by B. B. Hamel
“What did he want?” He took a step closer to me. His eyes narrowed and he leaned toward me.
“He wanted… he wants me to betray you.” The words tumbled from my mouth. “He said if I spy on you for him, then he’ll let my dad go.”
“Interesting,” he said and tilted his head to the side. “He wants you to be a spy.”
“I told him I wouldn’t,” I said and I felt like I was talking too fast. “I told him I wouldn’t do it, okay? I’m not on his side anymore. He’s done nothing but hurt us instead of reaching out and I just— I’m not on his side anymore, okay?”
He stared at me for a long moment. I shrank back, trembling, afraid. I didn’t know why I was so afraid, but I felt like Steven was measuring me, and he might find me lacking.
I didn’t betray him and I knew I wouldn’t. If he heard anything during that phone call, he’d know.
He nodded once then looked at the coffee and the paper bag.
“Got those from the bakery for you,” he said. “Coffee, just a little milk. And a pastry.”
“Oh,” I said.
He swept past me and into the kitchen. I watched him get down a mug and pour the rest of the coffee into it. He sipped the stuff black and made a face then watched me.
“So, you’re not mad?” I asked.
“Should I be?” He frowned a little.
“No, it’s just—”
“If you want to betray me, Colleen, go ahead,” he said. “You can go running back to the Club. But you already know how they treat their own.”
I nodded and stared at the floor. “Yeah. I know.”
“Last night, when Simon got shot, I could’ve run. I wanted to run, did you know that?”
I looked back up and held my left elbow with my right hand.
“No,” I said.
“I wanted to get the fuck out of there. I wanted to survive, Colleen. But Simon was shot, and he’s my responsibility.” He took a few steps toward me, but that time I didn’t move back. “Davide was bad enough. I’ll beat myself up for Davide’s death for a long time. It wasn’t necessary, just a stupid, freak fucking mistake. But I’m not about to let any of my other guys down from here on out, not for some mistake, not for anything.”
“I hear you,” I said.
“The Club doesn’t operate like that. The Club kidnaps its former members. You want to be a part of that, go ahead.” He turned away and I could see how tense he was.
I took a few steps closer to him. “I don’t want that,” I said. “Steven, I’m not lying. I told him I wasn’t going to help.”
He hung his head for a moment then took a deep breath. He put his mug down and turned to me.
“All right,” he said. He took another deep breath and nodded. “Okay, I get it. I was pissed when I heard you talking, and I knew who it was on the other line. But I get it, you can’t ignore his calls.”
“He still has my dad.”
“Then we need to do something about that.” He pursed his lips then cocked his head. “You said you wouldn’t spy for him, but what if you did?”
I blinked then held my hands out, palms up. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“What if you did spy for him? Maybe you overheard something important. Like I had some important drug deal going down nearby, two nights from tonight, in an empty parking lot. Maybe you told him about it as a peace offering.”
I stared into his eyes for a long moment then slowly inclined my head and crossed my arms.
“I could do that,” I said. “Is that something you’d want?”
“I think so,” he said. “There’s a parking lot on twenty-third, a few blocks south of here. Tell him I’ll be there and make it convincing.”
I bit my lip hard enough for it to hurt. “I’m not sure he’ll believe me. I just told him to fuck off, more or less.”
“He’ll believe you.” Steven stepped forward, his body restless and muscular. “You’d do anything for your father, won’t you?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Then he’ll believe you. Tell him I’ll be there, and I promise you, little Colleen, I will be there.”
“But what about my father?”
“After that, we’ll go get him.”
I tightened my jaw and looked up into his eyes. “I don’t know,” I said.
“You have to trust me. I know I’ve made some mistakes, but this is going to work. All you need to do is convince him that you’re afraid. Can you be afraid, Colleen?”
He stepped close, so close. He touched my cheek with his right hand and his left pressed against my hip. I pushed my body against his and leaned my ear against his heart. I heard it thumping in his chest, slow and steady.
Of course it was slow and steady. That was Steven, never rattled.
“I can be afraid,” I said.
“Good.” He moved me back and kissed me. “Eat your food. Drink your coffee. If you need me to make you afraid, I will. But I think you can handle it.”
I nodded slowly. “Two nights from tonight.”
“That’s right.” He leaned forward, kissed my cheek. “Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t.”
He let me go and walked into the kitchen again. He picked up his mug, took a long sip, and headed down into the basement. I watched him go then turned away. I stared down at the paper bag and the coffee.
I reached forward and opened the bag.
It was a blueberry muffin. I smiled a little. I loved the muffins at the bakery, but I didn’t remember telling Steven that.
He just figured it out.
I took a bite and put the muffin back.
If he needed this, then I’d do it. At this point, I’d do anything he told me to. Because I saw him last night, I saw him risk his life for Simon, and I knew he’d risk his life for me, too. He’d risk his life doing anything he thought was necessary, and that was the kind of man I wanted in my life.
I picked up the coffee, climbed the stairs up to the roof deck, and looked out over the city for a while, thinking about how to sound scared.
