At Peace (77 page)

He got to three when Frankie kept at him.
“You still kissed me.”

“Babe, tits like yours, I’m blotto, doesn’t
matter who you are, they’re pressed against me and they got a mouth
attached to the same body, it’s on mine, I’m gonna stick my tongue
in it.”

She reared back. “God, Ben, I forgot how
much of a fuckin’ dick you are. Always were. I shouldn’t have even
come here.”

“Now we’re talkin’ about what I wanna talk
about. Why did you?”

“’Cause Cal never treated me like shit and
Sal ordered a hit on Hart and it went bad. Word’s spreadin’ fast
that Hart’s gonna be aimin’ for Cal, someone’s gotta warn him, I
don’t have his number and I couldn’t go to your Dad so, stupid me,
I came to you.”

Benny went solid for half a second. Then he
moved. Leaving Francesca where she stood, he hit the stairs and
took them three at a time.

He turned on the light and Carla moaned,
turned then got up on a forearm. By the time she did this Benny had
laid his gun on the dresser and was pulling on a
t-shirt.

“Whas goin’ on?” she asked, pulling hair from
her face and Benny looked at her.

Knockout. Fantastic lips, just like he
remembered. Great tits. Frankie’s were better, he knew that even if
he hadn’t seen them or touched them, only had them pressed against
him once but Carla’s were sweet.

Still, he’d had his fill of Carla.

“Darlin’, you need to go on home,” he said,
going to the dresser and grabbing some socks.

“What?” she asked, blinking.

“
You need to go home, Carla,” Benny
repeated and walked to the bed, sitting on the edge of it,
“now.”

He had his socks on and was reaching for his
boots when he noticed she hadn’t moved so he looked at her. She was
looking at the door so Benny’s head swung that way to see Frankie
standing in it.

“
Pretty, honey,” Frankie muttered, “you
always had good taste.”

Benny’s mouth got tight and he pulled on a
boot.

“Who’s she?” Carla asked.

Benny didn’t answer instead he ordered, “Out
of bed, babe. Go home.”

Carla was up on her ass with the sheet to her
chest and her narrowed eyes were glued to the door. “Who’s she?”
she repeated.

Benny pulled on his second boot, saw Frankie
hadn’t moved but was smiling her smile that made his dick start to
get hard.

There was a reason Vinnie gave it all for
her. The bitch was beyond a knockout. Only a quarter Italian, the
rest of her was mutt and she got the best of it all. Almond-shaped
eyes with light brown irises and naturally long, curling lashes. A
thick head of rich, dark brown hair she always wore long. Flawless
light skin that made your mouth water just to taste it and made you
wonder if that creamy skin was the same everywhere. Fantastic tits,
great ass and a tiny waist which were the only things that made her
long legs not look like they went straight to her throat.

And the way she smiled that smile, like she
had a secret, a really fucking good one you had to know and the
only way she’d tell you was when you were close, deep inside and
she’d whisper it in your ear. The perfect package from top to
toe.

He straightened from the bed and looked down
at Carla. “Not gonna say it again, babe.”

Carla looked at him. “Are you tellin’ me
that you just let me suck your cock and then I let you fuck me and
you wake me up in the middle of the night to shift me out for round
two? You’re good, Benny Bianchi, fuckin’ great, like they all said
but nothin’s good enough to put up with
that.
”

Benny put his hands to his hips. “See this
failed to sink in, woman, but I just got dressed and put my boots
on. I’m gonna fuck someone else, she’s standin’ in line at the
fuckin’ bedroom door, would I put my clothes on?” She opened her
mouth to speak but he didn’t wait for her to answer. “I got
somethin’ to do, somethin’ before the crack of dawn, somethin’
fuckin’ important. I asked nice, now I’ll say it straight. Get your
ass outta my bed, get dressed and get the fuck outta my
house.”

She glared at him and then asked
sarcastically, “You think maybe she can leave while I get
dressed?”

Benny walked to the dresser and grabbed his
gun. Carla’s eyes rounded on it, the situation of a wakeup call at
that hour dawned on her and her body went still but Frankie
spoke.

“Sure,” she said, turned and walked from the
door.

