by Ws Greer
“Holy shit, is that Dante?” Reina asks rhetorically.
Dante slowly starts limping his way towards us, and I reach over to unbuckle Reina’s seatbelt after unfastening my own.
“Oh yeah, it’s Dante, and it looks like he wants to play,” I reply, keeping my eyes glued to Dante. “Get out of the car, Reina. Now.”
As Reina reaches for her door handle and pulls it, the sound of gunfire erupts and brings the night to life.
BULLETS PIERCE THE metal next to me as Dante unloads an entire clip in our direction. Reina quickly opens her door and falls out of the car, moving to her right to take cover next to the backseat door while I struggle to stay low and climb out next to her. Once we’re out, Dante squeezes the trigger over and over again while he screams from the fury he’s feeling. We’ve put him through a lot today, so I can’t blame him for being pissed, but shooting at me is a bad idea. Shooting at Reina is the worst idea.
“Okay, so what do we do?” Reina asks as glass from the backseat shatters above our heads and sends shards cascading down on us. I look at her and still don’t see the slightest hint of fear in her eyes.
“What do we do?” I repeat with a smile. “We kill him. Switch places with me.”
Reina and I exchange places so that I can be near the tail end of the car as I wait for my moment. Dante, like a lunatic, has already emptied one clip, dropped it, and reloaded while we were ducking for safety. As he empties another and moves to reload again, I open the back door and grab my own nine mil that I keep under the driver’s seat. Dante chambers a round just as I do, but before he can aim, I exit the backseat and take aim from behind the car, letting off round after round. The gun kicks back in my hand over and over again, and Dante, taken by surprise, has to turn around and run for the safety of his truck. There, he takes position behind the door and fires back, his bullets embedding themselves into my once-beautiful car.
“Son of a bitch,” I yell when I realize how much damage my Alfa Romeo is taking. “I love this car!”
“Gonna have to buy another one now, that’s for sure!” Reina bellows behind an amused smile. “So much for keeping Dante from finding out about us!” she says, laughing as bullets sink into the car and buzz over our heads.
“Wow, you’re seriously just as nuts as I am!” I say behind a chuckle of my own. “What do you say we kill this asshole and go buy another car?”
“Sounds good, babe. Let’s do it.”
“Take this.” I hand Reina the gun before snatching the back door open again and picking up the extra gun I keep under the passenger’s seat. Both of us armed now, we wait for Dante to reload a third time. When his shooting pauses, Reina and I both stand up and shoot at Dante relentlessly. Bullets hit his truck, sending sparks flying off of it as his windshield completely shatters from the rounds hitting it. Dante ducks behind the door, so Reina and I focus our aim there. We hear him let out a scream as rounds start to get through the metal, putting him in real danger, and I’m sure regret is slowly starting to sink in for him. He came for us, but Reina and I have turned the tables.
Unfortunately, guns don’t have infinite bullets, and Reina and I have to stop to reload. When we do, Dante quickly jumps into the driver’s seat of his wrecked truck and turns the key in the ignition. The engine struggles mightily to turnover, but eventually kicks on, sending white smoke floating into the air from under the crushed hood. Dante ignores it as he puts the truck in gear and slams on the gas. The tires squeal as he barrels forward, right towards us.
“Shit. Reina, move!” I bark as I push her to the side and both of us fall down and roll into the underground parking structure of the North-X-Northwest just as Dante’s truck whizzes by, barely missing us.
“He’s running,” Reina snaps. “He came to kill us, wrecked your car, and now he’s running!”
“There’s no way he gets away that easy. Come on. This ends tonight.”
I pick myself up off the concrete and help Reina do the same, before running into the parking structure and finding my other car—my gorgeous, burgundy, Rolls Royce Wraith. When Reina sees the car, she stops and looks back to me.
“You wanna drive this?” she asks. “No, Solomon, it’s too nice”
“Well after tonight, we’re gonna have to buy another one, right?” I say behind a chuckle.
“What about the keys? And what about your other car?” Reina asks when I pop open the door and climb into the front seat. She gets into the passenger seat as I press the button and start the engine.
