by Hamel, B. B.
There were a few customers, some eating and talking, some with their computers out. I spotted Dante and steered Colleen over toward his table. He was talking with an old lady with white hair in a frizzy mess on her head. She was gesturing wildly and he was nodding with a smile on his lips.
Dante was a big guy, muscular, blue eyes, hair cut short. His tattoos peeked up from the edges of his perfectly tailored suit, crawling up his neck and down onto his hands. He looked good, like he was keeping himself in shape, and he wore one of his trademark bespoke suits in black and white.
“Listen, Mrs. Garcia,” Dante said to the old woman. “I promise, I’ll find your cat. Okay? I’ll put my boys on it right now.”
“Thank you, Dante, you’re a very good boy, you’re all very good boys. Oh, I remember when I was your age, things were so different, and I just—”
Dante gestured for one of his guys to come over. He stood as Mrs. Garcia kept talking and stepped away. Dante’s soldier took his place and nodded along as Mrs. Garcia spoke, not missing a single beat.
“Steven,” Dante said, coming over to me. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Hey Dante.” I gave him a grin. We shook hands and hugged, and his hand lingered on my shoulder.
“Fucking hell, man, you don’t come around enough. Sergio was just talking about you.”
“Yeah? What’d that old bastard have to say?”
“Nothing good, nothing good. You know him, always complaining.”
I laughed, and shrugged. It was just like old times.
“You can tell Sergio that I’m a Capo now, and he needs to show some respect,” I said.
Dante laughed at that and I grinned at him. We both knew Sergio would never show anyone respect, except for Don Leone himself.
Dante’s eyes moved over to Colleen and he tilted his head. “Who’s this?” he asked.
“Dante, this is Colleen,” I said. “And Colleen, this is Dante, my former boss.”
“Charmed,” Dante said.
Colleen smiled a little. “Nice to meet you,” she said.
“Where’d you find her?” Dante asked.
“He shot me,” Colleen said.
Dante stood still for a second then looked at me. “She joking?” he asked.
“We should sit,” I said. “I’ll tell you about it.”
Dante sighed and shook his head. “Never pegged you for the type,” Dante said. “Just shooting innocent bystanders.”
Colleen made a face. “He’s definitely that type. Have you met him? Total asshole.”
Dante laughed and I glared at Colleen. I steered her away and toward a table in the far corner, away from the other patrons. Dante joined us, nodding over to the kid behind the counter, who instantly started making a few coffees. I put Colleen on the bench in the corner and sat next to her, while Dante sat down in a chair across from us. He leaned back as the kid behind the counter returned with three espressos.
“Anything else, Dante?” he asked.
“Nah, we’re good, thanks.” Dante looked at me as the kid walked off and leaned forward on his elbow. “All right, tell me what happened. How’d you end up shooting this nice girl?”
I glanced at her. “She was a bystander at the hit a couple nights ago,” I said.
“Heard about that,” Dante said. “Starting shit with the Celtic Club. Good for you, never thought you’d go for it.”
“Fuck them,” I said. “Anyway, she was in the bodega where those Club soldiers sell their smack. One of my soldiers unloaded on them and went a little wild.”
“More than a little,” Colleen said.
“Shit happens,” Dante said. “That’s not so bad. Where’d you get hit?”
“My shoulder,” she said. “Still hurts like hell.”
“Dr. Chen fix you up?” he asked.
“Sure did,” she said.
“Good.” Dante nodded to me. “Good job, taking care of her.”
“Couldn’t let her go, you know?” I said, my voice low.
“Hey, you made the right call.” Dante sighed and stirred his coffee then took a sip. “She saw it all go down, right?”
“More or less,” I said. “Shop owner was there too, but we left him alive long enough to tell the Club what happened.”
I saw Colleen stiffen and her eyes went wide. “You killed that guy?” she asked.
“You don’t even know his name,” I said.
“But… he just ran a shop. You didn’t have to hurt him. He was a nice man.”
I snorted and grinned. “We didn’t touch him, don’t worry,” I said.
Dante laughed. “Don’t fuck with the girl, man.”
“I know, I can’t help myself,” I said
She glared at us. “How is that funny?” she asked. “I thought you killed an innocent man.”
“Guess it’s not funny,” I said. “Fucked up that you’d think I’d kill a random guy, though.”
“You said your boss might kill me for witnessing a hit,” she said. “How is that different from him being there?”
I leaned toward her. “Your uncle is Mathis Colley,” I said, my voice low and soft. “That’s how it’s different.”
“Oh shit,” Dante said. “Is that for real?”
I leaned back and nodded. “But she says her father doesn’t get along with her uncle anymore. Says they’re not in the family.”
Dante whistled and shook his head. “That’s bad,” he said. “That’s really bad. Mathis is going to be livid.”
“I hope so.”
“That’s the plan, huh? Piss off the boss?”
“Make him do something stupid,” I said.
“You two are insane,” Colleen said. “You’re talking about a mafia war like it’s nothing.”
