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"Last I heard, Salvatore."
"Salvatore?" I asked, turning back to face him. "I thought he was—"
"Pinched," Brio filled in. "Yeah."
"Back when I was—" I started, realizing I didn't know when it was, but I knew I'd been young. It was the first real loss I'd felt thanks to zealous cops and RICO charges.
"Did fifteen out of his twenty-five," Brio said, nodding. "Kept his head down, no smoke, got out on good behavior."
"He's on parole then," I said, brows drawing together. "I thought he couldn't associate with... us then," I said, mindful of Avi's perked ears. I knew the kid would figure it out eventually, but I wanted to be the good guy in his life for a little bit longer. He already knew that the cops hassled his uncle. He'd even had a cop roll up on him and claim they were going to put me away once. Even though, at the time, I hadn't been in the Family.
"Got a friendly parole officer," Brio said, nodding. "Nice new Caddy he's driving," he added, smirking, making it clear that new Cadillac bought the man's silence about Salvatore's whereabouts.
"When did he get out?" I asked as Avi and I moved between Brio who took the lead and one of my brother's other men, Christopher, who followed behind.
"Day before yesterday," Brio said as we all flattened to the sides of the elevator to stay out of the opening at the ground floor. Just in case.
"Shouldn't he be seeing his family?"
"Doesn't really have much," Brio said. "Old man had that stroke. Lives at the old folk's home, staring at a TV these days. Ma passed three years back. He's got that little brother who ain't so little anymore. Figure he spent the last day and a half stuffing his face with food and pus—"
"Yo," I said, waving toward Avi.
"Oh, right. You're the good kind of dad," he said, giving me a 'my bad' look. I could forgive Brio a lot since he hadn't exactly had the 'good kind of dad' for himself. But, then again, who of us did?
"Does he want to get back to work so quickly, or is Enz trying to keep an eye on him?"
"Either. Both. Who knows."
"Has anyone even seen him?" I asked, a little worried about having him around my kid if no one had kept an eye on him over the years to make sure he hadn't forgotten where he'd come from, what loyalties he had.
"We've all visited him on and off. Make sure his books are full. Handle business," he added, shrugging.
"So he's been working while... away?" I asked, choosing the words carefully. I don't know why. Avi was bound to overhear that Salvatore was in prison if he was going to be around now. But I liked to ease the kid into shit. Especially with so many changes in his life lately.
"There is no retirement," Brio reminded me.
There wasn't much more talking then, though, as we were shuffled into a SUV, then to a florist where Avi picked out the biggest fucking bouquet I'd ever seen in my life. Then grabbed a stuffed animal to tie to the front as well.
"Why a rabbit?" I asked as he was rung up.
"Less loves bunnies," Avi declared, lifting his chin, proud to possess this information.
"Really?" I asked, feeling like it didn't suit her.
"Had her pegged for a big ol' pittie woman myself," Brio said.
"No, she said when she was in school, there was a class bunny and she loved it, and she really wanted to be the one to take it home for spring break to take care of it, but the teacher said no. Less's mom was too poor," he added, looking sad. "And the kid who did take it home wasn't careful with it, and their family dog killed it. She said it was the saddest moment of her life."
And given that she'd been raised by a destitute, drug-addicted prostitute with an abusive, pedophilic pimp, that was really saying something.
"Did it look like that one?" Brio asked, nodding toward the brown rabbit.
"No."
"Well, what did it look like?" Brio asked, weirdly harping on such a strange subject. Then again, Brio was a strange character.
"She said it was all white. Snow white, she said," Avi claimed. "With blue eyes. But they only have brown," he added.
"She'll still love it," I assured him.
"I know," he agreed, chest puffing out.
If I could keep him away from the asshole misogynists of the world, he was going to make a woman very lucky some day.
From there, we stopped to grab chicken nuggets, and then made our way to the hospital.
"Hey, Ottavio, man, that bouquet is bigger than you!" Gio said when we walked up, further bolstering up my kid's ego. "Go on in," Gio said. "Fair warning, she's in a mood."
"She's a terrible patient," I agreed, giving Gio a nod.