“I’ll have Nix send a guy to get rid of the Alfa Romeo. As for this car, it’s a Wraith, baby. Push to start,” I reply with a smile. “I always leave the key fob in the glove compartment, because nobody touches my shit.”
“Oh that’s right,” Reina replies, grinning. “How could I forget?”
Reina closes her door, I close mine, and I pound the pedal into the floor. The tires underneath us spin and I send the Wraith out of the parking garage and into the street. Luckily, it’s nearly three o’clock in the morning, so very few cars are on the road, otherwise this chase would’ve stopped before it started.
I surge the car forward in the direction Dante’s truck went, and I floor it, letting the four-hundred-sixty-two-thousand-dollar engine earn its worth. We pass a few cars and luckily no cops, and before too long, I see white smoke and Dante’s tail lights ahead.
“There he is!” Reina chirps. “Get him, baby! Go!”
“I got him,” I reply, keeping my eyes on the road and my foot on the gas.
Dante’s crippled truck didn’t have a chance to get away even when it wasn’t broken, so we catch up to him in no time at all, just as he approaches the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. As we speed up next to him, Dante sees us coming and quickly swerves into my lane, forcing me to yank the steering wheel over to avoid hitting him. The move only pisses me off, and I let go of any plans to preserve the Wraith. I step on the gas again and when he swerves this time, I let his truck hit us. The metal scrapes together and sends sparks whirling into the air.
“Fuck this!” I bark, my words coated with rage. “Reina, he’s all yours, baby.”
Reina looks at me and smiles. Without thinking, she grabs the nine millimeter I handed her earlier and rolls down her window. Like a trained assassin, Reina aims the weapon at Dante’s window and squeezes the trigger. The gun kicks in her hand and she holds it, squeezing and squeezing like she’s been doing it her whole life.
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
Bullet holes appear in Dante’s door and he swerves the truck as he’s hit by at least one of the rounds, but before his truck can collide with us, I stomp on the brakes. Dante’s crippled vehicle swerves directly in front of us and crosses lanes before slamming, headfirst, into the railing of the bridge. The impact causes the front of the vehicle to kick up into the air before turning on its side and rolling end over end down the road. I slow the Wraith down and watch as the truck rolls away from us and finally comes to a stop up-side-down.
Reina and I sit in silence, looking at the wreckage in front of us. Oncoming cars come to a complete stop, making sure to keep a safe distance away, and I know this is our opportunity. We have to end this. I open my door.
“What are you doing?” Reina says, grabbing my arm. “I got him. There’s tons of witnesses down there, we have to go.”
“Not yet.”
“Solomon, there’s no way he survived that wreck. You saw how bad it was. Let’s go.”
“He destroyed my car, shot at us, and tried to run us over,” I reply, looking Reina directly in the eyes. “All of this after sending people to try to kill me at my own club, and kissing your cheek in front of me. I’m not leaving until I know he’s dead. I don’t care who’s watching. Let them watch.”
Reina pleads with her eyes, but relents as I turn from her and step out of the car. Slowly and cautiously, I walk down the road towards Dante’s truck as it lies motionless on its roof. Glass and truck parts are littered all across the road, and wh
en I’m close enough, I see Dante hanging up-side-down, still being held in place by his seatbelt. I reach the truck and kneel to get a better view, and to my complete surprise, Dante is still alive. His breathing is heavy and there’s blood all over his face, but he’s alive and conscious.
“Tisk, tisk, Dante,” I say to him, leaning over to meet his gaze. “Look what you’ve gotten yourself into. You said yourself that I cause chaos, yet you still decided to come at me. Now, you’ll never know what it’s like to be the boss. Your family is done, Dante. Angelo is too old, and the mob is too weak now to do anything to avenge you. You know that, though, so I won’t rub it in.”
“Fuck you, Solomon,” Dante says, struggling to get the words out as blood leaks from his head and slides down into his mouth. “You’ll never beat us, and if you’re dumb enough to trust that whore in the car with you, you’re worse off than I thought you were. No matter what, you still lose, Solomon. So, enjoy this while you still can.”
