Keeping Secrets

"Yeah?" Deanna asked.

"Dee, what, what is this I'm hearing?" D.J, her oldest brother asked.

"Jesus fucking Christ, D.J; quit trying to sound like Al Pacino, you ignorant piece of shit," Deanna hissed, looking into the bedroom she'd set up for Christina.

Deanna could see the child, the 'Little Mermaid' nightlight was fairly bright. The girl was sleeping soundly in her 'big girl bed.' Deanna ran a loving hand over the child's back and left the bedroom.

"Look, you got Little Al pretty upset," D.J. continued, not heeding Deanna's earlier statement.

"Well, boo fucking hoo. Tell Little Al to suck it up," Deanna said.

"I don't think you understand, Dee," D.J. said, voice menacing. "You either set this right, or something bad's going happen, Capeesh?"?"

"I don't think you need to worry about it. By the way, does Mary Lynn know about Mindy?" Deanna asked.

"Don't you fucking threaten me, you little fucking bitch," D.J. exploded, breaking character.

Little Frankie called ten minutes later. Uncle Frankie had suffered two massive heart attacks and several minor strokes. Since then, Little Frankie had taken over Frankie's importing-exporting business. D.J. was Little Frankie's right hand man, just as Dean had been Frankie's right hand man, continuing the family tradition.

"Little Al ain't happy. And when Little Al ain't happy, I ain't happy," Little Frankie said.

"Your happiness means as much to me as a used tampon does," Deanna smiled.

"What? What's wrong?" Amber sleepily asked when Deanna slipped into bed.

"Nothing," Deanna smiled. "Go to sleep my darling Amber."

Thursday, Baldy was actually relieved when Deanna called in and said she needed some time off. Little Al Babanetti had not taken the loss of his one thousand dollars very well. She knew the man would not let the matter slide, but if Deanna, Venus was not on the premises, there would be little to no collateral damage when Little Al retaliated against Venus.

"Hey, hey, there's my favorite niece," Frankie wheezed and slurred when Deanna sauntered into his bedroom.

"And there's the piece of shit raped his favorite niece," Deanna smiled.

Frankie weakly flailed but Deanna had no trouble holding the pillow over his face. Right before she left the man's bedroom, she saw a rosary sitting on the nightstand. The solid silver rosary had belonged to her father; she remembered seeing it casually draped over the statue of the Virgin Mary in Dean Sopopano's office. Deanna took the rosary with her when she left her uncle's bedroom.

"Uncle Frankie passed away in his sleep," D.J. informed Deanna. "His services will be held at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church Monday.

"I've got finals next week," Deanna said.

"Dee, family is family. Your teachers will understand," D.J. ordered.

The next phone call came at ten o'clock Monday evening. Deanna stepped into a toilet stall so she could hear over the music.

"Little Frankie's furious; this, Dee, this was a slap in the face to the family," D.J. thundered.

"Oh, good. I was afraid it would be too subtle," Deanna giggled.

"Dee, Dee, I, you don't know what you're playing with," D.J. screamed. "I, can't, I won't protect you, you hear?"

"How's Mindy doing?" Deanna asked.

Deanna smiled when there was no answer. She then sent a text message to Jeannie Childress with the simple word 'Hi.'

Tuesday morning, Mary Lynn Sopopano was pushing her grocery cart around the Burns & Burns Grocers grocery store. She smiled, softly rubbing her seven month pregnant belly absently as she scanned the shelves, looking for D.J's favorite St. Elizabeth's Lager beer. Turning to push the buggy forward, Mary Lynne saw a plain brown envelope sitting on top of her purse.

Mary Lynn screamed when she saw the photograph of her husband and a beautiful Asian woman. D.J's wedding ring was clearly visible as he thrust his slim erection into the smiling girl's mouth. There were ten photographs in all, and all showed her husband with Mindy Cohen, his mistress.

Deanna smiled when she received the simple text 'hi' from Jeannie's cell phone. She parked her BMW and went into the Zydeco's Coffee shop. She gave a friendly wave to the three students she'd arranged to meet with and got in line to order.

"I'm going to fail, I know I'm going to fail, there's no way," one of the students wailed when Deanna pulled out the Statistics text book.

"With an attitude like that? Yeah you are," Deanna laughed. "Come on, we got this."

Spotting Little Al's men was easy. Deanna knew the game, though. Little Al had every intention for Deanna to see his two goons. They were there to intimidate Deanna. They were also there to distract Deanna. Her real tail would most likely be the middle aged couple in the Toyota Camry.

Deanna lost the two goons easily enough. She then led the middle aged couple to the Burns & Burns Grocers grocery store. Strolling along the aisles, Deanna put random items into her cart. Turning a corner, Deanna left her basket at the end of the aisle and quickly ran down the next aisle over and out of the store.