24
Steven
The moon shone bright on the hood of my car as I stared out the windshield. It was a clear night, and I could just make out a few stars through the city’s light pollution.
I looked forward, at the grass and weeds growing in the cracks in the asphalt, at the faded white lines over the blacktop, at the patch of grass and the curb with its tiny withered tree in the very center of the lot. The building it was attached to used to be a bank, but now it was rundown and empty, the big metal and glass front door covered over in plywood with the word SUPAMAN spray painted in red across it.
“Think they’ll show?” Luca asked from the passenger seat.
“I think they will,” I said, leaning my head back. My eyes moved down to the clock. Just past midnight, almost time.
“You put a lot of trust in that girl,” Luca said, staring out the window. “Don’t get pissed off at me when I say this, but shit, Steven. Are you sure?”
I glanced at him and let out a breath. I couldn’t blame him for being worried.
“I know it seems like a lot,” I said. “But she wants this more than I do. Her father’s life is on the line, you know?”
“I get it.” He grunted and shook his head. “I’d do anything for my old man, even though he left my mom when I was just a baby, that loser fucker.”
I laughed. “Isn’t your dad in prison?”
“Yeah. Robbed a liquor store and killed a guy when shit went bad.” Luca shook his head. “I got my brains and my steady hand from my mother.”
“But you got your recklessness from your father. And your big mouth.”
Luca laughed and stretched his legs. A Glock sat in his lap, matte black and silent.
I turned my eyes back out to the parking lot.
There was nothing else around. A streetlight cast its dull yellow haze onto an empty and cracked sidewalk. The street was abandoned, and only a few cars were parked a
long the curb. We were in a bad neighborhood, the place good people didn’t go to, which made it the perfect cover for this sort of shit.
By the time someone called the cops, we’d be long gone.
Not like it mattered. Half the police force in Philly was on the Leone Family take. They’d turn the other way as soon as they realized I was a Capo, and if they didn’t, the Family consigliere would get me out.
Perks of being in the biggest family in the city.
Luca leaned back with a groan. He ran his fingers down the window then tapped the glass.
“I hate waiting,” he said.
“Not much longer.”
We lapsed into silence. I stared at the clock, watched the hands slip past. If Colleen did her job right, and she said she pulled it off, then they’d show up soon. As far as the Club was concerned, I was buying heroin wholesale from a supplier tonight. If they showed, they’d get to kill me, steal the money, and steal the drugs all in one fell swoop.
It would be mighty fucking tempting. If I were Mathis, I’d consider it.
But I’d also be wary. Even though he had Colleen’s father as a prisoner, she still told him in no uncertain terms that she was done with him.
Still, I waited. All I needed was for them to show up. Didn’t have to be the whole crew, didn’t have to be Mathis himself. Just a chunk of them would be good.
“Time,” Luca said, nodding at the clock. “Nobody’s here.”
“Just wait,” I said. “They run on mob time.”
Luca laughed, nervous and high pitched. He picked up the Glock and fiddled with it. “I hate being bait,” he said.
“You’re with me,” I said. “Don’t worry.”
He gave me a look. “That doesn’t make me feel better at all, boss.”
I laughed and leaned back in my seat.
Several minutes later, lights bloomed at the end of the block. Several cars rolled down it, moving slow. Their headlights illuminated the empty houses, the busted-out windows, the broken fire hydrant, the graffiti.
I felt naked, exposed, just like I was supposed to.
The cars came to a stop behind us. I looked in the rearview as Luca slid down further in his seat.
“How many?” he asked.
“Three trucks,” I said. “I can’t see how many guys.”
“Fuck,” he said. “Oh fuck. They’re just gonna light us up.”
“Wait,” I said, my jaw clenched.
If they just started shooting, we might be fucked. But I was betting that the Club was desperate to make sure they had me and didn’t want to risk me getting away. Just as I was almost ready to throw the car into reverse and get the fuck way from there, a door opened and a guy stepped from one of the trucks.
Followed by three more guys. Then four more.
Until nine men were walking slowly toward my car. Their trucks were left behind, empty and idling, the doors wide open.
They all carried guns. Some handguns, some rifles. One guy had a shotgun, leaning up against his shoulder like he was out for a hunt.
They stopped a few feet away.
“Steven Bianco,” one of the guys called out. “Steven Bianco, are you in that car, lad?” He had a light Irish accent.
I gave Luca a look. “Listen to that mother fucker,” I said.
Luca snorted. “I bet it’s fake.”
“Steven Bianco,” the man called out again. “I know you’re in there, lad. Just open up an’ come on out.”
I rolled down the window. “Who’s calling for me?” I said as loud as I could.
“Connor O’Malley, and this isn’t a negotiation,” he said. “Come out, hands up, don’t move. We got you, boy, and it’s time we finished this real good.”
I looked over at Luca and grinned.
“All right?” I asked.
“Fuck,” he said.
“All right,” I said.
I flashed my lights three times.
Then threw myself to the floor of the car.
Luca did the same on his side.
Then the world exploded into gunfire.
