Romeo of the Streets

by Taylor Hill

  They were silent for a moment, shocked, and then Eyeball said: “He better not have left that FBI whore alive before leaving…”

  “You’re right,” Sal muttered, “God damn it, I wasn’t done with her.” He bowed his head, rubbing his forehead intently as he scrutinized his thoughts. “Ok,” he said, “Ferret go down there and stall him—whatever you do don’t let him up here—take him back to the locker if you have to. If he sees us with his sister, who knows what he’ll do.”

  With my eyelids still almost closed, I watched them at the corner of my vision. It was becoming hard not to smile, even though I knew I was still in serious danger. So it looked like Lou had come through in the end then. How could I have ever doubted him, I wondered? Like, ever?

  “Ok, sure boss,” Ferret nodded and, wasting no time, left the room.

  “Fuck it,” Sal said, “I guess we don’t have as much time to do this as I would have liked.” He walked back towards me, tipping up the glass of liquor and draining it as he approached. “Sandy,” he said, “Oh Sandy? I hope you’re feeling better now. It’s time for us to have some fun.”

  Romeo, I thought, or whatever your name is—now would be a real good time to come and save me if you’re ever planning to get around to it.

  I opened my eyes slowly, feigning sleepiness, and said: “where am I?”

  I could see him now, bearing down on me—smell the sweat and the liquor on his breath. One good kick to the balls, I thought, maybe that would be all it would take. Behind him, on one of the many CCTV monitors, I saw Lou standing by the bar, pacing back and forth in a pensive stride. Whatever those guys were planning I hoped to hell it would happen soon…

  “You’re in Salvatore’s house,” Sal said, reaching out to caress my cheek. “You belong to Sal now.”

  “Who?” I murmured.

  “Hush, hush,” Sal whispered, “it doesn’t matter…”

  Over his shoulder I watched as, on the screen, a smiling Ferret came towards my brother. He held out his arms in explanation and Lou nodded, turning away slightly, before turning back and charging full force into the enemy. My eyes widened instantly.

  There was a knock at the door. Another timely interruption, almost seconds too late. My heart was pounding in my chest now. I felt dizzy.

  “Oh what the fuck now?” Sal muttered, standing up again from my place on the chair.

  “Who is it!”

  A woman’s voice answered, high-pitched and nasally. “Sal, it’s Candy. I need to talk to you.”

  “Oh Marone!” Sal sighed, “Eyeball will you take care of that, please?”

  “Sure boss,” Eyeball said, eyeing me as he stood up from the wall and made his way to the door. “but keep an eye on the bitch—she’s not wasted, she’s only playing like it…”

  Before I had a chance to react to his words—before I could hide the fact that I’d used this latest distraction as an opportunity to watch my brother and Ferret roll around in a violent grapple on the monitor—Sal turned back to me and narrowed his eyes.

  “Is that right?” he said and then, noting the object of my attention, slowly looked back at the screen. “Son of a bitch…” he whispered and I took that as my chance to kick him squarely in the balls. Apparently that was the signal Romeo had been waiting for, as he crashed right then with a shattering stridency through the office window at the end of the room.

  Sal shrieked in agony, dropping to the floor, as Romeo charged towards him, meeting his buckling jaw with a swift, forceful kick. A burst of blood erupted from Sal’s mouth as he flew backwards from the blow. Struggling on my chair, I pushed myself back to give Romeo room and now in the full light of the office I could see what they’d done to him. With a black eye, busted lip and bleeding wound on the back of his head he looked like he’d survived a night on the town with Mohammed Ali. My poor baby, I thought giddily, what have they done?

  “Sandy,” he said, “I had to wait for the right moment.”

  “I know,” I smiled back at him.

  “You did great,” he grinned, “oof! Right in the balls…”

  Across the room a pistol cocked and we turned to see Eyeball levelling his weapon at us, smiling and calm as he turned back from the open door. “Well would you look at that,” he said, “so Lou really didn’t have it in him after all? You know, I actually thought he’d pull through for us. Oh well, at least now I’ll get to kill you myself.”

