AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And I wasn’t done yet.
Thankfully, Suzanne said nothing else. She just kept tracing those damn circles on my abdomen with the tip of her nail. I tensed, fighting, resisting, and enjoying every fucking moment of her attention.
Until her nail strayed from its path.
She was going to ask, and I’d tell her the truth - a watered-down version of what had really happened the night I turned eighteen and my father decided to see how tough his son really was.
She traced the thin white scar curving along my waist. “How did you get this scar?”
“It was a long time ago. I got into a fight. I was old school and used my fists.”
Her finger stopped moving. “What did the other guy use?”
I shrugged. “A knife.”
Her head popped up. “He stabbed you?”
I shook my head as I pushed her sexy, messed up hair away from her face. “No. It was more like a slice.” I showed her how he’d held the knife. “He kind moved it like this and I jumped to the side, but not soon enough.”
“He could have killed you.”
“He tried to, but that wasn’t really his goal.”
Her eyes narrowed. For the first time since we’d met, she looked irritated with me. “That doesn’t even make sense. He tried to kill you, but he didn’t reallywantto kill you? Why were the two of you fighting in the first place?”
That dark place housed several memories, experiences I kept locked away, pulling on them only when I needed to.
Memories of a warm, breezy summer night, strolling down Main Street with a few of the crew after we’d had some drinks at the local dive to celebrate my birthday. It was as illegal as hell, but no one was going to refuse to sell Alessandro Calegari’s son a shot on his 18th birthday. The streets smelled like fresh air and trash, blended together with the aroma of whiskey and that cinnamon shit...schnaps or whatever the fuck it was they kept putting in front of me.
I wasn’t drunk, but I was damn well relaxed enough to not be too worried. After all, I was with the gang, a group of men who had served my father loyally for years. Nothing could happen to me. We walked from bar to bar, getting at least a half dozen shots before I called it. Even back then, being a sloppy drunk wasn’t my thing. I convinced the crew it was time to head home. We goofed around on our way back to the car parked on the opposite end of the street. We were ten feet away from it when Bobby DiNoso decided he needed to take a leak and couldn’t wait. He ducked down a side alley. Before long, the other three guys had joined him.
“When you gotta go, you gotta go,” Fat Jerry yammered as he scampered away when I scolded them.
“What the fuck is this? You guys are group pissing now? Are you kidding me? Come on. Hurry up!”
I had to go, too, but I wasn’t pulling it out in the dark with a group of other guys standing around drawing circles on the sidewalk.
I turned my back to try to open the car, then realized it was still locked and Fat Jerry had the keys. I was facing the car, grumbling under my breath as I tried to open the rear passenger door. I thought I got lucky. It opened...then was slammed shut again, nearly catching my hand.
I turned around to face the biggestpaisanoI’d ever seen.
He was a rotund son-of-a-bitch with fat jowls and a few missing teeth. I knew because he gave me a big smile right before he said, “Happy Birthday, kid,” and punched me in the face.
I took the punch, but he split my lip open. I licked the blood away as it trickled down my chin.
“Happy birthday, eh? Happy birthday to you, you fat fuck.”
I punched him in the gut.
And he barely moved.
He started laughing. I straightened up to have another go at him since he didn’t seem particularly aggressive. Well, beyond throwing the first punch, that is. He just stood there, grinning like he had the upper hand. And then I realized he did.
I sobered up pretty damn quickly when the streetlights glinted off the side of the blade.
I remember thinking,where the fuck are the guys?How the hell long did it take to piss in an alley? I just had to keep the bastard busy until they got back, but I was between a car and a giant. When I took a step to the left, he mirrored me. When I went right, he did the same, but he copied each move with the same stupid smile on his face. And for some reason, that damn grin pissed me the hell off.
I rolled up my sleeves. “You know, when we’re done here, one way or another, I’m gonna wipe that damn grin off your face.”
