by K. D Clark
“Does it always feel like this?” she asked.
“No, you get used to it after a while.” His body vibrated as he talked.
She nodded her head against his shoulder. It wasn’t long until her eyes became too heavy to keep them open.
She woke to the sound of a door closing. She blinked a few times, allowing her eyes to adjust. The sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway before Wes stopped at the entrance to the living room. His eyes locked on her. She turned over to see Giovanni had fallen asleep too. His chest rose and fell with each breath and his head was laid back on the cushion. She must have kicked her heels off at one point because her bare feet were on the couch and she was snuggled into his side. She looked back at Wes and opened her mouth to explain but he put one finger over his lips. She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he tilted his head towards Giovanni. He didn’t want her to wake him. She nodded and slowly got up from the couch. Wes walked into the kitchen and set a bag down at the table.
“It’s not what it looks like,” she whispered.
Wes ignored her, instead focusing on unloading the bag of Chinese food.
“I got you shrimp fried rice,” he said.
“Are you going to talk to me?” she asked. She wasn’t even sure if she owed Wes an explanation. She’d made it clear since the beginning that she didn’t want anything romantic with him. Yet, she felt a bit of guilt at the hurt look on his face.
“You know for someone who claims they don’t want to get involved in this life you sure do put on a good front.”
He walked out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom, leaving her alone in the kitchen.
****
That night her eyes fluttered open in the dark room to the covers being slid away from her. The bed dipped as Wes joined her. She should have asked him to leave. Their relationship was becoming more confusing the longer she stayed at the house. Before she’d come to the house she’d been very clear about what she wanted out of their relationship but now that line, between being friend and being in a relationship, was getting blurred. The point that he was jealous about her falling asleep next to Giovanni made it pretty clear where his heart lay. She just had to decide where her heart was. If she dug deep enough she knew she had feelings for Wes but were they strong enough to outweigh the terrible things he did when he was away from her? Was she just setting herself up to be in a position like her mother? Never knowing if at any second her husband could be arrested and taken away for decades. And what about Giovanni? She couldn’t deny her attraction to him but she knew Giovanni was also not a guy she wanted to get involved with. He ranked higher than Wes.
“Stop thinking so much,” Wes said, cutting through the silence.
“How do you know I was thinking too much?”
“I can almost hear your wheels turning. Go to sleep, Avé.”
Instead of arguing she relaxed back into the bed and fell asleep.
Wes
“What is this about, Wes?” Giovanni asked, looking bored as he sat across from him at the kitchen table. It was barely early enough for the sun to be out, and Avé was still sleeping.
“Are you making a move on her?” Wes asked.
Giovanni glared at him. “Are you asking me as your boss or a friend?”
“What do you think?” Wes grunted out.
“No, I’m not making a move on her but if I was you said she wasn’t your girl.”
Wes looked down at the table. He had said she wasn’t his girl. That didn’t mean he wanted Giovanni getting cozy with her.
“She’s not,” he said.
“She was freaked out about what happened at work,” Giovanni explained.
“Mhmm.”
“Listen, if you tell me she’s your girl then I’ll back off no questions asked,” Gio said.
It would be so easy for Wes to stake claim on her but just like before, he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. At the end of all this Avé was going to pull away again like she always did. Giovanni was one of his oldest friends. If something was going to happen between him and Avé, what could he do? A lesser man would stake claim on her fueled by pure jealousy and possession but that wasn’t Wes. He wanted Avé to be happy even if at the end of the day it wasn’t with him.
“I said no,” he told Giovanni.
A look of disbelief crossed Gio’s face. He masked it quickly but not before Wes had seen his slip up.
“Can we talk about business now?” Gio asked.
“Fine yeah,” he said, waving his hand to signal Giovanni to go on.
Gio took a picture out of his folder and slid it over to Wes. It looked like it was taken from a street camera across from Avé’s office building.
“I had my guy look into him. I can’t find where he is staying but I’m trying to see if he has a routine. If he has a routine we can catch him.”
Wes nodded. “You think he's going to have a routine? From what you’ve said it sounds like he is on the outs with business?”
“Everybody has a routine. Even something as small as getting coffee at the same shop every morning. People are creatures of habit.”
Two weeks later
Gio
He’d had his guys running surveillance for the last two weeks and Liam still hadn’t surfaced. Giovanni was starting to think that maybe he’d gone underground like the coward he was. Avé was avoiding Gio since the couch incident, which she should. Wes had feelings for her but for some reason wouldn’t stake claim. Which only validated the temptation he felt every time she walked around the house in her short sleep shorts. He needed to find Liam get this taken care of and then send her on her way back home. He wasn’t going to let a woman come between him and Wes’ relationship or set her up to be more of a target by being in a relationship with either of them. A knock sounded on his office door.
“Come in.”
Enzo, one of his capos, walked in. Enzo was in charge of the Bronx crew in New York. He was only half Italian but that didn’t matter anymore. The old ways of deciding leadership roles based on heritage were long gone now. Jayce was about to be the first capo in New York who had no Italian blood running through him.