Screams rang out from the parking lot. More screams, some running, more gunfire. It sounded like a fucking war was happening. Bullets broke my rear window, broke my windshield. One snapped off the rearview mirror, bullets broke each side mirror. They tore into the car, and I moved up as the firing began to slow down. I looked out the back window and saw one man limping for his truck. I popped off two rounds and he tumbled down to the ground with a moan.
“Get up,” I said to Luca.
“It’s over?” he asked.
“Get your ass up. You’re okay?”
He nodded. “I’m good.”
“Good. Come on.” I threw open the door. It hung at an awkward angle. I climbed out and stepped in glass.
The parking lot was a bloodbath.
Bodies littered the ground. All nine of them in various stages of trying to run away. The shotgun guy had his gun in one hand, like he’d tried to throw it aside, but failed. Their bodies were torn to pieces, ripped through by bullets. I walked through the carnage, a smile on my face, until I reached the man that had tried to get away.
He was breathing hard. His bright red hair and freckled face made me grin huge as I kicked him in the side and rolled him onto his back.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You’re Connor O’Malley.”
He tried to spit, but only managed to blow blood up into the air and have it settle back onto his own face. He groaned in pain as I shoved the tip of my boot against his chest.
“Fuck you,” he wheezed.
“All right, Connor,” I said. “No need to make this last longer than it needs to. I’m guessing I just wiped most of your muscle out tonight, isn’t that right?”
He glared at me, but didn’t speak.
“Fine, okay, don’t talk. I don’t need you to. I’m going to visit your boss next. I mostly just wanted to know if you had a message for him.
“Fuck. You.”
“Clever.” I held my gun out and put a bullet in his skull. Blood splattered on my jeans and Connor went quiet.
I stepped back from him and took a breath. I grinned up at the roof across the street and saw Simon wave to me, a rifle on his shoulder. I waved back and looked up at each roof around the parking lot.
All my guys were there, grinning like idiots.
“Shit,” Luca said, standing in a puddle of blood. He blinked around him. “I didn’t think that would work so well.”
“Took a page from their book,” I said. “I guess I can learn new tricks.”
Luca laughed. I laughed with him and couldn’t stop myself. We both laughed hard, the laughter of men that just escaped something that could’ve gone very, very wrong. I heard more laughter echoing from all the rooftops around us, my men laughing with wild abandon, the cackle of the victorious ringing through the night.
“Come on,” I said. “We have one more stop to make tonight. But first, we need to swing by my place and pick up Colleen.”
“What about the car?” he asked. “It’s fucking totaled.”
“Leave it.” I waved a dismissive hand. “We’ll get a new one.”
He sighed. “You make that sound so easy. You know I’m the one that has to get the cars, right?”
“Quit complaining.”
The distant wail of a siren made my body go tense. I looked up at the nearest roof and made a circle gesture with my hand.
That was the signal to scatter into the night.
“Come on,” I said and started to walk down the sidewalk. Luca hurried and caught up with me.
Together, we moved away from the garden of corpses that we’d planted, and hurried toward my house and the girl that was waiting for my good news.
25
Colleen
I paced back and forth in the living room. My stomach was a mess and I thought I might throw up. I managed to choke back a can of chicken noodle soup that I’d found in the back of Steven’s pantry, but oth
erwise I couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than wait and think.
Steven’s plan was insane. It was such a big gamble. He thought that if I gave my uncle some bad info about him going to some drug deal then my uncle would send a big chunk of his guys there to try and kill him. I went through with it and did my best to sound convincing on the phone, but the whole time I was talking I thought my uncle would start laughing, call me a liar, and hang up.
Instead, he believed it.
Worst of all, Steven insisted on being in the car. He said that if someone was going to be bait, it better be him. I tried talking him out of it, but he insisted, and in the end I knew I couldn’t stop it.
So he drove off, and left me alone to wonder, worry, and pray.
I wasn’t big on the praying. My life hadn’t really worked out the way I always thought it would, and so prayer sort of fell away. But as I paced and worried and wondered, I found myself praying again, praying for Steven to come back safely.
Sometime after midnight, as I paced toward the kitchen then turned to head back toward the front door, I stopped dead in my tracks. It sounded like the night just lit up with fireworks, pops of explosion scattering through the evening.
I stood there and felt every single one of those blasts on my spine. I felt like I was vibrating with them. I knew what I was hearing, I knew what was happening just a few blocks away.
Men were dying. Blood, screams, death.
And in the middle of it all was Steven.
I dropped down to the floor and curled into a ball with my hands over my head. I held myself there as the gunshots stopped. I could still hear them, each shot ringing in my ears.
It happened. God, they went there, and it really happened. My uncle bought my story, or maybe he didn’t, maybe he saw through the trap and all those gunshots were for Steven.
Maybe Steven was sitting in a car bleeding out right at this moment.
I climbed to my feet and ran into the kitchen. I stood over the sink and retched, but nothing came out. I filled up a glass with water, drank it back, then found a bottle of whisky under the sink.
I poured myself a finger and knocked it back.