The windows are tinted almost black, and the back is separated from the front by black windows too.It’s creating a nighttime atmosphere that’s only heightened by all the smoke swirling around back here.
“Glad you could make it,” Angelo says.He’s wearing a three-piece suit, dark grey or black, hard to tell in this light, and together with his black hair and black eyes and all the smoke, he makes quite a picture.Like a mobster out of a movie and not the real thing.But that’s his thing.The image he’s going for.Though from what Nico tells me, he’s very much the real deal.A mobster from a time when mobsters were stone cold, ruthless men who’d let nothing and no one stand in their way.
“Didn’t know I had a choice,” I say, fiddling with the window control and wondering if it’d be rude to roll down the window just a little bit.Given that we’re so perfectly enclosed back here, the smoke has nowhere to go but my nose and mouth.
Angelo chuckles and gives me a pointed look that’s very hard to read.
“What?Did I?”I ask, since I have a feeling he can make any silence drag indefinitely and that I’ll never figure out what he’s thinking even if I spend an eternity staring into his face.He’s one of those unreadable types, probably works on it being so.
“No one talks to me like you do,” he says.“It’s refreshing.”
“In a good way?”I might as well ask, since I prefer to know where I stand, especially with guys who enjoy being as secretive as Ferro.
“Yes,” he says simply and stubs out his cigar.I barely fight down a sigh of relief.Over there being less smoke now and the fact that I think his answers means he won’t kill me yet.
“And since you’re so straight with me, I’m gonna be straight with you,” he says.“You didn’t have a choice.Your cousin is one of my closest supporters and he vouches for you, but I don’t know very much about you.Less than you know about me, I’d wager.I suggest we get to know each other better today.”
There’s definitely a threat in there somewhere.We’re not out of the woods yet.And what’s even more annoying is… the more he speaks, the harder it is to keep Gianna’s face out of my thoughts.She’s done nothing to me.Except fall for me like only a naive, sheltered virgin of twenty-one years old can.And I’m about to use that to destroy her whole world.
“Yes, let’s get to know each other,” I say and sink back into the incredibly soft leather seats of Angelo’s car.
It’s been a long time since I was treated to fancy car rides or invited to participate in important conversations and jobs.
The guy I used to be before all that was taken away from me is the one who feels sorry for Gianna.But he’s long dead and buried.Nothing more than dust.The one sitting in the back seat of this town car is who I am now.And I will get my revenge by any means necessary.No matter who must fall for me to get it.
Because all the people who actually mattered to me are long dead.Save for my sister and she’s the one who caused all those deaths.
“From what I hear, you’re no stranger to the kind of takeover I’m aiming for,” Angelo says, picking up the cigar from the ashtray, but not lighting it, thankfully.
We’re rushing down some wide avenue, maybe fifth, possibly Broadway, the world outside the windows tinted dark grey and a blur.What’s not a blur is all the battles and all the deaths I witnessed as Dante Moretti waged his war against my family.Ending in the deaths of my older brother and father.Those are particularly vivid right now.Ricardo was dead before I could reach him.Dad muttered something before he died in my arms, blood trickling out the sides of his mouth, his chest covered in it.I’m not sure I heard him right, but what I imagine I heard was, “Avenge us.”I’ve been trying to ever since.
I clear my throat and look at Angelo.His face is still an unreadable mask.“Yeah, I have some experience with that.And all the bloodshed involved.”
“I heard you lost your father and brother and were made to work for the guy who killed them to stay alive,” he says.“Is that right?”
“Not entirely.I’d have gladly laid down my life for the family too.I agreed to the deal and worked for the guy to protect my sister.So she wouldn’t be killed.”
Angelo nods and perhaps I see a glimpse of something on his face.Understanding, possibly.Definitely not compassion.There’s none of that in his black eyes.
“So you have a soft spot for women,” he says.“That explains your objections to killing the Codelli women.”
“That and the fact that they’re all fine as hell,” I say and laugh at my own little joke.“No use destroying such prime meat.”
Am I the only thing standing between Angelo and Goldie’s death?
If that’s so I’m not getting out of the way.That much I know.
We ride onto a bridge, the car jerking in spite of its good suspension system, and Angelo lights his cigar again.
“I never had much time for women, personally,” he says.“More trouble than they’re worth.”
“They’re mostly trouble, I’ll give you that,” I say and crack the window to let out some of the smoke.
He gives me a weird, pointed look, but doesn’t tell me to close it again.The fresh, or relatively fresher, air feels like a balm for my stinging eyes and throat.
“But my mother would never forgive me for killing a woman in my war, may she rest in peace,” he says and makes the sign of the cross over his chest.“So I’ve decided that you’re right.We won’t kill them.We’ll just marry them off.”
According to my sister, that’s a fate worse than death.But I don’t say that.I just nod and wonder if he’ll let me keep Goldie.But that’s a bridge I’ll cross when we get to it.If we do.Because I figure she’ll be gone from my mind as soon as I get to fuck her.Like most of the other women in my life have evaporated from my mind as soon as I had them.
