“You must be Dominic,” he says, offering a hand. I take it, giving him my signature, sturdy-as-hell Castiano handshake, and nod.
“I am,” I say. “And I’m guessing you’re Cal?”
He raises his eyebrows in surprise and nods.
“You’ve done your homework,” he says, leading us farther into the dimly lit room. I shake my head.
“Nah. You’ve just got that signature D’Amico look about you.”
He lets out a chuckle as we round the corner. A huge poker table sits in the middle of the room, covered in green velvet and scotch glasses. Cigar smoke and light conversation hang thick in the air until Tony lays eyes on me. Then, the conversation dies down some, and he sets his glass down slowly. That crooked smile forms on his lips as he leans back in his chair.
“Dominic Castiano,” he says, his voice low but loud enough. “Seems like you have a little more hair on your chest since the last time I saw you.”
I smile and nod in his direction.
“Tony,” I say. “It’s great to see you.”
“You’ve got to be the other Castiano boy,” Tony says, nodding to Gio. Gio nods back. Tony sucks his teeth. “Spitting image of Marlon.”
“I get that a lot,” Gio says.
Tony puts his hands on the table and looks around.
“Boys,” he says, “let’s take an intermission. Go have a drink, get some food. On me. We’ll finish in a bit.”
The rest of the men around the table all slowly stand up and grab their glasses, making their way out the door and into the restaurant until the only ones left are Wes, Gio, me, Tony, and Cal. Cal closes the door and walks over to the bar at the back of the room. He reaches over the edge and grabs a bottle of scotch, refilling his glass. He motions to us.
“Can I get you boys a drink?” he asks. We shake our heads, my father’s hard-and-fast rule on my brain.
In this business, we are the professionals. Act like it.
Cal walks back over to the table where Tony is sitting and offers us chairs. Wes, Gio, and I take our seats.
“So,” Tony says, leaning back in his chair, “to what do I owe the pleasure? I have to say, I was surprised you called. Haven’t heard from a Castiano since Marlon walked out of here almost twenty years ago.”
I swallow and nod.
“I was young,” I say, “but I know our families sort of went their separate ways.”
Tony gives me a half-smile as he sips his drink and puts the glass back down.
“You could say that,” he says. We exchange a glance, but I take in a breath and remember why I’m here.
Scarlett. And Scarlett only.
“Look, Tony, I need to see if we can put the past behind us for a second,” I say. Cal looks at Tony, then I feel his eyes on me. But I don’t take my eyes off of Tony. “I need a favor, and I think it could be life or death.”
Tony’s expression grows serious, his lips pursed together as he looks at me from under his thick black eyebrows.
“A lot of things in this business are life or death, son,” he says, and for a moment, I feel like I’ve lost the battle before I even started fighting. “But go on.”
I let out a breath and look at him again.
“Tony, I need some information on Johnny Dexter.”
Those are the words. The words that make it feel like the room is spinning. But Tony and I stay locked on each other.
“Wow,” Tony says with a chuckle. “After the way things ended with our families and the, uh, complicated relationship your father had with Johnny, it’s bold of you to even speak his name.”
I nod.
He’s not wrong.
“I know it is,” I tell him. “So you must see how important it is that I get this information.”
“And what information is it you’re looking for?”
I pause for a moment. I feel Gio’s gaze on me, and I see his hand slide down to his gun out of the corner of my eye.
“I need to know what his relationship is with Sal Melucci.”
Tony’s eyes narrow as he leans further back in his chair.
“What business do you have with Sal Melucci?” he asks. Gio looks at me again, but I shake my head. I won’t drag her name into this.
“I can’t say. But I’ll tell you what I do know. I know that Sal owes Johnny a fuck-ton of money. I don’t know why, and I don’t know for what. But what I also know is that Sal is still alive. What I don’t know…is why. Johnny Dexter and his crew have been known to kill men for looking at them the wrong way. From what I understand, Sal has owed him for years, and the amount just keeps adding up. So, what I need to know is…why is he still breathing?”
Tony looks at me, his eyes bouncing back and forth between mine. I can tell he’s thinking, contemplating, deciding how or what he’s going to tell me, if anything at all.
He breaks his stare, looking down at the table to pick up his cigar from the ashtray, tap it, and stick it between his lips. Then, he looks back up at me.
“I know you’re aware that Sal has a daughter,” he says, his eyebrows raised in a knowing look. “In fact, last I heard, you and she are pretty close.”
I swallow.
Shit.
Who was I kidding? Whether I bring her into this or not doesn’t matter. Scarlett is in this mess, too. Deep.
Tony shifts in his seat.
“Listen, Dominic,” he says. “Johnny Dexter is a long-time associate of mine. I know you know this. But your father, he was one of the good ones—bad blood and all. I can’t give you information that would jeopardize my business with Johnny.”
I nod slowly, my hands clenching into fists.
“But,” Tony says, “having been in this business a long time, I can tell you that sometimes you don’t take out the trash before digging through it to make sure you didn’t get rid of anything valuable.”
I raise an eyebrow, trying to figure out what sort of hidden message he’s giving me.