“Ciao,” Enzo greeted.
“What’s up, Enzo?” he asked as they slapped hands. Enzo took a seat in one of the bucket chairs. His short hair was spiked up with gel and he wore a small gold chain around his neck on top of his dress shirt. He could be a cast member of Jersey Shore.
“Got an idea I wanna run by you,” he said.
“What’s that?” Gio asked, already worried about whatever was going to come out of Enzo’s mouth. Enzo was a sharp guy and did a good job but he always wanted to get his hands in other businesses. He was the only man who could get bored working in the mafia.
“We got a brothel.”
Giovanni turned around in his chair and grabbed a bottle of whiskey off the shelf and two glasses. He poured one for himself and one for Enzo. He downed his and pushed the other towards Enzo.
“I’m guessing you’re not a fan of brothels?” Enzo asked, a smile on his face.
“You could say that.”
Enzo took a sip of his whiskey.
“It’s not something we usually get into…for ethical reasons,” Gio explained.
Enzo scoffed. “Since when were we ethical?”
Giovanni leveled a glare at him. “It’s about respect, you know that.”
Respect meant everything in the world they lived in. Without it, they were a bunch of street thugs. Brothels were dirty and grimy, and Gio didn’t feel like getting his hands dirty in it.
“It’s not a typical brothel,” Enzo explained.
“Men pay to have sex with women?” Giovanni asked
“Yea.”
“Then it’s just like any other brothel.”
Enzo shook his head. “It’s not trafficking I mean. The girls are there of their own free will.”
Gio sighed. He didn’t want to get involved in it but he knew his capos needed the freedom to make b
usiness decisions on their own.
“If this is something you want to get into, fine. But just know I don’t like it and if I have to get involved…”
Enzo nodded. “Loud and clear.”
Giovanni's cellphone rang. He answered and waited for his man to start taking.
“We got eyes on him leaving an apartment off 5th street.”
“Shit, send me the address.” He hung up before the man could answer back.
Enzo adjusted in his seat. “You need my help with something, boss?”
He dialed Wes’ number and spoke to Enzo as it rang. “Yea you got your car?”
Enzo smiled. “Always.”
“Boss,” Wes answered.
“My guys got him at an apartment off 5th street. How close are you?”
“I’m at least 20 minutes,” Wes said.
“Fuck.” He walked out of the office with Enzo following behind him.
“Me and Enzo are on our way. Do what you can.” He hung up the phone and stuffed it in his pocket. Adrenaline pumped through his veins. The opportunity for him to be a part of the action was getting further and further apart but this was what he lived for. When they reached the parking lot, he immediately went for Enzo’s all black Lamborghini. It was Enzo’s trademark. He had a love for all fast cars but the Lamborghini was the one he drove most often. Giovanni slid into the red leather seats. His phone lit up with the address of the apartment. He forwarded the message to Wes.
“The apartment is right off 5th ave,” he told Enzo.
Enzo started the engine. It sounded like a deep growl as Enzo flew out of the parking lot. He weaved through traffic with ease as if he’d done it a hundred times before. It took them no time to get to the apartment. Gio didn’t care about cops at the moment, he’d pay them off later if needed. His entire focus was on getting to Liam and taking care of him. He was worried about the blowback from the Irish but he’d worry about that when the time came too. They had the upper hand in New York anyway. He wanted to show Liam the same amount of fear that he’d put into Avé when he'd walked into her office. She'd been living in fear these past weeks even though she tried to hide it well. He knew deep down she was terrified. The fact that she’d been scared enough to run to him, someone who was known for danger, had just been the start of it. The look on her face when she’d walked into her destroyed apartment had been all the further proof he’d needed. He wanted Liam to feel that same amount of fear before he took his life from him.
Enzo parked the car out front looking completely out of place next to the piles of black trash bags on the sidewalk. Gio grabbed the gun from his waistband and checked to make sure it was loaded. His heartbeat sped up as adrenaline rushed through his body. It was times like this he questioned his sanity just a little bit. No person should get this excited about killing another human being.
He got out of the car with Enzo following behind him. They checked the outside of the building first, making sure there were no traps set. He wouldn’t be surprised if Liam was just trying to set them up. Gio opened the front door just as Wes pulled up to the curb and got off his motorcycle.
“I checked this place a few weeks. I heard his girlfriend lived here,” Wes said as he walked up to them.
“You find anything?” Gio asked.
Wes shook his head. “Apt E, girl is a druggie.”
Giovanni scoffed. “Of course she is.”
He climbed the stairs, taking them two at a time, while Wes and Enzo followed behind him. The apartment door was cracked open. He stood to one side. Enzo crossed him to stand at the other side and Wes stood behind him. They all had their guns drawn.
Giovanni listened for a minute, trying to hear any sounds of movement. The apartment was silent, which put him even more on edge. He nodded at Enzo. Enzo lifted his leg and kicked the door. It bounced against the wall. The smell of rotting flesh immediately burned his nostrils. As he stepped inside the grimy apartment he realized why. A woman's body was on the couch with her arms out and a needle stuck in one.
