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“Look, I didn’t mean to interrupt your community time,” I said.
But Dante shook his head. “Sit with me, go on, take a seat.” He snapped his fingers and a bored-looking dark-haired kid behind the counter looked up. “Get two espressos for us, will you?”
The kid rolled his eyes, but got to work making them.
Dante sat down and I let Mona take the seat across from him. I pulled a chair up next to her and leaned back, crossing my legs.
“I gotta ask,” Dante said, “does your father know about this whole article thing?”
I nodded. “He knows. He’s not happy about it.”
“Big shock there,” he said
“What, you don’t approve either?” I asked.
He held up his hands. “Not my place to judge,” he said. “You got your own shit going, Vince.”
“Look at this,” I said. “Dante pretending like he doesn’t have an opinion.”
Dante laughed and looked at Mona. “How much do you know about this guy?”
“I know he’s the son of your boss,” she said. “I know he’s arrogant and spoiled.”
“So she knows everything then,” Dante said.
I laughed and shook my head. “She doesn’t know shit, my man,” I said.
“Probably true,” he agreed.
“Enlighten me then.” She gave Dante a little smile and tilted her head.
“Tell her a good story, Dante,” I said.
“You want a good story, or a story she probably shouldn’t hear?”
“Tell me whatever you think will impress me,” she said.
Dante grinned and stroked his chin. The dark-haired kid came over with two espressos, put them down in front of us, and stomped back to the front counter.
“All right,” Dante said. “I got one. Vince, you remember the time we knocked over that liquor store?”
“Oh, god,” I said and groaned. “Don’t tell her that.”
“Tell me,” Mona said. “Come on. Now you have to.”
“We were young,” Dante said. “A couple of years into the crew, you know what I mean? Young and hungry back then. Sergio wanted us to do something to prove that we had some guts, and in retrospect I think he was just trying to keep us busy.”
“Definitely trying to keep us busy,” I said. “We were always at each other’s throats back then.”
“Just wanted to make sure nobody got killed by accident,” Dante said and laughed.
“Tell me the story,” Mona said.
“Right, okay.” Dante cleared his throat. “So it’s a Saturday night, right, and we’re a little drunk. This guy named Steven finished the bottle of whiskey we were drinking, and we didn’t have anything left, so this brilliant asshole right here says we should go steal from a liquor store. You know, rob them at gunpoint, bring some cash back to Sergio to prove we’re for real, and keep a few bottles for ourselves. A nice little store.”
“Bingo bango,” I said, nodding. “Still think it was a beautiful idea.”
“There’s one problem, though,” Dante says. “Can you guess what it is?”
“You’re a bunch of drunk kids?” Mona asked.
“Exactly,” Dante said.
Mona laughed. “Tell me nobody got hurt.”
“Nobody got hurt,” Dante said. “Well, not seriously hurt.”
She looked at me and shook her head. “I have a feeling you did something stupid here.”
“Tell her the story,” I said.
“All right, anyway, we grab our guns and roll out. There’s this liquor store, a state store in a shitty neighborhood on the east side of our territory back then, it was just this crappy little storefront with busted-out windows and bars on the doors, you know what I mean? So we roll up, swaggering like we’re the shit, and kick the door open.
“Vince goes in first, gun out, starts yelling. I’m in behind him, with Steven bringing up the rear. There’s this old fat guy in the corner, just some guy, you know? And he’s like, what the hell are you doing, you idiots, put those away. So Vince goes and waves the gun in his face, they start yelling at each other, arguing about whether it’s right to rob a liquor store or not.
“So picture the scene. The three of us are standing in the middle of the store, looking around with our guns out, and Vince’s yelling at this random-ass customer about robbing the store. The fat guy keeps going, it’s stealing, it’s stealing, this is a neighborhood store, and Vince’s trying to make the point that it’s a state-owned store so who the fuck cares, and it’s so insane. He’s literally in an argument instead of robbing the place.
“Just as the argument gets to a head and Vince gets really pissed off, the guy behind the counter yells, get the fuck down! We all turn around, and he’s got this huge fucking shotgun pointed right at us.”
Mona gasped, hands to her mouth, her eyes wide. “No way.”
“Yep,” I said. “Seriously, biggest gun I’ve ever seen. I don’t know where the guy got it from. I think it was for killing elephants or something.”
