Later
that day, Danni comes home from school. Sonny hears the footsteps
walking around on the deck.
"Danni?"
"Yeah, it's
me."
"Get down here."
She walks down the steps to meet
him. "What's up?"
Sonny takes a sip from his almost-empty
beer can and takes a few seconds before starting this
conversation.
"A little birdie told me you were with Quinton
last night." He tries to find the point where his eyes would meet
hers, but she avoids the contact.
"What?! Well, that has to be
one very paranoid little birdie! You know I was out with Marco last
night!" She drops her bag on the floor and heads for the fridge to
grab a drink, trying to act aloof.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Sonny stands up.
She turns around, leaving the fridge closed.
"Yeah, I know, I wasn't going anywhere! Relax!" She boldly
states.
"Shut it! Is that going to be your final answer, that
you weren't with Quinton?"
Danni is still standing in the
middle of the room. Sonny approaches her and starts to walk around
her, staying close.
"I
told you, I was with Marco." She said, still avoiding the direct
eye contact.
"And how about the Ferrari, then?" Sonny turns
around slowly to walk into the opposite direction and to check out
her reaction.
"What about the Ferrari?" She looks up for a
slight moment, with big, innocent eyes, until she meets his eyes and
looks away again.
"Danni, Danni, Danni… when will you ever
learn, huh? … Ok … if that's the way you wanna play this game…
I'll play…." Sonny says with his head up, looking down on her
and changes his direction again, still walking around her, to Danni's
frustration. He's very good at playing games, making his suspect
uncomfortably vulnerable, especially on the job it got many smart
asses to work along quite well.
"What game? Look, I really don't
know what this is all about!" And there, right there, she got
herself stuck in the game.
"Ok…. I hear ya… No problem. …So…
just confirming what you are saying… you didn't meet with
Quinton…. and… you didn't take my car?"
Danni shook her
head to confirm.
"… You do know how I hate it if somebody
else drives my car, right? … How upset I can get, hmm?" Sonny
continues, building the tension.
"I know… that's why I
didn't do it…" Danni starts wiggling, moving her weight from
one foot to the other.
"Allright. … Just wanted to make sure."
Sonny starts to take off his jacket and lays it on the table putting
a confused frown on Danni's face. What is he doing?
"Danni,
tell me …" he steps back to his original place, just one foot
away from Danni, in front of her, looking down on her.
"…
when was the last time I gave you a good old fashioned lickin'?"
Danni's stomach felt as if it was hit by a car. He continues
his act to get himself ready for it, taking off his watch and
everything out of his pockets, laying it on the table.
"...never…?...
" Danni replies timidly, sharply following his every move.
"Well,
there's got to be a first time for everything, right?"
He
says as he takes off the holster, the last thing that could possibly
get in the way.
Slowly, he walks to the table and grabs a chair,
not taking his piercing eyes off Danni for one second.
"You can
stop me anytime by telling the truth, Danni."
He softly adds,
almost whispering. With the chair in his hands, he walks back to the
middle of the room and puts it down. He looks around the room, acting
like he was checking if he'd need anything else for this.
"Well.
.. Let's see… How'd that go… Oh, yeah… I need to sit down
for this…"
Danni just stands there with her eyes wide open,
not believing this is really happening to her. He would never see it
through, now would he?
"The truth is a wonderful thing, Danni…"
Sonny tries again. He sees the fright in her eyes and knowing she is
about to break down, he takes his time before sitting down and
repositioning himself a couple of times until he is in the right
position.
"Come here." Sonny says while holding his hand out,
sounding almost friendly. Danni takes a step backwards and shakes her
head.
"No! No… I… I…"
"You what? Come on, spit it
out! Your time is about to run out!"
There was no answer, no
movement, nothing. She had totally blacked out.
"If you're not
gonna say anything…. come here."
He leaned forward to pull
her in by the arm, but she backed away quickly, far enough she could
lean her back against the wall.
"I.. did take the Ferrari…"
Finally she caved. Just in time.
"AND…" he presses.
"and
I was with Tommy…"
Sonny stood up and kicked the chair out of
the way, startling Danni tremendously.
"Next time I will not be
this patient, Danni. You will have to come clean with me straight
away. You got that?"
"…yes sir…"
"Good! … You're
grounded for a week! … And if I ever find out about you taking my
car or even thinking about it, I'll beat the living crap out of
you, you understand?!"
"…yes sir..."
"Now sit down,
we need to talk." She sits down right away.
"We put a bug on
you today." Danni opens her mouth of amazement.
"What? How
did.. where… why…?"
"Yes. That's right. That's how I
found out ... You told us yourself!"
He reached into his pocket
for his pack of smokes, but it was in his jacket, on the table.
"Get
me my cigarettes." He told Danni as he pointed to the table. Just
as lame as she was earlier, as sharp was she now and got it in two
seconds. Sonny lights one.
"You guys talked about introducing
Quinton to Burnett."
"Yeah, Tommy started about that."
"Well,
that's actually a brilliant idea. I might have a plan for
that."
Sonny informed her on his idea and they agreed to set up
a meeting with Quinton and Sonny for tomorrow night, Saturday.
