“What the hell is going on? What the fuck did you do?” he asked her.
“John, this was necessary. Calm down,” she said to him.
“Do you realize what you’ve just done? Ambrosino does not want to do business with us. How fucking stupid can you be?” he yelled.
“We are now bigger than ever. Thank me, John,” Edina said.
“No, fuck you, Edina. They do not like us. They are our enemies. They want our business, our money, our people. They want what we have, and you sold it all. You sold our legacy! You just had them pay us to kill us all off one by one! We’re screwed!”
Edina was quiet for a moment, and then she responded. “John, I did this for us,” she cooed.
“No. You did this for you! When you go behind my back and change shit, disregard any authority I have, like you always do, that’s not for me. You’re trying to hurt me. That’s sabotage. You’ve been undermining me since day one,” John told her.
“Really? And who told you this? The trollop you work with?” Edina responded.
“Don’t interrupt me while I am talking. It never fails. You really are a disrespectful piece of trash,” John said to her.
“I can’t believe you just called me trash. You were a lout when I met you. You had nothing. You don’t listen, and you are a cheater,” Edina said.
“Well, I guess it takes one to know one, doesn’t it? Did your fiancé feel that way about you before? How about your old boyfriend? Even he didn’t want to be bothered with you,” John said.
“Fuck you, John,” Edina yelled.
“And that’s why you are here, isn’t it?” he responded.
“Fucking blue gum,” Edina said. This put John over his limits.
Jerome came in with a guard to see what was going on. He overheard John yelling on the phone.
“Enough of this. We’re done! I don’t give a shit if I lose everything; we’re done. I’m done with you. I’m done with this farce. I regret ever meeting you!” he screamed. “This is your problem. I am not doing shit with them. You fix it!” he said and slammed the phone. He kicked the chair. John had turned red from all the yelling. He saw Jerome.
“What’s wrong in here?” Jerome asked, looking at John.
“We have to get everybody here from Jet. We’ve got to clear the safe, and we have to move these papers out of Bunny’s office and mine now. Burn them, move them, or whatever. Swap them out for blanks. We’ve got to move before they get here,” John said in a panic.
“Who?” Jerome asked.
“Ambrosino,” he responded.
“Shit! Wait, why are they coming here?” Jerome asked.
“She fucked us all,” John said.
“Who?” Jerome said.
“Edina. The biggest mistake of my life.” Jerome shook his head. The guards, John, and Jerome, proceeded to clear the office of all paperwork containing company info, contacts, addresses, phone numbers, bank account information, and more. “Where in the fuck is Ben? Can’t ever find his ass,” John said.
Ben was in the South Bronx. This was not his normal work area. Even though he had agreed to participate in the merger, the conversation with Edina had stressed him, and he had retreated to his dealer’s basement apartment. It was located in a brownstone on East 172nd Street. The streets that once were filled with lively culture and pride had morphed into a run-down depressed shell of themselves. The place resembled a war zone. Violent death was frequent among the youth in the community, and parents taught their kids survival early. The heroes were those in the gangs. There were abandoned buildings everywhere, garbage on the street, and plenty of burned-out skeletons of structures due to the many fires that occurred. Block after block was filled with storefronts that converted into churches and liquor stores. There were plenty of empty lots full of trash and abandoned stripped cars. Numerous homeless people stood around at night keeping their hands warm with fire-lit garbage cans. Graffiti covered walls everywhere, and scores of sneakers and sometimes baby dolls with no clothes hung from various power cables and poles. When you saw a sneaker hanging, it was a sign that a drug dealer had marked the spot. The drug problems manifested the most here. Kids outside played on a dirty, shredded mattress, and addicts walked the street. Ben used to think that he was better than these people, but when it came to dependency, he knew he was no different from any of them.
He had gone from snorting cocaine to shooting heroin. He was beginning to feel guilty, like a complete failure. He knew that he should have done more when he had the opportunity to stop Edina or do something, say something. That had been his time to shine, but he had let his jealousy of John get to him. He felt that he was letting down Bernie, the only person ever patient enough to deal with his shenanigans. Chimera as they all knew it was over, and they had to regroup. Ben did not know what else to do but run away. He knew that his chances with Celia were dwindling by the second and that she may resent him if she found out that he was in on the deal. The only plus that he saw was that he felt he should get a cut of the money Edina made out of the deal. He could pay off his dealers once and for all. Ben was stressed. He took a syringe, injected himself, and passed out. He woke up later.
Edina held herself in her marital home. She had not turned on the news or read the papers in hours. When she did, the reports focused on the beginnings of Watergate, in which she had no interest. She spent the time staring at what was left of the four million in cash. She had paid Celia and cut Jerome a check. She needed to put the rest into the bank, but she knew that she could not handle all of that money at one time by herself. It would tip off the Internal Revenue Service. John was good at hiding money. She had thought he would assist her. They both had the love of money in common, if not anything else. Her mind was racing about what to do next. She was scared that John was not going to go through with the deal, and she could not locate Ben anywhere. The whole thing was falling apart quickly.
