by Debra Dunbar
“Looks good,” Hattie whispered.
“I want you to stay outside. Catena’s got some workaround for your powers. We can’t risk it.”
“Aye, but at the first sign of trouble, we’re coming in to save you.”
“Save me, huh?” he said with a smirk.
Hattie nodded to Maria. “The woman’s kin to a general. You’ll literally be calling in the cavalry.”
Maria muttered, “He was regular army, not cavalry and definitely not a general.”
Vincent turned to Lefty and Buddy. “Alright, you mooks. Ready for this?”
Lefty nodded. Buddy stood stiff-armed, face sour.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
He gave Hattie a quick peck on the forehead. She reached for his head, pulling him in for a long kiss, gripping him hard.
When they parted, she muttered, “You be careful, boy-o.”
“I will.”
As Vincent turned to cross the street, Buddy said, “Wait. The two of yous are a couple?”
Lefty sighed. “The kid’s finally caught up.”
“Hey, it’s not like you people tell me anything. I’m still not even sure who that woman is.”
“Simple,” Lefty replied. “She’s the brains of this outfit.”
“Alright, settle down,” Vincent grumbled as they approached the front door to the Bank. “We go in like nothing’s out of sorts, right? When we find Catena, I’ll pinch time and…”
Vincent pulled a knife from his pocket, triggering the blade. It slung from the handle with a quick snap.
Lefty spied it. “You sure you want to do this? It’s hands-on wet work. You’re not used to that.”
“I’ve killed before, Lefty,” Vincent said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. But it’s easiest this way. With luck, we’ll be in and out before anyone notices.”
“Suit yourself,” Lefty replied.
Vincent eyed him for a half-second. There was a weird sort of finality in Lefty’s words, as if something had finally come to a significant conclusion.
Vincent folded the knife, slipping it into his pocket as he pulled open the door to the Masseria headquarters. The rows of desks were empty and quiet, dark except for a few lamps left on. The mezzanine and upper offices were similarly dark. There were no voices.
Only footsteps.
The door to Catena’s office opened and the man emerged, a stack of papers tucked in his hand. He paused as he spotted the Baltimore boys, giving them a cursory nod.
“Gentlemen,” Catena muttered.
Vincent returned the nod. “Evening. Damn quiet in here.”
Catena shrugged as he stepped to one of the desks to drop the papers into a drawer. “I could use the peace. You boys about to leave our fair city?”
“Baltimore calls,” Vincent replied. “Looks like things are well in hand for you people.”
Catena pulled a ledger book from the top of another desk. His eyes ran down the figures distractedly.
“Safe travels,” he mumbled as he turned to his office, not even looking up from his book.
Vincent looked to Lefty, then Buddy. He gave them a nod, then pinched time.
The silence in the building barely shifted as the flow of time slowed to an imperceptible crawl. Vincent pinched his bubble wide enough to capture Catena. The man stood in the middle of the doorway to his office, book held in both hands, eyes buried in the figures.
This was it.
Vincent pulled the knife from his pocket, triggering the blade as he pushed his way between the tellers’ desks. Step by step, he stalked toward the time-frozen Catena. His back was to Vincent. This was as simple as it could ever be.
Best to get this over with, then find a way to live with himself, just as he’d always done.
Vincent swam through the time bubble, pushing his legs against the turbid air until he reached Catena.
He lifted the knife, aiming it for the left of the spine. Straight through to the heart. One motion. That’s all it would take.
A motion caught Vincent’s attention. Catena’s arm drifted to the doorway. Before Vincent could put together the impossibility of that motion, he felt a weight slam into his midsection.
Vincent dropped the knife as he doubled over, sucking in time-frozen air as Catena turned with the ledger book gripped in one hand, and a baseball bat in the other. He looked up to see Catena glaring dispassionately at him as he lifted the bat, swinging it hard against his shoulder.
Vincent tumbled to the side, his cheek smacking against the stone floor.
