Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
He laughs, coughs, laughs again. “Desperation.”
“You never do anything when you’re desperate. That’s one of your rules, remember?”
“I’m dying, sweetheart, and some part of me wanted to be with my daughter one last time. Rules don’t matter in the end. I figured, I’m screwed anyway, I might as well try to see if I can’t be screwed and with the only person that ever gave a damn about me.”
“Dad—”
He holds up a hand, his face serious. “No, listen to me, because I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to say this again. You were the best part of my life, kid. I really mean that. I’ve done a lot of bad shit as you’re well aware, but spending time with you always made me feel like a better man, and if I’ve got any regrets, it’s not being around you more especially when you were little. I’m sorry I was a shit dad and a generally awful person, but I do love you. I always loved you, Heloise.”
He gets me crying again, the asshole. I hug him, and mumble how I love him too and he wasn’t so bad, but we both know it’s not true. He really was a terrible father, barely around, barely involved, and half the time too fucked up or into his own problems to pay attention.
But there are those glorious days still burned into my memory. The days where he taught me things, where he showed me how to spot a mark in a crowd, how to catch the eye of the pickpockets, how to stand at a craps table and laugh at the dice, how to live, how to be bold and big and loud. That was my daddy—a glowing monstrosity, a black hole, a diamond. Even mixed in with all the bad things, I still see him like a brightness in my mind. It hurts, that light, hurts me all the time, but I’d never give it up for anything.
“Alright, I’ll talk to Erick.” I wipe my eyes with my sleeve. “You don’t have to say anything else, okay? I’ll see what he thinks and we’ll go from there.”
“Sure, Heloise, sure. But can you promise you’ll be back? Before the end, I mean.”
“Dad—”
“No, don’t get upset, I just mean I want to spend a little more time with you. Hear about what you’ve been up to this last year.”
“Yeah, okay, I promise I’ll be back. I won’t be gone long, okay?”
“Good.” He grins and squeezes my hand. “Love you. Hey, come on, what’d I teach you about crying?”
“Don’t ever do it?”
“Nah. I taught you crying’s great for getting out of trouble, but always be in control of it. Remember?”
“I remember. You made me cry in front of cops when I was six years old so they’d let us walk away when you had a bunch of stolen cash in your back pocket.”
“Damn right I did, and you were amazing, kid.” He kisses my hair. “Get going before you start bawling your eyes out again.” I notice that his eyes are wet too, and I wonder if I finally touched something in the cold con man’s heart, but I doubt it. Danny Accardi only ever cries when there’s some benefit to it, and there’s no benefit now.
I get up and walk to the door, glancing back only once. My skinny father still fills the room.
Chapter 38
Hellie
“I don’t want you to kill him.” It’s not the best way to open a negotiation, but it’s true.
Erick paces across his room. I’m sitting at the end of his bed, watching him. This is the only place he says we’re safe to talk freely, and I wonder who he thinks is listening.
“I’m sure you don’t.”
“How do we keep him alive?”
“According to him, he doesn’t have much time left anyway.”
“You know what Gallo and Frost will do to him. Either he can spend his last days here with his daughter or we can turn him over and those two will come up with some terrible way to kill him painfully and slowly.” I spread my hands, feeling desperate and sick. “There’s got to be some way.”
“Sure, there’s a way. He can give back the money then shoot himself in the head.”
I glare and get to my feet. “Why are you being an asshole?”
“Because your father’s got some game going and I don’t know what his play is, but you’re falling for it.”
I scoff, staring like Erick’s lost his mind. “I get why you think that, but my father can’t fake the way he looks. Seriously, Erick, go down there and just look at him. He’s sick.”
“Maybe, but we have a serious problem. The fact that I brought him here and haven’t told Gallo and Frost yet is damning enough. Keeping him alive any longer than necessary is begging for a war.”