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“So, you know who it is?”
“Yeah, I do. Listen, I can’t help you. Even if I wanted to, I would be in too much trouble.”
“No one is going to know that it was you, and all I want is some money from him. I’m broke, Johnny, and you know the situation with my mom. I have to get treatment for her, and now I have extra medical expenses over my head with this accident. I can’t deal with all of this. Ineedthe money. I could just talk to him, not even go to court, just see if he is willing to go for a settlement, anything that could just help me out,” I pleaded.
Johnny stood up. “Maria, this guy is a monster. You do not want to get on his bad side, you got me? If you go to him telling him that you don’t want to have to take him to court, threatening him, not only would you lose, he would make you disappear. You do not want his money or anything to do with him. I understand how things are, I get it. But as a friend who knows this part of the world better than you, take me up on this one: drop it.”
“But Johnny, I...”
“Drop it, Maria. For your mom’s sake, too.”
I got to my feet, sealing the bottle of water, “You know I am doing everything I can to make sure that I have a home, and I thought you’d understand as a friend, I thought you’d want to help me! You come to me with cuts, and I stitch you up. Now thatI’mthe one who is atyourfront door, bleeding, you won’t even hand me a band-aid,” I said, feeling my disappointment growing. I was determined to find whoever this guy was, but no one seemed willing to help. “It's fine, I see how it is now. Thanks for telling me the make of the car. I got something else I can give the cops.”
I walked out of the building, fuming. Who was in the car that had made Johnny so scared? Whoever it was, they were powerful enough that a street drug dealer did not even want to utter their name. I considered calling the officer and giving him the description of the black Cadillac, but that would not do much. So, I decided to consider Johnny’s warnings, regardless of how angry they made me. He lived a dangerous life, and if he warned me of something that scared him, I certainly had to heed his warning. It did not mean that I would let it go. I was going to find out who the man that had scared Johnny so badly was. I’d find the bastard who had hit me with his car and hadn’t bothered to see if I was still alive.
CHAPTERTHREE
Angelo
Vasquez was on a roll, and regardless of all the checks I had put in place, the man was still adamant about making trouble for me. Two clubs under my jurisdiction had been attacked in the last week. They made a lot of money for the family, and they were targeted by ‘unknown gunmen.’ Apparently, no one saw anything. All they knew was that they wore masks, and they came in and they shot up the place.
A few of the boys were injured, but no one was hurt. But the clubs were severely damaged, so much that I had to close them down for repairs. Everyone knew it was Vasquez, and that the man wanted them for himself. He had been making moves like that all week. I couldn’t forget the liquor store on my block attacked by men who had demanded money from the store owner at gunpoint just a few hours before he could pay up protection.
Leonardo had reported that there was word on the street: the Vasquez family was looking for new recruits, and they had come all the way to the south side. They were looking to get people who were being looked at by the family. I had seen this kind of behavior before; my father had told me about the old Jewish gangs of New York, and I had read about them too. But Vasquez had a very sneaky way of handling everything.
All the mafia leaders understood that we had to keep a low profile if we were going to remain in the business of organized crime. We had to make sure that no one could tell who we were or what we were doing. My father had lived by that rule until the day he died, and he had passed it on to me. Very few people in the state knew who I really was. It was on a need-to-know basis only. The same went for all the other bosses, including Vasquez. This was so we would not attract police or media attention on us.
Vasquez had managed to play that part well for years and was getting away with his hits on my regions, but the hits were getting police attention. Some officers had been called to the scene after they had come and wrecked the club. Vasquez was looking out for me. He wanted to make the cops come after me or make me uncomfortable enough, so he could swoop in and take all my turf. There were two ways he could do so; the first was by an all-out attack that would draw too much attention.
Since the time of Luciano, we had the Commission: the governing body of the families. We ruled the state, Vasquez and I, but we still abided by the rules of the Commission. We did not interfere with the other's business—we kept the family's interest at the forefront and looked out for each other. At least in a broad sense, that was what we were supposed to do. But Vasquez had been committing these attacks and hiding them under the guise of random acts of violence, denying any involvement in them, and that allowed him to avoid the wrath of the Commission.
Until I could prove that he had done something wrong, there was no way they could help me out, and Vasquez would keep causing trouble. I wanted to take my men and march to his front door, ending the whole thing once and for all, but that would cause too much trouble, and I did not want that. When my father was in charge, there was rarely any trouble, not at least until around the time of his death. I was going to try to be like him, be the best boss I could be, even if it meant seeming a little weak.
I walked down to the foyer of my loft and found Benny and Luciano looking over a map of the city on the table. They looked up at me, both smartly dressed in their suits. They had been going over the districts, trying to map out the next possible target Vasquez would go for. As much as I hated his guts, we knew that he was going to make another move, and at some point, I would have to start playing offense.
“Boss,” both Benny and Leonardo called out simultaneously.
I looked at Leonardo, seeing the muscles showing from underneath his suit. He was one of the best men I had, with a physical prowess unlike anything I had ever seen. Leonardo had been with us for three years after he had saved me from a drive-by shooting during my father’s time. I shook my head, “I need a drink. Let’s head over to Fisher’s and discuss a couple of things there.”
We took the elevator down to the underground parking garage and got into the same car that had been shot at right after the meeting with Vasquez. We had some serious business to take care of, yet my mind kept wondering back at the redhead we had run over a week before. I knew I shouldn’t care since I had done far worse things in my life, but I needed to know that nothing happened to her. I decided that I would soon find out, one way or another.
Soon, we arrived at Fisher’s. It was my father’s favorite getaway: a bar where many family members would come to hide away or relax after a long day.
We passed an unmarked van that drove around the corner, heading away from the bar as we arrived. Leonardo began speeding up, rushing towards the bar. I looked out the window to see that the front door had been left open, and some of the people who worked in the bar were milling about inside. I spotted one of Fisher’s boys with a bloody nose. We parked the car and jumped out of the vehicle, heading into the place. It was a complete mess, with glass all over the floor. The stools had been broken and overturned, and the counter had been smashed in by something.
The bar opened in the evenings. However, Fisher and his boys lived in a small apartment upstairs. It was under my protection, and it was the place I most often came to unwind. Now it had been targeted by Vasquez.
Leonardo and Benny checked on the boys who worked there while I climbed up the stairs to see Fisher himself. The man had taken quite the beating, but he was strong enough to start working on cleaning up. He stopped and looked at me, his eyes heavy.
“Fisher,” I began. “Who did this?”
“You know damn well who did this, Angelo,” Fisher replied, trying to hide the rage in his voice. The man was one of the oldest allies of my father and was a strong member of the family. He had worked his way up and gotten the bar for himself, and now he had retired from active duty, only serving passive roles to other family members who were still out in the field. “That bastard Vasquez is making a fool of you, and he knows that you will not react, that is why he is doing this!”
I sighed. “Did you see their faces? Anything we could use?”
“Obviously not, it’s Vasquez. Of course, he is careful. He will make sure that the Commission cannot see what he is doing, and that is something we need to deal with on our own. Forget the rules of the Commission and take care of business, Angelo.” Fisher rubbed some blood off his elbow, getting closer to my face. “Be a man and stand up for the family.”
I put a finger to his chest and pushed him backward, “Fisher, understand who you are talking to and understand that it is not what my father would have done.”
