XOXO,
J
I sighed and turned my phone off, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill. It was hard to believe less than 24-hours ago I was actually considering staying and letting Dom back in. When the cab turned onto Bainbridge Street, I took a few deep breaths and sat up straight. Grant and Miranda had enough to worry about and didn’t need to be burdened with my issues.
I heard their laughter upon opening the front door and followed it into the kitchen where they were sitting at the counter eating breakfast. A glow had been restored to Miranda’s cheeks overnight and where she had been hesitant to touch Grant out of fear of hurting him, she now leaned against him.
Not wanting to intrude, I started to back out, but Grant, who would make a great dad as he already had eyes on the back of his head, said. “And where were you last night, missy?” He spun around on his stool. “I sure hope my little sister didn’t just do a walk of shame.”
“No, Jillian is the one you have to worry about. I spent a very platonic night at Dom’s so you and Miranda could have the place to yourselves.”
“Aw thanks, Nat,” Miranda said, smiling at me.
“You’re welcome.” I entered the kitchen again and made a beeline for the refrigerator to grab a diet coke. Leaning against the kitchen sink, I popped the can open and took a long drink. “So, Grant, I’m going to take a quick shower then we’ll go to your PT appointment. Cool?”
“Actually, Nat, we’ve been wanting to talk to you,” Miranda said and the seriousness of her tone caught my attention. I stopped fidgeting with the silver pop top on the soda can and looked up.
“What’s up?”
“I’ll go with Grant to PT because we have an appointment with our OB afterwards.”
“Okay.”
“Nat.” Now it was Grant’s turn to talk. “I’m feeling better and since the doc cleared me yesterday, we don’t need you taking care of me anymore. You’ve been a great help and we appreciate all you’ve done, but you put your life on hold. You don’t need to stick around anymore. Go back to California.”
I know Grant didn’t intend to make me feel like I was being turned away, but after what had just happened with Dominic, the emotionally vulnerable part of me took it that way.
“Okay,” I said again, emotions limiting me to the same one word response and I quickly left the room. I went upstairs to the guest room where I had been staying, shutting and locking the door behind me before crossing the room and sprawling across the bed. With my face buried in the tan comforter, I let myself have a good cry.
As usual, I had better perspective after the tears had purged all of the hurt and rejection from my system. Hugging a pillow to my chest, I looked around the small room and the few possessions I needed to pack. I had been living out of a suitcase for almost six weeks and admittedly, it was getting old. Plus, my funds were running critically low. Fortunately Grant and Miranda had paid two months’ rent on my apartment as a thank you, but I needed to get back to work soon in order to cover bills. Any reason to stay here had been removed. It was time to go back to Cali.
Grant looked up in surprise when I came down the stairs the next morning with my luggage. He was sitting on the sofa watching T.V.
“You’re leaving already? What the hell?” He set the remote down on the coffee table and stood up, crossing the room to meet me in the foyer.
“The airline had a last minute cancelation on a non-stop flight and they were able to get me in.”
“We didn’t mean you had to leave today.”
“It’s time for me to head back so why delay the inevitable?”
He crossed his arms and looked down at me with narrowed eyes. “Why do I feel like you’re running away again?”
“I’m not. It’s just time.”
I waited out his scrutiny, keeping my face clear of any expression. “Fine though I don’t understand. Do you need a ride? I can call one of the guys to come get you.”
“A cab should be here any minute.” I set my bag down on top of my rolling suitcase and gave Grant a hug. “Don’t overdo it or Miranda will have your ass.”
“I know she will. Call or text me when you get in and be careful.”
“Yes dad,” I said with a roll of my eyes. The cab honked its horn out front so I bent over to retrieve my bags. “Give Rand and Bambino a hug for me. Oh, and can you give this back to Miranda.” I handed him the gun. He opened his mouth to say something, but the cab honked again. Before Grant could start an inquisition about why I had a gun, I grabbed my luggage and hurried out the door.