A moment later, the rest of his boys come in, and I know that’s all I’m getting out of him. I shake his hand and walk out of the restaurant, feeling a little more lost than when I walked in.
17
Scarlett - Present
The first few minutes of the ride with Avie are just as awkward as I could have expected. We’re six years apart. When I met her, she was a child, and even then, she didn’t like me. As she got older, it became more apparent that we were nothing alike, and then I left for Boston and missed most of her formative years. When I got back to New York, it was like she had gone from some sort of Tasmanian devil to the fucking queen of the borough. She’s ruthless, and one thing she does ruthlessly…is love.
I know she loves her brothers.
I know she would do anything for Dominic, just like I would.
She’s my only option right now.
“So,” she says as if she can tell I’m struggling to find the words, “why did you call me?”
I swallow, turning to her as she turns down a side street and slows down to look for street parking.
“I, uh…” I say nervously, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “I think I need your help.”
She nods.
“So you’ve said,” she says, pulling the car over and putting it in park. She unbuckles her seatbelt and turns to me. “What’s going on?”
I draw in a long, slow breath then look up at her.
“My dad got himself into a lot of trouble, I think,” I say. “And I think, because of that, I’m in trouble. Which means––”
“That my brother is in a lot of trouble because he put himself there,” she finishes for me. I nod. She doesn’t say it as if it’s my fault; she just says it matter-of-factly—because it is a matter of fact. He wouldn’t even be on Johnny’s radar if it weren’t for my last name.
There’s another beat of silence, and I turn toward her.
“I don’t know what to do, Avie. But I have to do something. I can’t let him get himself into trouble because of me–�
��”
“First of all, Scarlett, you need not flatter yourself,” she says, holding her hand up. My jaw slams shut. “The bad blood between the Castianos and the Dexters goes back years and years. Long before your father was even in the picture. And if the events of last year were any indication, that hate runs deep. Now, it might be true that things wouldn’t be as heated without your father’s doing, but what I’m trying to say is, you don’t need to put this all on yourself.”
I sit for a moment. I know it’s true. The Castianos and the Dexters fucking hate each other. And a few months back, I even had some intel that I thought could help the Castianos get a step ahead. It was a long, bloody battle, but in the end, Avie stepped down as head of the family, and Dom and Gio came back from Chicago to run the New York outfit. So, I guess, in some ways, the beef with Dexter actually worked in my favor. I got Dominic back into my life.
But now, it’s putting us both in danger, and I’m right back where I was all those years ago.
“I get it,” I tell her, “but it doesn’t change the fact that I have to do something.”
She nods slowly.
“Okay,” she says. “Tell me what you know.”
I start going through the bits and pieces of the story that I actually understand. My dad owes Johnny a shit-ton of money, he was sort of a double-agent between the two outfits back in the day, and for some reason, Johnny’s let him live this long.
She leans back in her seat and chews on the end of her thumbnail as she stares out the window. Then, she slowly turns back to me.
“We need to talk to Johnny.”
I swallow, wide-eyed, as I stare at her. I’ve heard the legends of Johnny Dexter, heard his voice over the phone a few times. But never have I looked him in the eye, let alone had a conversation with him.
But I reach up to touch the seashell necklace around my neck and hold it in my hand.
I nod.
“Let’s do it.”
A few moments later, we’re pulling into a spot next to the curb and getting out of the car in front of a charming older apartment building. She locks the car and leads me to the main door of the building which has some sort of keypad, but she jiggles it a bit, and it opens. I follow her across the main lobby to a large staircase and then up the next three flights until we reach another long hallway.
Finally, she stops at the second-to-last door at the end and unlocks the door.
Music is coming from inside, and I can hear who I assume is Leo singing along––an
impressive vibrato, I might add. He pauses when he hears the door close and pokes his head around the wall, swirling something around in a frying pan.
“Hi, you two,” he says, smiling from ear to ear when he lays eyes on her. She pauses in front of him, and he bends down to kiss her, seemingly unaware that anything else on the planet exists for a minute. I can’t help but fight a smile. The apartment is modest, with modest furniture, white appliances, linoleum floors, and carpet that looks like it’s not exactly new. And yet, the two of them look like they’ve reached nirvana.
And maybe that’s because they have. Avianna grew up with every material thing she could ever want, two giant houses to bounce back and forth between, a private school education, and half of New York bowing to her father.
And yet, here, in this little apartment, eating stir fry with Leo, is her end game. She’s started a new job at Landry Hotels, and from what Dom told me, Leo is working for the VA hospital as some sort of counselor. And with the money that I know each of the Castianos have in a trust from Marlon, they could probably afford more. Hell, they could even move back to the brownstone, live the life she had together.
But that’s just it––they don’t want to. They’re happiest here, in an eighty-year-old apartment building that doesn’t lock. But they’re together.
When they come apart, he looks up at me.
“How are ya, Scarlett?” he asks. I smile up at him, forgetting just how tall he is until I’m right next to him.
“I’m okay, Leo,” I tell him. “How are you?”