Pain shot like lightning through his arm as he coughed, struggling for air. His pinch faded, and the air ran thin once again. Footsteps clacked all around. Vincent gazed up at the mezzanine as gunmen poured out of Masseria’s office, their weapons trained on Vincent.
He tried to push against the ground to a seated position, but Catena knocked his arm away with the baseball bat, sending him crashing onto his back.
Vincent glanced back at the front door, where Buddy was lifting his revolver at Catena. Lefty stood beside him, laying a hand on the kid’s arm to lower the weapon.
“Easy, kid,” Lefty said.
Vincent’s brow creased as Lefty stared at him with emotionless eyes.
Catena cleared his throat as he stepped over Vincent to drop the ledger back onto a desk. He thumbed the ring on his left hand as he brandished the bat.
“Well, Mancuso,” Catena finally said. “Looks like you owe me five dollars.”
Lefty did not respond.
As Vincent glared up at Catena, the man explained, “He bet me a fin that you couldn’t go through with it. But I know a killer when I see one.”
Buddy glanced back and forth between Lefty and Vincent, face losing its color.
Vincent coughed, forcing air back into his chest from the blow he’d taken to his midsection. “How…how are you…doing this?”
Catena cocked his head in confusion before finally nodding. “Ah. Your powers.”
He shook his left hand, fanning his fingers in and out. “These null trinkets from old Absalom do come in handy. They get blazing hot, though. Especially between you and Miss Malloy. Your powers are…considerable. Such a waste.”
Vincent glanced back at Lefty one more time. A gunman approached Buddy with an outstretched hand. Lefty urged Buddy to surrender his weapon to the thug and as the thug turned around, Vincent recognized the face.
Pockets Polizzi.
The man slipped Buddy’s gun into his endless jacket pocket, his expression blank.
Catena nudged Vincent with the toe of his shoe. “Get up. You’re just in time for our meeting.”
Vincent struggled to a seated position, cradling his shoulder.
Catena pushed the door to his office open. Someone was seated in front of his desk, back turned to Vincent.
“Shall we finalize the paperwork, Mancuso?” Catena called.
Lefty stepped through the Bank for the office, pausing as Vincent finally got to his feet. He squinted at Lefty, words failing him.
Lefty nodded to the office and Vincent straightened up, turned to the office, then stepped inside, finally laying eyes on the man seated there.
“Tony?” Vincent gasped.
Tony glanced up at Vincent. “Heya, Vincent.”
“What are you doing here?” Vincent blurted.
Lefty said, “I called him.”
Vincent refused to look at Lefty, instead searching Tony’s face for some meaning in all of this.
Catena took a seat behind the desk, pulling papers from his drawer. “Simple transaction. Masseria will absorb Maranzano’s old Ithaca contracts. That’ll be three more pinchers by year’s end. In the meantime, due to your complicity with this…scheme of yours…Corbi has agreed to return Seiler to our organization.”
Buddy shuffled into the office. “What’s going on?”
Vincent shook his head. “You’re getting sold, kid.”
“Huh?”
Lefty turned to
hush Buddy.
Vincent looked back at Tony. “This is true?”
“I, uh, I don’t know what you’ve been doing here, Vincent. But it looks bad. Real bad. For the Crew.”
Vincent nodded. Checkmate.
“What about me?” he muttered.
Tony replied, “You’re being handed to us. For liquidation.”
Vincent clamped his eyes shut. This was it. At least Hattie was safe.
Buddy shook his head. “Hold up. This isn’t right.”
Catena sighed. “I didn’t ask your opinion, Mister Seiler. You’ll report to Luciano in the morning for orientation. Mister Polizzi will accompany you.”
“But…”
No one seemed eager to explain the situation to Buddy, least of all Vincent.
Vincent finally mustered the will to look Lefty in the eye.
“So, this is how it ends? Liquidation?”
“You had to know this was coming,” Lefty stated. “I tried to warn you, but you seemed so committed to this lunacy.”
“When it happens, will it be you?”
Lefty didn’t reply.
