But Tane was Jacob’s protector, and he knew that the only thing that mattered was keeping his special boy safe and out of harm’s way.
It was time to leave Pine Rise, and Tane had just the place to go too…
* * *
“You think We’ll be safe here?” Jacob said, taking his seat at the restaurant table.
“We’re amongst a crowd at the height of lunch,” Tane replied, feeling confident that the downtown restaurant district was the safest place to be. “They’ll be looking out for us at our homes, or maybe even Roast Days. But a Chinese restaurant during the busiest period of the day? I don’t think so.”
Tane smiled and did his best to fill Jacob with confidence.
But Tane could see that Jacob was still shaken up by what had transpired earlier.
It was time to open up to Jacob and give him a greater insight into what it was like playing under the control of a notorious Mafia family…
“It all started a few months after I signed for the Enforcers,” Tane said, motioning to the waiter to give them a few more minutes before ordering. “The Cardini family had only recently come in and taken over the franchise. It was on its knees. The Enforcers could have gone under, that was a very real threatback then. But the Cardini’s brought ambition, a desire to reach the top. And they were going to do ittheir way.”
“How did you know they were… you know… bad guys?” Jacob said, leaning in to listen as attentively as possible.
“It didn’t take too long,” Tane said. “Some of the other teams didn’t like the Cardini family becoming involved in hockey so decided to send thugs down to the old training complex. But what they weren’t accounting for was the fact that the Cardinis saw the play coming and were lying in wait… with some semi-automatic machine guns.”
“O… M… G…” Jacob said, a look of shock on his face.
“Yeah, that’s what the thugs said just before they got blasted off the face of the earth,” Tane replied, a wry grin on his face. “And I should know, I was watching the whole thing play out from Antonio Cardini’s old office.”
Tane felt himself back in that fateful moment.
Nothing would be the same again after that. In fact, it had been so long ago that Tane had almost forgotten that it had ever happened in the first place.
“I don’t think about it much these days,” Tane continued. “And after that, the other franchise owners knew to never fuck with the Cardinis again. But that wasn’t the end of the violence I’ve witnessed. There have been some dark times over the years. Assassinations. Betrayals. Beatings. It’s all gone down. But somehow, the Enforcers have gone from strength to strength on the ice. I don’t know, I guess it all just worked out in a crazy way.”
At that point, the waiter returned to the table and Tane ordered some dishes for him and Jacob to munch on.
Tane could tell that Jacob was deep in thought, no doubt trying to figure out how the hell the Enforcers were able to operate so smoothly given that they were owned by a family like the Cardinis.
“You know, there’s worse people in the world than the Cardini family,” Tane said. “I know it’s hard to imagine, but not all bad guys carry guns and live violent lives. There are plenty of corrupt people in hockey who act like the sun shines out of their ass. You can trust me on that too. The Cardinis have done bad things, and they’ll continue to no doubt about it. But at the end of the day, they’ve never crossed a line that I can’t accept.”
“But what are we going to do?” Jacob said. “You said that we might need to take this into our own hands and not do what Antonio wants. But isn’t that risky?”
Tane could see Jacob’s point – he’d thought the exact same thing himself.
“Ultimately, I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” Jacob said. “If you want me to help you disappear, I’ll make it happen. If you want to stick it out, I’ll be by your side until the very end.”
Tane could see that this was a difficult moment for Jacob and put his hand over Jacob’s delicate hands.
“I’ve got you, sweet boy,” Tane said, looking deep inside Jacob’s eyes.
“Thank you, Tane,” Jacob replied, his voice quivering just a touch.
“Look, the food is on its way,” Tane said, noting the waiter approaching with their selection of sharing dishes.
The food duly arrived and Tane watched a Jacob eagerly devoured his plates of Chinese delights.
But for Tane, he took a watching brief rather than tucking into the food.
Tane knew that logically, him and the boy were safe hiding in plain sight. However, it was easy to know that logically, but with the threat of the Cardini family and the Cardini family too for that matter, Tane knew that he had to stay alert at all times.
“The food is delicious,” Jacob said, eagerly polishing off another dish. “Have you been here before?”