Turning the corner, Marvin Grossman and Ida Bloomberg looked around for Dee Sopopano. Not seeing the attractive blonde on any of the aisles, Marvin and Ida walked out of the store, leaving their own cart next to Deanna's abandoned cart.

"Shit, Little Al ain't going be happy," Ida grumbled, seeing that Deanna's BMW was gone.

"I, hey, listen, I, you don't work here no more," Baldy stammered when Deanna entered Little Vixens that afternoon. "I, Little Al's guys have been here whole day waiting on you to show up."

"Okay," Deanna shrugged.

Returning home, Deanna found Janice, Christina's baby sitter preparing hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. The homely Latina called the unappetizing concoction 'stovetop alfredo.' Deanna refused the offered meal, but happily bent to the task of feeding Christina while Janice ate her own meal.

While Janice bathed the toddler, Deanna received a phone call from her brother. Deanna closed the door of the bedroom; Janice and Christina did not need to hear D.J's ranting and raving.

"You little, aw you God damned little bitch," D.J. sobbed out. "I, she, she's divorcing me."

"Aw, maybe if you'd kept your itty bitty pee-pee in your pants?" Deanna taunted.

"You, you are fucking dead, you hear?" D.J. hissed into the phone.

"Whatever. Bring it on, if you got the balls. Hmm, what I see in this picture? By the way, can she even feel you? Jesus, that, that has got to be a record, just how small is your dick? But, yeah, looking at this, I don't think you got the balls do anything to me," Deanna taunted. "Know what? I, I'd ask for a DNA test; you sure that's your baby? I don't know how you could get anyone pregnant with that."

"Miss Dee? Someone wants you read her a bedtime story," Janice cheerfully called out.

"Oops, got to go; someone wants a bedtime story. Good night, Junior," Deanna said.

Deanna was not surprised when Baldy called on Wednesday morning. Amber was still asleep, so Deanna and Christina were watching some mindless pre-recorded children's show.

"I, listen, I, Little Al? He's got a girl wants wrestle you," Baldy stammered. "Says it'll be death match."

"Tell him I'm sorry; I've got final exams; this is my last semester," Deanna smiled, then laughed as Christina danced to the silly song the television was blaring.

"Deanna, I, he ain't going take that," Baldy said.

"Tell him, next Wednesday," Deanna said.

Little Frankie was next to call. He had not said two words when Deanna interrupted him and asked how Trey Sopopano was doing.

"He, he's good," Little Frankie said, puzzled.

"You sure? Be a fucking shame anything happened to him," Deanna said.

"Hi; you had breakfast?" Amber asked, tottering into the room.

"Well, great to talk with you. Tell Catherine I said 'Hi,'" Deanna said and terminated the call.

"Well, of course. We had scrambled eggs and grits, and please go put some clothes on," Deanna smiled.

"What? I got my panties on," Amber smiled, twirling to show Deanna that her pretty pink panties were a thong.

"Listen, there, you got anything keeping you here?" Deanna asked.

"You," Amber said as Deanna pulled her onto her lap.

"No, no, I mean, here, here in Myndee," Deanna murmured, kissing Amber's throat.

"You," Amber whispered, wrapping her arms around Deanna's neck.

"So, if I told you we're moving, you'd be all right with that?" Deanna asked.

"I, yeah, where?" Amber asked, gently pushing Deanna's mouth away from her breast.

"I, I need, I'm ready to tell you, tell you everything," Deanna said and a tear trickled down.

"Are we, we in any danger?" Amber whispered after Deanna told Amber about growing up in the seedy underworld of Myndee, Arkansas.

"Yes. I, I knew when I graduated it would be time to get rid of a few um, obstacles," Deanna said.

"I, you're kidding me. I, my baby, I, you you're going get us killed?" Amber asked, growing frantic.

"Shh, shh, Christina's right there," Deanna whispered urgently. "But, no, no, you, I won't let anything happen to you; I'll die before I let anything happen to you or our Christina."

"That's just it, Deanna! You, you are going die," Amber sobbed out.

"No, no, I, I got it all planned out," Deanna assured Amber, squeezing her in an embrace.

"Mommy you dance wif me," Christina ordered as another silly song started on the television.

With one more kiss to Amber's lips, Deanna went up the stairs to her bedroom. She dressed for her class and 'accidentally' sent a text message to her brother Barry that she would be meeting a friend at the Blue Jay Diner for pie and coffee after the class.

Even though there was ample parking in front of the diner, Deanna parked behind the business. She smiled as her contact left her bicycle helmet and a key to the locked bicycle on her seat. Deana handed the young lady the one thousand dollars and ordered a slice of lemon pound cake and coffee from the harried looking waitress.

