LEO
I’m in the office and there’s a little round table over in the corner. Don
Gianni is sitting there shuffling cards. It’s what he always does when he’s pissed at something. Vinnie is still talking. I’m saying nothing. Let him dig his own grave.
“I’m just saying I had no idea is all,” Vinnie says, trying to get our attention. “How was I supposed to know?”
The Don gives me the nod. I get to my feet and Vinnie doesn’t see it coming. He’s so busy trying to justify himself that he doesn’t even know it’s happening until the butt of my pistol is breaking his nose.
He sinks to the floor, but I keep hold of his collar, giving him another smack. I’m not thinking of killing him, not here. The office is soundproof, but getting the body out while the place is full would be a hell of a challenge. Even for me.
“Shut up,” I say to Vinnie as he begs me to stop. “Sit there and shut up.”
The Don looks at him as Vinnie clambers into the chair, knowing what’s coming.
The Don puts the cards down and looks at him. “Getting blood on the carpet,” he says, rubbing his eyes. He’s looking tired. Looking old. Like he thought he’d have retired by now. You don’t retire from this game. No one does.
The phone rings on the desk. I pick it up. It’s Paul down on the door.
“Got the chip,” he says.
I hang up, looking at the Don. He’s leaning real close to Vinnie’s face. “It’s simple,” he says. “The snitch is somewhere sitting pretty right now in this shithole town, and you promised me you’d find him while Leo was inside. Swore to me up and down, it’d be a piece of cake. I let you take extra
from my cut because you bring in big enough money.” Vinnie stutters a protest. I slap him silent.
“Don’t lie to me,” the Don says. “I don’t like liars. I let you take that extra, but when I ask you to do one thing, you tell me you need more time? I’m bleeding here, Vinnie. You’re breaking my heart. I loved you like a son and you swore to me you’d have the snitch right here when we got here.
You see him, Leo?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t see him neither. I come all the way out here and I got to bring Leo in to do the thing you promised me you could do.”
He stands up and puts a hand in the small of his back, stretching. “Now I got to drive all the way back and leave Leo here because you told me on the phone you had the snitch and you’ve got two things instead. Jack and shit. I loved you, Vinnie. I gave you the casino to run, and this is how you repay me?”
“I just need a bit of time,” Vinnie manages to get out, spitting out broken teeth. “Please, Mikey. Just another couple of days.”
“You had a couple of days,” Mikey says, going over to the door and pulling it open. “And a couple more. I’ve got until Monday before the snitch gives details of our entire operation to the Feds. You know what that means right?
“Only the snitch will forget it all if we give the Belucci famiglia their casino back. The chip too. Blackmailing me over it, Vinnie. I got two days left and you want those days to kick your heels. Anyone would think you’re working for the Beluccis, not for me.”
“I’m not, Mikey. I’ve been looking, but he’s well hidden. I can’t find him. No one can. Maybe he’s not in Gordon’s Cove. Maybe it was a trick.”
“Then why’d you tell me you could get him for me?”
“Please, Mikey. I’m begging you here.”
The Don turns to look at me. “Leo, you’ve got forty-eight hours. You’ve not failed me before. Unlike this piece of shit. You had five years inside and you kept your fucking mouth shut. Vinnie could learn from you. Time to find your fate out, Vinnie. Leo, do the thing.”
I pull out two playing cards from my back pocket. Vinnie’s hands are shaking as he looks at them, stuttering. “N… nn… nnoo… please. Just a couple of days.”
“Choose.”
Vinnie takes one card and turns it over. A king. He smiles, sighing with relief. Mikey slaps him on the shoulder. “Lucky guess. You’re coming back to the city with me and going back to work in the junkyard.”
Mikey walks out the door and Vinnie looks like he’s won the lottery. “Really?” he asks, running after Mikey. “I thought for sure you were going to whack me.”
“Vinnie,” Mikey says, putting a hand around his shoulder as they walk away. “You think I’m a cruel guy? I’m not. I’m a reasonable guy. I just don’t like being lied to, that’s all. One thing I hate, it’s a liar.”
I close the office door. I know what happens next. I won’t see Vinnie again. The King and Ace game is just the way he makes them come quietly. What he doesn’t know is both cards are kings.
He’ll be crushed inside one of the old wrecks in the junkyard. That’s how death comes in this line of work. You don’t see it coming. Except me. I know Mikey’s ways. I’m the underboss. I know all the boss’s secrets. Got the chip.
He doesn’t know all mine, though. He doesn’t know I left it with the girl. Got Paul to keep an eye out, but no one else knows. I thought she might try to cash it in someday. Five years she holds onto it while I’m doing time for Florida, and tonight she brings it here. Of all the nights she could pick.
I tried to keep away from her, but fate’s bringing her to me. I have to possess her.
She’s still got Rex too. I knew he’d have a good life with her. Better than I could give him. He was getting too old to go on jobs, and Mikey had a simple rule for when a dog got too old. Shot to the head. Nice and quick.
So I didn’t arrange for him to get picked up while I was inside. It was for the best. She got a dog. I got to get on with my time. Put it all behind me.
She’s still in debt to the casino and that means she’s in debt to me. She can give me her ass. A simple enough transaction.
Except it’s Friday, and I’ve only got until Monday to find the snitch who keeps fucking the entire family in the ass.
I’m only here at all because Vinnie fucked up so bad. The Don found out the snitch that has been fucking everything up has been hiding out in Gordon’s Cove. Somewhere out there is the man that can destroy our family name.
Keeps feeding stories about us to the other families, keeps telling them we need dealing with. So far the Don has kept a lid on things but time’s running out.
Now they’ve given us until Monday to give them the chip and the casino back. I got out of prison in time for a shitstorm to whip up with me inside it.
I’ve got two days to find the snitch or I’m dead and the family’s ruined. Even if we try to use the chip now, we look like snitches.
It’d save us, but the commission would drum us out. The chip was only ever a bargaining chip. Meant to get us what we wanted. It did too for a while. Until the snitch came along and fucked everything up.
I need to get hold of the chip and give it to the Don. Mutually assured destruction. If the snitch tells the Feds about our business, we give them the chip.
I also need to find the snitch and silence them. For good. What I don’t need to do is get distracted by the woman I can see on the monitor in front of me.
I’m watching her walking upstairs with Paul behind her and she looks good. She looks even better than I remember her. I switch cameras and get a closer look.
Still got that fire in her almond eyes, the hair a little longer than I remember. Her dress is shimmering white and clings to her curves. There’s a slit that reveals enough of her leg to get my cock twitching.
The outfit isn’t low cut, but it shows off her tits all the same. They look the right size for me to get hold of while she moans my name. I shut that shit down. I haven’t got time to fuck her. Or have I?
It can’t hurt. An idea occurs to me at that moment, and I call Paul just as he reaches the top of the stairs. “Yes, Sir,” he says down the line.
I tell him what to do, and he hangs up.
She’ll be brought up here soon enough and when she arrives, I’ll make her an offer she won’t be able to refuse.