At the mention of Reina, I see red, but I don’t let it show. It’s my game.
“How neat for you to paint a pretty picture for yourself at the end,” I say behind a smile. “Do what you’ve gotta do to exit this life peacefully. And don’t worry, I will enjoy this.”
Without another word, I grab a large piece of broken glass from the window and jam it into the side of Dante’s throat. His body jerks and he lets out a few gurgles as blood flows into his throat and mouth, making him choke. I watch him struggle to breathe for a minute before he finally releases his last breath and dies with his eyes open, still hanging up-side-down.
Once I’m back to my car, I hear police sirens coming. Reina looks at me with worry in her eyes and grabs my hand.
“We good? Can we go now?” she asks.
“We’re good, baby,” I reply. “Let’s go home until the sun comes up. Then, we’re going car shopping.”
“HELLO?”
“Ricky.”
“Shit, Solomon, let me explain. I’ve been upset about my brother, and when we were at that hotel, he was all I could think about. I’m sorry, man. I know I screwed up, and I shouldn’t have shot that guy without a silencer. I didn’t mean to bring heat out there like that. But Mason got my brother killed and we haven’t done anything about it yet. I’m sorry, man. Seriously, I was tripping. I messed up.”
“You did mess up, Ricky, but I understand. Nix is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother, and if I had to watch him die, nobody could keep me from getting the guy who got him killed. You’ve been patient, and waited your turn in this whole fiasco. However, the wait is over.”
“The wait is over? What do you mean, Solomon? You’re not gonna kill me, are you? I said I was sorry. I’ll even call and apologize to Nix if he’s still pissed.”
“This isn’t about Nix, and stop apologizing. You should know me well enough by now to know that’s not appealing to me. If you want to make up for what you did, I need you to do what you’ve been waiting to do. It’s time to send Mason on a permanent trip. Nobody else but him, though. You got it?”
“Yes, I got it. I’m all over it.”
“Good.”
“Thank you, Solomon.”
“Right. Once this is done, Ricky, so are we. Don’t ever let me see you again.”
“Damn, Solomon I’m so . . . Hello? Solomon?”
I hang up the phone and find Reina standing next to me, smiling with a beautiful glow in her eyes.
“Now that that’s done, you ready?” she says as she leans over and kisses me on the lips. Her tongue caresses my top lip and I feel the sudden urge to skip the meeting altogether.
“You keep doing that, and we’re not going anywhere,” I reply as I pull her close and kiss her neck, pulling a giggle from her lips.
“Uh-uh, Solomon, business first,” she replies as she playfully pushes me away. “Let’s go take care of this little thing first. You can do whatever you want to me once we get back. Come on.”
“You already know I’m gonna hold you to that.”
“You better! Now let’s get fancy!”
It takes Reina and me a little over an hour to get ready, and another fifteen minutes to drive to The VP. When we arrive, the valet takes my new, candy apple red Rolls Royce Wraith and parks it for us. We make our way inside and notice that the entire place is completely empty. Not a single customer is eating or even waiting to be served, because Nix made sure the place was closed for this special occasion. No waitresses, no cooks, just the valet outside and us inside.
Reina is stunning in her ankle-length red dress. Her blonde hair is wavy and flowing down her back with perfect grace as she walks next to me wearing both the bracelet and necklace I gave her when we were teenagers. I, on the other hand, am wearing a dark purple suit with black pinstripes. We decided to go all out for the occasion.
Reina and I walk through the main floor and make our way to the back, where the sliding doors to the VIP section are closed. I slowly slide them open and find my friend, Nix, sitting at a large table by himself, wearing an all-black suit and sipping Cristal from a decorative crystal glass. He raises it to me as my date and I approach with smiles on our faces.
“A fine evening, isn’t it?” he jokes as we meet him. I let Reina sit down first and gently push her chair in before taking my seat.
“Mighty fine,” I reply, pouring Reina and myself a glass of Cristal.
“Good evening, Ms. Wilde,” Nix says to Reina, raising his glass once more, as if toasting to her presence.
“Good evening, Nix,” Reina replies, mirroring Nix.