Benny waited while Carla dressed and she
hurried out the door not sparing him a glance and not getting
close. This was either because he’d been a dick or because he was
still carrying his gun but he didn’t much care which. She was
gone.

He went to his nightstand and tagged his
phone. Scrolling down, he called Cal while he shoved his gun in the
waistband of his jeans. He waited for a pick up but there was none.
It went to voicemail.

Benny figured, he had Vi in his bed, he would
likely not pick up the phone at that hour either because he was
busy with something not worth disturbing to answer the phone or
sleeping after being exhausted by doing something that wasn’t worth
disturbing to answer the phone. Benny disconnected the call and
tried again. Voicemail. On the third try when he got voicemail, he
left a message.

“
Cugino
. Benny. It’s urgent. Call me.”

He left the room and Frankie was waiting at
the bottom of the stairs.

He stopped in her space. “Did I ask you to
stay?”

“Will you call me when you find out
everything’s all right?”

Benny clenched his teeth. She was worried. He
heard it. She didn’t even try to hide it.

He knew her life since losing Vinnie had been
totally fucked. He thought she’d move on but she didn’t. He didn’t
want to know but he had to admit he’d gone out of his way to keep
tabs. Alone, she didn’t date, didn’t even look as far as he knew.
She went to work. She came home. She’d go to Rico’s by herself once
in awhile and she’d go home by herself. She went on vacation by
herself. All in all, she just kept herself to herself.

She was close to Sal, had made friends with
some of his boys when Vinnie was working for Sal and she stayed
that way because they were the only family she had left. Everyone
else had turned their backs on her because they blamed her for
Vinnie.

The Bianchis were clean and always were. The
Giglias were dirty and always were. They met at reunions, weddings,
funerals and when they had to because they were family. The
mingling of blood two generations ago was not a happy occasion for
the Bianchis. But family was family.

His path crossed with Frankie’s because
Sal considered Frankie family, her man had been whacked under his
watch and Sal might be a piece of shit but he took care of family.
After Vinnie died and Benny made it clear he didn’t want her
company and she stopped coming around all the time, Benny saw her
but rarely. He knew she’d got tight with Cal because of Vinnie and
stayed that way for reasons known only to her and Cal. That was to
say she stayed that way as much as Cal would let anyone stay close
– which was to say that she probably hadn’t seen him in
years.

But she was worried and, fuck him, he fucking
hated hearing that in her voice.

“I’ll call,” he gritted out.

“Thanks, Ben,” she whispered and turned
toward the kitchen at the back which brought something to Benny’s
mind.

“Frankie,” he called, she stopped in the dark
hallway and turned to him.

“Yeah?”

“Why’d you come to the backdoor?”

She hesitated then he saw her shoulders
shrug. “Old lady Zambino lives across the street.”

“So?”

“So, she’s Bella’s grandma.”

Benny was getting impatient. Therefore, he
asked again, “So?”

“So, Bella works for you.”

“Frankie –”

In a rush, she explained, “She’s old and
she’s nosy. If Old Lady Zambino sees me and tells Bella, Bella
tells Theresa, Theresa doesn’t care why I’m here she just doesn’t
want me near any of you, ‘specially you. So Theresa gets pissed but
she’d get pissed at you. I was tryin’…”

She stopped speaking but he knew what she was
trying to do. Save him from the wrath of his Ma because she was
right. Frankie saw him from two blocks away and his mother knew it,
Ma would lose her fucking mind. Since Benny’s Ma lost her fucking
mind on a regular basis, Benny could handle it, but it’d be a pain
in the ass like it always was and it was cool Frankie tried to
shield him from that shit.

He didn’t say thanks, he didn’t speak at all
and she turned again and walked away.

She stopped at the doorway to the kitchen and
turned back.

“Benny,” she called.

“Got things to do, Frankie,” he reminded
her.

She didn’t listen or didn’t care.

Instead, she said, “It’s a sin to speak ill
of the dead.”

Benny felt his body get tight.

“Don’t –” he whispered.

She did. “I never told anyone this
before.”

“Frankie –”

“Everyone thought it was me. The franchise
idea. That sandwich shop that went bust. Sal.”

