Marco sighed. “Let’s just hope it’s the blessing it looks like, and not a curse it became for Castillo and his son.”
Bruno stood up. “We cannot be afraid. Fear makes men weak. Fear itself is the only thing we must fear. Anything else, we can handle as we always do.” He swung his blazer jacket from the back of his chair and put it on.
Marco swore. “Where are you going now? We got a lot to work out, Bruno.”
Bruno paused as he walked towards the door and looked his cousin dead in the eyes. A cold grin washed over his lips. “You mean, boss.” He walked out triumphantly and left for home, finally at peace in the knowledge that he was going to be the one making the calls from now on.
When his car chugged to a sickening stop outside his home an hour later, he vowed this would be the first thing to go. It saddened him to think that something great would come out of a very tragic murder, and imprisoning Castillo, but he couldn’t change any of that now. The world had finally cut Bruno De Luca a break.
“I knew it would happen eventually. I knew it. Something had to go my way,” he muttered to himself.
It was magic. This was the biggest opportunity of his life. And he was taking it.
Chapter Sixteen
Win-quick-lose-quicker…
One month later...
As the mahogany doors to the elevator pinged, they slid away to Bruno’s top floor office. Stepping through his office door, every hair on Bruno’s body stood tall like the statue of liberty. Five months shy of his twenty-seventh birthday, and the undisputed mob boss of San Diego. Over the last months, his life had changed full circle from the world of a determined young criminal stuck at the bottom, to a made man, catapulted to the top.
All of a sudden, everybody knew him, everybody wanted to do him favors. His beat-up car was a thing of the past, replaced by not one but three gleaming black sedans. He’d paid cash for a luxury home, a six bedroom detached house in Oceanside. He’d grown fond of the luxuries quick. The struggle, the fight for survival…It all seemed a lifetime ago, almost like another life altogether.
De Luca leaned back in his office chair ? watching the packed Casino below. Through the window he could watch hundreds of players hunched over roulette and blackjack tables, one or two tarts and mistresses sat on stools on their lover’s arms, anxious and excited. It was sort of comical… All the transparent chains that tied people to the win-quick-lose-quicker games they played. In that moment, one man, who had just lost everything he got, though he’d put the hex on the croupier. Smashed him over the head with the ashtray. The doorman butted him in the stomach. It was one of two reactions Bruno had seen when men lose everything. Usually, they go home and top themselves.
Bruno shook his head, picking up his phone to see what he was dealing with. As he brought it to his ear, a male voice sounded from behind him and he lowered it. Like he was reading from a teleprompter, the man spoke in a theatrical, reporter style tone, “He’s exploded onto the scene as head of the most powerful crime family in the country. Like Al Capone, the press loves him. The people love him. He dresses like a gangster from the movies; talks like a gangster from the movies. He’s the real fucking deal. What do they call him?”
Throwing his head back, Bruno chuckled. He spun around in his chair and met his brothers’ eyes.
“The one. The only. Bruno De Luca!” Charlie beamed. Dropping his clenched fist that he’d pretended was a microphone from his lips, he spread his arms wide.
Bruno shook his head. “Charlie! Good to see you. What can I do you for?” he called out, his smile wide. The man who never smiled was smiling a whole lot these days.
Charlie laughed as he jogged over to his desk and dropped some paperwork on it. “Got something for you.”
Bruno huffed. “More fucking paperwork.”
Leaning closer, Charlie dropped his voice to a confidential whisper. “There’s something else you should know while I’m here….Your Annie’s been talking to my woman. She’s pissed at you about something. Said she was coming over here.”
Bruno nodded slowly. “Alright. I’ll deal with it. Thanks, brother.” As he spoke, his phone started to ring.
Glancing at the phone, Charlie patted the big man on the shoulder. “Gotta run! Dinner Friday?”
Bruno nodded. “Sure.”
With that, his brother left.
Bruno sighed and stared at his phone as it rang. His phone rang every fucking minute of the day and his fax machine had over a hundred new faxes every day. Standing up, he marched over to the wall and unplugged the fax line…It was odd, he’d been trained to withstand any sort of mental pressure, but the paperwork was enough to drive him insane, he could never hack it.
Marco handled that shit.
Kicking off his shoes, Bruno turned his chair to face Marco ? stacks of papers and files piled high, encroached him ? encasing him in a tiny working area.
When he spun to peer out the window again, his eye was caught by a painted lady with a rhinestone bikini. A platinum blonde with a perfect body, breasts up to her chin and a golden tan. Stunning. But when he looked closely, he saw her for what she really was. Just a manufactured piece of plastic. Not the real deal. You couldn’t take that shit to the bank. You can’t turn glass into a diamond, no matter how much glitter you cover it with.
Unaware that trouble stood in the doorway, he watched as the intriguing woman paraded across the floor, with sleazy old men ogling and calling out to her, he wondered how desperate you’d have to be to put yourself through that. His big black heart felt for the blonde woman. He was looking straight ahead, his calloused fingers roaming his chin when his woman’s voice sounded from the doorway.
“You didn’t come home in time for dinner tonight, just like every other evening this week!” Annie called out.
