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I understood where he was coming from and all that happened to him and his girl. Yet I was ready to beat him to death for the pain he caused my girl. His saving grace that day were Vincent and Nick. Their intervention reminded me that Gabe was my brother and I couldn’t kill him.
“I wish it didn’t happen. Losing Charlotte messed me up,” he confesses.
“I know.”
Gabe can’t stand here and tell me I’m better than him. I’m not. He exerted great control in the situation, knowing he could have started a blood war. It was being placed in that position of helplessness that drove him over the edge. Had it been me and it was my Mimi that got taken I would have killed every motherfucker. Every man dead including me, because sure to fucking shit our enemies would have had to kill me dead to stop me from killing all of them.
I look at him and see that the guilt he feels over Mimi isn’t something that’s ever going to go away.
Making the situation better starts here.
I put my hand out to shake his, to reform the bond we have as friends. He takes it and gives my hand a firm squeeze.
“Want to go grab coffee?” I ask. “We can… catch up.”
“Yeah I’d like that,” he answers. “Thank you. Thanks for giving me a chance. I never meant to hurt her Salvatore. I never did.”
“I know. Come… let’s go.” I motion toward the door, leading the way and he follows.
We walk outside and I mull over the best thing to talk about to change the subject. I start by talking about motorcycles. Gabe and I are obsessed with them.
“I’m heading to the bike shop on Saturday,” I tell him.
That gets him interested because he knows I’m not talking about any old bike shop and it’s not actually a shop. I’m talking about hanging out with our old friends. Claudius’ crew.
We’re all mobsters to the bone who love motorcycles and trying all sorts of stunts that could get us killed. Like jumping motorcycles off buildings. There’s only a few people in our circle who have done that without getting something broken. One of them is me. Jesus, I nearly died doing that though.
“I’m coming with you,” he nods.
“Yeah, come. I think Claudius has a new bike part you’ll love. It’s Japanese.”
The sound of a speeding car steals my next words.
Habit makes both of us snap our attention down the road.
Speeding cars around here, especially black Sedans with no number plates, are reason enough to pay attention and check for safety.
My hand is already reaching for my piece but I freeze up just like Gabe when the car reaches us and just stops. It stops right there in the street. The window already rolled down revealing the man in the passenger seat.
Stephanou Portaleu.
Stephanou Portaleu as in the same crime boss who killed our brother.
He ordered the hit on Frankie for killing his wife. It was an accident. Our brother’s death was not. The fact that Frankie took the bullet to the heart the same place it got her told me no mere hitman killed him.
It was this bastard right here in front of us.
Eight years we’ve been looking for him.
Eight years there’s been no sign of his ass. Not hide nor hair. All trace of him and his people gone.
But here he is.
He’s just looking at us, no guns or anything pointed at us, and it’s like we’re in some trance.
It fucking breaks though when Gabe pulls out his gun.
The car speeds off as Gabe starts shooting mindlessly.
