Free Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series) by Bernard Schaffer Page B

the movies.”
    “I already told
the kid’s parents you were coming!”
    “Why didn’t you
tell me?”
    “Dad?” Jason
called out from the living room, “I really want to go.”
    Vic sighed and
said, “Okay.”
    “And no drinking
this weekend while you have them.”
    Vic looked at her
in disbelief, “Excuse me?   Are you
suddenly my mother?”
    “I just don’t
want you drinking around my children.   I
don’t think it sets a good example.”
    “A couple beers
isn’t drinking,” Vic said.
    “I said no
alcohol.   Period.”
    “And I said who
the fuck are you to tell me how to behave?”
    “Curse at me again,
and I’ll take them home with me right now.”
    He looked at her
evenly and said, “I doubt that.   Whoever
you’re dressed up for would be disappointed, I bet.”
    “Kids, get your
coats on.   We’re going home!” Danni
announced.  
    Both children
protested as she swooped into the living room and started picking up their
jackets.    “Daddy doesn’t want you to
stay here tonight.”
    “That is
bullshit!” Vic shouted.   “Get your hands
off of the kids and get out.”
    “If you’d rather
drink than watch them, I don’t want them around you,” she said.
    “I never said
that!   I never said I didn’t want them
and I never said I’d rather drink.”   He
pointed at the door and said, “Go.   Leave.   Now.   Go do whatever you planned on doing tonight,
and leave us alone.   They will be
fine.   We’re going to rent a movie, eat
some pizza and play a board game.”   He
looked at his daughter and said, “Does that sound fun?”
    Penelope smiled
and nodded.   “I want to stay,” she said.
    Danni spun on him
and stuck a finger in his face, “Don’t curse around my children.   I won’t have it.”  
    “Okay,” he
said.   “Now would you please just get
out?”
    “The only reason
I’m not taking them is because I already have plans,” she said.
    “Better hurry up
then.   Don’t want to keep the lucky guy
waiting.”
    Danni hugged the
kids and kissed them while Vic stood by the open door, holding it for her,
waiting for her to leave.   After she
walked out, he shut it quickly and locked it.   Both kids were sitting on the couch looking up at him silently.   Vic forced a smile and said, “Who wants
pizza?”

8.   The clerk looked up at the older man standing
outside the small window and said, “Can I help you sir?”
    He tapped the
glass and said, “Is this bulletproof?”   He frowned at the wall surrounding the window and said, “The wall around
it isn’t.   What good is that?   Somebody could just start shooting you
through the wall.   Makes no goddamn
sense.”
    The clerk put her
finger on the red emergency button and said, “What can I do for you, sir?”
    “I’m here to see
your new detective, Frank O’Ryan.”
    “And your name
is?”
    He smiled at her.   “Frank O’Ryan.”
    ***
    “Look, let’s just
humor him for a few minutes, then make like we got a radio call or something.”
    “What are you
talking about?” Vic said.   He put the car
in park and looked around the shopping center.   “Where’s he at, inside?”
    “I’m serious, Vic.   It’s always one thing after another with
him.   I don’t have time for it anymore.”
    “He’s your dad,” Vic
said.   “Show some respect, you ungrateful
goddamn heathen.   How many years did he
have on the job?”
    Frank shrugged,
“Thirty something.”
    Vic whistled and
shut his door.   “Back then it was for
real.   They didn’t take any shit off
people.   It was strictly hats and bats,
you know what I mean?”
    “No, not really,”
Frank said.   “Listen, my dad spent his whole
career pushing a black and white around.   He never made sergeant, never went anywhere.   He worked every holiday, every family
gathering, every graduation.   It’s
nothing to brag about.”
    “He put food on
the table for you though,” Vic said.
    “It was more like
beer in the