Chapter 31
DOMINIC
I stepped out of shower and grabbed a fluffy white towel off of the hook. I took my time drying off. Clearing steam off of the mirror, I leaned on the counter and stared at my reflection. Letting Natalie go literally made my chest hurt and it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. It was easier taking someone’s life. Hell, it was easier killing Uncle Marco. I wanted to rush out to the bedroom and take all of the words back, but I couldn’t. Natalie had basically been brutalized ever since we met and it wasn’t fair to try to win her back into a relationship. It was selfish of me to ask that of her.
Before leaving the bathroom I told myself to stay strong because seeing Natalie’s wide hazel eyes were going make me weak. I wasn’t prepared to step out into an empty bedroom.
“Nat?” I called, but silence greeted me. Securing the towel around my waist I went to search the rest of my condo, but when I saw her shoes and bag missing, I knew she had left.
I resisted the urge to run after her and even if I did go after her, Dante and I had a meeting with Demetrius, Egan, Chang and Ji that couldn’t be put off. With a frustrated growl, I went back to my bedroom to get changed. Just as I was pulling a dark green tee shirt over my head, the front desk called to let me know Dante was out front waiting for me. Before leaving, I secured my gun in its holster, grabbed my keys and the latest burner phone.
“You alright, bro?” Dante asked when I got in the car. “You look distracted.”
“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s get this meeting over with.”
We agreed to meet in Demetrius’ territory in West Philly. He ran a corner convenience store as a front and it was connected to what looked like an abandoned building. We walked through the store and into the back employee and stock room. Demetrius shook our hands before nodding to one of his soldiers. One wall was made up of shelving that held extra inventory, but it also hid a secret door. Demetrius’ man pulled on the end of the shelving unit and it silently rolled forward. Demetrius entered a code in the keypad and the door automatically opened and we followed him inside. What looked like a burnt out, condemned building on the outside was really a luxuriously appointed office space. A large metal and glass executive desk took up one side of the room while a large flat screen television was mounted on the opposite wall. Instead of having the news or ESPN on, it was displaying footage of video surveillance. A bar area with four bar stools was set up the right of the desk. The floor in the middle of the room was sunken in. This square area was furnished with a black leather sectional and large coffee table, creating a lounge area.
“Help yourselves to the bar and make yourself comfortable,” Demetrius said before he answered his phone. Flipping it closed he strode over to the screen and peered at the images. “You guys have a tail,” he said. Looks like a Fed.”
“Yeah, that’s why I set up the meeting this way. All they’ll have is pictures of us walking in and leaving a couple hours later. Not really evidence. The Feds already know we’re associates and I’m being careful not to give them probable cause for a search warrant. It’s a pain in the ass, but what can ya do?”
“Just getting us in one room together looks suspicious,” Egan said striding over to bar. He had entered the room at the tail end of my explanation.
“Exactly, I bet that guy watching the building has a hard on right now with all of us big fish gathering. Eyes will be on us and not the real trans
actions taking place.”
“So what, we’re just going to sit here?”
“Yeah and drink all of Demetrius’ booze,” Dante said with a wink, taking a sip of the scotch he had poured himself.
Cheng and Ji arrived minutes later. Apparently their rivalry had somewhat chilled out as they came in together and were actually talking to each other without any noticeable hostility. Maybe the prospect of making a lot money helped mellow them out. Whatever the reason, I was happy they checked their bullshit at the door.
“What’s going on, man?” Ji asked, shaking my hand before sitting down. He was wearing his usual uniform of basketball shorts and a Sixers tank top that showed off his collection of tattoos. Being that he was barely 5’5”, the basketball attire was pretty ironic and since he liked them oversized, he looked like a kid playing dress up.
