AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Anyone can do anything,” Paul said with a bright, froggy smile pasted across his wide mouth. “Given the right motivation.”
“I don’t think so.” Suddenly, I was done with the conversation. I took two long pulls on my cigarette, then flicked it into the gutter with the other discarded butts. “I gotta get back to work.”
Paul’s beady eyes narrowed as I made for the door without saying so much as goodbye. “So that’s how it’s gonna be?”
I turned to face him and drew up to my full height. I wasn’t huge, but at almost six feet, I was taller than most in this neighborhood, and I could tower over a shrimp like Paul, who was fully aware that I could more than hold my own in a fight.
He tried not to look scared. And failed miserably.
“Yeah, that’s how it’s gonna be,” I informed him. “Tell Ricky and Antoni or Mancuso that I’m straight now. I did my time, didn’t rat on anyone, and now I’m out. That was the agreement, Paul. I’m out.”
Paul shook his head. And then he chuckled. That motherfucker outright laughed before he shoved me against the wall and put his mouth next to my ear in a fucked-up parody of a kiss. I would have pushed him away if I didn’t feel the blunt edge of a knife pressed against my gut.
“What, you think it was by accident that you didn’t come out of Rikers with that ass stretched like taffy?” he asked, breath hot with stale menthols. “You owe Rick and the rest of them, Mikey. And I was sent here to say that you will pay your debt.”
“Or else what, you gonna stab me right here, right now?” I sneered. “In front of the cameras and everything? Go ahead and try it, Paulie. We both know I could kick your ass, knife or no.”
We both looked up to the security cameras installed over the garage.
“What’s the problem here?”
Immediately, Paul released me. He tucked his knife back into his pocket as the door to the garage opened and Mattias Zola walked out, followed by Tony and another mechanic, Juan.
A real fuckin’ party.
“Nothing, Signor Zola,” Paul said with a smile that revealed at least two more fillings. “Just catching up with my old friend Mike here. For old time’s sake, yeah?”
Zola’s shrewd gaze passed over the two of us, then landed back on me. “Scarrone, I’m not paying you to gossip. Break’s over. Back to work.”
“No problem.” With another glare at Paul, I headed back into the garage.
“See you soon, Mike,” he called.
I held up a finger before the heavy door shut behind me. And not the nice one.
My boss caught me right before I slid back under the Caddy.
“Michael.”
I sat up. “Yeah, Mr. Zola?”
He squatted beside me, surprisingly limber for a man his age. He stroked his closely shaved chin as he looked me over. Appraising me.
What he saw, I couldn’t tell.
“Mattias,” he said finally. “You can call me Mattias, remember?”
I nodded, a little nervous. “Mattias. All right, sure.”
“That Reyes,” he said, jerking his head toward the door as if Paul was still on the other side listening in. “He’s your friend?”
I was glad that I could shake my head, and not because saying yes would have been an obvious mark against me. The gleam in Mattias’s eye told me he had expected me to say no. It also made me wonder if the cameras outside were equipped with microphones. And how much of the conversation Mattias had overheard.
“Definitely not,” I said, and then decided on honesty. I meant it when I said I was going straight. “We used to run together sometimes before I was locked up. But now…no, sir. I don’t want nothing to do with him anymore. I was telling him that when you came out.”
His thick black brows rose in response. Mattias studied me a moment more, then stood back up. “He come back around and bother you, you let me know, yes?”
I sighed. I definitely wasn’t going to do that. But it was nice to know he cared.
