Animosity

by S. W. Frank

  She answered. “Lo, where are you? Is everything okay?”

  Lorenzo’s gaze went to the stoplight. The police car idled at his bumper.

  “You must not be afraid anymore.”

  “Lorenzo what are you talking about? What have you done?”

  “I have brightened your future. Pakalo, if I do not return before my family departs, tell them I have enjoyed their visit.”

  “Lo what are you planning on doing?”

  “Andio Chocolate, sighnomi, I must go.”

  “Lo! Lo! Wait!”

  He hung up, shut down the phone before the light changed, and reached for the rifle.

  He placed the weapon on his lap with the barrel directed at the door, resigned to go out in the hellish way he lived.

  On the green, the police vehicle suddenly swerved around his car with the lights and sirens blaring as it sped ahead to make a wide U-turn.

  • • • • • •

  ‘…A massive police hunt is underway for the assailant that assassinated Mayor Bergman outside a coffee shop, frequented by the Mayor during his show of support of local small businesses. The Mayor was recently under investigation for embezzlement, bribery and fraud. There has yet to be an indictment brought against the incumbent… His administration has been plagued with violence. The recent shooting involving members of his administration have the police looking into whether the assassination of Mayor Bergman was related to that incident and organized crime...’

  Alfonzo peeked into to the den when he heard the TV blaring. He entered and kicked the sofa where the Capo lay sprawled with his legs cocked open. The sleepy man slid up with a drunken expression, rubbed his jaw and then yawned, nearly killing Alfonzo with his rancid breath.

  His mom continued chatting. She believed he was in Sicily.

  “Is Giuseppe doing better?”

  “Better, ma? His wife is dead.”

  “You know what I mean. Do not be a smart-ass hijo.”

  Alfonzo had told the Capo to stop sleeping on the couch, but the hardheaded dude insisted on keeping watch, although security was tight. The brownstone had updated anti-burglar alarms, crews working around the clock and the whole nine.

  The Capo rose, stretched and picked up his shoes, shut off the TV and went to complete his sleep in the basement apartment.

  Alfonzo hoped he gargled.

  “Lo siento, Mama.” Alfonzo turned on music to start his day on a lyrical note. He missed his kids. They were alarm clocks. The last few days had brought such mental fatigue; he believed the lingering hangover had finally begun to ease.

  “Are you behaving?”

  “Nah, I’m not.”

  “What is this? You are being rude. Is everything okay?”

  “Nah, ma, I’m kidding, everything’s fine –for real,” Alfonzo lied as he walked to the kitchen on the late Saturday morning to cook breakfast, shirtless and in thigh gripping boxers.

  “Do not play with me. I am not a child!”

  Alfonzo placed the cell on the counter, and activated the speaker to clench his hands in an effort to increase the metatarsal circulation.

  Selange’s Surgeon removed the cast prior to her discharge. He even ordered x-rays, which showed the bones had properly fused. That had been a few days ago and since then Alfonzo started his own PT.

  Aside from noticeable discolorations on his wrist and hands where the stiff splints chafed the epidermis, everything looked okay. He rubbed liniment on the marks every day, and didn’t over do the strengthening exercises.

  In the meantime, he looked after his babe. She’s the person that required physical therapy. He chuckled, yeah.

  Alfonzo grabbed organic eggs from the fridge, a bowl and a whisk from a drawer as his mom continued the unilateral conversation. He concentrated on applying just the right amount of force to crack an eggshell.

  “Shit!” Alfonzo grumbled when he squeezed the shell and the egg splattered on his hands. He promised to stop dissing Selange’s culinary skills. He sucked at cooking, big time.

  “Hijo, watch your mouth!”

  “Sorry.”

  He cleaned his hands, dumped the mess and made a second attempt.

  His Mama ranted. “I am keeping the jewelry Bruno bought for me, and some of the stocks, but I have decided to let his children have the bulk of the estate. I want no part of it.”

  “Ma, you’re thinking with your heart and not your head.”

