“You’re looking perky today,” I said to Dad.
“I’m perky every day.”
“Really?” I drew out the word.
Dad winked at me. I wouldn’t put it past him if he’d been fucking with me for the past two years of my life. One never knew with old snakes, and my dad was a snake. Cold and calculating. Kind of like me.
“And?” I asked.
Dad tilted the board and flipped it, then started placing the pieces inside the casing. “And what? I know nothing. I forgot,” he said with a smile.
“Kind of like the selective hearing?” Once he’d finished with the board, I handed him the box of chicken with a fork we kept in the drawer in his nightstand.
“Most wars,” I said, “start over women. Women in little dresses. Women with too much life and too little life experience. Isn’t that right, sweet girl?”
“She didn’t start anything, son.”
“I didn’t walk into my den and ask to meet the boss. I didn’t wear a little dress and spread my legs inviting anyone to fuck me. I didn’t drink.” But she didn’t eat her own pussy or ask to come out of her mother’s womb a Russian mob member’s daughter, and as for the dress, it was my job to keep my temper and my cock in check.
I didn’t say that because I wondered whether she’d planned this. I wondered if she had played me, was using me. I’d find out.
“What happened happened. What are you gonna do about it?” Dad asked.
“I’ll think on it.”
Having trouble swallowing, Dad ate slowly, making sure to chew well. “If you keep the girl and resent her for losses you’re gonna take, then it’s all for nothing.”
I grunted.
“If you war with my uncle, the cartels will move in, and we’re all done,” she said.
Well, well, well, she didn’t say much, but when she did…
I placed a hand over the back of her neck and pulled her closer so her back hit my chest. “Why did you come to me?”
“I had no choice.”
“Because?”
“Because one of the Italians asked for me, and Mikhail would have closed the deal with me on the table.”
“What deal?”
“The one you negotiated.”
“That deal is closed.”
“Yes, but with the dead Italians.”
“Do you mean to tell me Mikhail is aiding someone else’s ambitions and helping the Italians reshuffle their organization?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
I grabbed my phone and dialed Sokol. He picked up on the third ring, and I said, “Get everyone out of New York right now. Find a jet if you need to, but clear out within one hour.” When the shit went down over there, I didn’t want anyone pointing fingers at us. We wouldn’t be there.
