Cookies?
I picked up my pace, calling out to him as I hurried to the kitchen. “If those cookies I’m smelling are for some party you’re going to and I’m not allowed to taste, you and I are going to have words.”
I took a minute to drop my purse in my bedroom and change into shorts and a tank top. Then I hurried to the kitchen, only to skid to a stop when I saw the man standing by the stove, an apron around his waist and an oven mitten on his hand.
“Catalina,” he said, with the kind of smile that would always look like home to me. Then he spread his arms wide. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“Daddy?” For a moment, I just stood there, a little dazed and a lot confused. Then the bits and pieces of reality that make up my world shifted back into place.
“Daddy!” I repeated. And that time, I ran toward him and threw myself into his waiting arms.
eight
“So you’re really out?” I asked, as I moved cookies from the sheet to a plate with a small green spatula. “No more cons?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Daddy said, as I slid the plate to the center of the table, then sat down across from him.
“You’re bullshitting me.”
“What a thing to say to the father who loves you.”
“As opposed to the father who doesn’t love me?”
He made a vague harrumphing noise, then busied himself with selecting two cookies.
I took one for myself, then leaned back in my chair. “You’re the one who told me we had to sever ties, Daddy. Remember? You gave me a whole long speech about how if you got in trouble, you didn’t want them tracking you back to your little girl.”
“Damned eloquent speech it was, too.”
“It was,” I agreed. “Must have been, since you managed to convince me. Do you realize I haven’t seen you since that last con you were planning went south, and that was the one that was supposed to make us richer than Midas.”
He grimaced, obviously remembering his stories to me about how I’d soon have a condo in Paris and an apartment in New York and a mattress made of hundred-dollar bills if I wanted it. And also remembering how he’d caught the eye of at least a dozen cops and Feds during that deal. It had been dicey for a while, and when he’d told me to lie low, I’d thought that it had been a wake-up call to get him out of the life.
“I haven’t talked to you unless it was on a burner in more than a year. I haven’t got a clue what’s been going on in your life, and I was okay with that because I knew that you were protecting me. And that you’d get out of the grift soon, and when you did, you’d show up on my doorstep with your arms open wide and tell me everything’s going to be okay.”
He cleared his throat and took a bite of cookie, but he didn’t say anything. And he didn’t look me in the eye.
“And now here you are,” I continued, “and your arms were wide, but what’s wrong with the rest of the picture?” I didn’t mention that I knew something was wrong just by looking at him. He was putting up a good front, being all smiley and jolly. But underneath the facade, he looked tired and worried and just a little off his game.
“This is the one, Kitty Cat. I swear to you, I’ve got it all set this time. Nothing’s gonna knock your old man back now. Nothing at all. At least not once I get just one tiny detail sorted out.”
I stood, feeling a little numb, and moved to the sink. I didn’t want my dad to see my face, so I busied myself with rinsing out and refilling the coffee carafe. One little detail didn’t sound good. One little detail sounded like code for I’m a walking dead man.
“What detail is that, Daddy?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Did the man not remember who trained me? Was he really trying to set me up like a mark? Plant all the pieces so that I’d offer my help just like he wanted, and all the while I’d think it was my idea? Just how gullible did my dad think I was?
More important, how scared was he that he’d put his own daughter at risk? Because no matter how far off true north my dad’s moral compass might be, I knew one thing for certain: There was nothing in this world he valued more than me, with one simple exception—his own neck.
He had me in a pretty crappy position at the moment. I didn’t know if whoever he’d screwed was days or hours behind him. I didn’t know if we were dealing with an organization or a single pissed-off man. On the cheap or well funded? Was this the kind of deal my dad could fix, or did they want him to go down on principle?
And, for the love of all that is holy, I needed to know if there was even the slightest chance they knew about me.
Forget prancing around the mulberry bush. If someone was playing Pop! Goes the Weasel in my house, I was damn well going to be in on the game.
The carafe was full to overflowing now, so I poured water into the machine’s reservoir, added the grounds, and started a pot brewing. Then I went back to my seat across from my dad, put another cookie in front of him, and said one simple word: “Tell.”
“Kitty, sweetheart, I—”
“Stop it, Daddy. I have a life here. I have a roommate, who you may have put in danger. I have a house here, too. Or I will next week. I’ve got a real job and I’m getting settled. Putting down roots, you know?” And there’s a guy, and maybe it’ll go somewhere. I wanted to add that, but I hardly saw the point.
“Good for you,” he said, and I could tell that he meant it. “My little girl. Who would have thought it?”
“Daddy,” I said sternly, “did danger follow you here?”
He shook his head. “No. Swear to god,” he added, drawing an X over his chest with his forefinger. “I won’t deny I may have gotten in over my head, but I still know how to watch my step and my back.”
I believed him. For now, anyway. “So tell me the rest,” I said. “Why don’t you start with exactly how you got in over your head.”
He took another bite of cookie, and this time even the confection didn’t make him look happy. “Have you heard of Ilya Muratti?”
“Sure,” I said. “Some big mafia type, right? Owns casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City, and I’m sure he has his fingers in dozens of other pies, too.” I exhaled. “Daddy, no. Tell me you’re not involved with him.”