“Better now that my girl’s home,” he says with a wink in Avie’s direction. She smiles and shakes her head, walking around the counter and plucking a piece of broccoli from the dish he has next to the stove. “What kind of trouble are you two getting into today?”
Avie and I look at each other then back to Leo. His eyes widen, and his eyebrows shoot up. He had asked it innocently, probably meaning how much money were we planning to spend today or how many different paint colors were we going to pick for the back room. But I assume, by the expression on his face and the look on Avie’s, that we are now cluing him in to the real trouble that we are inevitably going to seek out. He looks at me again, then back to her, and narrows his eyes on her as he sets his frying pan down on the stove. He wipes his hands on a dish towel then crosses his arms over his broad chest.
“Avianna,” he says, sort of like a warning but also like a question.
She looks at me then back at him. She doesn’t look scared or worried to let him know what’s going on. She looks more like a boss who has some bad news.
She sighs and sits down on a barstool across from him.
“We have to go talk to Johnny,” she says. His eyes widen again as he stares at her, blinking rapidly like he is still registering it. There’s a long pause, like he’s waiting for the punchline of the joke. But it never comes.
“I’m sorry...what?” he says. She purses her lips and looks at him, raising her eyebrows. “Avianna. You have to be kidding me. I mean, tell me you’re kidding. You’re not serious, right?”
Another long pause.
“Avianna,” he says, a sarcastic laugh escaping his lips. “Johnny Dexter. The man who tried to kill you in front of me a few months ago?” My eyes flash to her. She casually left that incident out of our discussions about him. And so did Dominic. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Tell me you’re kidding me.”
She doesn’t say anything, just shakes her head slowly.
“Avie, please. We just got under the radar. We can walk around with no one else in the city giving a fuck what we’re doing. You’re free. Why are you risking all that again? To talk to the goddamn devil himself?”
She sighs and looks at me then slowly back to him as she covers his large hand with her small, slender one.
“Because my brother is in trouble,” she says, her eyes wide as she stares into his. “And so is the girl he loves.” Her eyes dart to me for a second before she turns her attention back to him.
Leo’s eyes narrow again on her, then he turns to me. His eyes drop to the counter where her hand still rests on his, and he lifts his thumb to stroke the back of her hand. He sighs and uses his thumb and pointer fingers to rub his eyes. Then, he lowers his head and lets out another sarcastic chuckle before looking back up at her.
“I will follow you to the damn grave, woman,” he says, leaning down for another kiss. “Tell me when and where.”
Her eyes widen.
“You’re not coming,” she says.
Then, he lets out a roar of a laugh as he clutches a hand to his stomach.
“Now that’s funny,” he says, wagging a finger in her face. She swats it away as she purses her lips again. “Pout all you want to, but there’s not a fucking chance you’re going anywhere near him without me.”
There’s an intense stare-down for a minute before she fights a smile at the corners of her mouth.
“Fine,” she says. “We need to go down to Melio’s. Word is, that’s where Johnny and his crew have set up shop.”
Leo narrows his eyes at her again.
“Word is, huh? So much for you staying out of the business,” he says. She shrugs.
“We should leave now, before the night crowd kicks in,” she says. “And before my brother starts wondering where she is.”
Leo starts walking toward the bedroom then stops and turns back to us.
“Dom doesn’t know?” he asks, looking between
the two of us. We shake our heads together, and he drops his head. “I should have known,” he mutters as he walks into the bedroom. He comes back in a moment with a gun in each hand. My eyes widen as he casually tucks one into the back of his pants then hands the other to Avie who does the same. She looks at me and nods her head.
I suck in a long breath as I let the two of them lead me out of the apartment.
I guess if I’m getting into this business, it may as well be on the coattails of one of the best to ever do it.
A little while later, we’re pulling up to Melio’s, a small Italian place on the outskirts of Brooklyn. It’s not real crowded yet since it’s between lunch and dinner, and the only person in the dining room is a teenage hostess who’s texting at the stand and barely sees us come in.
“Excuse me,” Avie says in her general direction, but she doesn’t look up. “Excuse me.”
Her eyes jump from her phone to us as she shoves it in her pocket and feigns a fake smile.
“Just three today?” she asks in a high-pitched voice. Avie shakes her head.
“We need to see Mr. Dexter,” she says. The girl’s eyebrows knit together. “If he’s not here, we will wait.”
The girl swallows.
“I don’t think Mr. Dexter has any appointments today,” she says, pulling out a sheet of paper from the hostess stand.
“This is more of a walk-in,” Avie says. “You can let him know that Avie Castiano is here.”
I see Leo stand up straighter, his hand slowly moving around to the back of his pants. I swallow as I stand behind them. I watch in awe of Avie as she stands like she’s as tall as a fucking mountain, her breathing even and steady as if she didn’t just walk into the home field of her family’s mortal enemy. The girl nods quickly then scurries to the back of the restaurant. In a matter of seconds, a tall man appears behind her with long black hair tied in a braid.
He looks at us then freezes when he sees Avie.
“It really is you,” he says. “Johnny thought it must be bullshit. Said there was no way you’d have the balls to show up here.”
The King Page 12
