Read Online Bad Apple by Anthony Bruno - Free Book Online Page B

new wave of agony washed over his jaw and seeped through his body.
    Through the one headphone, he could hear Tozzi talking again. He quickly adjusted the set and put them on both ears.
    â€œI picked up the nuts. Aren’t you gonna at least say thanks?”
    â€œWhy? You made me throw them at you.”
    â€œI did not.”
    â€œJust shut up. You’re annoying me.”
    Gibbons heard departing footsteps.
    â€œHey, Gina! Where ya going?”
    No answer.
    â€œGina! Where ya going?”
    No answer. A door slammed.
    Gibbons moved over to the small one-way window in the side of the van. He focused on the front of the DeFresco house. A brunette with glasses came huffing down the driveway. Gibbons was surprised. Gina DeFresco wasn’t what he expected. Knowing Tozzi, he’d just imagined that she’d be some kind of Jersey special, a mousse girl with hair all over the place, Dragon Lady fingernails, stacked heels, tight skirt up to her butt, and cleavage you could get lost in. But this woman was . . . normal. Actually he was even more surprised that she could be related to that scumbag Freshy. He tried to get a better look at her face as she turned onto the sidewalk. She was kind of cute.
    Tozzi came trotting down the driveway after her, shrugging into a navy cashmere overcoat. “Gina! Wait! I’ll walk you to your bus.”
    Gibbons walked in a crouch to the back of the van and pulled up on the door handle.
    â€œHey, Gib, where ya going?”
    â€œGotta talk to Tozzi. He doesn’t know about Petersen yet.”
    â€œBut, Gib, direct contact with a man in the field on an undercover is not kosher. Ivers’ll ream your ass out for—”
    The metal doors slammed shut. Gibbons didn’t give a shit about rules and regs. Tozzi had to be warned before he gothimself killed, so that Gibbons could kill him later for being so goddamn stupid.
    Holding his swollen jaw, Gibbons pulled down his hat and headed across the street to catch up with his skirt-chasing partner.

SIX
9:26 A.M.
    Tozzi followed Gina as she walked down to the bus stop on Kennedy Boulevard. “What’d I ever do to you? Huh? Except be nice to you.”
    She kept walking, ignoring him.
    â€œHey, Gina, you can’t even be decent enough to talk to me now?” Tozzi was trying to sound like Mike Santoro the pornmeister, but the feelings were all his own. He wanted to connect with her somehow. At the very least he wanted to find out why she was treating him like a piece of toilet paper. After all, they had had that incredible Sunday afternoon together. They certainly had connected then, even if it was only for a few hours.
    Tozzi sighed as he watched the back of her head, her brown hair whipping back and forth over huffy shoulders as she walked. Up ahead the morning rush-hour traffic was roaring by on Kennedy Boulevard. He just wished he could tell her who he really was. If she knew he wasn’t really a pornographer, maybe she’d give him a shot at defrosting that cold shoulder the way he’d warmed her toes on the couch.
    A bus pulled up to the curb then. The electronic sign over the windshield said PORT AUTHORITY TERMINAL . It came to a stop witha loud whoosh, and the doors unfolded. Gina climbed up the steps without looking back.
    â€œGina!” he called out to her, but the door slapped closed, and the crowded bus pulled away with another airy whoosh.
    Tozzi held his breath until the bus exhaust dissipated, then he shoved his hands into his coat pockets and sighed, “Gina, Gina, Gina.”
    â€œGina, my ass.”
    Tozzi snapped his head around, and there was Gibbons, his hat pulled down over his brow, that witch nose of his hanging down below the brim. His mouth was a downturned horseshoe of disapproval. The left side of his face was so swollen, it looked like a blowfish was attached to his cheek.
    Tozzi looked left and right, trying to be subtle about it. “What the hell’re