Demetrius opened a wooden case of cigars and offered us each one. After the smoke incident with Natalie the night before, I declined. After that we waited. Instead of arranging to meet in one spot to give each gang their supply of heroin, we arranged for various rendezvous points around the city. At exactly 2 p.m. my most trusted soldiers were meeting with men from each group to make the transactions. The plan was that after the deals were made, a simple text message with the word: “fin” was to be texted to us. By 2:15 everyone had checked in except for Demetrius’ man and Anthony “The Giant.” At 2:17 Demetrius’ police scanner lit up as a dispatcher put a call out for first responders to respond to a shooting at Fortieth Street and Elm.
“Oh fuck,” Demetrius said and looked at me.
“That’s the rendezvous point,” I confirmed.
“The Fed’s leaving,” Egan pointed out and I glanced at the screen to see the charcoal gray sedan pull away and speed off down the street. “Guaranteed he’s responding to that call.”
All we could do was listen to the scanner and Dante jumped on Twitter to see if any reports were getting posted. Anthony had a burner phone on him and if he followed instructions, any sent or delivered communication was deleted. I couldn’t call and check if he was okay because I didn’t want anything traced back to me. We couldn’t go down to watch the crime scene as that would be just plain stupid. So we waited. I got up and paced in front of Demetrius’ desk, pausing whenever the address crackled over the radio. From the snippets revealed by dispatchers, it didn’t sound good. Two men were shot, one DOA and the other critical.
“My girlfriend’s sister is an ER nurse at UPenn hospital, that’s most likely where they’ll be transported. I’ll call her and see if she can give us some info,” Demetrius said. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialing. Minutes felt like hours as we waited for her to call back. The worst case scenario ran through my head that Anthony and Demetrius’ man had been killed and we’d been robbed of drugs and cash. An equally disastrous scenario was that they had been killed, but the money and heroin were left on them. They were known associates of our organizations and the evidence left behind would not be good.
Egan offered me a drink and I waved him off. Now was not the time to get shitty, I needed to keep my head clear. Every time Demetrius’ phone rang, I looked at him expectantly like fucking Pavlov’s dog. Finally the call we had been waiting for came in. He answered and nodded at me before walking to his desk and taking a seat. Grabbing a notepad he wrote something down and hung up, throwing his phone on the desk where it clanged against the glass top.
“Sorry Dom, but your boy was DOA,” Demetrius said. “Javon is critical with a shot to the head. He probably won’t make it.”
“Fuck!” I stopped where I had been pacing and punched the wall, feeling my knuckles split open upon impact. Dante set his glass down on the bar and crossed the room to stand by my side. I pulled him into a fierce bro hug. We had grown up with Anthony and the first time I ever got hauled into a police station, Anthony was with me. We were both fifteen at the time and summer had left too much time on our hands. Turns out cops don’t like having the hub caps stolen off of their patrol cars. We were released with a warning, but that experience left us bros for life and Anthony was one of our most trusted enforcers. “The Giant” was so big physically, it was easy to think his muscles were impenetrable, almost like his own bulletproof armor, but sadly he was just as mortal as the rest of us. I released Dante and we stepped a part. “We need to think about a cover story because you know this is going to fuel the Feds,” I said, finding comfort in resuming business mode.
“Yeah, let’s get out here and we’ll talk on the way. We need to let Grant and Miranda know what happened too.”
Egan, Chan and Ji got up to leave with us. “I’m sorry about Anthony,” Ji said and shook my hand. “Let me know when you find out who did it,” Egan said and cracked his knuckles.
Before we left, I went to say goodbye to Demetrius. He was still sitting at his desk and was talking on the phone. “We’re out, man,” I said. He mumbled something and hung up the phone. He stood up and shook my hand.
“Looks like we’re really in business together now that blood’s been spilled,” he said. “I’m sorry about Anthony.”
“Thanks, he was a tough son of a bitch and will be hard to replace. I need to figure out what to tell his family.”
“I have a feeling I’ll be doing the same sometime soon.”
We left with heavy hearts and a lot of uncertainty hanging over our heads. One thing I was certain of, Special Agent Phillips wasn’t going to overlook this particular crime scene and that meant we had to up our game even more.
