He picked me up as a stranger, but he dropped me off back at Nico’s place as a friend.I haven’t had one of those in a long time.
How long that friendship will last, I can’t say.I have my own story to write, my own battles to fight out West and I made that clear to him.Or as clear as I dared.Because once I help him with his rise to power, I will be his, at the mercy of his goodwill to help me succeed in my own battles.So, I probably shouldn’t be talking about leaving before we even started on the path he set.
He hadn’t revealed his whole plan to me over lunch, not even close.He’s doing that tomorrow night at his mansion.The end of my ordeal of servitude to the Codelli family is so close I can taste it, and I resented every minute I had to spend in that cool hallway in front of Goldie’s apartment.It got a little better once everything was quiet and I could visit her.But the raging hard on and boiling thoughts she left me with after I did brought a whole different kind of resentment.
The kind I’ve lived with for a long time now.
It comes from my absolute inability to have my cake and eat it too.Whenever I want something, there’s always something else preventing me from having it.Always total darkness waiting for me right after I get a little light, standing in opposition, forcing me to choose both or neither.
By the morning most of my resentment had burned back down to the smoldering embers I usually live with.But then Rafaelle informed me that old man Codelli wants to see me.
I almost said no.And now, as I’m standing in the windowless security room waiting to be called in, I wish I had.
One thing is betraying a man you hardly know.Quite another is betraying a man who entrusted you with the care of his children.But I’d made a sort of peace with that.And I’m sure that peace will crack as soon as I get too close to the man.Because I’ll be talking to a man that doesn’t have long to live, but doesn’t know it yet.It’ll make it very hard to look him in the eye.Honor is something I’ve had to swallow many times in the last seven years.But that doesn’t mean I have none.
A phone rings.Rafaelle picks it up, listens, and ends it with a “Yes, Sir.”
Then he looks at me and tells me to go through to the office.
I don’t hesitate, however much I want to.
Codelli is standing at one of the tall windows of his office, overlooking the city.From this height and vantage point, it looks like it’d be even easier to just step out and walk along the rooftops.I wonder if he’s ever thrown anyone out that window.I wonder if he’s ever had anyone in here who was as big a threat to him as I am.And I wonder why I even care about any of that.Two weeks ago, I’d have killed him myself, with no remorse, no emotion.I’d have killed anyone who stood in my way.Now I’m feeling empathy for a guy I hardly know and who hasn’t done much to make my life easy.Damn that woman.
“Come in, Matteo,” he says and I do, closing the door as quietly as I can.
The guy looks old.His face is sunken, there’s deep wrinkles and black lines across his fleshy cheeks and forehead, and the area around his eyes is swollen and dark purple.Grey is sprinkled heavily in his hair, and he looks like he’s lost a lot of weight in a short time.When I was in here the first time, he looked imposing, like a man in charge.But that’s probably just because at that time he was.He held my life in his hands and we both knew it.Now it’s the other way around and I see him for what he is—a man on his way out with one foot already in the grave.
“You wanted to see me, Sir,” I say, cordially as you like.As much as I fought against it, subservience to my enemy became as natural as breathing while I served Dante Moretti.I hate how I sound uttering those words.
“I wanted to see how you are adjusting to working for me,” he says.
I don’t quite hear a question, but he pauses like he’s waiting for an answer.He may look frail, old, and tired, but I know there’s a snake hiding in the grass of that question and much depends on my answer.Possibly all of my usefulness to Angelo in his grand plan.So I’ll fall back on the one thing that’s always gotten me through.Total, brutal honesty.
“I took some time to adjust, but I’m settling in now.”
Not for long, but he doesn’t need to know that part.He’s looking at me like he’s waiting for me to say more, but I’m not going to.
He nods and steps away from the window, making his way to the large leather chair behind his desk.Slowly.Like it hurts him to walk.
“A young man like you, wouldn’t you prefer a more active post?”
He sits down with a groan he tries to hide but fails.What is this?Is he gonna assign me elsewhere?That can’t happen.
What I’d prefer is to be back in LA fighting for my family’s honor.But that’s not something he’s gonna provide me with.
“After the past seven years, I don’t mind a slower pace,” I say.“Moretti had me on the front lines, probably hoping someone else would save him the trouble of killing me.So guarding your family is a nice change of pace.And a great honor.”
I hope he doesn’t hear the lie in my voice.
“You’ve saved my daughter’s life twice now,” he says.“I won’t forget that.”
He pauses and I hear abutcoming, so I stay silent.
“My grandfather and your great-grandfather were good friends,” he says.“Did you know that?”
I nod.“I did know that.”
The words come out very slowly and tonelessly.That good friendship should have helped us in our troubles.We’d expected more help from back East when Moretti attacked us.That help didn’t arrive.I wish he hadn’t brought it up.But then again, I do need more reasons to hate him.
