ALL THINGS PRETTY PART TWO Read Free Page A

Ain’t that a bitch?” I snap
bitterly.   I’m frustrated and a
little stung by it.
    “I…I just… ”   Her voice breaks like she’s going
to cry, but she doesn’t.   At least not that I see.   Maybe she’s crying on the inside.
    “Please, Tommi,” I plead sincerely.   “I can help you.   But you have to trust me.”
    She’s quiet for a couple of long, tense minutes. When she
finally speaks, her voice is low and robotic.
     

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN- TOMMI
     
    “My father left when Travis was just a few years old.   Left and took his income, half the
furniture, and most of our stability with him.   My mother held it together for as long
as she could.   She had two jobs
waiting tables.   Worked all kinds of
crazy hours just to put food in our mouths.   It was tight, but we were making it.   She wasn’t around much, though.   My brothers and I were practically
raising ourselves .   We all started getting into
trouble.   I guess I wanted to
escape.   That was my reason for most
of the stuff I did.   For Travis, I
think only part of what he was doing was acting out.   The rest was because of his
condition.   But my older
brother…well, he was mad. Just plain ol ’
mad.   At
Dad, at Mom, at the world.   I
didn’t really know how bad it was until I was thirteen. That’s the year Momma had
her wreck.   She lost both of her
jobs, couldn’t really do much in the way of hard work, so she got on
disability.   Things went from tight
to miserable, and everything just went downhill from there.   Downhill fast .  
    “My brother started using drugs first.   Experimenting, I
think.   Then he started selling.   To try to get extra
money.   He was busted a few
times.   Minor stuff
mostly–petty theft, breaking and entering. But then he got busted with
enough coke to get him into serious trouble.   Spent a year in juvie when he was sixteen.   When he got
out, he was like a totally different person.   He was bitter. Careless.   Barely graduated high
school.   That’s when he
really started dealing.   I mean, seriously dealing.   I think that’s when he gave up.   He was dead by the time he was
nineteen.”
    “How’d he die?”
    “Drug-related accident,” I answer vaguely.
    Sig is silent for the better part of at least two minutes.   I pray that he’ll stop asking questions
and just focus on getting Travis back.
    But I’m not so lucky.
    Never have been.
    “Tommi, look. I know you know how things work.   In this business, we have to do
everything we can to keep the upper hand, to avoid doing time.   In most cases, that means finding a
dirty cop to put on the payroll.   Eyes and ears where we need ‘ em .   Just because I’m new here doesn’t mean
I’m stupid.   Or
unprepared.   I’ve got
sources.   Everybody’s got sources.”
    I turn my frown on him.   “What are you getting at?”
    “I got info, dirt even on everybody associated with
Lance.   Know your
enemies , know your friends .   When I found out I’d be protecting you,
I had a friend look into you.   Something
turned up on Tommy Lawrence.   A
juvenile record.”   Sig pauses,
drawing out the tension until I think I will burst before he continues.   And when he does, one of my worst
nightmares comes true.   “Who’s Tommy
Lawrence? The real Tommy
Lawrence?   The boy? ”
    The dull ache of panic fills my chest with so much tightness
that I feel like I might explode.   My heartbeat is thundering inside my head, like the thump of a thousand
bass drums reverberating through a dark, shadowy forest.   Behind my eyes, the old crashes into the
new, the past into the present, in a fiery collision that threatens to
incinerate me where I sit.   Oh God, oh God, oh God!
    “I don’t know what you mean.”
    I concentrate on taking deep, calming breaths even though my
lungs seem to be frozen in terror.
    “Don’t lie to me, Tommi.   You said you wouldn’t.   And considering what we’ve had together,
you