  “I am not estupido. Do you think I want to keep this tension in the family going? Let his greedy children fight over nonsense. They are soulless without things to fill them up. Besides, the young girls have lost so much. They lost their Mama –and Grandpa. I do this for them…and you…ah hijo peace with family is all I want.”

  “That’s nice Ma, but next week my lawyer will bring documents I need you to sign.”

  “What are these documents?”

  “Since you are giving Bruno’s kids his properties, I only want three of his holdings, that new pier he was constructing in Palermo, the one in Eritrea and San Juan.”

  “Why? You don’t need them.”

  His mom was wrong. The ports were invaluable. Selange’s deal with the five consisted of the Palermo port, but she didn’t have legal authority to make that transfer of ownership. She was desperate when she had tried. Luckily, the construction was on hold until Bruno’s heir decided whether to continue the project or sell. Thank goodness, Bruno had left his estate to his Mama. Anyway, the unexpected drama in Giuseppe’s life had stalled his renegotiating Selange’s contract.

  Alfonzo became pissed as he thought about her interference. The woman put herself at risk for him, too much. However, that shit was at an end!

  “I’m expanding the solar construction side of Palazzo Industries. I’ve already established Diaz R.E. Construction and Development in that area in the states. The maritime accessibility to ship can ensure I don’t encounter delays.”

  “Hijo, do you really want anything that belongs to that coño?”

  “He’s dead Ma. I might as well put a part of Bruno’s estate to good use.”

  She sighed. “Alright. I will transfer them to you.”

  “Gracias Mama.”

  Then she went on and on about the city's many frauds to siphon money from its residents. The scofflaw patrol booted Carmen’s car for outstanding tickets in front of the house. They paid the ticket on-line and yada –yada –yada. Then the summation by the orator was, “Someone very angry probably could not stomach anymore of the Mayor’s corruption and the government’s strangling the poor for every dollar they earn!

  Alfonzo agreed that the Mayor must’ve royally pissed off his associates. The killing was a public execution. Other law enforcement agencies were certain to get involved in solving the case and that didn’t bode well for the criminal elements he dealt with, he surmised.

  Alfonzo sniffed. Thankfully, he hadn’t sanctioned the job. If he had, he would’ve used someone of Nico’s caliber to do a quiet hit. In any event, none of his crew committed the high-profile assassination and that’s all that mattered, he rumored.

  Alfonzo concentrated, pushing out the inside of his cheek with his tongue. He resembled a brolic kid attempting to beat the highest score on a video game. The fate of his existence rested on opening an egg. He gently put pressure on the sides of the shell and once again, tiny pieces dropped into the opaque white.

  “Maldito!” He exclaimed.

  “Everything okay hijo? Did I call you at a bad time?”

  “I dropped something, that’s all.”

  Selange appeared in his oversized t-shirt. The tips of her breasts pointed right at him. She wore skimpy pajama shorts with cute bumblebees on them, and her legs, yo they screamed come touch me. The lips he kissed last night were luscious and inviting as she chatted on her sparkly phone. Then she took a moment, smiled naughtily, blew him an air kiss and he chuckled. The woman coped with the cancer scare better than he had.

  Look at her, strutting past me lookin
g sexy and edible with her wild hair, fresh face and oomph that fucking curvy body, he opined with a lascivious grin when she moseyed by for a glass for the OJ she retrieved from the fridge.

  As she poured, he copped a feel of her butt and she pressed against him without relinquishing the cup to grind his thigh.

  He had to coax his erection to flaccid when she suddenly backed up grinning.

  “Big tease!” He mouthed.

  She grabbed a boob. “Suck on this,” she quietly replied and he laughed when she went back to her conversation as if she hadn’t started trouble.

  He considered putting her over the table to spank that ass with his dick for giving him blue balls when she knew damn well, there were others on the premises that could walk in at any moment.

  “No, Amelda, I haven’t tried on the dresses, but I will when I return…yeah…I think it’s good to have the christening next month…okay…at the meeting we’ll talk about it,” Selange’s conversation went.

  “Nueva York? You’re in Nueva York hijo and you haven’t visited?” Alfonzo’s mother yelled.