  On the ground Sal was rolling around, still moaning in pain and outrage, but soon he would be up again. I watched as Romeo raised his arms in slow surrender, turning to face Eyeball. With my hands tied behind my back, there wasn’t much I could do to help him.

  “Ok,” Romeo said, “take it easy man.”

  “We should have just killed you when we had the chance,” Eyeball answered, speaking almost thoughtfully now, as if more to himself than anybody else. “God damn it, that would have been the smart thing to do, why didn’t we just kill you?”

  His only answer was the shriek of sirens in the distance, a sound that was, in Eyeball’s case, long overdue. If he registered it, the gangster showed only marginal concern and I prayed that the cavalry that followed in the sirens’ wake would reach us before he’d exacted his revenge. Perhaps Lisa had called the cops after all then. But if so, how had they known where to find us?

  I looked back at the monitor and saw that Lou had now disappeared from the screen. Only Ferret remained, lying in a heap on the ground, with a pool of blood slowly seeping out around him. Jesus, I thought, Lou—what have you done? Within seconds, two police officers appeared on the screen. They rushed to Ferret’s body and kneeled down to check his condition. One of them peered up at the other and shook his head. It didn’t look like a promising prognosis for Ferret.

  I looked back to Eyeball, who had now gone rigid, eyes wide and uncertain like I’d never seen them before.

  “Drop it,” a woman’s voice spoke from the doorway behind him and instantly, he let the gun fall to the ground.

  “Oh fuck this,” Sal grunted, his voice choked and muffled from the amazing blow Romeo had delivered to his jaw. He rose frantically to his feet and staggered towards the window.

  “Freeze!” the woman behind Eyeball cried, “Sal you stop right there or I’ll lay you down!”

  I could see now that she appeared to be a stripper, blonde and ditzy looking in her attire, but stone cold in her expression. As she shoved Eyeball forward into the room, I had to wonder where in her skimpy underwear, stockings and lacy night-gown had she been keeping the pistol. Surely somebody would have noticed such a thing while she was dancing?

  “Candy,” Sal muttered, “you bitch… I don’t know what this is, but I’m out of here.”

  Before she had a chance to stop him, Sal lumbered through the broken glass of the window and out onto the fire escape. He made to take the ladder down, cursed in a fever of outrage at whatever he saw below, and then turned to take the way up to the roof instead.

  I looked back to Romeo. He appeared to be as clueless in all of this as I was. His hands were still raised as he stared at the stripper and her hostage—the wily Eyeball outsmarted at last.

  “You’re an undercover,” Romeo said.

  “Keep your hands raised!” the woman ordered, swiftly fixing a pair of handcuffs onto Eyeball and then kicking his legs out from under him, dropping him to the ground.

  I relished the rough treatment she gave him, although I admit that I was a little unsettled to see Eyeball remain completely calm and collected throughout, his inscrutable eyes never leaving my face.

  “It’s ok,” Romeo said, “I’m an undercover too. Don Brasi…”

  “Yeah, no shit,” the woman said, “after you left Lana Smith in that freezer they sent the word out about you. What the hell were you thinking?”

  Romeo didn’t answer. Now, I realized what was happening here—Romeo had somehow defied his orders, put himself at risk—likely to save me and Lou from th
e joint forces of the mob and the law.

  “Why do you think he did it?” I asked, “He did it to save me.” I stood up from the chair at last, dazed and feeling like I might collapse, my hands still bound tightly behind my back but standing my ground nonetheless. “Nobody else was going to do it.”

  “I’m going to untie my girlfriend,” Romeo said, “ok?” (and I felt a delighted jolt shoot through my body. Girlfriend. Squee!).

  The undercover cop said nothing, the pistol still leveled at Romeo, but she didn’t try to stop him as he untied my hands.

  “Hey Sandy, you looked pretty badass,” he whispered in my ear, “well done back there.”

  “Are you ok?” I whispered back, “You’re not in trouble are you?”

