by Ws Greer
“Hey,” he says, then he listens, his eyes squinting as he receives new information from whoever’s on the other end. “Okay, I’m on my way.”
“Who was that?” I ask in confusion as Dominic stands up like he’s about to walk out right this minute. “What’s going on?”
“I gotta go,” he says.
“You gotta go? You’re leaving me here?” I ask as the nausea and confusion swirl together.
“I’m sorry, babe, but this is something that requires my attention, and I gotta go alone,” he says, dropping two hundred-dollar bills on the table. “Tommy, take her home for me, okay. Call me when once you drop her off, and Alannah, you call me once you’re safely in the room.”
Dominic leans over and kisses me softly on the cheek, but he’s in a rush and I can tell something’s wrong. Something serious.
“I don’t understand why you have to go alone,” I plead. “Shouldn’t we be sticking together right now?”
“We do need to stick together, but I gotta do this alone. The only other person I trust, besides you, is the one taking you home. After I get this done, we’ll be inseparable. Okay? I gotta go. I love you.”
Dominic kisses me again as Tommy stands up to give him a hug. As the two of them embrace, I see Tommy wince in pain again as he raises his arms to hug Dominic. I feel my eyes bulge at the sight, and as I stare, Tommy looks over Dominic’s shoulder and locks eyes with me. He catches me staring at him, and in that moment, I know I shouldn’t be alone with him, but it’s too late. Dominic rushes out the door and I’m left in Maggiano’s with a man I don’t trust for a second.
“I know you’re not feeling well, Alannah, so come on, I’ll take you home,” Tommy says, extending his hand to help me up.
I exhale to steady my nerves, and use his assistance to stand. He locks his gaze on me as I grab my purse off the floor and walk out of the restaurant—into the darkness of the night with Tommy “Two Nines” following closely behind me.
Dominic
The answers are coming, I know it. They have to be, because I’ve had enough of all this shit. I don’t know when things got so confusing, but I’ve fucking had it up to here with all of it.
A boss is supposed to be respected. He’s supposed to be looked up to, idolized, and fucking feared. All this shit that’s been happening these past few days is the exact opposite of how it should be. I’m being disrespected and undermined, and I’ve had enough.
In my head, I go over all the people who sit at my table in the conference room of Lumiere Place, guys who’ve been a part of Our Thing their whole lives, and I don’t know if I can honestly say that they’d never have thoughts of having me whacked. The mob guys believe in a system where seniority is to be respected, so maybe I got this whole thing wrong. Maybe I was being naïve when Leo named me his successor. They all looked like they wanted me to be in that seat, but maybe they were just playing the part. Maybe it was an act that they put on for Leo’s sake. Leo was the one who made them swear their loyalty to me, I didn’t earn it the way he did. He made them love and trust him over the years by doing right by them, making them tons of money, and killing all of their enemies, and he’d been doing it since before I was even born. I could never replace Leo Capizzi. It took a year, but it seems that people involved in This Thing of Ours have gotten over the idea of a twenty-something boss ordering men two and three times his age around. Maybe the fad has died. In Our Thing, all it takes is an idea from one person to do something drastic about leadership, and that idea spreads throughout the Family like a cancer. The hard part, the part that’s driving me crazy right now, is figuring out where the cancer originated, so you can cut it out before it spreads too far.
“Thanks for coming alone. I didn’t mean any disrespect to your beautiful girlfriend, but I don’t know who to trust right now.”
“Fuhgeddaboutit. Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean,” I reply as I lean over and wrap my arms around Dan’s mother.
When she called me at the restaurant, I had to do my best not to give away who I was talking to. Since I’m trapped inside this cloud of deceit that’s having its way with my life, I didn’t want Tommy to know anything, and I had to keep Alannah in the dark just in case someone asks her. I needed her to really not know where I was going so it couldn’t be used against her.
