“Relax. It’s not like I said anything important.”
“No, but you did say enough to make someone curious. The last thing we want is to blow this right before our lives are about to turn around.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll keep my lips sealed.” Manny grinned again and moved deeper into the room. “You got any of that whiskey left? I feel like a drink.”
“You had the last of it yesterday.” There was still half a bottle’s worth, but Dominic didn’t want to deal with a drunk Manny.
“I did?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s go to Karla’s. I feel like celebrating.”
Karla’s was a dive bar down the street.
“We celebrateafterwe get the money,” Dominic said. “You know that.”
“You heard Ricky. It’s as good as ours.”
“Until my share is sitting in my bank account, I’m not celebrating anything.”
“Jeez, Dom. You’re a real downer, you know? You could at least be a little happy.”
Dominic huffed and plopped on his bed.
“Ah, crap,” Manny said. “I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The one you get when something’s bothering you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The hell you don’t.”
“Fine. What’s bothering me is that I think Ricky’s wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
“About not keeping the pressure on Fratelli. We need to make sure he understands that he has no choice but to pay up.”
“Ricky said he will.”
“Yeah, well, Ricky’s not as smart as he thinks he is. I’ll bet you my share of the take that if we don’t do something to keep the squeeze on Fratelli, we won’t see a dime.”
“I don’t know, Dom.”
“Let me ask you this,” Dominic said. “Do you think Fratelli is a stupid guy?”
Manny shrugged. “I got no idea. I never met him.”
“He was smart enough to con Buono out of his share of the heist, wasn’t he? And we both know how smart Buono was.”
Manny thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s true.”
“And once Fratelli had the money, he turned himself into this Coulter guy and disappeared from the radar for years. Do you think a stupid person could do that?”
“That’s a good point, Dom. A real good point.”