Vincent pressed, “That’s the least I could ask. That it be you to pull the trigger.”
Catena declared, “Alas, that cannot be.”
Vincent turned back to Catena as he signed the papers and stood up to hand the pen over to Tony.
“I’m afraid I must be the one to do the deed, if you will.”
Tony sat forward. “The deal was we’d take him back to Baltimore.”
Catena shook his head. “I understand this seems discourteous, but considering Mister Calendo’s abilities, sending him with you will only facilitate his escape.”
Lefty scowled. “You’re worried he’ll pinch time and run.”
“I must keep him close,” Catena said with a lift of his ring hand, “for this talisman to be effective. If I let him much more than five feet away, he’s as good as gone.”
Tony looked back at Lefty in frustration.
Catena snapped his fingers as two gunmen slipped past Buddy through the doorway. “Help me gather him. We’ll take this outside…for the mess.”
Lefty looked back at Polizzi and Buddy, eyes tracing a line from their position at the door along the floor tiles back to Catena.
“About five feet, you say?”
Catena lifted his brow. “What?”
“Five feet,” Lefty repeated. “Or that ring on your left hand won’t work.”
“What are you—”
“Take it out, kid,” Lefty said.
Polizzi reached into his jacket to pull Buddy’s gun from his endless cache. He tossed the weapon into the air in front of Buddy, who snatched it deftly. He lifted the gun, pointed it level with Catena’s hand where he was gripping the corner of his desk, and pulled the trigger.
The gunshot hammered in the room, and thugs drew guns.
Buddy pivoted left, then right. Two more shots.
Two bodies hit the floor.
Catena stood white-faced, head swiveling down to his hand. A pool of blood gathered on the desk top, leaking from the wound where his ring finger, and its talisman, once were. He sucked in a pained breath as he lifted the ruins of his hand.
Tony eased his foot away from the pool of blood dripping down the desk as he lifted the contract and tore it in half twice while Polizzi pulled a Tommy Gun from his jacket, angling it out the office door.
Buddy aimed the gun at Catena’s blanched face. “Want me to finish it?”
Lefty stepped up to face Catena. “I think we should leave that honor to Vincent.” He turned to Vincent with a grin. “Seems fitting.”
Vincent shook his head. “What’s going on?”
“Sorry, son,” Lefty said. “Had to play this close to the vest.”
Vincent released a single, disbelieving laugh. “Huh?”
Lefty explained, “We knew he had some way of nullifying pincher magic. Just didn’t know how.”
Catena gripped his hand tight to his chest, blood soaking his suit as he staggered back behind his desk.
Vincent put a hand on Lefty’s shoulder, letting out a pained breath as his shoulder throbbed. “You always have a plan, don’t you?”
Catena dropped into his chair. “Y-you’ll pay…all of you…”
Lefty lifted a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. “Have some dignity, Catena.”
“I’ll have more than that.” The man sneered.
He reached below his desk, hand gripping something out of sight.
Vincent pinched time as the front of the desk blew out in a shower of buckshot and splinters. Some of the wood made contact with Vincent’s hand, sending the force into his arm. He maintained focus, however, grabbing Lefty by the shoulders and pulling him aside, free of the blast from the shotgun tethered to the underside of Catena’s desk.
As Vincent released the time pinch, the blast filled Vincent’s ears in a deafening roar. He landed on top of Lefty, who grunted as their weight smacked against the floor.
Buddy fired and the back of the office splattered in red as the bullet made contact with Catena’s forehead.
The gunmen at the mezzanine opened fire at the office and Polizzi shouted, his Tommy Gun peppering the Bank with lead.
A bullet caught Polizzi in the shoulder, spinning him back into the office. Buddy turned and fired the last two shots in his revolver into the mezzanine before kicking the door closed and diving for cover.
A tremor rumbled through the marble floor just as the office door began to splinter with gunfire. The tremor became a teeth-rattling quake. Marble tiles cracked and the entire building shook. The gunfire in the center of the building petered out, replaced with cries of agony and terror.