As I make my way into the private room, I see Dan lying on the bed with his eyes closed. He has a thick bandage wrapped around his neck, and the sheets on his bed are pulled up to his chest, hiding the bandages from the successful surgery to stop the internal bleeding that nearly killed him. He doesn’t look as close to death as he did the last time I was here, so that’s a plus. Not to mention, they’ve taken him out the ICU so he can recover from the surgeries.
I walk over to the bed and pull up a chair as Mrs. Stanza stands at the foot. She looks at her son adoringly, the way only a mother could look at her son, before leaning over slightly and saying his name.
“Daniel,” she whispers like she’s trying to keep from scaring him. “Daniel, Dominic’s here to see you. Daniel.”
Slowly but surely, Dan starts to open his eyes. They flicker and fight for the right to move, then struggle with the bright hospital lights once they’re completely open. Dan looks at his mother and gives her a warm, “I’m okay” smile.
“Dominic’s here to see you, Daniel,” Mrs. Stanza says again.
Dan slowly shifts his eyes over to me and I make sure to smile at him. Dan isn’t made, so he isn’t used to me being around. Associates don’t spend much time around capos, let alone the boss.
“How you doing, Dan?” I ask, still smiling.
I can see that Dan thinks to answer me verbally, but then he realizes he can’t. He slowly motions towards the bandages on his neck, before looking to his mother. Mrs. Stanza walks over to the chair she was sitting in by the door and picks up a big yellow notepad and a pen, handing it to her son. Dan takes his time, but eventually he writes STILL ALIVE in big, barely legible letters.
I smile at the writing, but it pains me to see that someone in my family has been reduced to this. The man can’t even speak words, but he’s loyal nonetheless. They always are before the greed kicks in.
I look up at Dan’s mother and I can see the pride she has on her face. She’s thrilled her son is finally awake and able to at least write on his own, and I know she cherishes every second she gets with him, so I don’t want to intrude on their time together. It must be nice to have a mother who cares so much.
“Listen, I don’t want to intrude on your time,” I begin, looking at Dan, “and I know you have a long road to recovery, so I’d like to make this quick. Obviously, Dan, the most important thing in the world to me right now is finding out who did this to you. I made a promise to your mother that’d I’d find out who it was, and I’m gonna keep it.”
As I’m speaking, Dan immediately starts writing on the notepad. After about twenty seconds, he turns it so I can read.
RAPHY?
I let out a loud exhale before slowly shaking my head. Dan lowers his eyes as sadness washes over him. He shakes his head like he can’t believe it, before turning the pad, tearing off a page, and writing again. I think to speak, but I decide to let him get out whatever he wants to say right now. I’m sure waking up to this is hard for him.
THE MONEY?
I let out another sigh as I realize how much bad news I’m giving a man who just woke up from life-saving surgery.
“It’s gone,” I reply solemnly, looking down at the sheets on the bed instead of in Dan’s sad eyes. “Whoever did this took it.”
As I look up, Dan already has the words I’M SORRY written on the notepad.
“Hey, you don’t got nothing to be sorry about, kid,” I reply. “You did everything you could to keep that money safe. You tried to save Raphy—took a bullet to the neck and still managed to get out and put up a fight. You’re a fucking hero in my book, Dan. I’ll never forget what you did. Don’t ever apologize for it.”
Dan’s mouth turns into a tiny, pained smile before he lets the notepad fall to his side. His mother smiles at him, agreeing with my words.
“So, here’s what’s important now, Dan,” I continue. “You sacrificed a lot to protect Raphy and the money, now it’s time for the Family to give back to you. We need to find out who did this to you. So, I need you to think as hard as you can about that day. Take your time and think because your answer is very important. Did you see who did this?”
The second the question comes out of my mouth, Dan looks fearful. We have a code in Our Thing, you don’t rat—not to the police, not to anyone. As an associate trying to become made, he knows how important it is to follow the rules of La Cosa Nostra, because if you don’t, you’ll never get in, and you’ll probably end up dead. Dan looks at his mother, who nods her head to support her son’s decision.
