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“Yes, you heathen. Now go get ready. Autumn is the professional who will deal with the exterior of the house. You’ll make do for the interior.” She sticks her tongue out at me; but she gets her ass out of the kitchen while Autumn and I settle down to wait for her.
The girls oohand ahh at the house. “You were right to call this garden a nightmare, Ezra. What psychopath let it get to this point?” Autumn asks. I wince a little but don’t fess up.
“Think you can fix it?” I ask instead.
“Of course, it might take over a week but this garden will be good as new.”
I walk Andrea through the house; she nods as she takes notes on her phone. I’m glad she’s at least taking this seriously. Upstairs she glances around at one of the guest bedrooms.
“Do you want the babies to have separate rooms? Or one room?”
I shrug, heart pounding as I think about it. “I’m not sure. What do you think?”
“I think for the first two or three years, they can share the same room. At that point you and their mother can decide if you want the arrangement to continue or not.”
I nod in response, glancing around the room with fresh eyes. “This would make a good baby room, no?” It’s certainly big enough to accommodate them both. It’s almost as big as the master bedroom.
Andrea suddenly turns around and hugs me tightly. I let out a surprised oomph, but wrap my arms around her shoulders gently. “What is this, Andie? Do you love me now too?” I tease.
“I do love you, Ezra, and I’m so proud of you and happy you’re my br-brother.” Her voice wobbles and her shoulders start shaking like she’s crying.
My chest tightens as I pull her away from me, “Whoa there, Andrea. What is it?”
She sniffs and quickly wipes away the wetness on her face. “I’m sorry. It just hit me now that you’re going to be a father. Instead of making a fuss about your lifestyle changing, you’re actively leading the change yourself. It’s inspiring.” She sniffles again.
My heart tumbles and for some insane reason my eyes start stinging too. “Fuck it. We need to leave this room before you make me cry too.”
She starts laughing but complies and follows me out of the room. “And I love you too, Andrea. I am proud to be your brother.” I tell her as I continue the tour of the house. She gives me a small smile.
It takes about two hours for the ladies to finally give me their verdict. I make them promise me again that everything will be done within the week. “Great. I’m trusting you guys.” I say, mostly looking at Andrea as I drop one of my black cards into Autumn’s palm to cover the costs of whatever they’ll need.
Afterward, they go their separate ways. I go to the garage, a place I purposely excluded from Andrea’s tour. I take out my burner phone and text Massimo, telling him that we need to talk. The phone chimes with a reply almost instantly.
It’s a burner phone and mostly safe. But we keep things cryptic here too. He’s saved simply as M on the phone, and I’m saved as E on his. If anyone were to go through our chats, they wouldn’t find anything too incriminating.
M:
I’m at FN.
Frosty Night. One of his more popular clubs in Providence. I react to the message with a thumbs up, then go up to my room to change into my standardLa Fiammagetup before making the drive to the city.
There’s more traffic than usual. It takes me a little over an hour to get to the club, way too much time to obsess over the conversation I’m about to have and run over every possible gruesome outcome that could unfold. I exhale as I walk through the space, the deep bass pounding to the rhythm of my erratic heartbeat.
“Yo, E!” Crew waves me over to the bar.
“Hey Crew. Where’s the boss?” I ask, as he pats my shoulder in greeting.
“He’s up in his office with Elliot.”
I thank him and excuse myself. I wave at a few guys calling out to me as I navigate the large club. During the day, it’s filled with members of the family who have time to kill or just want to waste time and drink for free.
I finally make it to the icy glass stairs, leading up to Massimo’s office. I nod at the bodyguard at the edge of the stairs as I come to a stop. I raise my hands as he slowly pats down my body, making sure I’m not carrying a concealed weapon. The rule within the club is that we’re all family here so no heat allowed. Especially if you want to go up to the big boss’ office.
Massimo is a paranoid bastard, but he’s paranoid for a good reason. He didn’t inherit his position as the head of the Rhode Island mafia and the greater New England area. He got there through bloodshed and betrayal.
The guard takes a step back from me when he’s done searching me. I nod at him again as I climb the stairs. At the top is a hallway big enough to accommodate two men of my size, walking shoulder to shoulder, but that’s about it. On my left is a row of doors, leading to offices. The other side is made entirely of frosted glass, which looks out to over the expanse of the club.
On the floor, the glass sparkles silver and bounces back the clubbers’ reflections; but on this side, we can see everything that’s going on out there. I stride down the hallway to Massimo’s office. I rap sharply on the door and wait for thirty seconds before I yank it open and walk in. Massimo’s office is soundproofed; there’s no way to hear anything being said inside, but I always let myself in after a brief pause. If he doesn’t want to be disturbed, the door would be locked. But tonight, it slides open easily.
