The Good Boss

by Scott Hildreth

  The silence was deafening. I glanced to my left. Al and Anthony remained statue-still, and emotionless.

  I mentally repeated the judge’s words, hoping I had understood them correctly.

  I have no alternative but to find that the search warrant was wrongfully obtained, and therefore find that any evidence obtained in said search warrant as being inadmissible in court.

  It seemed clear to me.

  The teeth, as a matter of law, didn’t exist.

  And, without them, there was no case.

  I couldn’t understand why everyone remained detached.

  “The report in question was used to obtain the warrant,” the judge said. “And the warrant was used to obtain the evidence. The evidence was then used to proceed with a grand jury hearing, which subsequently produced an indictment. The indictment was used to file a federal warrant for arrest, which was fulfilled. The defendant has been in custody since the day of his arrest, as bond has been denied in this case.”

  The judge looked at the prosecutor. “In the absence of the aforementioned evidence, are you of the opinion that there is sufficient evidence remaining to proceed with the prosecution of the witness?”

  The prosecutor glanced to his right, whispered to the two men who were seated at his side, and then looked at the judge.

  “No, Your Honor.”

  The judge nodded and then looked at Al.

  “In response to item one, three, four and five listed in your motion in limine, I find in your favor. In response to item two, there is no ruling, as I find it irrelevant. The charges against the defendant are hereby dropped. Mr. Agrioli, I am sorry for the inconvenience imposed upon you by this court. You are free to go.”

  Free to go?

  My heart thrashed against my ribs.

  Holy fucking shit.

  “Thank you, Your Honor,” Al said.

  I was incapable of much other than standing and staring in disbelief. Everything that had consumed me for the last few months rushed from within me, leaving me feeling light and energetic. I wanted to jump in the air and scream for joy, but knew better than to attempt it.

  I looked at Anthony. He had faced Al.

  “May I speak?” he asked.

  “Keep it civil,” Al whispered.

  Anthony nodded and then looked at the judge. “Thank you, Your Honor.”

  I patted Anthony on the shoulder, and then closed my eyes.

  Thank You, Lord.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Terra

  I gazed around the kitchen, yearning for things to be the way they were before. After my father’s arrest, my life had been ruled by sorrow.

  “When will you tell your father?” my mother asked.

  She looked like she had two black eyes. It saddened me to know she was hurting inside just as much as I was, if not more. Telling my father we’d decided to have the wedding without him wasn’t something I wanted to do. My guess was that he was in more pain than any of us, and adding to it wasn’t something I wanted to do.

  “I think I’ll ask Michael to tell him,” I said. “He listens to Michael differently. I’d just end up crying, and nothing will get done.”

  “The power of prayer.” She wiped her eyes and then nodded in acknowledgment. “I used to feel better after I prayed. Now? I feel worse.”

  “Maybe it’s because we’ve realized things will never be the same. That they’ll stay this way forever.”

  My eyes felt swollen, and I was sure I had mascara all over my face, no differently than she did. “I need to go look at myself in the mirror.”

  She tossed her hands in the air and let out a laughter-infused fit of crying as if she didn’t care what she looked like. I hadn’t yet reached the other side of the living room when I heard the front door open.

  Without a doubt, it was Michael preparing to start his workday. I didn’t want him to see me in my state of being, and took long-legged strides toward the hall bathroom in hope of washing my face before he saw me.

  A voice from my rear caused me to freeze in my tracks.

  “What’s a man got to do to get a plate of pasta?”

  A chill ran along my spine.

  I spun around.

  My heart shot to my throat. Just inside the door, my father stood, smiling. My eyes convinced me it was him, but my mind told me it couldn’t be possible. I struggled to swallow and somehow managed to speak. “Papa?”

  Dressed in the same suit he wore the night he was arrested, he opened his arms and smiled. “How’s my little girl?”

  I ran toward him, screaming like a teenager who’d just encountered her favorite childhood television idol.

  I collided with him, all but knocking him into the back of the door.

  “What happened?” I screeched. “There hasn’t even been—”

  He reached to his side and patted Michael on the shoulder. “He picked apart their case until he found something. Something that—”

  Obviously overcome with emotion, he paused, and pursed his lips.

  I looked at Michael. “The thing? From yesterday? At breakfast?”

  He shrugged and returned a halfhearted nod. As I reached for him with one hand and my father with the other, my mother’s screaming caused me to turn around.

  “Anthony!”

  She crashed into us, and my father immediately released me, and took her in his arms.

  “Mia Bella. I love you,” he said. “So much.”

  As they kissed, I realized that they were, in fact, kissing. It was something that I rarely saw, and only on occasions where he gave her a peck on the lips.

  Seeing them engaged in a full-blown kiss made my heart swell. I kissed Michael, then looked at my parents just as their lips parted.

