by Sienna Mynx
“It’s your fault he’s dead. The only person I loved. You and your fucking war for power and respect. The Five Points Gang would have never started that race riot if they hadn’t wanted to go after you. They knew about Annie. Everyone did. They knew if they killed that kid and dropped his body off in Harlem the blacks would be blamed for the kids murder and the race riots would begin. You’d have to choose sides Vinnie and you did. You left Teek out there to fend for himself.”
“I couldn’t have stopped it,” Vinnie said.
“Bullshit! Your thirst for power divided us all. It’s time you pay for your sins. I’ve been a bad boy big brother. I wish you would live to see your kingdom burn to the ground. I’ve given the keys to Mickey Collins. Right now he’s wiping you clean. And you didn’t even know it.”
Vinnie’s gaze slipped to Willie, but he didn’t move. “What are you saying to me Antonio?” he asked calmly. “That I divided you and Teek from being what? Lovers?”
“You’re a hypocrite! You can fuck Annie, playhouse with her, but you would never accept me and Teek. They started that race war because they knew it would separate you from your girl. Instead it destroyed the only person who ever loved me unconditionally.” Antonio shouted so loud spittle coated his lips. “Teek and I didn’t split up because of the gangs, we split up because Leftie found out about us. He threatened to tell you what he walked in on, and ran Teek off. We were going to run away together after we got the money but you wouldn’t fucking give it to me. I ran all the fucking errands you gave me and didn’t get shit! Nothing! That’s why he joined his gang and I joined mine. We had it all worked out. We loved each other. You hear that Vinnie! Your brother’s a queer. What you think of that?”
“Antonio, it’s done. He gets it. Let’s go,” Willie said.
Antonio laughed. He glared at Willie. “Go where? I only put up with you to draw her in.” He tossed his chin toward Harmony. “The moment I saw her I knew Vinnie would want a piece. She’s his type all right. All I had to do was make her desperate enough to go for him.” Antonio returned his attention to his brother. “That’s your weakness. We all got one. The dame in distress, needing a hero, is what my brother likes. How many times did Teek and I have to hear Annie talk about how you saved her life? And it worked like a charm. You got weak enough to be sloppy. Easy as pie Vinnie.”
Harmony cringed when he addressed her directly. “I had another reason too toots. I couldn’t have you running around Harlem telling everyone that Romano was responsible for Willie’s sister’s boyfriend’s murder. It would have ruined my plans.”
“You killed Lewis?” Harmony asked in disbelief.
“I didn’t know his name,” Antonio said, his face red and flushed. He held tight to the gun but spoke to Harmony. “Lil Will told me he was your man. He got between me and Teek the night of the riots. Willie saw it all. I was trying to save Teek but he thought I was attacking him. I shot him.”
“Is that true Willie?” Harmony asked.
“Yes.”
“And you never said anything to me?”
“I tried to get Lewis help but I couldn’t. I brought him home.”
“Tell her the rest.” Antonio interjected. “Tell her how you came to me and struck a deal. Told me that you and Teek were friends, and you knew all about us. How you helped me plan this. Tell her that part. Tell her how you were glad Lewis was dead, and you were free.”
The gun lowered down to her brother’s side. Harmony put her hand to her mouth. The pain and disillusionment was too much. “You did all of this, why?”
“Teek was a good guy.” Willie explained. “He told me nothing was wrong with me Mony. But Lewis said differently. Lewis thought I was some kind of freak. All those nights you thought I stayed out late wasn’t because I was in the streets. It was to avoid Lewis. He’d hit me, curse me, threaten to tell you my secret. He worked me hard for Grease then took my money night after night. When I saw Teek die, and how Antonio tried to save him I knew Teek hadn’t lied about them. I thought Antonio understood me.”
“You could have told me!”
“No! I couldn’t. Lewis took you from me Mony! He moved in on us and set up house and you were too blind or too in love to see it. What could I say to make things different? How could I do anything when my secret is the biggest sin of my life? I’m not going to lie to you, I was glad Antonio shot him. I never meant for you to get hurt but you didn’t need to be with Lewis. Look at you now. You sing at The Cotton, people come from everywhere to hear you sing. You a star, and Lewis would have never let that happen. So don’t ask me to care that he dead. I don’t care.”
Harmony felt Vinnie’s hand ease to her backside. Gentle but firm he pushed her away from him. He winked and she made no move to return to his side.
“Bravo!” Antonio said. “You got a smart brother here Jazz Singer. We planned it all out. Taking my brother out, destroying him.” He grinned at Vinnie, shaking the gun in his face. “You’ll love this part Vinnie. I was gonna shoot you first. But then I found her here and decided on a better plan. Shoot you both. Leave the guns, and say she came in here with it and fired on you. Perfect set-up huh?”
“No!” Willie said. “That wasn’t the plan. You were going to kill him and make it look like one of Mickey’s men did it. Then you’d get the money from Queenie on the booze and we’d leave. That was the plan.”
