But I’ll be on my own in the fight. Big Gee’s bodyguards will go down easy. In fact, it surprises me he didn’t call in…
“Seb Conti,” I say aloud. “He meeting us there, too?”
“Why the fuck do you ask?”
I shrug. “Just thought you might have invited him along, too. Or maybe D’Amato did.”
Big Gee’s eyes narrow. “Why? What you heard?”
“Nothing. Nothing, Boss.”
Big Gee says nothing more. He just sits back, crosses his arms, and watches me closely for the rest of the ride.
By the time we pull up in front of an old warehouse, I’m glad enough to get out first when ordered, to stretch my legs and take a look at the situation. Parked nearby are a dark-windowed town car and a silver Mercedes, against which Nick Fontana is leaning. He nods at me and I nod back, wondering again why Seb’s not here if the Morelli Underboss is.
The bodyguards come out after me, looking this way and that in a showy pretense at scanning for threats. Meatball has his hand on his holster like a kid playing cops and robbers. Big Gee clambers down behind them. Fontana strolls over and puts out his hand.
Fontana used to be one of us back in the day. A Giuliano. Look at him now, second in fucking command to Luca D’Amato. That’s the kind of Family the Morellis are. Rewarding rats and turncoats.
Big Gee shakes his hand, though, and grins away like he’s pleased to be here, because what the Clemenza said that one time is true: Big Gee is currently D’Amato’s bitch, and that means he has to play nice with Fontana, too. Treat him like an equal—to his face, anyway.
Fontana seems tired, and not particularly friendly, but there’s nothing murderous about him. He offers his hand to me, too, even though we’ve only ever said a few words to each other. “Orsini,” he says, looking me head to toe.
He’s sizing me up, I guess. Wondering how many bullets it would take to put me down. I take his hand cautiously. “Fontana.”
“Let’s go inside,” he says.
Big Gee and I glance at each other as he turns, thinking the same thing.
He didn’t pat us down. Didn’t even ask if we were armed. I can see Big Gee’s shoulders relaxing, but I stay tight. Who knows what we’re walking into? Might be a killing floor, and us having a couple of handguns won’t make a goddamn difference. I follow Fontana first, and Big Gee trails after, surrounded by his bodyguards like a cloud of flies on shit.
It’s dark inside the warehouse, so it takes a second for my eyes to adjust. When they do, the first thing I see is the Morelli Boss, Luca D’Amato, with his back to the door as though he’s got no reason at all to watch it. He’s leaning down to murmur into his husband’s ear, that cotton-candy-colored hair unmistakable. They both turn to look at me, and when they take a step to the side, I stop dead in my tracks.
Caligula fucking Clemenza is standing there behind the two of them, back straight, hands behind it, chin up in that imperious goddamn way of his.
I forgot. In the hours I spent stomping around in the cold and smashing porcelain and driving through half of Manhattan, I forgot what it’s actually like to be in the same room as him. Thepullof him. Like gravity gets heavier around him.
He looks me straight in the eye and gives a smile. “Dami!” he says brightly, moving forward a few steps. “I’m so relieved to see you. I was kidnapped off the street by?—”
“Alright, that’s enough,” D’Amato drawls, lifting a hand, and the Clemenza stops moving and shuts his trap at once.
Something about his instant obedience to another man hits me wrong, that beast in my chest snarling and snapping. He didn’t obeymelike that. Not even when I had him in chains. And now here he is, coming to heel for Luca fucking D’Amato.
Something of that must show in my face, because D’Amato is much less casual all of a sudden. “Thank you for coming,” he says in a clipped tone. “I wanted to clear up a few things.”
My eyes are glued to the Clemenza. And I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who sees his brows draw together, the slight warning shake of his head at me.
Big Gee walks around me like I’m an inconvenient pillar and offers his hand to Luca D’Amato. “No problem, D’Amato, no problem. I was a little surprised, can’t say I wasn’t, getting a call this damn early in the morning…” He trails off in a chuckle.
D’Amato doesn’t smile back. “Do you know who this is?” he asks, gesturing to the Clemenza.
Big Gee glances at him, uninterested. “Sure. It’s that Clemenza kid Orsini’s been looking after.”
“This is the heir to the Clemenza Family.”
“Sure. But…” Big Gee shrugs, a whole world of unsaid words in the gesture.
Sure, but he’s just a kid. Sure, but the Clemenzas are extinct. Sure, but the Clemenzas aren’t a consideration.