She could not believe that John had told her the marriage was over. They had their difficulties, but she knew that he would eventually want to settle down and come home to her. She turned on the floor television in the dayroom and watched the news. They began discussing the fire at the Ambrosino Westchester Mansion. She gasped. She had no idea this was happening, as she had barricaded herself in the apartment to protect the money.
John, Jerome, and the Jet guards cleared out all essential paperwork and items from the Chimera offices in what seemed like record time. They finished the entire operation in five hours. They had guards posted outside to protect them. Jerome had sent a guard to collect Mariana and place her in a safe house in Yonkers. John took everything that was important to him and Bernie—photographs, keepsakes, personal papers, etc.—and left the office. He had Jet security pick him and Jerome up from the premises. Later on that evening, both Jerome and John continually tried to contact Celia to no avail. Celia was not on the radar, and John did not know how much information Edina had given to the Ambrosino family. He needed to get to Celia. Once John cleared his apartment of the items he wanted out, which included money, jewelry, and some of his favorite photos of the crew and Celia, he went to his safe house to drop them off. He left the camera that Edina had bought him in the apartment. He threw it across the room and broke it. He attempted to contact Celia again to no avail. Frustrated, he and Jerome got back into the car with security and went over to her apartment. By this time, it was early the next morning.
John and Jerome knocked on Celia’s door. They did not care that they were loud enough to wake neighbors, although Jerome suggested that they quiet down so the neighbors would not alert the authorities. Instead, he said they could pick the door. After ten minutes, they got in. Celia was not there. John and Jerome called for her. No answer. They realized that some things were missing that had been there before, like clothes, personal artifacts, photos, and her prized electronic organ. John went into her bedroom and looked in her closet. It was half-empty. Her drawers were mostly empty. They found no sign of a wallet or keys left
behind. They were worried. They hoped she went to a friend’s house.
Her phone book was still there. They took it and returned to their safe house. Once John and Jerome arrived, they began calling people. Most of them were relatives, and a few were friends from the Playboy Club that she kept in contact with over the years. They phoned almost everyone. Rose’s number was no longer working. Jerome called Agnes to check on her and see if Celia was with her. Not wanting to alarm Celia’s mother, Jerome only told her that he needed to ask her something. Agnes had not talked to her in two days, and she told Jerome that she’d had no indication that anything was wrong. The night ended, and they were no closer to figuring out where she was so they could talk to her. John and Jerome were becoming more anxious by the minute.
Edina’s doorbell rang. She was not expecting any company. She was uncharacteristically disheveled, as she had not bathed in nearly a day. What if it was John? She thought. She quickly straightened herself out and peeked through the peephole. It was Ben, and he was not looking clean himself. She let him in. “They’re looking for you,” Edina said to him. “What happened? Where were you? I’ve been calling everywhere.”
“You should have told me this was going down now. I need money,” he said. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“You were supposed to talk to John. I’m dealing with this by myself. That was our agreement,” Edina answered.
“I’ll do that, but I need money, and I know they gave you money,” he said.
“How much do you need? A few hundred?” she asked as she went to the stashed money.
“A million,” he said.
“A million? Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Edina asked. “This is my family’s money. I never agreed to give you a cut. I decided to leave you in the group,” she said loudly.
“Fuck!” Ben rubbed his hair back, but since he had not washed it in days, it was greasy. “Your fucking husband and the rest of them have been shortchanging me for years. I’ve dealt with dis-re-fucking-spect for eight years! I am not going to deal with it from you either. Give me my fucking cut, or I’ll kill you right here,” he said. Ben’s voice had turned borderline demonic. His eyes were bloodshot, and Edina knew that he was angry enough to do it. Ben walked over and saw a cardboard box of hundred-dollar bills in stacks sitting on the floor of an open closet. It was one of two boxes of money she had in the apartment from the payment. She separated the money just to keep it neat. He picked it up and proceeded to walk out of the apartment with it.
Before Ben left, he gave Edina some advice. “You’re not one of us. Stick with what you know.” He walked away. That box had over nine hundred thousand dollars in it. Scared out of her mind, Edina had a breakdown right in the middle of her living room floor.
Edina collected herself the next morning. She was scared about everything. She got up, took a bath, dressed, fixed her hair, and gathered what she needed for a trip to the bank with what was left of the money. Between the checks she cut and the box of money Ben took from the residence, the four million dollars had been reduced by almost half in about forty-eight hours. She had to do something before the Ambrosino family began calling her—or even worse, paying her a visit.
She hailed a cab over to the bank in Midtown. She arrived at the teller and handed her the box of money and a deposit slip. Bewildered at the amount of cash, the teller had to call a manager over to help her. The bank was familiar with Edina and knew that she was well off. They were pleased that she was depositing money. They did not question why she was carrying around a large sum of money, but they did speak to her about their concerns in a couple of days prior. Both Celia and Jerome had cashed their checks. John had emptied out the remainder of his personal bank account and the joint marital account. After the withdrawals and before this deposit, John, Jerome, and Celia had left Edina with eighty-three dollars to her name. Edina was offended and angry with John for betraying and abandoning her after everything she had done for him.
