They walk toward us, the building door closing and the darkness taking over.
They come back into view once beneath the street lights, stopping at a black Escalade. The man pulls something from his pocket and the lights on the vehicle flash twice. He pulls open the passenger door, and before the woman disappears behind it to get into the car, she looks around.
And I see her.
“That cunt,” I growl.
“Don’t like me ma either,” Fionn says humorously.
She steps into the car and the man closes the door, walking around the front to get into the driver’s side.
“That’s Julian Marcello. Son of Rafael Marcello—head of the family.”
“Must be old,” I mutter.
“Eighty-two. We’ve been waiting for the fucker to die since he was seventy.”
I huff out a breath and shake my head, staring at the two of them as they sit in the car and talk. I can’t make out what they’resaying, and there’s so many shadows in the car that I can hardly see anything at all.
“What happens then?”
Shrugging, he says, “Families are weak when there’s changeover. Even if they don’t care about who left, died, was murdered, whatever. There’s change. There’s unknown.”
“And you want to strike when they’re weak?”
“A smart man would.”
“Could we hurry things along and allow her to get caught in the crossfire?”
“You wanna take out the head of the Marcellos?” He barks out a laugh.
“You got a gun? I could shoot the bitch right now.” I gesture toward the car.
“Why do you want her dead so bad?” he asks.
I grit my teeth, and answer without having to think about it.
“She hurt my girl.”
“Oof.”
The car finally starts up, the lights coming on, blinding me. A second later, it drives off. They go by, not paying us any attention.
“We going after them?”
“No.”
“What do you mean no? Why not?”
“Because I have a better plan.”
He opens the door and gets out. I stare after him. He ducks his head back in, grinning.
“You coming, or what?”
He closes the door just as I open mine. I find him at the trunk.
“Holy fuck,” I mutter as I come around to see what he’s doing.
