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“I can’t promise that, but I can promise I’ll either come back or I’ll die trying.”
12
“She’s not who she’s pretending to be.”
I examine their faces as they nod in unison. “Explain.”
Vincenzo looks around the table at the Capos sitting with him. “These men are loyal to the Don,” he says, tapping the wood with a thin bony finger. “To me. Michael, Tommy, Sonny, Lewis, Carl.”
His wife nods at each in turn. He doesn’t name the sixth. Why not? I say nothing. I’m calculating my odds of getting out of here without bloodshed. Six Capos, brought in from across the city for this meeting. Vincenzo and his wife. They’re all sitting bolt upright, nodding along to every word.
“She knows nothing of loyalty,” he continues. “She knows nothing of family bonds. They mean nothing to her.”
“That isn’t answering my question.”
“You want to know if I put a hit out on my own niece? Can I ask where you heard this? I was always under the impression they did not give you the names of those who hired you.”
“Still not answering.”
He slams his fist into the table, making his wife jump next to him. “She has killed,” he says. “Good men she took out. She has fucked around so much I’m surprised her cooch hasn’t fallen off. She brought shame upon this family and still now she has blackmail material that could turn this empire to dust and for what? To simply laugh as it crumbles?” As he talks, he gets quieter, not louder. “She is a snake, Mr Greene. A venomous snake not fit to slither across the dirt. What do you do with a poisonous asp? You snap its neck before it can bite you.”
“So you admit ordering the hit.”
“I believe they gave you a deadline for the assignment to be done. I was informed that you have never missed a deadline and yet here we are and you do not have the items I requested. This is costing me a lot of money. Why are you here when you have not done the job they hired you to do?”
“You are new to the position of Don,” I tell him. “You are entitled to the respect of your Capos and your wife, but that does not entitle you to ask questions of me. I do not work for you.”
The Capos bristle in their seats. “I’m talking to the organ grinder, not the monkeys. They gave me an assignment to take out an untouchable.”
He snorts. “Untouchable? What does that term even mean? She’s a civilian, so she can’t be killed? Left the family so she’s safe? Bullshit!” He slams his fist into the table for a second time. “She is no civilian. She has family blood running through her veins. The rules the organization has in place are not my rules. She is no untouchable. She is the key to this empire. With her dead, we are all safe. I have hundreds of employees, dozens of businesses. Families depend on me to keep food on their tables. Working men need this empire to survive and she could ruin it all with a click of her fingers. You do your job and everything remains the way it should be.”
His voice softens. “There is always a place on my staff for a man like yourself, Jack. We have plenty of women eager for a powerful man to take care of them. Wouldn’t you like to come into the fold? Sit by the fire with us rather than alone in the cold?”
“Keep talking.”
“I could offer you five percent of annual profits to keep you on staff. You do the jobs I give you, not the organization. Work for me and I could make you an obscenely rich man. Just do this one little job for me first and the world is your oyster. We’ve got locations in the Seychelles, Hawaii, Belize, Dubai, you name it. You could live anywhere you wanted, only coming back when there’s work that needs doing. What do you say?”
“Twenty-five percent.”
Rosella speaks up for the first time. “Ten.”
She reaches a hand out toward me. “Ten and a bonus for each hit you carry out for us.”
I accept the shake, watching the Don closely. His eyes flash. He’s thinks he’s won, but he’s got no idea what he’s just done.
He claps his hands together and grins. “Jack Greene onboard. They said it couldn’t be done, but I know about people. You’re only interested in money. That’s what matters in this world. While the little people bicker and whine about right and wrong, we rake it in and pile it up. The same way it’s been for thousands of years. You don’t get rich by umming and ahhing about what’s right and what’s wrong. You get rich by doing what you have to do . You get it, same as me. Now, all you have to do is go finish the job and come see me in the bank Monday morning. We’ll open the box together and I’ll show you what she had on us, what she was using to blackmail her own family. She’s rich, Jack. Been grifting her own father for years. Squirreling it away in secret accounts. You can take the lot, see it as a golden handshake for coming onside.”
I get to my feet, looking around at the faces in front of me. Michael, relaxed, staring at me without blinking. Tommy looking like he wants to kill me but dare not try it. Sonny as vacant as ever, all brute force and no finesse that guy. Lewis and Carl are exchanging glances. Then there’s the one on the end. The one I don’t know. Broad as me, sharp eyes. Going to have to watch out for him.
“She’ll be dead by tomorrow night,” I say. “I guarantee it.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
I turn and walk out of the function room into the main floor of the restaurant. Diners are in the middle of their meals, no idea of the transaction that just took place a few feet from where they’re eating. The entire future of the biggest mafia family in New York just took a new turn and things will never be the same again.
* * *
Morgan is in the fast food place on the corner of the street. He’s got a booth at the back and has a computer open in front of him. He’s shooting Nazi zombies by the looks of things as I approach. “Take that cocksucker,” he says, reaching for a sip of his coke. “Yeah, you like that? You want some more?”