“Dan, listen to me,” I say quietly. “This ain’t ratting. I think this whole thing goes deeper than it looks, and I need answers so I can put a stop to it, or the Giordano family is gonna be in trouble. There’s no rules to follow here. This is just being honest. This is for your sake, and for the sake of the Family.”
Dan thinks on it for a moment longer, then he lifts the yellow pad and quickly scribbles on it and turns it to me.
99
I read it and feel my forehead react immediately. I read it again, and still can’t figure it out.
“What does that mean?” I ask. “Nine-nine?”
Dan’s only reaction is a simple nod of his head.
“I’m not sure I understand,” I say, still thinking it through. “Nine-nine. What does two nines me . . .”
The second the words leave my lips, my heart jolts. I look at the notepad again, and involuntarily stand up as I fully realize what it means.
“Two nines,” I whisper to myself. “Tommy Two Nines?”
Dan slowly lowers the notepad to his side as a single tear slides down his young, hairless face. I think to ask him if he’s sure, but I can tell from his expression that he is. It pained him to say it, but it pains him even more that it’s true.
I feel heat rising up in my belly as the numbers on the pad flash in my mind like a traffic light. Tommy-fucking-Two-Nines. He betrayed us. He betrayed me for Victor Fronzo. He’s worse than a rat, because I’ve trusted him for so long. Somewhere deep down, there may be sadness, but all I can feel is the rage on the surface. There will be no rules that can stop me this time. I’m going to fucking kill him.
That’s when the panic sets in.
“Motherfucker!” I say aloud, startling Dan and his mother. “Alannah’s with him.”
Alannah
The tension feels thicker than the oxygen in Tommy’s maroon Suburban. The two of us sit next to each other, but there may as well be a gigantic concrete wall resting between us while Tommy eyes the road on the way to River City.
What do you say in a situation like this? When there’s drama everywhere and your boyfriend is the boss of the guy sitting next to you, who you don’t trust as far as you can throw him, and he’s a freaking behemoth, so you can’t throw him at all. I have my reasons to doubt that Tommy is trustworthy, but I have no proof of anything, and it’s not my place to make accusations in Dominic’s place.
I’m just the boss’s girlfriend, nothing more. Women hold no weight in La Cosa Nostra, so to speak on Dominic’s behalf would be a terrible idea. But women’s intuition is a motherfucker, and I feel it in my bones that something isn’t right with this family, and something tells me Tommy has a part to play in all of this. But the possibility of being wrong straps me down tighter than the seatbelt stretching over my chest right now.
I see Tommy take a glance at me out of my peripheral vision. He doesn’t turn his head, only his eyes, and the glance is brief. After another five minutes of driving, he does it again, this time turning his head a little more, apparently gaining more confidence in saying whatever he’s thinking. My heart speeds up at the thought of talking to him without Dominic around about a subject I know is sensitive, but it’s coming. He’s going to say something soon, so I better start thinking of responses, because making a mistake with Tommy Two Nines usually doesn’t turn out well.
“Alannah,” is the first word out of Tommy’s mouth. His tone is almost exasperated, like he’s already tired of the conversation we haven’t had yet. His eyes stay glued to the road as I cut my eyes over to look at him. He doesn’t look angry, which I guess is a good start.
“Alannah,” he says again, but this time he doesn’t wait for me to respond. “I know you’re worried for Dominic. I can see it in your eyes every time I look at you, and you’ve got every reason to be concerned. I’m with you. I’m worried about all of this too, but I feel like you really need some reassurances.”
I don’t respond verbally, I just look at him as he keeps his foot on the gas pedal and his eyes on the road.
“All the shit that’s been going down is a mess, that’s for sure, but I want you know that I have Dominic’s back. I always have. Way before he was the boss, I’ve always had Dominic’s back. When our crew was new and fairly small-time, I was right there with him. I was there with him when his popularity was nothing more than being the son of Donnie Collazo. I was there with him when people were still calling him Boy Wonder. I’ve been there through it all, and the reason Dominic trusts me is because of all the shit we’ve been through together. I was here when you weren’t, and I helped him get to the top. We did all of this together, and we’re still doing it together, so you can rest assured that I will never let anything bad happen to him. This is just a rough patch for the Family, but we’ll get back on track, and Dominic will be fine. We all will.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I manage to ask.
