Arsenal

by S. W. Frank

  Gingerly Lorenzo carried her mother to the vestibule, propping her up, signing the cross and then they split before the priest arrived to investigate.

  Chocolate had removed her blouse and left it in the backseat with the blood. She slumped in the passenger seat, clad in her brassiere crying.

  “I shouldn’t have come back but the guy said they’d find her and kill her if I didn’t.”

  She wiped her nose and he passed her a tissue from the armrest compartment while keeping his eye on the road. “Start from the beginning.”

  He listened as she recanted the story before asking, “Where is this book?”

  “Hell if I know. I threw it in the garbage.”

  Whatever leverage they might have had was tossed out with her revelation.

  He removed his shirt while driving and passed it over to her. “You said you saw a Rolls Royce. Are you certain?”

  “Yes.” Then she gasped. “Oh my god…how could I miss it!”

  “What?”

  “The lady I worked for was the current Mayor’s grandmother.”

  Lorenzo frowned as he struggled to make sense of what she told him. “They are killing for a dead woman’s book. Maybe, there was something in there about the Mayor.”

  “That’s possible but I didn’t read it and they killed my Mama and Uncle for something I don’t have.”

  She put her head down and he remained silent as she wept, going through scenarios until he came up with a plan.

  “The person seeking this book is unaware you do not have it. That is what we must remember.” Then he spotted a rickety gas station on the side of the expressway and headed in that direction.

  He stopped outside the restroom and told her to go in to clean herself while he took care of the backseat.

  He did the best he could with the upholstery, tossed her stained shirt in the trash and then went to sit in the front seat.

  He surveyed the area.

  He had to dump the car.

  Getting out of America had become a major priority.

  The airports, bus stations and trains might be monitored.

  He reached for his phone.

  Chocolate emerged from the bathroom as he placed a call.

  “I need a favor,” Lorenzo said to the silence.

  The subdued voice on the other end simply replied, “What do you need primo?”

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  23

   

   

     

   

   

   

  “You’re going to stand down on this one Nico!” Alfonzo ordered. He had shared the current events about the attempted heist at the museum, the curator’s murder and saved Lorenzo’s plight for last. Nico would want to run to the rescue despite his condition and Alfonzo was right.

  The dude went into enforcer mode. “I’m going.”

  Alfonzo wasn’t budging on the matter. “I sent him to a safe house. There are reinforcements on the way as we speak.”

  Nico paced the yard; his long limbs were in constant movement. However, Alfonzo stood as motionless as a statute.

  “He’s Vincent’s son. I can’t just wait it out.”

  Alfonzo was the voice of reason. “But you will. Your family is in my home. They’ve just been put through hell. This is when you let the other guys earn their money and stay alive for the other crew –those minors and your annoying wife.”

  Nico halted. “When did you become so smart kid?”

  “I’m not a kid.” Alfonzo tilted his head to the sky. “I know how you’re feeling Nico. Lorenzo saved my life. That means a helluva lot. Our hands are figuratively tied. You’re fucked up, and so am I. We’ll fly there; get shot or worse when we should have exercised our brain muscles. What’s the point of having power if we don't know when to wield it? Trust me Nico, I’m sending Lorenzo an arsenal.”

  “Pssst,” Nico sighed, raking fingers through his growing locks. “Doing nothing is a killer.”

  “You’re doing something, choosing to let somebody else handle the dirty work. Semira, Ari and those boys and that granddaughter of yours will appreciate the sacrifice.”

  Nico nodded. “It feels crappy knowing my brother’s kid is in trouble and the only thing I can do is hope.”

  “Think of it this way, as you wait, that little hand on your cheek is glad to keep you company.”

  Nico grinned. “You know, I’m really proud of you.” His eyes shone affectionately. “You’ve grown into those baggy ass jeans. You earned that gaudy ring.” Nico wanted to say more, maybe come clean about Vincent, but he decided to take what Vincent wrote to his grave. He burned the letter. Yeah, he set that shit aflame. The past was history. Selange was alive, Alfonzo, too and where they went from here depended on how strong they stood.

  Out of curiosity, Nico asked, “Whom did you send?”

  Alfonzo laughed. His ribs hurt and he bent over cracking up.

  Nico squinted. “Nah, you didn’t.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “For crying out loud, the Kaposi’s are nuts.”

  “Yeah, I figured they’re a proper replacement for me, you and Geo,” Alfonzo smirked devilishly as he straightened his spine. “Feeling better?”

  “Hell no, now I feel sorry for Lorenzo and that girl.” He slapped Alfonzo on the back. “Oh, oh, oh.” He panted and held his shoulder until the violent pain passed. “Shit, maybe you’re right. I’m not at my best right now.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it.” Alfonzo smirked and scratched his itching fingers.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  24

   

   

   

   

   

   

  “I cannot keep her against her will. She has been an ideal patient Signore Dichenzo. It is best if you take her home.”

