling the numbers around in my head. 1031. Ten thirty-one. The numbers were definitely familiar, as Tommy’d predicted, but damned if I could figure out why.

THE THUNDERING KNOCK jarred me from the sleep I hadn’t meant to fall into. I sat bolt upright on the sofa where I’d dozed and blinked, trying to figure out what had woken me. The pounding came again, rattling the door in its frame. I rubbed my eyes and squinted in the dim light.

Apparently, it had gotten dark sometime between leaving Tommy at the bar and now. Shit. I was going to have to hurry if I was going to make my bus.