Two hours after Deanna cycled home, Jimmy and Paul Sopopano cautiously looked around as they ambled into the rear parking lot of the Blue Jay Diner. The white adhesive tape the hospital had put over Paul's broken nose was no longer the pristine white color it had been two weeks ago. Jimmy tried the doors of Jacqueline Hebert's old Chevy Nova, but the car was securely locked. The cook's car was also securely locked tight.

"Aw yeah, there is a God," Paul enthused when he spotted the car keys lying on the ground next to Deanna's BMW.

"Aw yeah!" Jimmy laughed as Paul opened the car's driver's door.

Joey Burrelli was very good at his job. Barry had called Little Al with Deanna's itinerary. Little Al called Joey Burrelli and gave Joey the description of Deanna's car and where it would be at three that afternoon.

Paul started the engine and put it into gear. Jimmy and Paul heard a 'click' and then were engulfed in a fireball.

Little Al smiled as he heard the news report on the local news. He frowned, then shrugged when he heard there had been two bodies discovered in the charred vehicle.

"Maybe the little bitch had her some boyfriend, huh?" Little Al shrugged. "Got to watch who you fuck these days; all kind of bad diseases out there."

Little Frankie heard the news report and actually smiled. He wondered what was the last thought to go through Deanna's mind when she'd been engulfed in the fireball. Then his cell phone rang with his wife's ring tone.

"Hey Sweetheart, what's up?" Little Frankie asked.

"You, they, they got Trey!" Catherine screamed into her phone. "They, no cops, we can't call the cops or they'll kill him! You, you son of a bitch! My baby, anything happens to my baby..."

Little Frankie raced home. He was amazed he'd not been stopped by any police, he was amazed that he'd not been killed or killed anyone as he drove.

"You, you mother fucker! You get my baby back!" Catherine sobbed frantically, slapping at her husband.

Little Frankie tried to piece together what had happened. Catherine only knew, she'd put Frankie the third, Trey down for a nap. When she went into his room an hour later, he was gone and a note that said 'Don't call the cops' was in the crib.

Little Frankie's cell phone rang. He dug the phone out and saw Deanna's cell number displayed.

"What?" Little Frankie screamed into the phone.

"Open your front door, cock sucker," Deanna said.

Little Frankie raced down the two flights of stairs and jerked open the front door. Sitting in his stroller, Trey smiled his toothless smile at his Dada and Mama. Little Frankie sagged against the door jamb, wondering if he was having a heart attack. Catherine shoved Little Frankie out of the way and grabbed her precious baby boy in a fierce hug.

"Hello?" Little Frankie screamed when his cell phone rang a moment later.

"Next time I'll only return half of him," Deanna threatened. "By the way, you and D.J. need to go down to the morgue and identify the remains of Paul and Jimmy. Going be kind of hard; they got pretty burned up."

D.J. sobbed real tears over the loss of his younger brother. Little Frankie shrugged it off. Jimmy had been lost to him the first time Little Frankie caught Jimmy getting high on the product. Jimmy was supposed to be selling the stuff, not sampling it. Stoically, Little Frankie gave Little Al a call.

"What you mean, we didn't get her?" Little Al asked.

"I mean, I'm at the morgue. It was Jimmy and Paul, not Deanna," Little Frankie quietly said.

Little Al called Joey and screamed that Joey had not done his job. Joey was supposed to take care of Deanna Sopopano, not Paul and Jimmy Sopopano.

"I understand, your upset; this is a great loss," Joey said coldly into his phone. "After all, these, these were sons of your very close friend Frankie Sopopano, Dean Sopopano."

"You don't understand shit, you little..." Little Al started.

"But you ever, ever talk to me like that again?" Joey said quietly.

Little Al's blood ran cold. Joey Burrelli had no affiliation, had no loyalty other than to Joey Burrelli. He hired himself out to whomever was willing to pay his fee. He was not a man to trifle with. He was not a man to anger.

While D.J. and Little Frankie were making arrangements to have the remains of their brothers interred in the family mausoleum, Barry was fucking his girlfriend, Kayleigh Ann Davis. He loved the fact that the little sissy slut wore her St. Pius Catholic High School uniform for him. After spunking a hot load into Kayleigh's clutching bowels, Barry rolled the girl onto her back and took her fat cock into his mouth. Because of the nearly brutal pounding he'd given Kayleigh, it only took a moment and Kayleigh spurted a copious load into Barry's throat.

"You stay the night?" Kayleigh quietly begged, showing Barry the cute baby doll nightie she planned to sleep in.

"Fuck, what? Why you got be such a whining little bitch, huh?" Barry demanded and felt his anger rise when Kayleigh's eyes filled with tears. "Aw, come on, shit, don't start that crying shit."