  Without answer he turned back to the undercover stripper. “Sal’s getting away,” he said, “and I’m going after him. Either you stop me or I stop him, those are the choices, but after everything I’ve been through—after everything I’ve sacrificed on this case—I think I have a right to take him in.”

  She stared at him coldly before her face broke and, smiling, she shook her head. “I heard the main undercover was a stubborn son of a bitch,” she said. “Ain’t that the truth?”

  Romeo (or was that Don?) smiled his wry little grin and I knew right there and then that he was going to have his way.

  He went to the window and I followed after him, grabbing him by the wrist. He took one look back at me and must have known that there was nothing he could say to stop me, because he just nodded. I wanted to see that Falcone bastard pay—for everything. We climbed out onto the fire escape as around us the night sky was alive with the unnatural sound and light of the police sirens. Even the alley below was under their patrol now as I spotted a cop manning the narrow lane. Thankfully he was too concerned with what was directly in front of him to look up to where the real action was taking place.

  “Romeo,” I said, following after him in our speedy ascent, “what do you know about my father?”

  Without looking back, grunting with effort as he climbed, Romeo said: “I know that I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth when I had the chance. Not just about that but about everything…”

  “He wasn’t just an accountant, was he?” I said.

  “No,” Romeo replied, “it was kept quiet because there wasn’t enough evidence at the time but your father was the big one Sandy—he was the head of the family.”

  I paused in wonder for a second. “Like the Godfather, you mean?” The words felt funny in my mouth.

  “Something like that,” Romeo answered, “I wish I could have told you…”

  “It’s alright” I smiled, “you’ll make it up to me.”

  We were almost at the roof now and Romeo glanced back at me, smiling. “I will,” he said, “now wait there for a second until I make sure it’s safe, ok? If something were to happen to you now…”

  Without finishing the thought, he disappeared up onto the rooftop and I did like he said, waiting there for a single second, before hoisting myself right on up after him.

  Sal was standing across the roof from us, right at the edge, looking down on the street below. The sirens that blared beneath him in the flashing red and blue lights were like some kind of urban orchestra for which he himself was the helpless and criminal composer. When the music reached its crescendo it would mean his end, something of which he was surely well aware.

  “That’s it!” Romeo called to him, striding towards him and producing a pistol from his jeans. “It’s over Sal—I’m taking you in.”

  “No way kid!” Sal called back, without turning to face us. His voice now seemed devoid of malice or fury or any actual misgivings at all. “Damn,” he said, “you I could just about stomach, but Candy? Candy? She was a cop? Motherfucker!”

  “Hey,” Romeo shrugged, “I can see how you might have been distracted.”

  Oh! I thought, you watch it Romeo Mancini, or whatever your name is.

  “But listen,” Romeo continued, “there’s no way out of this now. Surrender and I’ll tell them you came easy.”

  “That little Guilianno piece of shit,” Sal said, turning finally and facing, not Romeo, but me. “Your brother has a lot to answer for, Sandy. Hell between you and your father as well, your family has done more to hurt this thing of ours in this city than any cop or federal agent ever could.”

  “That’s my family now too, you piece of shit,” Romeo said, “raise your hands Sal. Step slowly back from the edge.”

  Sal shook his head and his voice was almost soft now. “No,” he said. “No. It’s over. I’d rather die than give myself up to a rat like you.” He reached into his inside pocket and Romeo pulled the trigger, firing two loud blasts that rang out in the cold darkness of the night.

  Two shots and it was over—Sal stumbled back and down and there was a roar from the streets as he fell to whatever commotion was still taking place below—and it was over for Romeo now too. Whatever about before, there was no way he could explain this latest confrontation. Technically he’d gone rogue from his mission and now he’d killed a man while doing it. Their hero had fallen from grace and they would hang him out to dry for it.

  I ran to him and threw my arms around his back, holding his strong body close to mine. He didn’t say a word, didn’t even lower his pistol, just stood there staring grimly ahead. A fallen hero perhaps, but my fallen hero.

  “Sandy,” he said, “I never had anybody like you guys. I’m not going to let anybody take that from me. Not the law and certainly not some scumbag like Salvatore Falcone.”