  My father reached for Michael and me. Together, we stood just inside the doorway, embraced in a four-way hug. After a moment, he broke our embrace and looked toward the stairway. “Where’s Peter?”

  “He’s gone,” my mother said. “Since you left, he’s never here.”

  He smiled, and then gave her a kiss.

  “What happened?” I asked. “Is it...is it over?”

  Michael nodded. “Yes. It is. They lied on their request for the search warrant, and I found the discrepancy. We filed a motion in limine, asking that they drop the charges, and the judge granted it. After the hearing, Al talked to the US attorney’s office. He explained that following the two botched arrests, they’d expose themselves to a hefty lawsuit if they continued to harass his client.” He grinned. “They were glad to see us go. It’s over.”

  I exhaled a breath of relief from my very soul.

  I looked at Michael. “You found the discrepancy?”

  “I guess so.”

  My father draped his arm over Michael’s shoulder. “He found it, and he brought it to Mr. Lori’s attention. He should go back to school and be an attorney.”

  “My days of researching law are over,” Michael said. “Or at least I hope they are.”

  My mother stood at my father’s side with her hands covering her mouth, still in sheer shock that the nightmare was over.

  My father looked at her, and then at me. “Have you eaten?”

  I hadn’t eaten in two months. I shook my head. “Not yet.”

  “I need to take a shower and put on a fresh suit.” He shifted his eyes between us and grinned. “While I’m getting ready, you two should wash your faces.”

  Embarrassed, I reached to cover my face.

  “Then, let’s go eat. As a family.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Michael said. “I haven’t eaten either.”

  My father smiled, kissed my mother, and then walked toward his bedroom. Michael excused himself, went into the office, and started organi
zing his legal paperwork. I looked at my mother and grinned.

  “The power of prayer,” I said.

  “Don’t you dare say a word about any of it,” she said. “He can never know.”

  Instead of agreeing or acknowledging her statement, I simply smiled.

  Keeping secrets wasn’t something I ever wanted to do again.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Michael

  Stepping away from the throne wasn’t difficult at all. As much as I enjoyed my time as the acting boss, it was where Anthony belonged. I sat on the side of the desk where I felt most comfortable, and watched as he finished sorting through a few months’ paperwork.

  “These numbers.” He looked up and met my gaze. “Incredible.”

  “I took advantage of opportunity.”

  He waved his hands over the top of the desk. “You made changes.”

  “If the changes were made by you, they would have been frowned upon. Change in management always brings change in procedure. People expect it. If anyone complains—” I shrugged. “You can blame me.”

  “If anyone complains, I’ll send the new enforcer to pay them a visit. Sal told me about the informant’s fingers. Cap is earning respect.”

  I gave a nod. “Cap’s a good man.”

  “He stepped up when we needed him to. No questions. No excuses. Your men. You.” He shook his head and let out a light chuckle. “The best.”

  “My men are an extension of me,” I said. “And, I was just doing what you asked of me.”

  “While I was in jail. I didn’t know about the future. I thought about the life I’d lived. If I’d do anything different. We had a lot of time to think.” His face went expressionless, and his eyes fell to the desk. After a moment, he looked me in the eyes. “I’m not ashamed of the man I’ve been. But, I made decisions. I want better for you. For my daughter. For my grandchildren.”

  I had no idea where the conversation was going, but so far, I didn’t like it. “What do you mean?”

  “One day, they could come for you. The fuckin’ feds.”

  I stood and folded my arms across my chest. “A risk I’m willing to take.”

  “A possibility I don’t like to imagine.”

  The thought of not being involved in the day-to-day activities of the family troubled me. I’d been abandoned by my family, and I would be damned if I would ever abandon the family that chose to adopt me.

  Giving up wasn’t an option.

  With my eyes still locked on his, I gripped the edge of the desk and leaned forward. “Some men are fighters, and some are pacifists. Where one man might stand up for what he believes in, there will always be others, with beliefs just as strong, who take a step back and wait for someone else to stand up for them. I’ve always been the man who stands up. I can’t help it. It’s part of who I am. Running guns satisfied me, and not for the reasons you probably think. I did it because I believed in the cause of the person receiving the weapons. Now, I believe in this family. I can’t stand down. Not now. Not ever.”

  He leaned back and studied me. After a moment, the corner of his mouth curled into a smirk. “You make me proud.”

  To many, those four words may have seemed insignificant. Although it was something I’d never thought I needed to hear, having Anthony say it to me filled me with a sense of pride that I had no idea existed.

  I released the desk and took a step back. “Thank you.”

  “Where do we go from here?” he asked. “I want your opinion.”

  I sat, crossed my legs, and met his gaze. “What are you asking?”

  “What changes do we need to make? I want the operation to run smooth.”

  We.

  I liked the sound of it.

  He and I, together, could rule the entire state.