Vincent helped Lefty to his knees, and they both steadied themselves against Catena’s desk while the shouts from inside the tellers’ area fell silent.
The ground fell still. All Vincent could hear was the labored breaths from Polizzi as he shifted the gun out of his wounded arm. Then he heard the sound of footsteps as they clacked toward the office.
A silhouette appeared outside the ruined door, a shadow falling over bullet holes.
Buddy reached for his fast loader, fishing in his pocket and pulling it out, only to find it empty. Vincent tensed as the ruined door swung open, then let out a relieved laugh as he saw Hattie standing in the doorway.
Her eyes swept the room, and she caught her breath as she saw him. “Are you hurt?” she asked, running forward then crouching down before him.
“Just a little. My ego, mostly.” He gave Lefty a quick jab. “And this one about gave me a heart attack.”
Maria stepped into the office. “Did it work?”
Vincent shook his head. “Wait, you knew about this?”
“Yeah, she knew,” Lefty grumbled. “She’s nosey.”
Hattie ran her hands along the sides of Vincent’s face before standing up, her gaze falling on Catena’s corpse slumped in his chair.
“It’s done, then?”
Vincent nodded. “Looks that way. Now it’s up to Luciano.”
Maria crouched beside Polizzi to inspect his wound. He shook his head and stood up, cradling his arm as he turned to the others. They filed through the doorway and into what looked like a war zone. The marble floor had erupted in places, granite spikes slicing through the room and into the ceiling. More of Masseria’s gunmen lay dead, facing one another, dead from their own gunfire.
“I figured they could thin themselves out,” Hattie explained. “A little trick I learned from Galloway.”
Buddy stared at her in awe. “I’m glad you’re on our side, lady.”
“Me, too,” she replied with a grin.
The doors opened and Vincent stiffened, putting a hand in front of Hattie as a lean, tall figure strode into the building. Augustus Henry removed his Stetson and surveyed the damage. His eyes moved from mezzanine to the desks, and then to Catena’s office. He released a long, low whistle when he spotted Catena’s cor
pse.
Vincent cleared his throat.
Augustus shook his head. “Well, y’all made a hell of a mess in here.”
Buddy searched for bullets in his pockets.
Maria cracked her knuckles. “Augustus?”
He glanced at her. “Maria.”
“What, uh…what’s your move?” she asked.
Augustus took another look at the bodies hanging from the mezzanine.
“Well,” he replied with a heavy sigh, “I suppose I’ll move back to Texas.”
Hattie asked, “You’ll step aside?”
“Step aside, miss?” he chuckled. “I plan to give all y’all a wide berth.”
Vincent squinted. “Just like that?”
“Take a look ’round ya. What do you think’s the point of sticking around here?”
Vincent stepped toward Augustus. “You know Masseria will hunt you down if you run. There could be a place for you in Baltimore.”
Augustus eyed Maria, then smiled. “Naw. I think I’ve had enough of this gangster life. Y’all have a good day, now.” He set his hat back onto his head and tipped it in salute then stepped out the front doors, disappearing into the night.
Hattie released a long breath. “That was…” She didn’t finish the thought.
“Yes, it was,” Vincent added.
“You know,” Lefty said, “when Masseria gets back, he’s going to be in no mood to hear explanations.”
“You’re right about that,” said Vincent. “What you say we don’t be here when that happens.”
Chapter 32
“Time to face the music.”
Vincent should have been in a panic over this meeting, but surprisingly he felt nothing but a calm resolve. Maybe it was the stoic note in Lefty’s voice. Maybe nothing felt particularly life-threatening after what he’d been through in New York City. Maybe it was because stepping off the train in Baltimore filled him with warmth. Everything was familiar. Comfortable. Like coming home.
Vito knew he’d been double-dealing, conspiring not only with free pinchers but working to unseat him. This meeting should have been the end for him, but even though he had no idea what Lefty was planning, his trust in the other man had been renewed. It might be an ending, but he got the feeling that for him, it was a beginning.