AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s not going to be good for him if he doesn’t get this sorted.”
“Why do you keep letting this happen? You know damn well he doesn’t have the fucking money. And he can’t pull any more favors without raising the alarm.”
“Not in the business of telling people how to live their lives.”
“Can’t you blacklist him or something?”
“If we blacklisted every gambler, Lola, we wouldn’t have a business at all.” I guess that makes sense. I don’t like it, but the logic is there.
“Look, I hate to bother a pretty thing like you. Visiting isn’t a hardship, seeing you in your cute little uniform with your sweet braids, but it’s a long drive to the shore. I have real work to do. I gave you an extra week because I didn’t want to come down, but now it’s getting a little out of hand.” The bile burns when he calls me a pretty little thing. I sigh, trying to seem like I’m annoyed but not scared.
Never show you’re scared, not to a man like this.
“I have some. Not all.” Since his last visit, I begrudgingly created an envelope, skimming some of the cash each day just in case. In case I was cornered, just like this.
Because I guess even though I left this in my father’s court, I knew. A sad part of me knew he wouldn’t handle it and I’d be left to pick up the pieces.
“He’s not gonna be happy.”
“Well, he’s gonna have to make due. I just opened this place.”
“That’s not Mr. Carluccio’s problem.”
“It shouldn’t be mine.”
“Your father gave Carmello Carluccio your word, and he expects you to keep it.”
Carmello Carluccio.
The head of the Carluccio crime family.
For the rest of the state, the rest of the world, even, the Carluccios are a mix of a tabloid story filled with truths and lies. Something to gossip about at a ball game, but not too loud for the wrong person to hear.
They’re what movies and books are written around, exaggerated and glamorized versions of the same story. The Don of New Jersey, with hands in unions and the waste industry. If you listen, you’ll hear whispers of money laundering through strip clubs and butcher shops, laundromats, and cigar stores. Cash businesses and imports where money can get muddled easily. You’ll hear of quiet handshakes with politicians to get around permits and ordinances or elaborate dinners and wine-soaked smiles at banquets.
But for me, it all became real-life a year ago when I got the call from Johnny on behalf of the Carluccios.
It turns out that the handshakes with politicians part is true.
In the past, my father paid off his gambling debts with permits and by sweeping potential charges under the rug.
But as the world turns, as things change, as every move a politician makes is researched and picked apart on social media, it became harder. The spotlight was bigger, and the mouths that needed feeding became hungrier.
The problem is, my father likes to gamble.
Regardless of whether he could settle his debt with favors and gifts, he continued promising them.
The other problem is he’s not verygoodat gambling.
“That was a year ago, Johnny.”
“Years ago or days ago, that’s how this business works, sweetheart, sorry to tell you. You put your neck out once and you’re attached to the debt.” I stare at him, wondering how much more of my life will be spent paying for my father’s mistakes.
Am I forever doomed to fear the worst and never to grow?
As always, when it comes to issues with my father, my mother’s last words come back to me.
“Please take care of your father. He’s going to need you once I’m gone. I know it’s not fair, but you have to do it for the family. Don’t let it touch Lilah, Lola. She’ll get dragged in deep.”