“What the hell,” Wes said, coughing and lifting his shirt up to cover his nose.
Giovanni tucked his gun back into his waistband and took a moment to look around. Old food lined the counters along with dirty dishes that had overflowed out of the sink. Newspapers and other odd shit filled the apartment.
Wes kicked a soda can on the floor. “How long you think she’s been here?”
Giovanni took a step closer to the rotting corpse on the couch. “Few days, not long. What the fuck would Liam be doing in a place like this?” he asked more to himself than anyone else. It was odd, to say the least. A mafia prince slumming it in the streets didn’t sound right to him.
“She said he came by a couple of weeks ago,” Wes said.
His anger started to boil to the surface. He was so close to putting all this shit to rest. He looked over at Enzo who hadn’t moved from the yellow stained wall he was leaning against.
“Call a cleaning crew. Have them get this shit cleaned up.”
Enzo nodded, already pulling out his phone.
Avé
“So this is where you’ve been hiding out,” Aubrey said as she walked through the front door and looked around at the foyer. She’d gotten use to the size of Gio’s house and had forgotten that to an outsider this place was a mansion.
“No questions remember?” Avé said as she shut the door and led Aubrey further into the house. Aubrey had been begging to visit her ever since she’d found out she was sick. Avé had held her off as long as possible but she wasn’t going to take no for an answer any longer. Plus it was probably good for her to see someone out of Wes and Gio for a while.
“Thirsty?” Avé asked as they rounded the corner to the kitchen.
“Do you have wine?”
“Yep.” She waved at the kitchen table. “Sit. I’ll grab the wine.”
She stood on her tippy toes to reach the shelf with the wine glasses. She poured both herself and Aubrey a glass before she walked back over to the table. Aubrey was still looking around with wide eyes when Avé set the glass in front of her.
“Ok, it’s not that impressive,” she said as she took a seat across from her at the table.
“Ha, says you. This place is gorgeous. How—”
Avé shot her a look.
“Right no questions, got it.” Aubrey picked up her glass and took a drink.
“So what’s going on at the office?” Avé asked.
“Nothing much, just a little busier than normal. We miss you. When are you coming back?”
“As soon as I possibly can,” she said, lifting the glass of wine to her lips. She admired Aubrey’s colorful dress and heels. She missed getting dressed up for work every day. Now she was usually lounging around in sweatpants.
“Ok I have to ask just one question,” Aubrey begged.
Avé let out a sigh. “Fine, but I might now answer it.”
“Whose house is this? Is it Wes’?”
“No, it’s a friend of Wes’…we’re kind of all living together for now. His name is Gio. He’s…interesting,” she settled on saying. She wasn’t sure how else to describe Gio. Dangerous, intimating maybe?
“So are you…”
“I’m not sleeping with Gio,” she said, already knowing what her friend was going to ask.
“You mean not yet.”
Avé rolled her eyes. “Can we talk about something else?”
Aubrey smiled. “Fine, fine we won’t talk about your new threesome…or the fact that you don’t look sick at all.”
Avé flipped her the bird, and Aubrey threw her head back and laughed.
They spent the rest of the evening sipping on wine and talking. It was dark out by the time that Aubrey left to go home.
*****
She’d been in the house two days straight when she finally started to get stir crazy. She was scared to go out for fear of running into Liam but she couldn’t very much stay trapped in this mansion for much longer without losing
her mind. Deciding she needed to replace the clothes and some of the stuff that Liam had destroyed in her apartment, she took a shower and changed into a pair of tight jeans, a t-shirt, and black pumps. After applying some makeup she felt the most human she had in days. It wasn’t like her to hide away when things got bad. She liked to face things head on, but Giovanni and Wes wouldn’t tell her anything that was going on. She had no idea if they were close to catching Liam or not.
“Where are you going?” Giovanni asked as she walked past him sitting on the couch.
“Shopping,” she said.
He rolled his eyes. “Of course.”
He got up from the couch and put back on the suit jacket it looked like he’d just taken off. He grabbed the keys from the fishbowl.
“I’ll drive.”
“I think I can take care of shopping by myself.”
He ignored her, instead walking out of the door in front of her. She followed behind him and into the black Mercedes.
“You like this don’t you? Following me around,” she teased as she put on her seatbelt.
“There’s better things I could be doing,” he grumbled. His words didn’t match the expression on his face. He wasn’t angry or stoned which were the two moods she usually saw him in. He’d just gotten back from being out of town yesterday and she wondered if maybe he’d been to see a girlfriend.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked.
He laughed. A genuine laugh. “Don’t you think if I had a girlfriend you’d have met her by now?”
She shrugged. “Some men like to keep their love lives secret.”
It was more common in the world of Cosa Nostra where women could be seen as weaknesses.
Giovanni shook his head. “Nah, if I had a girlfriend she’d be a queen, fit to rule beside me.”
In the time she’d spend with Giovanni, she’d been able to see that he didn’t seem like the type to keep anything a secret. He wasn’t ashamed of his life or what he did for a living. It was admirable but also rubbed Avé the wrong way.