Carlo gave me a cell phone. Most kids in my school didn’t have cell phones, and I felt like a goddamn celebrity as he showed me how to answer and disconnect calls, how to text, and schooled me on all the shit I wasn’t allowed to say or type into it.
“We’re private,” he explained. “Our information is sensitive, and there’s technology out there that allows nosy-ass people to listen in on our conversations and read our texts. Everyone in the family uses codes, and those codes change frequently. You’ll be expected to memorize them. When I send out an order, it will disappear shortly after you see it, so look quickly.”
“What kind of codes?” I asked.
“Well… the last one I sent out was a five-thirty-two for Nick Jones, one of the enforcers. Currently a five-thirty-two means to bring him in.”
Confused, I asked, “Why would the team need to bring in an enforcer?”
“Nick fucked up and was hiding from the family. He was being a chickenshit and refused to come in on his own. He knew I’d have to set him straight.”
I’d only been with the family for a few days, but had seen and heard enough to figure out that being set straight meant getting your ass kicked. Or worse. Swallowing past the sudden lump in my throat, I asked, “Did you? Set him straight, I mean?”
Carlo leveled a hard stare at me. “I always do, Bones. I protect this family, and nothing, and no one, gets by me. Remember that, kid, and you’ll go far in life.”
I couldn’t imagine hiding from the family. The Marianis had padded my wallet, paid for my mom to get the brakes on her car fixed, and were keeping my family fed and protected. Sure, Carlo was a tough teacher, and my body had gotten a little roughed up, but I was learning shit I needed to know. He was teaching me how to fight, and how to tell when someone was lying. How to stay alive. Lessons I should have learned from Pops, but even when my old man was alive, he was rarely home.
Carlo had done more for me in the few days that I’d known him than Pops ever had. Carlo leaned forward on the sofa, elbows on knees, steepling his hands. “You remember what I told you about enforcers?”
“They enforce the rules of theborgata, the family.”
“How?” he asked.
They were big, scary motherfuckers, and only an idiot would screw with them. I’d met a couple of enforcers, and they wouldn’t have to lift a finger to keep me in line. “I’m not sure.”
He lit a cigarette and sucked in a long drag. Then he asked, “What’s the one thing I keep telling you, kid?”
I only had to think about it for a second before answering, “Don’t trust anyone.”
“Good, you’re learning. Don’t trust anyone. In our line of work, ninety-nine percent of the people you deal with are gonna be honorless motherfuckers who’ll just as soon stick a knife in your back as look at you. The remaining one percent are idiots. That’s the world we live in, so the Boss makes rules to keep all these greedy, blood-thirsty bastards in check and to keep the cops off our asses. When someone gets out of line, the Boss calls in an enforcer to set ’em straight. You understand?”
The Boss was Angel’s father, Dominico Mariani, who was another big, scary motherfucker. He thanked me for helping Angel, and then told me—in great detail—what would happen to me if I broke trust with the family.
“So, enforcers are like hitmen?” I asked.
Carlo smiled and ruffled my hair. “You’re a smart kid.”
Still, something still didn’t make sense. “But the enforcer screwed up?”
“It takes a certain type of guy to be a hitman. Has to be completely devoted to the family and willing to take out anyone the Boss orders him to hit. Anyone. Sometimes he’ll take too many jobs… do too many hits… and something inside him snaps. Some go numb, some get off on it. The ones who get off on it… those are the men you really gotta watch. Sick bastards. Before you know it, they’re making unauthorized hits, whackin’ people in broad daylight, wiping out entire families, getting cops involved.”
I knew the Marianis sometimes killed people, but I hadn’t been prepared for Carlo to talk about it so candidly. I gaped at him, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“But sometimes it’s nothing that big. It’s a simple matter of an enforcer not following orders. I do a lot for my men, and when I issue an order, I expect it to be followed to the letter, without question. You hear me?”
I nodded.
“Good. That makes you wiser than most grown men I know.”
His compliment straightened my shoulders and made me want to please him. Made me want to deserve his praise.
“I take a lot of pride in my men. I work hard to get them trained and make sure they’re protected. But, when the problem solver becomes the problem, we gotta put ’em down. But you don’t worry about any of that. You stick close to me, and I’ll take care of you. I think you have what it takes to be the best of them.
“Bones?” Wolf asked, watching me.
I realized I’d stopped walking. Shaking my head to clear away the memory, I marveled at the way Carlo had motivated me over the years, using the perfect combination of fear and compliments to keep me close. The old man knew what he was doing. He valued me, made me feel like part of the team, but also made it clear that he’d get rid of me if he had to.
He’d kill me, but he was the closest thing to a dad I’d ever known.
