Page 219 of House of Cards

When he looks at me again, so much pain on his face, I squeeze his hand as hard as I can.

“They weren’t going to stop, Zoey. And neither would you.”

I can feel him shaking through my hand. Or maybe I’m the one shaking.

That was our biggest fight yet.

Ricky told me we had to sell the diner, to move out of the city and start somewhere fresh. He kept going on about how dangerous the neighborhood was, how all the other businesses in the street were being robbed.

I thought he was high, that his paranoid babble had something to do with the drugs I was convinced he was taking.

But I refused. Not just because we had a second mortgage and wouldn’t even get any money back from the sale, but because the diner had meant everything to Mom. I was determined to make a success of it.

Would things have been different if he’d told me the truth?

Would I even have believed him?

“I stayed in that alley every night, waiting for them to come back. When they did, I begged them to leave us alone. To stop cleaning out the safe. To let us just get on with our lives. So Elonzo offered me a deal.”

I flinch at the name, my stomach growing queasy. Knowing Elonzo, I can’t imagine what awful choices he gave Ricky.

“He didn’t want money anymore. One of us had to start working for him. And I had to choose.” Ricky’s throat moves as he swallows. “Me…or you.”

“Youworkedfor them?” If I sound incredulous, it’s because I am. All this time, I thought Elonzo was just coming to collect a debt. But now I realize he was just checking in on one of his gangbangers.

My fucking brother.

I should be grateful he didn’t hand me over to them, but this still feels like a betrayal, especially after what they did to Mom.

“I was protecting y—” Ricky’s saying, but I cut in with a sharp, “Why did Elonzo say you owed him money? Was that just an excuse to break into the apartment to look for you?”

Ricky shoves his hands in his hair, eyes closed as he shakes his head.

“No, Sis. I did owe him money. I—I was skimming. Trying to save enough so we could both disappear. Start over somewhere they’d never find us.” He shakes his head. “But Elonzo figured it out, and so I ran, because I thought they’d come afterme, not you. I thought if I disappeared, you’d be safe.”

Protecting me.

Keeping me safe.

Sounds an awful lot like another guy I know. My eyes slide over to Smith. He hasn’t said a word this entire time, standing by the window with arms crossed like he’s gone to sleep with his eyes open.

“How long?” I whisper, eyes going back to Ricky.

“What?”

“How long were you working for them?”

Ricky’s silence is answer enough.

“How long, Ricky?”

“Two years,” he chokes out.

Two years. Two years of lies. Two years of him pretending to have a gambling addiction while he worked for the same people that brutally attacked our mother.

“All those times you disappeared. All that money you stole. All the lies.” The pieces are falling into place, and I hate every single one.

“I brought in cash, too,” he snaps.