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I don’t remember the trek from the building entrance to the eighteenth floor where I live. I don’t even remember pulling my keys and unlocking the door.
It seems the next time I blink, I’m wandering through my dark apartment in search of the bathroom. Salt and Pepa rush behind me, curious and loyal at my heels, but I slam the door shut before they can follow. Once inside, bathed by artificial light, I collapse onto the rug and pass out for the night.
4. salvatore
“Well,if it ain’t Psycho back in the flesh,” Vito Capaldi says, a big fat grin on his face. Nicknamed Rhino for his intimidating size and permanent mean mug, he rises up from his desk and gives me a rough hug. “Look at you all big and bad! Remember when you were my busboy?”
“This must’ve been an alternate universe. I was never anybody’s busboy. Not even yours.”
He barks out a laugh. “Still the same slick mouth. I heard it got you into plenty of trouble in South Valley.”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
I study the gaudy interior of Rhino’s office. It hasn’t changed much over the last decade—cherry-black furniture and cherry-red walls with fur draped wherever you look and the permanent stench of cigar smoke. I’d run Club Nirvana from this office many times, filling in for Rhino whenever he was unavailable.
Now I’ll be in charge for real.
“It’s good it’s going to you, ain’t it? You’re the only guy fit for the job. Your father didn’t want to admit it, but there was nobody else who could replace me. Nirvana’s become way too big for him to squander it on just anybody.”
“Lucius would rather it go down the toilet than give it to me.”
“Don’t say that. He gave it to you, didn’t he?”
I cut him a dubious look. “You and I both know why. He was backed into a corner.”
“You crafty son of a bitch!” Rhino cracks out a gruff laugh and smacks a giant hand to my back. “You’re calling me on my shit, huh? I can’t even be mad—yeah, I heard about it. But word of advice from somebody double your size and your age. You fuck with Lucius, you fuck yourself. Those really the type of problems you want?”
“I can handle him.”
I turn away from Rhino and move to peer out the club’s office window. At night, downtown Northam’s all neon lights against dark silhouettes of skyscrapers. During the day, the deterioration can’t be hidden with shadows and brightly lit illusions. Trash scuttles across the ground as weary people rush off to a long day of work. The drab gray buildings rise up from all directions, trapping us within its loud and hazy, smog-induced prison.
Lucius rules these streets.
The Belinis and Viscontis may battle him on it. Other smaller criminal gangs present in the city, like fractions of the Bratva and Yakuza and the drug cartels might try and defy him on occasion. But he’s invincible. Nobody has been able to stop him.
I’m going to be the one who finally succeeds. The one who finally takes him down.
“I’ll be paying him a visit this afternoon,” I say. “I need to make sure we’re both clear on our deal.”
Rhino blows a breath and trudges over to his desk. “You’re better than me, Psycho. I’m at the age where I don’t give a shit anymore. I just want to retire and lay by the pool all day with some hot bitches in bikinis.”
“Bet some of the bottle girls would be happy to oblige.”
“Ha! We can call it overtime, what d’you think?”
“I think they’ll do anything for the right price. Kind of like Lucius. Except my asking price isn’t in money.”
“You’re playing with fire fucking with him like you are. But I’ll say one thing—you’ve got a hell of a lot of guts. Justwhatdo you got on him?”
A grin starts at one corner of my mouth, though I don’t let it go any further. “Something that’ll destroy him for good.”
* * *
When I turned eighteen the summer after high school graduation, I waited a week before moving out of Lucius and Stefania’s home. Finally, I could fully enact my revenge plan against assholes like Lucius and Ernest Adams, Delphine’s father, the DA at the time. Nothing else would hold me back.
My plan against Lucius has always been a long game. It’s never been something I could carry out in a short amount of time even if I wanted to. He was a Don heading Northam’s most powerful crime family. I was a young adult barely working my way up the food chain.
But Lucius knows.