“So, give me an update before we get this underway,” I say.
“Okay, it’s short and sweet,” Nix states, putting his drink down to get serious. “Detective Anthony Mason was killed in a drive-by shooting, about twenty-five minutes ago.”
“Damn, that was fast,” Reina says.
“Mason was sitting in his car, off duty, in front of a strip club, when he was killed. The shooter was on a motorcycle with out-of-state tags, and wearing a black helmet, naturally,” Nix continues. “Nobody saw his face, and he sped away from the scene before anyone could ID him. If I know Ricky the way I think I do, that bike is already getting chopped up, the gun has been tossed, and he’s completely covered his tracks. The whole thing hit the news about ten minutes ago, and the cops are doing their manhunt song and dance, but we know they won’t find Ricky. It’s done.”
“It’s done,” I repeat with a grin. “Well, almost.”
Right on cue, the doors to the VIP area are slid open once again. Reina and I turn around to find Angelo Scarfo walking into the room with a person I’ve never seen before. Angelo looks exactly like I expected him to. He has thin, messy gray hair, bushy eye brows, and saggy skin that droops down from his cheek bones. The guy next to him is much younger and looks like he could be Angelo’s nephew or something. Both of them sport plain black suits and dreary expressions on their faces.
Seeing him here now is almost surreal for me. My whole life, Angelo Scarfo was the man. You either worked with him or you feared him so much that you didn’t dare do business anywhere near one of his establishments. Nix knew about this guy when he was just seventeen years old, and even managed to talk me into respecting him back then. If I had known this is what he’d look like today, I probably wouldn’t have listened to Nix.
The three of us stand up and greet the two Italians as they slowly step into the room. Nix walks over to them and pats down both the young one and Angelo both, making sure not to make the same mistakes Dante made the night we almost killed him at La Famiglia, before Reina showed up. Once Nix is satisfied with his security check, the five of us sit down at the table together. Nix pours the two men a glass of Cristal each and waits for Angelo to open the conversation.
“I told him,” Angelo starts off. His voice is low and raspy, and it looks as though the pancreatic cancer inside of him has even made speaking a laborious task. “I told Dante not to get into with you, but he wouldn’t listen.”
I can’t help but feel a bit of pride listening to Angelo Scarfo admit that he tried to avoid having issues with me. When I was a kid, it was the other way around.
“If this was two or three decades ago,” Angelo continues, ignoring his drink. “All of you would already be dead. We had the numbers and strength back then. Now, that seems more and more like a thing of the past, and I’m not the same man I was back then. I have family to look after now. My days of running and gunning are over, and Dante’s pride just got in the way of him being able to carry the torch into a brighter future.”
“Just so you’re aware, Mr. Scarfo, I never wanted war with your family,” I chime in. “I just wanted my piece of the pie. Dante forced my hand. Hopefully, we can avoid anything like that in the future.
“You won’t have to worry about anything like that from us,” Angelo says. “I just want a few moments of peace before this cancer takes me away. I have my son here to watch out for. I have to make sure he doesn’t end up like Dante. So, that’s what I came here to tell you. I don’t want your drinks, or anything else. We’re not friends, but we’re not enemies either. This thing between us is over. Capiche? You both played your games, and you won, Solomon. Now it’s done.”
“I’ll hold up my end as long as you hold up yours, Angelo,” I reply with a nod. “You have my word on that.”
Angelo looks at me, and I can still see that there is fire inside of him. He hates me for what I did to Dante, and if the mob was in its heyday, it would be all out war between us. The fire in him is dying out now, and he’s ready to retire from the life of crime. I can’t blame him. Angelo is seventy-one years old and dying of cancer. When that is your life, everything else seems very petty. I can appreciate and respect that perspective, so I’ll honor his call to a truce as long as he does.
Without saying another word, Angelo Scarfo stands up with the help of his son. I stand up at the same time, and the two of us embrace in a very brief hug to show that we’ve squashed our beef. When the hug is done, the dying boss of the Scarfo family and his son turn around and walk out of the restaurant, leaving the three of us alone.