Dante grinned and held out his hands. “Because to us, sweetheart, a mafia war is just the price of doing business.”
I smirked at her and picked up my coffee. I took a sip and enjoyed the warm, strong espresso. She stared at us then looked away, out the front window. I let her take that in and turned to Dante.
“I’m trying to decide what to do with her,” I said.
“Can’t let her go,” Dante said. “You know that.”
“I know.” I leaned back and stretched. “But nobody’s reached out about her yet.”
“Anyone know you have her?” Dante asked.
“I’ve been leaking it,” I said. “Spreading the rumor.”
“Have you heard from the Club at all?”
“No,” I said. “Which is strange. They know we did the hit, we took responsibility that night. But they haven’t said a fucking word about it.”
“I told you,” Colleen said, “my uncle doesn’t care about me.” She kept staring out the window. “They’re not going to bother talking to you before they hit you back.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked. “You know so much about their business now?”
She looked at me and shrugged. “Maybe I do.”
“I thought you weren’t a part of your family anymore,” Dante said.
“I’m not,” she said. “But I know my uncle well enough to know that he’s not going to talk before getting revenge. He’s just going to hit back.”
I looked at Dante, an eyebrow raised. “Maybe she really does know him,” I said.
Dante laughed. “That was your assessment too, huh?”
“That was my guess, at least,” I said. “I figured Mathis wasn’t the type to bother with diplomacy, not when I murdered three of his men in cold blood like that.”
“Well shit, Steven,” Dante said. “You’re not fucking around, are you?”
“Not at all,” I said, and looked over at Colleen. She was frowning, staring at me like she was seeing me for the first time. I tilted my head and gave her a vicious little grin.
“You want him to attack you,” she said.
“That’s right.” I sipped my coffee and put it back down. “Sooner the better.”
“Why?” she asked. “That m
akes no sense.”
“Here’s the thing. The Celtic Club, they’re strong, they got some good fighters working for them,” I said. “And my crew’s pretty new, so that puts us on relatively equal footing. But I work for the Leone family, which means I have more firepower and money at my disposal if a war breaks out.”
“Still, I don’t get why you’d want him to attack you,” she said, and picked up her coffee cup. She sipped it, her eyes narrowed.
I smiled and knew I had her attention.
“It’s about reputation,” I said. “If I just went in there, guns blazing, and killed every Club man I could, then I’d get a bad reputation. I’d be seen as ruthless and unstable. Nobody would want to work with me. But if I did a little hit, you know, something I could explain, but Mathis escalated everything… well, then I’d have good reason to wreck him.”
She gaped at me then shook her head. “That’s insane,” she said.
“Maybe,” I said. “But reputation matters out here. If everyone thinks I’m a piece of shit, I won’t get the other gangs to work with me, and that’ll be bad for my bottom line. So I need your uncle Mathis to do something dumb and aggressive in response.”
“Is that why you’re keeping me?” she asked. “I’m just bait to taunt him.”
I shrugged and smirked. “Haven’t decided yet,” I said.
“You asshole,” she said.
Dante laughed and I looked over at my former boss. He grinned at me, shaking his head, and sipped his coffee.
“I have to admit, Steven, I really miss you,” he said. “If I could think even two moves ahead like you do, I’d be in a much better position.”
“You have slowed down a lot since I left.”
He gave me a look. “Don’t get cocky,” he said. “I’m still the one that brought you up.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” I said.
“You two are animals,” Colleen said and glared down at her coffee before taking another long sip.
“Well look,” Dante said. “I have to go see Aida. She’s opening a new club.”
“Oh, I heard about that. I heard she’s been doing great.”
“Seriously been killing it,” he said. “Driving me insane. Speaking of getting too cocky.” He rolled his eyes. “But I got to run.”
“Good seeing you, Dante.”
“Yeah, Steven, you too. Stop by again soon. Or I’ll come find you on your own territory, make things even.”
He waved and walked off. A couple of his soldiers joined him, and the place emptied out. Colleen sat next to me, staring at the table top.
“Who’s Aida?” she asked.
“His wife,” I said. “Met her under similar circumstances, come to think of it.”
“Figured,” she said. “You mafia assholes are all the same.”
“You have no clue,” I said. “Come on. Let’s go back home.”
“That’s all you wanted?” she asked. “Just a little social visit.”
I looked at her for a long moment and sighed. I picked up my coffee and took a sip.
“That was more than a social visit,” I said. “You know that, right?”
“How?” she asked. “You barely talked about anything.”
“No, that’s true,” I said. “But he saw you, met you. He heard a little bit of my plans. Now he’ll talk about it with his soldiers, and word about you will leak out.”
She groaned. “Are you serious?”
“I’m serious,” I said. “I want to make sure your uncle knows I have you, and I figured this was a nice and safe way to do it.”
She clenched her coffee cup then slowly relaxed her hands. “He wasn’t kidding when he said you think ahead.”
“Too much sometimes,” I said, my voice soft. “But that wasn’t the only reason I came.”