  Selange grimaced when Alfonzo gave her the stink eye. She ended her call, but he was stuck with smoothing things over with his mom on top of trying to whisk chunky eggs.

  “Ma, it’s not like that?”

  The fussing in Spanish consisted of an expletive.

  Selange bumped him with her ass, taking the phone up and leaning her elbows on the counter, wiggling her ass in his face as she brought the cell close to her mouth. “Hi Mama. Good morning.”

  “Hi Mija, what is going on that you did not tell me you were in New York? And why is Anita in Greece with the grandbabies when you should have brought them here to me?”

  “I asked Al not to tell anyone that we were here.”

  Al bumped her with his hip. He never liked his wife taking heat for his shit. That wasn’t cool. He wasn’t a frightened kid. She rolled her eyes, walked to the fridge for the turkey bacon, and slapped it on the counter while reaching for a skillet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you or the children until I was sure of the outcome.”

  “This is not good. I do not like this feeling. What is wrong hija? Please tell me why this secrecy.”

  “I had a cancerous cyst in my breast…I had it removed and I’m okay…really…Mama…I am. Don’t cry…”

  “Aye! Aye! You have breast cancer mija…Aye mija!” Maria continued to wail in shock.

  Alfonzo glared at the phone as the voices of Carmen and Jessica screamed in disbelief. He thought Jessica’s ass had gone home to Puerto Rico. Nah, the chica was in the background, talking loca, saying she was coming there to kick his ass for not telling the family Selange was sick.

  Alfonzo stuck his face close to phone. “Cállate Prima!” he said to the screen.

  “Where are you mija? What hospital?” Maria asked.

  “We’re at the brownstone. I was released on Wednesday.”

  Alfonzo bumped her again. “TMI babe.” He whispered.

  She bumped him back, giving him attitude.

  “I am coming there. Jessica and Carmen, tambien.”

  “Ma, Selange is fine. She doesn’t need a lot of noise while she’s recuperating; especially not crying babies and shit.”

  “For your information, my baby isn’t noisy and we’re coming anyway to see Selange!” Jessica interjected.

  “At least bring Emilio, so I won’t have to listen to your grande boca!” Alfonzo quipped.

  “Emilio is in Puerto Rico with my brothers. They’re helping him at the shop for the summer!”

  “Oh damn. Mama, don’t bring the loudmouth here before I had a chance to eat my breakfast, I might serve her up a long overdue whooping.”

  “We’ll bring lunch,” Jessica laughed spitefully.

  Alfonzo tapped the screen, hanging up on the drama.

  Selange shrugged. “That’s your family.”

  “Did you have to tell them today though, chica?”

  “I’m feeling better honey. I don’t mind the company.”

  “I do.”

  They worked side by side, cooking. He tended to the eggs and she fried the bacon. Alfonzo had the flame too high and burned the omelet.

  Selange grinned at his frustrated expression. “I’m sure it tastes good.”

  “Go ahead and lie. I’m not eating this mess. I’m sure Chico the homeless dude in front of the liquor store wouldn’t either.”

  “He’s still there?”

  “Seen him yesterday and I was like ‘yo hombre aint your ass checkered from being on that crate so long.”

  She giggled. “Now you understand why your Mama and Carmen might be the perfect company?”

  Alfonzo snickered. “Ah, babe, you’re slick. I can do without Jessica. That chica's been fucking with me since she learned how to talk.”

  “You love her.”

  His blue eyes softened. “Sí,” he replied and then fisted his heart.

  Selange arranged slithers of bacon on the plates, cut up two grapefruits, and toasted the whole-wheat bagels. He observed her pour more juice in their glasses and then she hand signaled for him to take the items to the table.

  He was impressed with the improvisational meal.

  They sat and he peered at her while she ate.

  “Have I told you thank you babe?”

  “For what?” she asked with a mouthful of toast.

  “This,” he replied, pointing to the spread.

  “This?”

  “Si. All you do para me y todo familia.”

  Selange stretched her mouth. “Hmm. You’re welcome.” She licked her lips. Her eyes were on his chest. “Honey, can I ask a favor?”

  He rubbed a hand over his tatted flesh to wipe off food that didn’t exist. “Yeah?” His eyebrow rose as he leaned forward.