“Because I can see that you’re having some trust issues. As much as you wanna hide it, it’s written all over your face every time I come around. When you look at me, your eyes tell me you don’t trust me. So, I just wanted to let you know that I can be trusted because I’ve been doing this a long time, right there by Dominic the whole time. You don’t have any reason to be suspicious of me, and neither does Dominic.”
Thoughts jumble around in my head, crashing into one another. I try to pick some of the words out of the air and come up with something to say, but I don’t know where to take this conversation. There’s so much I want to say, but I ‘m not sure if I should. How far is too far when you’re just the girlfriend?
“I’m not even sure we should be having this conversation, Tommy,” I finally answer back. Out of all the things I really want to say, this is the best choice because it’s the most neutral. Anything more could cause a firestorm.
“Of course we should,” Tommy replies, glancing at me again. “I know how this kind of thing works. When my fiancé is worried about something, I get worried about it and have to handle it. That’s the way it goes with anyone who’s in love, but it’s especially true when it comes to Dominic and you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I hear myself respond, the words shooting out of my mouth too quickly for me to stop them.
“It means exactly what I said,” he snips, before pulling it back a little. “It’s different when it comes to you and Dominic. You’re it for him. Whatever bond you two were able to forge when you were little babies, or whatever, is fucking unbreakable, and even though he says he has this undying loyalty to the Family, his first priority is really you, whether he admits it or not. I love Dominic, but I don’t doubt for a second that he’d kill all of us if it meant protecting you. So, with all of that said, I know that if you’re worried about something, he’s worried about something. If you’re suspicious of the Family, so is he, and that’s a problem.”
“Is that right? It’s a problem?”
“It’s a big problem, Alannah, although you may not recognize it to be one.”
“Well explain it to me then. Why’s it a problem?” I feel my frustration about the whole situation starting to sw
ell up inside of me. I’m losing control over my emotions, and if I don’t figure out a way to get them back in check, I’m going to say something I shouldn’t. I can’t let that happen, not without Dominic around to protect me.
“Obviously, the boss of a family can’t spend all of his time being suspicious of his own people,” Tommy begins, doing nothing to hide his patronizing tone. “If the boss doesn’t trust us, things fall apart very quickly, and that’s obviously not a good thing. Even you can see that, right? We have enough fucking problems out there already. We have a hard enough time trying to keep the peace between the families in This Thing of Ours. So, we don’t need any internal beef. We need trust. So, if you’re over there pissed off, looking at everybody suspiciously, then Dominic will be doing the same fucking thing. We need to focus our attention on the task at hand, and that’s Victor Fronzo.”
There it is, another mention of Victor Fronzo. In the moment, I can’t help it when I think about how Dominic told me that Frankie said the same thing just a few days ago when he came to the house. Pushing everything on Victor Fronzo like they’re trying to start some kind of war between the Giordano’s and the Chicago Outfit.
How is it possible that Tommy and Frankie came to the same conclusion? Why do they both want Dominic to believe that Victor and Giovanni are the ones causing all the trouble? Why does it mean so much to them, and how the hell did they both get on the same page about it? The answer becomes obvious to me—they must be working together on this. It’s the only logical answer. I don’t know why, and I don’t know what their end goal is, but I know they’re behind all of this.
The fire in my gut grows into a primal blaze as I look at Tommy and realize what’s going on. He’s the snake, and Dominic needs to know so he can chop his head off.
“So, the Family needs you on this, Alannah,” Tommy continues when I don’t respond. “I know Victor and Giovanni are causing all of this, which is why I need you to tell Dominic that’s the way it is. If you say you believe it’s Victor and Giovanni, Dominic will get on board. Once that happens, I can go down to Chicago and get evidence on all of this before something else happens again. I can prove they’re behind it and get it taken care of before we’re the ones getting taken care of. You understand?”