  Giuseppe walked around the Doctor and entered the room.

  Nicole’s eyes lit up. “Geo!” She climbed out of bed and gave him a kiss. “I missed you.”

  “I went out of town, but I returned to take you home. How are you feeling?”

  “Better now that I am going home.”

  He searched her eyes for madness. “Do you remember what happened amore?”

  “We lost the baby. I was so sad; I must’ve said things that scared you. But, I’ m fine now. I miss Carlo, where is he?”

  “He has missed you as well. He is visiting his cugino but he will be home soon.”

  Nicole smiled and Giuseppe admitted her, too.

  He helped her gather her things and he took his wife home.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

   

   

   

  The splint was on the ring hand that touched the table where the Rat sat with the visitor’s nephew.

  A plate of food waited for the child’s father, still warm when the unexpected visitor’s thumb connected with the porcelain.

  Perhaps she realizes whom she’s fucking with Alfonzo opined when the sneaky wife of his brother looked at him with scorn.

  He nearly drowned and the ocean had not taken the color out of irises, although the watery bitch tried.

  “I hear things but I can also see. You know growing up in a shitty building; a kid notices that a filthy nei
ghbor’s cucarachas can scamper under his door. Rats can, too.  Man Carlo, have you ever seen a big rat?” He asked his nephew.

  “No Tio. Ew, but I’ve seen them in a book. They are ugly.”

  Alfonzo chuckled. “Yeah, they are and they carry germs. I despise them more than cucarachas. They’re hardy and sneaky.” His eyes settled on Nicole. “Yeah, a rodent’s problem is they think they’re smart. Avoiding a rattrap makes them cocky. They burrow in the walls with their family and when you kill them, you’re forced to eliminate the entire colony.”

  “I bet they stink, too!” Carlo replied.

  “The stench is horrible Niño.” Alfonzo sniffed, screwing up his face. “I know the smell of dead rats anywhere.

  Footsteps approached.

  Giuseppe appeared. He greeted Alfonzo with a squeeze and pat on the shoulders. “What brings you by this evening fratellino?” he asked in a booming voice.

  “I heard you returned. I stopped by to check on you and la familia.” He then helped himself to one of the dinner rolls on Giuseppe’s plate. “Hmmm, this is good. You baked this chica?”

  “No, it’s store bought.” Nicole replied.

  “Carlo’s mom, she baked her ass off. Right bro.”

  Giuseppe’s eyes narrowed. He wondered if Selange told him about his earlier visit. She had been upset, but he thought they squashed their differences. Besides, she forgives people.

  “Sí, she was very good.”

  “Sometimes, I crave those cookies she used to make. Damn they made my mouth water.”

  “Basta!” Giuseppe stated.

  Alfonzo chuckled. “I’m just reminiscing. Too bad, Nicole isn’t a baker; she’d be a double threat. Music and food, talk about a way to warm a man’s cold heart.” The cobalt gaze flickered and mirrored his elder brother. “Stop by my office tomorrow. We need to talk.”

  “Sí, there is much to talk about.”

  Alfonzo strolled to the door, his face tight.

  He didn’t like Nicole’s glower.

  Giuseppe should watch out, that chica was angry.

  An angry spouse is no bueno.

  He arrived home to hear Anita on her cell with that problematic son of hers.

  “Where you go? Your ex-wife was worried. She had not heard from you in days. She says you give her nada…no money…nada for my grand. I send her money each month and you do not. Why do you do this hijo? You screw up your marriage and now you don’t take care of your children”

  That sucks; Alfonzo opined as he went to the den and found his wife on a phone.

  She waved.

  He waved back and left her to her conversation. Her voice faded as he went to the stairs, and climbed without gripping the rail. His hands were healing, but not fast enough.

  “When? Okay, I’ll schedule an appointment…”

  Alfonzo peeked in a room to find the children on gadgets.

  “One more hour and then the video games, cells and laptops go off!” He told the older children. He glanced at the computer Sal was on and noticed a noose. “What the hell are you looking at?”

  Sal flushed. “I was checking out something.”

  Alfonzo leaned down to read. His son had been on a site run by bigots. “I don’t want you trolling that kind of site hijo. The people that administer them are hateful and twisted.”

  “Dad I know, but Darren hacked into it and look.”

  The names and pictures of members, their addresses, professions, bank account information, arrest record, medical history and the listed went on, scrolled down the page slowly.

  “Whoa.” Alfonzo replied in shock.

  “He hacked into all the sites likes these. I don’t know how he did it but he did…look…he also did this.”

  Alfonzo’s eyes bugged out of his head at the cartoon depiction of a man boning a bull and the slogan: Join Us If You Long to Return to the Day of Fucking Bull!

  “Okay, turn that off Salvatore –ahora!” Alfonzo scowled, looking around the room at Aldonza pretending to read a book and Semira playing with her cousins.