Antonio chuckled. “Shit I forgot. Yeah, that plan. Not quite Lil Will. See I already moved the booze and sold it to Queenie. Got the money.”
“Fine, then let’s go.”
Antonio didn’t move.
Harmony noticed her brother stood there perplexed for a moment.
Antonio smiled. “Where? You and me? You aren’t Teek, and I got no plans to drag some colored boy across the country with me.”
“I don’t understand?” Willie said.
Vinnie cleared his throat. “What he’s telling you kid is you were on the menu first. He lured me down here to make it look like you shot me. Then he planned to kill you. Right little brother?” Vinnie asked.
“Right.” Antonio raised the gun and fired. Willie was thrown off his feet and fired his weapon out of reflex, blowing a hole in the floor. Harmony screamed and ran over to her brother as more gunfire rang out behind her.
As soon as the gun swung toward the kid Romano lunged for his brother. He heard Harmony scream and prayed the rapid fire of Antonio’s gun sent bullets into the floor and ceiling and not his lover. Disarming Antonio had to be his top priority. He gripped Antonio’s throat and struggled to wrench the gun free from his hand. They turned into the wall and Antonio fought back. The rage on his brother’s face broke his heart. He didn’t know his madness, but he swore to end it then and there. The gun fired again. Antonio’s eyes stretched. He spat blood and let go of the gun.
“Meet you in hell Vinnie,” Antonio coughed out and slouched against him. Romano closed his eyes and lowered to the floor with his brother in his arms. He clutched him to his chest and cried out in agony.
Harmony lifted her brother’s head and placed it gingerly in her lap. Vinnie held his brother in a similar way. To hear him struggling through his grief made her ache to comfort him.
“Mony?” Willie grabbed her by the front sleeve of her dress, and spit up more blood. “I don’t want to die,” he stammered.
She gazed down at her foolish brother with love and wept. “You won’t die. I promise. Just hang on. Please.” Try as she may she could not stop the bleeding. A crimson stream pooled along his left side and soaked her hands. There was too much blood. “Oh God, help me. Please help me!” she shouted through her tears.
“Harmony! Move!” Vinnie said. A pair of strong hands pulled her away and she realized Vinnie had come over to help. She relinquished her hold on him struggling to catch her breath, never in her life had she known such pure, undiluted fear.
“He’s dying Vinnie. We got to get him some help.”
“Go get the priest. Now. I’ll need help to ca
rry him out to my car.”
Harmony stared down at her bloody hands, shocked to her core. Blood, so much blood on her, there was blood everywhere.
“Now! Go!” His strong voice blasted away her paralysis. She leapt to her feet and ran for the door. One glance back, she saw Vinnie stripping his shirt off and using it to add pressure to Willie’s side to stop the bleeding. In her haste she nearly tripped and fell over a dead Antonio. She ran for the rectory in the church hard and fast.
The next three hours were the worst in his life. Romano would always remember it as such. Harmony’s weeping would echo in his head for many years to come. The confession of his brother’s dark secrets would haunt him for the remainder of his days. Nothing would be the same. His mind kept turning over memory after memory. The days of Teek and Antonio’s special bond and how he encouraged them. Still he had no warning or inclination about the depths of their feelings, and the madness that consumed them both to become lovers. Romano pushed all of it to the back of his mind and buried his regret and grief deep in his heart. He had to focus, and stay the course. The desperation he felt made his foot ride the gas pedal as if it were made of lead, and he sped away from St. Nicholas.
Harmony and her dying brother were his new priority. He’d driven them out of Harlem to the Bronx. It was a wonder the kid didn’t bleed to death in the back of his car. He kept glancing up in the rearview mirror at her. His Songbird sang softly and hummed to him as he lay on her lap, and she stroked his head. She did her best to soothe him.
The most discreet and highly paid doctor on his payroll was surprised to find him carrying a bloody Negro man into his door. Together Romano and Harmony waited in blood stained clothes for news. When the doctor announced that Willie needed blood he volunteered to save Harmony the ordeal. But the doctor promptly declined stating the boy needed Negro blood and his sister would be the match. He tried to object. She looked so fragile and distraught, but his efforts were in vain.
Romano paced the floor for over forty minutes, his chest tight with worry. When she returned she sat away from him while the doctor’s wife served them tea with a shaky hand and her husband patched up Willie on his kitchen table. No words passed between them. The sordid mess would have to be sorted out later. He wanted to comfort her, but the gulf between them seemed impossible to cross. Her suffering was great. She wept so hard and strong he thought it would drive him to madness.
“Mr. Romano?” The doctor said. He walked out wiping his hands on a clean white towel. “Stitched him up best I could. The boy’ll live. We need to make sure he doesn’t gain an infection, the next few hours are important. If he survives the night he’ll make it.”
“Can I see him?” Harmony said rising to her feet. Romano stood as well. The doctor glanced over to him for approval. He nodded it was okay. Before she could pass him he held his arm out and stopped her. She refused to look him in the eye. “I have to go. I need to deal with the fallout of what Antonio done. I’ll… return for you. We’ll talk.”
She didn’t respond.
