But I guess I always thought it would be an intentional thing. I’d decide I was ready, and I’d start taking dating more seriously. There’d be dates, a timeline, easy rules to follow.
Not some random woman.
Not some fucked-up situation.
Though, to be fair, I didn’t know where the fuck that idea came from. Pretty much every member of my family had some insane, sometimes fucked-up origin story for their love stories. Why did I think I would be the exception to the rule?
I walked into the bathroom, wincing at how loud the damn shower was when I turned it on. But when I glanced back out, Roe was still sleeping peacefully.
I showered and dressed in slacks but paired them with a tee, leaving me half-dressed for either way my day was going to go: suited up and hitting the streets, or naked and wrapped up with Roe.
“Remo, talk to me,” I said as soon as I was in the sitting room.
“Assuming you’re whispering because you still got company,” he said. He was teasing, but he sounded tired as fuck.
“Tell me you heard something.”
“I didn’t,” he said, exhaling hard. “Look, I got a kid walking around town with a picture asking if anyone’s seen his dad. People respond to kids.”
“You employ kids?”
“It was me or the local heroin dealer. At least he’s safe working for us. Besides, he’s thirteen, not eight. And he mostly just reports shit he’s heard on the Boardwalk. This is a special circumstance.”
I wasn’t naive. Kids would always look for ways out of poor socioeconomic situations. Local street crews often preyed on that, roping them into some shady shit like dealing so their own hands stayed clean.
Remo was right. If the kid was looking for work, it was better he worked for us than one of those crews.
“Has he had any luck?”
“Got lots of people at Frank’s place to say that, yes, they’ve seen him a lot, but he wasn’t in yesterday.”
It was a good thing, I felt, that he hadn’t disappeared from there. That maybe Frank or his goons were onto us or, at least, Dom.
“I’m working on someone at your hotel.”
“For what?”
“Security footage. I’m sure we’ll see him leave your place, but I want to know if someone was watching, if someone went into his room, or if he just… walked out. There aren’t a shit ton of working cameras on the Boardwalk right now to look into. And, fuck, I don’t even have a hacker to help me with that shit. So this is an old-school search.”
“Do you need me to try to talk to someone here?”
“Nah, man. I’m gonna meet with the security guy in… two hours. If you want, I can bring the footage to your room. We can review it together.”
“Yeah, that’d be good. Thanks, Remo.”
It was hard as fuck to be a boss.
I’d never wanted that responsibility.
That was too heavy a crown for me.
But I had to admit, it seemed like Remo could pull it off.
His style was different from Luca’s, but I think that was needed. Navesink Bank was established. Atlantic City was still being cultivated. It required a different set of leadership skills.
“Hey, Milo?”
“Yeah?”