  What is going on in my house? He deliberated.

  His mother appeared. “Oh there you are. Are you still traveling with me to Carmen’s?”

  Shit, he forgot he said that. “Sí, we will leave at four a.m. Okay?”

  “Gracias, I will arrive in time for Jessica’s engagement dinner?”

  “Que?”

  “Yes, she and Emilio are back together.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Well, you are often busy hijo.”

  “Not that damn busy.”

  Aldonza stepped between Alfonzo and his mom with her palm up in front of her dad. 

  Alfonzo looked at the girl. Goodness, she sprouted taller than her Nana. “I thought we settled that nonsense about me paying you every time I use bad language, hija. In addition, I have a bone to pick with you. How you go and bake cookies for Lorenzo and not me, huh?”

  She laughed. “Because you make faces when eating.”

  His mother laughed. “That is true.”

  “I appreciate that you have considered me and did something nice, so I eat them because I love you.”

  Sal blew a raspberry on his way past their huddle. “Her cookies are nasty, just tell her dad.”

  Aldonza ran after Sal, her wild ponytail hitting the center of her back.

  Alfonzo squinted in observance. He promised that when he returned from New York, he planned to take his family on summer vacation to a remote island without distractions. They were maturing very fast and he was missing the evolution while multitasking.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  25

   

   

   

   

   

  “Is Carlo asleep?” Nicole asked when Giuseppe entered the bedroom.

  “Sí,” he said wearily, falling beside her.

  “Tired?”

  Giuseppe rubbed his chin. “Um-hum.”

  “Too tired for me?” she asked in a sexy voice.

  “Never,” he said rolling on his side and caressing her hip. “Ti’amu.”

  “I love you, too. More than you’ll ever know.” She kissed him gently. “Let’s have fun. I always wanted to try that bondage stuff. It’s kinky.”

  Giuseppe’s face brightened. “You do?”

  She jumped off the bed and he followed her with his eyes as she went into the closet to return with several contraptions. She looked so beautiful in her baby doll lingerie; he smiled loving her even more and thought to reconsider his earlier decision.

  She tossed the items on the bed and then swung a pair of handcuffs. “Are you ready to play?”

  The fatigue was gone from his body. “Do you have keys for those Bella?”

  “Of course.”

  He reclined. “I am only checking.”

  “Relax; put your trust in me. The relationship professionals say the best marriages are based on that.”

  “Hmm,” he muttered.

  “Okay, this is how we play. I’m the person in charge and you must do whatever I say. I’m going to handcuff your hands and feet, put a muzzle on you, strip you naked and fuck you good.”

  He smiled at the fuck you good part.

  “Then it’s your turn.”

  “When it is my turn, I may not be as gentle.”

  “I’m open to whatever you want.”

  He smiled and put out his hands. The cuffs went on extremely tight. He closed his legs and she shackled them equally snug. He lifted his head for the human muzzle and she kissed his nose. She returned to the closet for a leather whip and he grunted, mumbling inc
oherently.

  “Oh, the whip is for show,” she said. “Wait I forgot something.”

  Then she returned with a sleeping Carlo in her arms and a gun. Giuseppe shot forward, rolling off the bed to the floor, making too much noise as he attempted to reach the lunatic.

  “I suggest you be quiet motherfucker before you wake him and he witnesses the one person in this room who really loved him put a bullet in his daddy’s head!”

  Giuseppe slid his back against the wall. His eyes in the dim room were as reflective as his hound’s. However, Gee was running loose on the property because she suggested at dinner that he required exercise. He had obliged and discovered the reason for her cunning.

  Giuseppe’s heart beat ferociously.

  “You let your brother kill my sister you bastard. I heard all of you discussing it like you were talking about sports.”

  He mumbled.

  She put Carlo on the bed. She sat next to him with the gun and picked up the whip, striking Giuseppe across the face. “Shut up!”

  Red seeped through the sun kissed skin. His eyes turned mean.

  She struck him again and he flexed into a full stand and lowered when she looked at Carlo as she fingered the gun.

  “Good dog, sit!”

  His arms bulged. Every vein in his body protruded as he sat.

  She took up his cell and called a number.

  “Yeah Primo.”

  “Hi Alfonzo.”

  Silence.

  “Giuseppe asked that you come over.”

  “Put him on the line.”

  “He’s got a toothache from eating too many sweets.”

  “Put my brother on the phone –ahora.”

  “What about your nephew. He’s asleep, do you want to talk to him, too you murdering motherfucker!”

  The line went dead and she shrugged. “It’s true. Some people can’t handle the truth.”

  She pressed her spine to the headboard and put Carlo to her breast, placed the gun on her lap and waited with a smile.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

   

   

   

  “Is that you Alfonzo, big badass?” Nicole called from inside the bedroom.