Benny started toward her but she didn’t stop
talking and she didn’t move.

“It was all Vinnie.”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her through the
kitchen.

“Ask Sal. He knows,” she told him as he
reached for the door but he never made it. She dug her heels in and
yanked her arm out of his hold. “I didn’t say shit because I loved
him. I didn’t want anyone to think he was weak. I didn’t want
anyone to think he’d failed. I didn’t want anyone to think he was
anything but what they thought he was. That he was great because he
was. He just wasn’t perfect.”

“Save this shit, Frankie, I don’t wanna hear
it.”

“But I don’t want you to think that, not
about me,” she kept on. “I don’t know why but I don’t want you to
think it.”

“Too bad. I know this is bullshit.”

She got close. She didn’t touch him but she
got close enough he could smell her perfume and her hair.

“
You know it isn’t,” she whispered. “Vinnie
Senior, Theresa, Manny. They were blind but you know. Cal knows.
Carm knows. You
know
. Cal, Carm,
they won’t say it but they know it. You got them away from Vinnie,
from Theresa, you asked, they’d tell it to you straight. But you…
you just won’t admit it.”

“
Babe, I got shit
to do,
” he reminded her.

She stared at him and then shook her head.
“I don’t know why I…” she stopped speaking and reached for the
doorknob, “don’t bother tellin’ me about Cal. I’ll get it from
Sal.”

The tone of her voice gone hard, dead, Benny
didn’t like. It didn’t suit her. These days she was all about
attitude but it wasn’t hard. Back in the day, she laughed a lot.
Even if someone told a joke that wasn’t funny, she’d laugh and it’d
sound real even though she was only doing it to make them feel
good. And she was all energy. She seemed electric even sitting
curled up to Vinnie and watching TV.

He hadn’t seen that in years, hadn’t heard
her laughter, but he’d never heard her voice sound hard and
dead.

He put his hand to her arm. “Frankie –”

She yanked her arm free and pulled open the
door.

“Be well, Ben,” she said in that same voice
and she did it without looking at him. Then she moved down his back
stoop.

For some fucking reason he followed her,
grabbed her arm and swung her around. When her head tipped back to
look at him, he had no goddamned clue what to say.

“What?” she asked.

“I’ll call about Cal.”

“Like I said, don’t bother.”

“I’ll call.”

“Ben, you don’t wanna talk to me, fine. I get
it, it’s cool, been livin’ with that for years. I’ll get the news
from Sal or one of the boys.”

His hand tightened on her arm and he brought
her closer to his body, close enough to smell that perfume again
and in a moment of lunatic honesty he had to admit he liked it.

“I’ll fucking call.”

She went still for a moment that seemed to
stretch for a long time and she stared up at him and all he could
see were her eyes, her hair and all he could smell was her perfume
and his hand automatically tightened further on her arm.

When it did, she whispered, “Suit
yourself.”

She yanked her arm from his hand and he
watched her walk two paces then for some reason she started
running. He stood still as he listened to his back gate open and
close and he stayed still as he heard her start her car and drive
away.

The current situation hit him, his body
jolted, he cleared his mind of Frankie, turned and jogged into the
house.

* * * * *

I felt Joe’s hand on the small of my back and
his hip pressed to mine in bed.

“Buddy, girls need to get to school,” he said
into my ear.

He was sitting on my side of the bed. I was
lying on my stomach in it. He’d been up for awhile. I had not.

“Mm,” I replied and didn’t open my eyes
because my eyelids weighed three tons.

“They’ve had breakfast and they’re ready to
go,” Joe went on.

I continued to ignore him and made no
reply.

Joe sounded like he was trying not to laugh
when he finished. “Don’t you want to say good-bye?”

“Go away,” I mumbled into my pillow.

“Baby –”

“Away,” I partially repeated myself.

I heard Joe’s laughter and if I had it in me
I’d glare at him. Lucky for him, I didn’t have it in me.

His lips were back at my ear. “Best part
about last night was you comin’ home.”

At this point, if I had it in me, I would
have rolled my eyes.

“And then you makin’ me come,” he continued,
his voice lower. “That is, after you made me watch you makin’
yourself come.”