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“Let’s go into the house and finish this talk,” I said to the two, and we all walked up the steps to the porch and over to the front doors, which were unlocked. The place was still fully furnished, and most of the knickknacks and dusty junk were cluttered everywhere. “Doesn’t look like he took much.”
“He just made three million bucks. Would you take this stuff?”
“Three million? Javi, fuck! You could have gotten this piece for half that,” Burke bitched.
“Desperate times, brother. Anyway, Theo. He wanted into the organization. Though he had every right, being his family was in it, what’s left of them besides his mom, who’s…wherever the fuck she is. Danny said no, Mike said no, and even his aunt said no way, but he was determined. He shot at a member of our rival family, did it in plain fucking sight, at some downtown club.”
“Jesus Christ,” Burke whispered. “The cops?”
“We own the cops, or the other family does. They recognized him, and we’re still negotiating to settle this. They want him dead, but even if he fucked up, he’s family. Danny can’t lose face that way, so they’re talking.” Javi and Burke sat on the old sofa with the worn spots in the flowery fabric, and I sat on the big leather chair. It barely fit me. “Anyway, the kid is stupid, smart-mouthed, and a prick, but he also… needs a real friend and someone to listen to him. If that is, he ever decides to do anything but complain and whine.”
“Joel’s scared of him,” Burke admitted. “Not like Theo would physically hurt him, but that mouth, man. Joel hates thinking someone is judging him, and well, Theo….”
“Judges, everyone,” Javi finished for him. “Yeah. I know. Nah, man, don’t worry about that; keep Joel away from him. I’ll think of something that’ll get through to him.”
I thought about it and mentioned it anyway, though it wasn’t in my immediate job description. “I’m good at…teaching people manners, but I also don’t want my feet fitted with concrete shoes, if you know what I’m saying.”
Javi chuckled at that and slapped Burke playfully. “I like his big guy. He’s even bigger than you!”
“I know. Finally, I’m looking up to talk to someone.”
Javi lost his smile and said, “Listen, ese, if you think you can help him, you got carte blanche, you feel me? I mean…don’t hurt him. He’s family, you know, but he needs some manners.”
Burke added, “And teach him he’s a shitty Dom.”
“That’s first. Theo has no clue about the real lifestyle. Javi, Burke, I can be rough. I want to know, right now, if I have to get mean with him, not exactly hurt him, but…you know, get tough, carte blanche means that I’m not gonna be fed to those pigs out in the yard.”
Burke was grinning, and Javi soon joined him. Burke whispered, “You’re gonna make him your bitch.”
“Yeah. Teach Theo manners and show him what a real Dom looks like.”
“Go for it, brother,” Javi said, laughing and slapping his knee. “Danny, man, he’s gonna shit. He can’t stand that little fuck.”
I didn’t feel that way. Theo was a prick, mean to nearly everyone, and entitled like no one else I’d ever seen, but I watched him closely over the weekend. After all, that was my job. I saw him as he gazed at couples and men in other forms of relationships, and there was a need there, a longing that broke my heart.
Still, he didn’t deserve that kind of thing until he changed. A lot.
“If I can’t fix him, he’s unfixable.”
“Confidence,” Javi said to me. “I like that. Burke tells me you served.”
“Eight years, four tours, and then came home and thought I’d be a cop. That lasted six months.”
They both laughed at that. Javi said, “Yeah, well, as you might have guessed, I went in the other direction. They came out and went wild merc, then started training idiots to be in a crew. It’s worked out; got some idiot boys off the streets and made them good gangsters.”
“Interesting. So, you do the tough love too.”
“I guess you could call it that, yeah. These guys are all special in some way. They just had it hard, you know? No excuse for being a fucking prick, but until we know what someone had going on in their past, maybe they’re pricks for a good reason.”
“Like Theo?”
They both stared at me, then looked at one another and deflated some of their hatred of the guy. Burke conceded, “Possibly, but you heard Javi. He was rich and spoiled. No reason to be a prick.”
I thought he was correct, but I saw it in him those nights. He purposely went after men who were obviously not on the market a few times, almost getting him beaten. He might have been trying to get a small taste of what they had. Of course, I have been wrong before and was likely again.
“We’ll just see how it goes. I don’t quit easily unless someone wants to move somewhere I can’t see myself living.”
“Yeah, this guy’s left some high-paying gigs over that shit. This last one traveled a lot but always came home to a secluded beach house. But then he decided to move overseas, and Hud opted out pretty fast.”