  “You and me both,” I said, “you and me both.”

  “Hey lovebirds!” a voice called and, recognizing the speaker, I immediately released my lover to run to the other most important man in my life—my brother, who had just emerged from an access door across from us.

  “Lou! Are you ok?”

  “Yeah,” Lou called back, walking towards us. “I was rounding the corner when I saw that shit with Candy the stripper going down and had to keep my distance. When I heard you say you were going after Sal, I went to look for some other way out of here. The whole place is surrounded with heat.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Shit,” he said, “I can’t believe she was a cop—I had bad thoughts about that girl. Is that illegal Romeo?”

  “It is if Lisa finds out,” my boyfriend smiled.

  “Damn right,” I said, play-punching Lou on the arm as I reached him, before finding myself instantaneously swept up and smothered in the bear-hug of his grip.

  “Jesus Sandy,” he whispered in my ear. “If those assholes had done anything to you… I can’t even think about it it hurts too much. You were right all along, I never should have gotten involved with this stuff.”

  “I’m just glad you’re ok,” I said, brimming with pride and love and finally sorrow for what we’d all been through. It wasn’t Lou’s fault—he just had to learn his lesson the hard way. It could have been worse and as long as he knew that then I was certain he’d come out ahead. From his composure, it was pretty clear that he did.

  “You were always the smart one,” he said finally and, kissing my forehead, released his grip. His face turned serious as he looked to Romeo. “Ok, we better get out of here,” he said. “The gap between this building and the next is only a foot or two across to the other side. I found an open window a few floors down, looks like it leads into somebody’s apartment down there. I think we can make it.”

  “Nice work,” Romeo said, and together we made our way towards the stairwell door.

  Before we entered, Lou paused, glancing back into the chaos of the night, the flashing lights, the sirens and shouts from down on the street—a theatre of chaos and violence that now at last we might finally be able to escape from.

  “You did it then,” my brother said, his voice quiet as he looked at his friend, “you killed Sal.”

  “I didn’t want to,” Romeo answered.

  “
I know,” Lou said, “Ferret... I had to, I had no choice, but… It’s not like how I would have imagined. I always wondered if I even had it in me, but now that I know…”

  “I know,” Romeo said, “you wish it could have been different.”

  Lou nodded somberly and I placed my hand on his arm. “Hey,” I said, “I saw you on the CCTV, you did what you had to. If it had been the other way around—if they had you instead of me—well, I would have done the exact same thing. And besides, you should have seen what they did to Lisa when they came to her apartment.”

  Lou’s eyes turned cold and hard in an instant. “Lisa?” he said, “is she ok?”

  “She’s fine,” I smiled, “probably a little shook up. But fine—compared to the rest of us anyway. Let’s just go get her, ok?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Lou said and stepped down into the dim light of the stairwell below.

  With my hand in Romeo’s, we followed after him. There was only one missing component and then our little family would be complete again. Whatever happened next, we could figure it out together.

  The light of the new morning sun spilled through the blinds—not orange, but clear and golden—and it was so bright that, had they actually spent any time sleeping during the two or three hours that they’d been at the motel, it may well have woken them. But they had not, instead choosing to spend their restful hours in the hot and fervent embrace of each other’s arms. They had waited long enough for each other—waited a lifetime—and they could not wait any longer. In fact, if they hadn’t had to stop to rest by necessity one of them would have suggested it anyway. Lisa and Lou could understand, their own love was as strong, if not so new and unbridled in its passions.

  They had left Chicago—Lou, Lisa, Sandy and Don—in Lisa’s sister’s car, a loan that Lisa would have to explain after the fact, after they abandoned it somewhere and purchased a new one with even less traceability to the lives they’d previously led. Her sister would be mad but she’d get over it. Probably she would be more concerned about Lisa than mad even and that was unfortunate but unavoidable. They were all leaving something behind, all leaving somebody who cared for them—save perhaps for Romeo, who was only leaving behind Lana and the FBI and indeed the persona of Romeo Mancini himself.