“There’s more?” she asked.
“I wanted to make sure him and I were still good,” I said. “It’d been a little while since we saw each other. I’ve been busy with my territory and he’s been growing his family. I wanted to make sure that if the Club came calling, he’d have my back.”
“And you found that out?” she asked.
I nodded. “He’s still the same old Dante he always was. As soon as the guns come out, he’ll be there.”
She gave me a strange look and I met her eye with a smile. She shook her head and bit her lip.
“I don’t get you,” she said.
“Good.” I slipped out from behind the table and stood up. “Come on. Let’s get you back home.”
“Wait,” she said. “Can I finish this coffee? It’s really good.”
I hesitated, then nodded. “Sure. You can.”
“And maybe… can we get some bread?”
I laughed and gestured toward the baskets. “What kind do you want?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Whatever’s good.”
“All right then. Drink your coffee, don’t make a mess.”
She nodded and glowered down at her drink, but she sipped it and seemed a little bit happier.
I walked over to the front and ordered a couple loaves from the dark-haired kid. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place his name. When he brought them over, I leaned against the counter and watched Colleen drink her coffee and stare down at the table. I wondered what she was thinking, but I could probably guess.
She was trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this alive.
The answer was right there in front of her face though.
The only way for her to get out of this in one piece was to give in to me and trust that I could take care of her.
Otherwise, fighting me would only make things worse. And trying to run would only make me crack down harder.
And she couldn’t trust her own people. If she wasn’t lying about not being involved with the Club, that meant they had no reason to believe a word she said.
So she was in a shit position. And I was the only man that could help.
Hell, I was the only man that wanted to help.
She just had to open her eyes and see it.
“Thanks for these,” I said to the kid.
“Sure,” he said and nodded.
I tossed twenty bucks into the tip jar then walked over to Colleen. I nodded at her and gestured for her to follow. She got up slowly and shuffled out behind me. We got into the car, and I took her home.
6
Colleen
After our visit with that Dante mobster, Steven drove around for the rest of the day and ran errands. He left me in the car and went into random buildings. He spent twenty minutes in a bank, a half hour in a dry cleaner’s, forty minutes in a deli, ten minutes in a hair salon. We drove all over the neighborhood like that, and each time he left me alone in the car with the engine running.
It was like he was daring me to take off.
But I didn’t. I sat there, listening to the radio, glaring at him like I hated him while my shoulder ached.
He picked up dinner from a little Italian pizza place around the corner from his house. It was spaghetti and meatballs, pretty basic stuff, but it was actually really good. I ate sitting on his couch and watched Wheel of Fortune while he paced around in the kitchen, talking on the phone between bites of his dinner.
I tried my best to tune him out, but I kept getting snippets of conversation. I heard him mention the Club a few times, heard my name twice, and heard him say something about hitting them again. I tried to focus on the puzzles, but the way he was pacing around kept me distracted.
Finally, he hung up the phone and slumped down on the couch next to me. I shifted away from him and was about to get up when he put a hand on my leg.
“Stay,” he said.
I frowned at him. His hand wasn’t holding me down but his voice had a commanding tone, so I decided not to move.
“You’ve had a long day,” I said. “You’ve been busy.”
He shrugged and took his hand away. I let out a breath and relaxed back a little bit, although
I was still on edge.
“Normal day,” he said.
“What were we doing?” I asked. “All those meetings… what was that?”
He gave me a look and laughed. “You want to know about my business?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess I’m just curious.”
“Well, don’t worry about it. If you really want to know, stick around and I’ll tell you one day.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not like I have a choice.”
“What would you be doing right now, if you weren’t here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “That’s not the point though.”
“I think it is,” he said. “Humor me. What would you be doing?”
I frowned a little and looked up at the ceiling. It was smooth and white, broken up by shadows cast by the chairs set around the kitchen table.
“Something similar to this,” I said. “Probably eating dinner. Watching Wheel of Fortune. Probably would’ve gotten home from work an hour ago.” I felt a pang of guilt at the thought of work, and realized I probably didn’t have a job anymore.
“Work,” he said. “What do you do?”
“I was a receptionist for a law firm,” I said.
“Fancy.”
I gave him a look. “It paid well and my boss was pretty nice. I wanted to get into their Competitive Intelligence department.”
“What’s that?” he asked, head tilted. “Sounds like something I could use.”
I laughed a little. “Basically, it’s getting information about clients or potential competitors. It’s all about gathering knowledge.”
“Interesting,” he said. “I do something a lot like that.”
“I bet you have access to all the best databases.”
He smiled, leaned his head against the couch. “Just a network for junkies, thieves, and killers,” he said. “But they can be effective.”
I felt a little shudder run down my spine.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now,” I said. “I’m sure I’m fired.”
“Maybe not.” He frowned at me. “We could call your job. Tell them you got hurt. Tell them you’re taking some vacation time.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right.”
“I’m serious. How much time do you have saved up?”
“Ten days,” I said.
