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17
MATTEO
Cesare’s texttested my patience that morning.
We’re in Brooklyn Bridge Park, putting together our crew. You’re the arms expert. A candidate for that job will be here in about an hour. You should be here to see if he fits the bill.
Who gives a shit?This was my initial possible response. My thumbs over the screen of my cell phone, I did consider telling him to get lost.
I wasn’t in the mood.
No. Scratch that.
I was too pissed to do much else, other than look at myself in the mirror and call me names.
What the fuck was I thinking?
Why had I let that nurse lure me to the ladies’ room?
The good thing was that I had an answer to the first question.
I wasn’t thinking. Not really.
Not with my head anyway.
I had allowed the little guy in my pants to take over. In other words, I had kicked out reason and allowed lust to take charge.
Recipe for disaster.
A guaranteed way to get in trouble with Cesare.
Of course, I knew what was going to follow after that. My cousin would never forgive me if I laid a hand on Piper. He might have kept this secret from me, but I had reached the truth. She had tried to hide this, but she had given herself away. Leonardo wouldn’t be so pleased with me, either. If I did that with one of Cesare’s girlfriends, he’d suspect I would do that with one of his, too. I wouldn’t blame him. He’d have every right to believe that I would double-cross him, just like I had done to Cesare.
Throughout the night, I wracked my brain to find out why I had done such a thing.
An obvious explanation was looks.
Smoldering-hot looks, to be exact.
Damn, that Piper girl was a sight for sore eyes.
Those curves would even make monks stare at them. That perfect, hourglass figure looked like it had been sculpted by the finest sculptor in the whole world.
Yet, I didn’t think this was the only factor in play.
When she texted me with the suggestion to meet up, I suspected that she and Cesare were a thing of the past. Yes, they had been fooling around. She hadn’t bothered denying that. However, they were not dating. If that had been true, there was no way she would call me, willing to have that so-called casual conversation. I respected the fact that she had questions, but I wasn’t the one she should have gone to, to get answers. That guy was in Brooklyn Bridge Park that morning, waiting for me to turn up.
Sadly, this was a joke of an excuse.
It didn’t matter whether a friend had been seeing a woman, or they had ended things with her ten years ago. An ex was always an ex. She was considered nuclear territory. A person you should stay away from at all costs. She made a pass at you? Shut up and walk away. She invited you over and tried to seduce you? Keep your hands to yourself and get the hell out. That’s what the whole “nuclear territory” was all about. And I hadn’t respected that rule. Instead of those two words, I read “free access to anyone interested.”
Fuck…
Despite all that, I had to admit Cesare and Leonardo needed me that morning. They could fire a rifle and a gun, but they had no idea about small details. Those included country of origin, manufacturing quality and materials used in the making of those weapons. Not showing up at this meeting would be like me asking for an argument. And it wouldn’t be just Cesare I’d be having an argument with. Leonardo would be mad at me as well. Letting both of them hang out to dry was going to give me yet another headache. After kissing Piper in the ladies’ room of that café, god knew I didn’t need more problems than I already had.
Brooklyn Bridge Park was basking in glorious sunshine that day. There wasn’t a single cloud in the New York sky. There was a smell of freshness in the air, mixed with the scent of freshly cut lawn. The trees that bordered the park were providing thick shade to lucky visitors. A huge lawn spreading out before me, I spotted Cesare, Leonardo standing beside a bench. A rather skinny guy was sitting on that bench, resting his elbows on his thighs.
“There you are,” Cesare said, acknowledging me with a nod. “I thought you’d forgotten where the park was.”
