He Ruined Me—Now He Crawls Back Begging novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: Cicero
"We're taking the Buick," Peg said.
"We're taking my car," said Santiago. "It's armored."
"Your car's a hearse with leather seats. Everybody in Cicero will know it before you're off the expressway." Peg jingled her keys. "Nobody looks twice at a Buick."
So on Tuesday morning, the heir to the biggest syndicate in South America folded himself into the back of a Buick.
It was twelve years old and white, with a dented passenger door.
The parrot rode beside him in its travel cage.
"Why is the bird here?" Santiago asked.
"Vet at two," Peg said. "Beak trim. I'm not driving back to Gary in between."
The parrot looked at Santiago with one eye.
"Hot stuff," it said.
"Thank you," said Santiago gravely.
I laughed so hard I had to hold my knee.
His black car followed us at a distance, with his three men in it, looking unhappy about everything.
The body shop was off Cermak, behind a tire place, exactly where old man Abbate had said.
It was a long cinderblock garage with three bays and a yard full of car parts stacked in rows.
Fenders, doors, bumpers and hoods were all sorted by color.
A man came out wiping his hands on a rag. He was about seventy, with a gray mustache and forearms.
He looked at Peg, then the parrot, then Santiago's cane.
Then he looked at me, and the scar, for a long time.
"You're the other daughter," he said.
"Yes."
"Mr. Abbate called." He spat to one side. "Come on."
He took us to the back of the yard, to a shed with a padlock on it.
Inside, it was dark and cold and smelled like oil.
In the corner, under a gray tarp, something big leaned against the wall.
He pulled the tarp off.
It was the front grille of a white Range Rover. Bent in the middle.
The badge was still on it. One headlight hung by its wires.
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