She knew she could not do very much about the with drawn money since she had written the checks to Celia and Jerome. John also owned those accounts and had a right to access them. Once she deposited all of the remaining cash, which was slightly over two million, Edina headed back to her apartment. On the cab ride back, she began thinking about whether she or anyone else in her family knew of any prominent divorce lawyers whom she could contact. When she made it in, she went straight to her phone. First, she called the police. “Hello. I’ve been robbed.”
Chapter 9
The Ambrosino family sent people to the Chimera offices with chain cutters and tools to pick locks if necessary. They went to see about their investment. They attempted to contact Edina to no avail, and no one answered their calls to the office after the conversation between John and Enzo. When they broke in, they discovered the place nearly empty, and no one was there. They went into each office, ransacking whatever was left. When they went to Celia’s room, they discovered that many of the papers had been replaced with blanks and others had had acid poured on them to dissolve the paper or compromise the ink, making them unreadable. Bernie and John’s old office had been cleared of all photos, documents, contacts, and any items of monetary or sentimental value. The Ambrosino family got nothing from the search. John saw Chimera the same way that he viewed religion. He felt that Chimera was a group, not a building. They could have the building, but they could not have its soul. They reported their findings back to Enzo Ambrosino, and he flew into a rage. He felt that he had just been duped into giving up millions, and he wanted his money back immediately. The deal was off. He ordered his associates to find Edina and bring her to him. He needed to have a word with her.
Edina spoke to the authorities and reported that a large sum of money had been taken out of her apartment. She said she knew who the person was. She gave the police a description of Ben and threw on an account of a couple of members of the Ambrosino family. She did this just in case they were after her. She wanted the police to keep an eye out for them. She needed to do this for her survival. She had no one else to go to for protection. She contemplated going to her parents’ house upstate, but she was afraid to involve them in her situation. Edina was not sure if she was more afraid for her safety or of hearing the constant nag of her parents telling her that they told her so. She packed the basics, took enough cash to get by, and went to the Drake Hotel in Manhattan. She planned to remain incognito there until she could fly out of the area.
John and Jerome stayed at the safe house with some members of the Jet Mafia and Mariana. Mariana cooked for them to make sure that they kept up their energy, as their spirits were down. John’s mind had been in a blur for the past week as he struggled with the possible demise of Chimera and Celia’s unknown location. Jerome was still trying not only to track her down but to locate Ben. It appeared that Ben had fallen completely off the radar, but they knew he had the ability to fend for himself. It was not like Celia to disappear and not inform anyone, even her family, of her whereabouts. John kept thinking about the last words he spoke to her. He had not meant to insult her; the words had come out of a place of frustration and pain. His mind was full of regrets. He knew he should have addressed all of the issues with Edina and their marriage, and he was mad at himself for using Bernie as an excuse for being indolent.
John grew up in a family that went to church, but he never considered himself a religious person. After he left home, he only ever stepped foot in a church to attend someone’s funeral. He thought that religion was for sheep and for those who did not have the ability to make choices for themselves. John needed hard-core technical facts in front of him to believe that something was true. He would hear stories from the Bible as a kid and would question them to his mother, which would get him into a lot of troubles. John would think, why would a man sacrifice his son to turn him into a goat, just because he heard voices in his head? That’s stupid. John looked for proof of whether one could split water or turn it into wine. He did not live his life on
faith. He thought that faith left you vulnerable, and he did not like being vulnerable to the unknown.
John had taken a couple of bottles of his favorite wine with him when he cleared his apartment. He opened one and began drinking it. He finished the entire bottle in ten minutes, guzzling glass after glass. He leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He contemplated praying, but he knew he had done a lot of things in his lifetime that religions considered wrong, and he thought God would pay him with dust. He felt he had no other options at that moment. The situation was out of his control. For the first time since he had been required to pray as a kid, he asked God to help him find Bunny and to do whatever it took to have her return safely and to make things right again.
Edina spent the evening at the Drake Hotel planning her escape from New York. She decided to go to the West Coast, where she could start over and get away from anything associated with the mob. She figured she could complete a divorce there and move on with her life while she still had a few her looks left. Edina made travel arrangements with Pan American Airways, where she had connections. Edina retired for the night after she laid out her outfit for the early morning departure and arranged for a car service to pick her up.
Edina was four hours into her sleep when a noise suddenly awakened her. Before she could react, someone covered her mouth to muzzle any screaming. She did not have a visual to tell her who was in the room. It was completely dark, with only the light from outside peeking through the curtains. Three men tied her hands and feet together and picked her up from the bed. Other men looked around the hotel room to see if they could find anything of value. The found her Chanel tote with cash, identification, and a plane ticket for a morning departure. They took the purse. They proceeded to take her down the hall and into the back stairway. Edina attempted to wiggle out of their grip, but one of the men dropped her tied legs. Angry with her, another man dragged her by her arms down eight flights of stairs. Her bound feet dragged and hit each step on the way down until they got to the waiting car outside and threw her in.
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