I decided we weren’t going to notify Anthony’s family because it wouldn’t be wise to show we knew about his death before the police made contact. While Dante drove, I called Miranda and told her the news. She was silent for a few seconds before she responded.
“I’ll let Grant know,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “We should probably get everyone together. Want me to make the calls?”
“Yeah, that’d be good. Let’s meet at Crimson that way you can tell the staff at the same time. Let’s meet in an hour.”
“Does Joey D. know?” she asked.
Joey and Anthony were tight and shared the head of security duties at Crimson. While Anthony and I got in trouble together as kids, he and Joey D. actually did time together. They weren’t related, but were sworn brothers. He wasn’t going to handle the news well and when blood was finally spilled in retaliation; Joey would be the one doing it. “No, I’ll call him right now to find out where he is. Dante and I will tell him in person.”
“Okay. This really sucks Dom. Any idea what happened?”
“Not yet, but when I find out who’s responsible, they’ll fucking pay.”
Chapter 32
Natalie
LOS ANGELES
The airport shuttle dropped me off outside of my apartment building and I lugged my suitcases up the stairs. It felt like an eternity since I’d left and California was a foreign country compared to Philadelphia. Where I was used to seeing skyscrapers, I now saw palm trees whenever I looked up. It was quieter here too. Aside from the distant hum of traffic on the interstate which was less than a mile away and an occasional radio, there was little else.
Stale air greeted me when I opened my apartment door. It was warm inside as I’d turned the air conditioner off before I left. The AC ran up my electricity bill something fierce. I carried my bags to my bedroom, turning the thermostat to cool along the way. After going to the bathroom and washing my face, scrubbing off the miles of travel, I went to the kitchen to scrounge up some food. The refrigerator revealed a door full of condiments and a couple bottles of water. At least I had cleaned out any food that had the potential to spoil before I went out of town. The freezer had more options. I pulled out a chicken breast and bag of broccoli. While the chicken defrosted in the microwave, I called Grant to let him know I arrived. He didn’t answer, so I left a message. Next I texted Chelsea, letting her know I was back.
I whipped together a quick stir-fry with th
e chicken and broccoli and served it over brown rice. With a steaming plate of food, I settled down on the futon and turned on the television. I found a Family Guy marathon and settled in. It was nice to just chill. After eating, I stretched out and tucked a throw pillow on my head. Between the food and jet lag, I was asleep in minutes.
It was a deep, dreamless sleep and when I woke up at three in the morning, my head was heavy and limbs stiff, like I had been drugged. It didn’t take long to fall back asleep after relocating to my bedroom. I woke up three hours later. Apparently my inner alarm clock was still on Eastern Standard Time. I lay there, trying to will myself back to sleep, but when that didn’t work reluctantly climbed out of bed and got ready to go for a run.
The day had yet to heat up and the warmth of the early morning sun was tolerable as I ran towards its light. Commuter traffic had already started and I ran past rows of cars sitting at traffic lights while the sidewalks remained clear. The weight of Dominic’s rejection pressed down on me and I increased my pace even though I knew outrunning my emotions was impossible. I understood where he was coming from and yes, I had suffered a lot since he came into my life, but I didn’t blame him and never would. He took over the family business and while it was different than inheriting a dry cleaning business or being made managing partner of a law firm, it was a business he grew up around and it was all he knew. When it came down to placing the blame, it was all on Uncle Marco. He was the bastard that choked me, threatened me and pimped me out to Mr. Genovese. He was the one that had a hit out on me. I didn’t spill any tears over his death. The only remorse I felt was that Dominic was the one who pulled the trigger. For a man who was raised to believe that family is everything, taking out his own uncle had to have fucked with his head.
Dominic didn’t want me around and Grant was moving on with his life. Looking out for me was no longer his number one priority. For all the years I bitched about his overbearing ways and influence, not having his presence in my life left a big void. I was finally free to live my life the way I wanted and I had no idea what to do.
Endings & Beginnings: Book Three of The New Mafia Trilogy Page 22