After delivering a couple of well-deserved slaps to Kayleigh's face, Barry stormed to the garage of the cute little home. In the garage, Barry saw the extension cord carelessly dropped next to his Cadillac.

"See, fucking slob?" Barry called out, bending to retrieve the cord. "This. This is why I don't..."

With the cord in his right hand, Barry placed his left hand on his car door to heave himself upright. The instant his hand came into contact with the metal door of his car, Barry closed the connection.

In her bedroom, Kayleigh was dabbing at her tears when the lights flickered then plunged her into darkness. She squealed, truly terrified of the darkness.

With a fat candle, Kayleigh cautiously stepped into the garage. She called out for Barry; she could see his gleaming Cadillac by the light of the candle. Stepping around, Kayleigh screamed when she saw Barry's prone body on the cold concrete floor.

While the Myndee Police were waiting for the Clarkston County medical Examiner to come verify Barry's death, Anthony Sopopano was leaving the home of Reggie Tenhoff. He smiled as he pushed the splintered door shut; Reggie had put up a fight. Anthony liked when they put up a fight. It just wasn't as much fun, punking someone that didn't fight back.

The coach of the Myndee Lady Jays had been told, the Lady Jays were to lose to Harvester's College. Anthony's message had not been vague, there was no ambiguity. The Lady Jays were to lose. Instead, the Lady Jays delivered a rout to Harvester's, twelve to zero.

Normally, Anthony beat the husband into a bloody pulp, then made the husband watch while Anthony used the beaten man's wife. But Reggie's little blonde girlfriend was eight and a half months pregnant and Anthony found pregnant women very unappealing. He also found interracial couples sickening. So, after beating Reggie to a blubbering, whimpering mess, Anthony used Reggie's mouth. The entire time Anthony fucked Reggie's mouth, Anthony told Belinda, Reggie's girlfriend how much Reggie was enjoying sucking a real man's cock.

"Need get this door fixed; know how bad them mosquitos get," Anthony said and turned.

"Yo, Tonio," Deanna cheerfully said and hugged her very large cousin.

"Yo, Dee, I, wait, didn't Joey..." Anthony said, then grunted in pain as he felt the needle jab into his back, just above his left buttock.

"Cobra venom," Deanna explained, pulling Anthony's nine millimeter from his shoulder holster. "About five bites worth. Even if you do make it to Clarkston County in time? There's no cobras in Myndee, so they won't have any antidote. Bye, Tonio."

"I, we, we're family," Anthony spluttered, beginning to panic.

"Calm down, Tonio. Adrenaline makes the toxins act faster," Deanna giggled. "And we're family, huh? Like that ever stopped you from holding me down?"

Anthony lumbered quickly toward his SUV. Fitzgerald did not unlock the car when Anthony tried the handle. Frantically, Anthony hammered on the car window.

"He can't help you," Deanna giggled, opening the door of Amber's Hyundai. "Turns out, he didn't like the cobra venom either."

Anthony grunted, sinking to his knees in the street. Blindly, he tried the handle a few more times before collapsing. Feebly, he clawed at his throat; he couldn't breathe.

Wednesday morning, Little Frankie looked at D.J. Finally, Little Frankie gave a shake of his head.

"You. Me. Willie, Mikey and Pat. We're all that's left. And that little bitch's laughing her ass off at us," Little Frankie sighed.

"What you want me do 'bout it, huh? Little Al says he's got it. Little Al says he's got it? We don't need be stepping on no toes, huh?" D.J. said.

"D.J. What the fuck? You stay up late at night watching all them Godfather movies or something?" Little Frankie scoffed.

Little Frankie's cell phone rang; it was his wife's ring tone. Little Frankie then answered the call.

"I, you, you son of a bitch!" Catherine sobbed helplessly into the phone. "She, she got him again! She, Trey, you son of a bitch!"

"Aw Jesus Fucking Christ! Aw God no, no, no," Little Frankie begged, ending the call as his wife continued to scream her anguish at him.

"Hello?" Deanna answered after four rings.

"Dee, I'm begging you, for the love of God," Little Frankie sobbed openly into his phone.

What? What are you talking about?" Deanna giggled.

"My son. My only son," Little Frankie sobbed.

"Maybe might want think about that next time you and Pesci Pacino are sitting around talking about having me taken care of, huh?" Deanna said and terminated the call.

Catherine did not recognize the phone number, but answered it, frantic. She fumbled with the phone for a moment before bringing it to her ear.

"He's in his car seat," Deanna softly told the mother. "I told him you were going take him for a nice ride out to the park. Bring some bread to feed the ducks; he really wants see the duckies."