“Songbird… I love you.”
She stepped around him and walked away. Defeated, he didn’t bother to stop her. Instead he got in his car and drove back to the church. Father Michaels had cleared St. Mary’s after the first gunshot fired. The priest helped him carry a wounded Willie out of the basement to his car and promised to send word to his men to come and collect Antonio. Romano arrived after Antonio’s body was taken away and the massacre in the church’s cellar was wiped clean. Gio waited for him.
“Mickey Collins?” he asked.
“The shipyard is on fire. It’s a bloodbath boss. And it gets worse. He had help. That bitch Queenie and her band of Forty Thieves. They hit us all boss. Cleaned you out. I just can’t get my head around how they got the jump on us. It makes no sense. So many of our boys are down.”
Romano knew exactly how. Mickey had the jump on them from day one. Antonio had been true to his word; he sold him out and gave his fucking enemy the keys to his kingdom. He had no idea his little brother hated him so. Even now when he thought of the tough love he gave, and the iron rules Antonio was forced to heed to when he came from Sicily, a pang of guilt ripped his gut. He had become the terror that his father was. It was no wonder Antonio hated him as much as he himself hated their Papa.
“Mickey’s not dead. He’s put a price on you. That’s why I came. The boys are heading to the cabin to hold up. We need you to go there. To be sure we can keep you safe. Keep a low profile and let us sort through the mess.”
“How many men dead?” Romano asked, his voice hollow and void of the stormy emotion raging inside of him.
“Not sure, like I said there was an ambush waiting for us. Worst than the first. We were surrounded. They knew our strategy, everything. Got to be an inside job. When I found out who the fucking snake is I’ll cut his balls off.”
Romano wiped his hand down his face. “Where’s my brother’s body?”
“They’re taking him out to Woodbury. Who killed Antonio, in a church? Was it the kid you were going to see? One of Mickey’s men?”
Romano rubbed his brow. Suddenly he felt bone-tired. “Head to Woodbury after you confirm that Mickey’s dead.”
“The booze? Did the kid tell you where it was? Maybe we still got a chance to strike back.”
Actually it was his brother who delivered the news. His booze was sold to Queenie and the money stashed God knows where. “The booze is gone, all of it is gone just like you said,” he mumbled. “I’ll follow you out. I need to take care of something at home.”
Gio stepped aside and Romano returned to his car. He drove to Woodbury with the moon illuminating the way. The night and darkness covered him, making the hollow emptiness he carried complete.
Again the events of the night plagued him with questions until his mind connected all the pieces and the story fit. Antonio had worked against him from the day Teek died. And none of it was for territory or infamy. All of it was for revenge, and in his warped way to excuse his own insecurities over the man he’d become. He wasn’t sure how he felt about his brother being queer. For that reason and others he’d never speak it aloud, he’d not mourn him a day after he shoveled dirt over his grave.
When he arrived at the cabin several cars were parked out front. Antonio’s wrapped body was probably taken to the barn. Romano reached over to the seat next to him and palmed his gun. He threw open his door and eased it into the back of his pants. One of his boys approached.
“Boss, I think…”
“Where’s Leftie?”
“He was inside earlier. Mabel had to fix him up. Tony says your lady friend did a number on him. The side of his face took a banging.”
So his Songbird had fought back? Well Leftie would wish she’d offed him before he was done. “Does Mabel know that Antonio’s dead?”
“Yes boss. She’s at the barn with his body. We haven’t been able to get her out of there. She’s given to hysterics, and she’s started to clean his wounds.”
A flash of wild grief rippled through him and he recalled the same tortured tears Mabel shed when her youngest child was beaten to death. He suppressed the memory of Teek and now Antonio. He exhaled deeply. He wouldn’t share the details of Antonio’s demise or what was said regarding her son. He’d let her grieve. “Give her another hour then bring her out of there. If not she’ll stay with him all night.” He headed up the stairs. “When you see Leftie you make sure he comes to see me.”
***
“Hi there, how you feeling honey?” Harmony asked. She stroked the side of her brother’s face. He looked at her briefly before averting his gaze. It didn’t matter. The fact he was awake, breathing, alive, filled her with such joy. Harmony had to keep blinking away her tears as she smiled down at him.
“You stayed?” Willie said in a dry tone.
“Of course I stayed. I had to make sure you were okay. Doctor says if you don’t get a fever then you’ll heal. I’ll be able to take you home.”
“We’ll talk about that later. Right now I just want you alive. And God heard my prayer. You need to rest, get your strength back.”
“Doctor?” Willie scanned the modest furnished room he’d been taken to. “Where am I?”
“Nevermind that…” she shushed him.
He turned his gaze to her, unable to move his head. “This doctor have a look at you Harmony, your face?”
“I’m fine.” she leaned over and pressed a kiss to his brow and masked the discomfort she felt.
“Mony, I’m sorry,” he said. “Forgive me. I wasn’t going to hurt you, never you. Maybe I was trying to hurt myself. I should have never trusted Antonio. Can you really forgive me? ”