  She smiled naughtily. “Can you eat your food so I can fuck your sexy butt before company arrives?”

  Alfonzo laughed, liking that idea a lot. “Talk dirty, ah yeah babe –me gusto.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Hey Al, we have a break. You wanna come out and play?”

  Alfonzo sat erect. He had been chilling, drinking beer and watching baseball with the Capo. However, ever since the women arrived his Capo seemed to acquire a weak bladder. Alfonzo peeped the dude smiling a little too much at Carmen when she entered to bring them food. She flirted and he was overly solicitous, too. Carmen had broken up with her man, he heard, but that didn’t stop Alfonzo from checking his Capo.

  “What’s up?”

  “We’ve been scanning the pawn shops. One of the owners said a dude came in with a woman’s wedding ring. He didn’t want to show ID and he sent him on his way.”

  “Yeah.”

  “He remembered there were initials on the ring, an M. T.”

  Marisól’s married name was Tavares.” Alfonzo stood. “What else?”

  “We have a picture from the surveillance video. There's clear footage of the person. We’ve been canvassing the spots, and a hustler from Brooklyn, recognized the person in it.”

  “Yeah. He said he bought a ring off some drunken Spanish dude that comes here every few months from the island to see a local chica from Bruelelen projects.”

  “Spanish dude got a name?”

  The Capo had risen. He was already fingering his piece.

  “Yeah, Rubio, he thinks that’s his name.”

  Alfonzo’s face flushed a deep scarlet. “Rubio?”

  “Yeah, you know him?”

  “I might.”

  “Yeah, well me and my brothers are heading out to the sites in Brooklyn he frequents. Wanna ride, loco con personas?”

  “Fucking A!” Alfonzo exclaimed. “You know where I am. Ring when you’re pulling up.”

  “Ring-ring.”

  “I’ll be out in five.” Alfonzo shoved the phone in his pocket and instructed the Capo. “Stay with my family.”

  “You sure you don’t need my help?”

  “I need you to stop dr
ooling over my Tia and do your job.”

  “I’m not drooling.”

  “No, you’re foaming at the mouth like a rabid perro. Tia Carmen is off limits.”

  “All right. I understand, lo siento.”

  Alfonzo wasn’t playing. He didn’t want his Aunt involved in his shitty world. He’d slit the motherfucker’s throat in a heartbeat for pulling her in if he tried.

  He heard the women laughing, his babe was among them being normal, having that carefree time he would’ve had every day if his father had been a regular working class dude and not a career criminal.

  He walked out the den, through the hall, jogged up the stairs to the bedroom, and changed clothes. In the base of the closet, he opened the lockbox, stared at the blade, remembered the day Tio put it in his hands and Nico returned it. In the old days before guns, men fought with their hands and then weapons came into play.

  Rubio.

  Anita’s son, the punk had been behind the attempted heist. Then he wondered about Anita. What else had she told him? What else had she leaked to others?

  Maricón! He jeered as he strapped the blade case onto his belt and then covered it with his shirt. He straightened to his full height, pushed in the door and pressed his forehead to the wood.

  For years, he considered Anita familia.

  Letting people into his life had always been hard, but once all the Mafioso mess with Luzo occurred, trusting people got more complicated.

  He groaned, aware of the unpleasant task he had to perform in the future. The hellish decision to silence Anita was the only way to protect his family secrets. Taking that woman’s life would hurt as much as killing Domingo. The kids would cry and he’d have to eat Italiano or Americano cuisine when his intestines required Latino meals as nourishment –aye –ya –ya!

  Once he got his head straight, he informed Selange he needed to go out for a while. She handed Jessica the baby and hurried to intercept him at the door.

  In the foyer, she gripped his arm and she appeared worried. “Al, now?”

  He met her gaze. She could look beneath the fleshy bones of him, he believed. Sometimes, he stared at her wondering whether she had been born a deep soul. Had she skipped rope with friends or sat with books reading in preparation for tests? Perhaps, she could see beyond her immediate environment to the present when she’d need intellect and fortitude to survive every day.