Gulliver’s Truth – Part II
An hour later he was seated at the kitchen table in the house while Kaylee was outside in the backyard playing near the wood pile. She was ordered not to bring any animals into the house, and she’d simply smirked cheekily. He’d promised to come find her once he was done having the conversation he needed to have with her mom and grandparents.
Now he was sitting quietly unsure where to start. Thankfully, Terrance spoke first.
“Davis called me this morning. I stayed home with Analia in case he showed up but he is apparently in Burlington. He said you’d bribed someone in upper management to get him fired.”
“I did.” His words made the table go silent again and he
inhaled deeply and then exhaled noisily. “Let me tell you about my family.”
“Don’t you want to make sure we’re not recording you or anything?” January asked quietly.
“I am trusting you. We are family, tied by that little girl out there. I trust you wouldn’t do something which would rip her daddy away from her within a day of her getting him.” He simply said and held January’s gaze. He watched as she looked away and frowned at his words.
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“We’re not recording anything. I’m actually really pissed off about all the surveillance equipment. When Davis called me this morning I told him to lose my number because I didn’t trust him as far as I could spit. He said the surveillance was the only way he could get his supervisor on board with keeping us hidden but it was bullshit and I know it. He went too far.”
“I imagine he’ll retaliate against me and that is why we’ll need to have additional security protocol in place for you all.”
“Are you dirty?”
The question from January made her mother snicker and January kicked her under the table.
“Ouch,” Analia grimaced at her daughter. “I’m sorry. I feel nervous having this conversation and when you ask questions like that it’s making me giggle.”
“January, I believe what you are asking is if I’m a criminal. Yesterday and this morning, Kaylee asked me if I was a bad guy and I admit, I lied to her and said I’m not. If you are judging me based on the laws of your government, then yes, I’m a bad guy. I have broken laws. I have done things which make me a dangerous adversary to the enemies of my family.”
“What kind of things?” Terrance asked seriously, staring at his folded hands on the table.
folded
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“I will not give you specifics. I will tell you I enjoy the challenge of a puzzle. I like solving riddles and I prefer to use my mind to fix a problem presented to the family. I like the thrill of a mind game. I like trapping someone in their mistakes and making them pay. As an example, Duchess and her family, the Ziogas family, I played a long game of cat and mouse. I set traps and she fell into them. Those who would betray the family pay the price.”
“You sent her to jail.” Terrance asked him. “Is that how you normally handle people who steal from you?”
“Her grandfather and my grandfather were friends from childhood. My grandfather was the most successful of the two and it seems there was jealousy he was unaware of, but we felt that if we did more than simply throw Duchess and her father in prison, then her grandfather might not survive the loss. He is ill. At the time we were getting ready to deal with his descendants, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Chain smoking will do that I guess but we figured him dying alone, without his son or granddaughter around, was punishment enough for him encouraging their bullshit. We threw the pair in prison.”
“Why not kill them?”
The bold question from her father made January hiss at him,
“Dad!
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“Come on, January. He’s sitting here telling us he’s a mafia leader. He’s got blood on his hands. Why not kill her?”
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“Because it was more fun to make her suffer in prison. We have several people we’ve paid in the prison who make her life miserable. A few inmates, two guards and then warden are all on my payroll. This is a woman who couldn’t butter bread without a golden knife. Prison is a hard and everything she’s ever dreaded in her life. I get videos on the regular of her being tortured and it makes me happy.”
“It makes you happy?”
“As I said, I’m not a good guy, January. There are things which give me pleasure which you might not understand. Watching people pay the price for betraying me is something I enjoy.”
“Have you ever killed someone? Like Dad asked?”
“Do you want the truth?”
January nodded at the question, and he licked his teeth before answering.
“I would not be the head of my family if I was not capable of
taking a life, January.”
So, you have.”
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“Yes.”
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“Why?” the question fell from her lips and she blinked back tears. “You are not the man I thought you were.”
“Stop.” He commanded quietly. “The man you knew is the same man sitting in front of you. The man who loves you unendingly is one who would never cause you or this family harm. You are far safer with me than without me. I will never cause you harm, January.”
“But why? What makes it so you are capable of killing a person, Gulliver?”
The words were a plea for him to make it make sense and he wasn’t sure he could. However, there was an example he could give her. He took a breath and then spoke softly.
“Did Thisbe tell you why she opted to come to America instead of staying in England for school?”
“No. She said she didn’t really have friends there and the
friends she had used her.”
“Some of her so–called friends left her at a party where she was slipped a roofie. She’d snuck out to the party, evaded her security and her friends,” he made air–quotes, “forgot about
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“She never told me.”
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“I don’t like telling her stories because they are hers to tell. She struggled to trust anyone after.”
“Did someone hurt her?” January asked staring at Gulliver’s
face.
“Yes but she didn’t know who it was. When she woke the next
morning at the party, she was alone in the room, clothing gone, bleeding and hurt. It was her first time, and someone stole it from her. After that, everywhere she went, she felt like it could have been anyone. As I said, I like a good puzzle. I was able to find out with some investigation who it was who hurt my baby sister and I personally made sure he could never hurt anyone again.”
Terrance grunted, “good. If someone hurt my daughter or granddaughter in such a way, I’d bury them.”
“Get in line because if someone ever dared to hurt one of my girls in such a way,” Gulliver growled, “I would make sure the pain they suffered was far more than anyone could imagine. I will not apologize for doing the dirty work in my family. It was what I was born, raised, and trained to do.”
“What if I never want to be with you, Gulliver?”
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gave her a smile, “January, I will never hurt you. With me,
Gulliver’s Truth – Part II
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without me, loving me or not. I love you too much to ever hurt you or your family. Who you love, I protect. End of discussion.”
“What if I married someone else?”
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