  “The operation is in good shape,” I said adamantly. “There’s nothing you can do to prevent what happened from happening again, but I have no reason to believe it will. The men in this family are good, solid men.”

  “Gino turned rat for twenty grand. I don’t understand what would...” He shook his head. “It makes no sense.”

  “We’ll never know the truth, but I seriously doubt the twenty grand he mentioned was what drove him to be a snitch.”

  I knew there was more to it than the twenty grand. I struggled mentally for a moment on whether to tell him what Carter said about Gino’s desire to be the boss, and eventually decided it wouldn’t hurt anything.

  “When we were pressing Carter for information, he told us a few things about Gino. Things he wouldn’t have known if Gino hadn’t told him.”

  His eyebrows rose. “What things?”

  “Gino said if you were eliminated from the family that he would move from underboss to boss. Then, he would change things. That’s why he said he was snitching. At least that’s what he told the informant.”

  “That fuckin’ Gino.” Anger washed over his face and his lips went thin. “We should dig that piece of shit up so I can whack him all over again.”

  “Makes three of us that want to whack him again. You, me, and Sal.”

  “Where is he?” he asked through his teeth.

  “We fed him to the hogs. His teeth?” I chuckled. “I’ll never tell.”

  He motioned to the ledger. “So, we change nothing?”

  “I say not. If we can’t trust family, who can we trust? Our revenue is at an all-time high, and the morale of the men—now that you’re out—is right there with revenue. Leave things the way they are, and find something to replace the cigarettes in the short term. Even if the ATF isn’t looking directly at the family, they’ll certainly not look away if you come up in a cigarette investigation.”

  “What replaces the cigarettes?”

  “Those figures in front of you include no tobacco. Only alcohol. I’ve increased alcohol profits, and given an incentive to purchase more. I raised taxes and lowered prices for bulk purchases. We’ll reach a point that the market becomes saturated, but we can deal with that when the time comes.”

  “What then?” He grinned a sly grin. “Prostitutes?”

  The comment was made jokingly. I let out a sigh, shook my head, and met his gaze. “Guns.”

  “Guns?” He waved at me. “The guns are yours.”

  “I’m a part of this family. The guns are ours. I’ll teach you the business.”

  I didn’t feel that I was letting go of my weapons operation. I looked at it as more of an expansion. If I could double sales, and I was sure that I could, my profits would exceed what I’d made in the past, even after the family took its cut.

  It seemed ironic that we were right back where we started when Jimmy Cupcake came into my office and made the original proposition. Making the deal on my terms made it far more palatable. It helped that Anthony had become my father by proxy.

  He shook his head. “We can’t take the guns.”

  “You’re not taking anything,” I insisted. “I’m a member of this family, and I’m providing for it in a time of need. In doing so, I’m protecting you, and me, from potentially being arrested.”

  He stood. “I like the way you think.”

  “We’ll work out the details in the next few days,” I said as I stood. “I’ve given this some thought, and I’d like to put Cap in charge of the weapons operation. I’ll train the family on weapons familiarity, operations, and safety, but no one knows the business better than Cap.”

  “Little Frank won’t be happy about losing him, but it’ll be best for the family,” he said. “Consider it done.”

  “Sounds like we’ve got some work ahead of us.”

  “Work makes the money.” He grinned a sly grin. “And, the man with the money makes the rules.”

  He was right. The man with the money did make the rules.r />
  But, for me, it was no longer about the money. What was driving me was a sense of belonging.

  Belonging to a family.

  My family.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Terra

  During my father’s incarceration, my days were consumed with bouts of crying, attempting to gain control of my emotions, and a lot of sleeping. Michael’s life consisted of working, reviewing legal documents, and running the family’s business.

  Intimacy was absent.

  I don’t know that I missed it. At the time, it would have seemed out of place.

  Now that everything was back to normal, I realized just how much I did, in fact, miss it.

  Michael walked out of the bedroom. I glanced up from the television, and noticed he was dressed in sweats, and an old tee shirt.

  “You look cute.”

  “I look like I’m headed to the gym,” he said. “But thanks.”

  “No, you look cute. I like it when you wear sweats.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I can see your dick when you walk. It’s fun.”

  “Fun?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He sat down beside me. “What are you watching?”

  I grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. “Nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  I glanced down at his lap. “Your dick. I’m watching it.”

  I stared into his lap for a moment. Slowly, the material started to rise.

  “It’s moving.”

  “You’re staring at it.”

  “It can’t see me.”

  “No, but I can.”

  “Are you telling it to move?”

  “It does it on its own.”

  I looked up. “All by itself?”

  He twisted his mouth to the side. “Uh-huh.”

  “Huh. I thought you guys made them do that.”

  “Not really.”

  I glanced at his crotch, and then gasped. “Jesus!”

  “What?”

  His cock was pointing straight up at the sky. “It’s, um. It’s excited.”