Endings & Beginnings (New Mafia Trilogy #3) (25 page)

Natalie

LOS
ANGELES

The airport shuttle dropped me off outside of my
apartment building and I lugged my suitcases up the stairs. It felt like an
eternity since I’d left and California was a foreign country compared to
Philadelphia. Where I was used to seeing skyscrapers, I now saw palm trees
whenever I looked up. It was quieter here too. Aside from the distant hum of
traffic on the interstate which was less than a mile away and an occasional
radio, there was little else.

Stale air greeted me when I opened my apartment
door. It was warm inside as I’d turned the air conditioner off before I left.
The AC ran up my electricity bill something fierce. I carried my bags to my
bedroom, turning the thermostat to cool along the way. After going to the
bathroom and washing my face, scrubbing off the miles of travel, I went to the
kitchen to scrounge up some food. The refrigerator revealed a door full of
condiments and a couple bottles of water. At least I had cleaned out any food
that had the potential to spoil before I went out of town. The freezer had more
options. I pulled out a chicken breast and bag of broccoli. While the chicken
defrosted in the microwave, I called Grant to let him know I arrived. He didn’t
answer, so I left a message. Next I texted Chelsea, letting her know I was
back.

I whipped together a quick stir-fry with the chicken
and broccoli and served it over brown rice. With a steaming plate of food, I
settled down on the futon and turned on the television. I found a Family Guy
marathon and settled in. It was nice to just chill. After eating, I stretched
out and tucked a throw pillow on my head. Between the food and jet lag, I was
asleep in minutes.

It was a deep, dreamless sleep and when I woke up at
three in the morning, my head was heavy and limbs stiff, like I had been
drugged. It didn’t take long to fall back asleep after relocating to my
bedroom. I woke up three hours later. Apparently my inner alarm clock was still
on Eastern Standard Time. I lay there, trying to will myself back to sleep, but
when that didn’t work reluctantly climbed out of bed and got ready to go for a
run.

The day had yet to heat up and the warmth of the
early morning sun was tolerable as I ran towards its light. Commuter traffic
had already started and I ran past rows of cars sitting at traffic lights while
the sidewalks remained clear. The weight of Dominic’s rejection pressed down on
me and I increased my pace even though I knew outrunning my emotions was
impossible. I understood where he was coming from and yes, I had suffered a lot
since he came into my life, but I didn’t blame him and never would. He took
over the family business and while it was different than inheriting a dry
cleaning business or being made managing partner of a law firm, it was a
business he grew up around and it was all he knew. When it came down to placing
the blame, it was all on Uncle Marco. He was the bastard that choked me,
threatened me and pimped me out to Mr. Genovese. He was the one that had a hit
out on me. I didn’t spill any tears over his death. The only remorse I felt was
that Dominic was the one who pulled the trigger. For a man who was raised to
believe that family is everything, taking out his own uncle had to have fucked
with his head.

Dominic didn’t want me around and Grant was moving
on with his life. Looking out for me was no longer his number one priority. For
all the years I bitched about his overbearing ways and influence, not having
his presence in my life left a big void. I was finally free to live my life the
way I wanted and I had no idea what to do.

After the run I stopped at Starbucks to grab a
coffee and muffin. One thing I needed to do was grocery shop and then I had to
see if my waitressing job at Dirty was available. If not, finding a new job was
a priority.

It was late afternoon when I pulled into the parking
lot at Dirty and I recognized Callie’s car. She was the owner and had taken
over management of the bar after her husband was killed during a robbery. She
had hired me on the spot and I’d spent Christmas Eve at her house, so I hoped
getting my job back would be easy.

The door squeaked when I opened it and Collin
glanced up from behind the bar. I smiled and waved, but he didn’t acknowledge
me, just turned away to finish setting up for the night. I wasn’t surprised
about the cold reception. Collin was one of Jason’s best friends and when I
broke up with Jason, he quit bartending at Dirty therefore coming between their
great bromance. Undeterred, I continued past the bar and down a dimly lit
hallway to Callie’s office.

   “Come in,” she called after I knocked, her voice
muffled through the door. I stepped inside, leaving the smell of bar behind and
entered a homey office. A linen and lavender candle on her desk filled the
small room with its fragrance. “Nat, welcome back!” Callie smiled and stood up
to walk around her desk, meeting me halfway to give me a hug. “How’s your
brother?”

   “Grant’s doing great – better than expected.”
Nothing had changed at Dirty since I had left but while it felt like I had been
gone for a year it only had been for a little over a month. Callie tucked a
stray curl behind her ear and sat back down behind her desk. I took one of the
two seats in front. Her laptop was on and from the angle, saw a spreadsheet on
the screen. A ledger and various invoices were spread out on the light wood
surface of her desk.

   “I can’t believe you guys were there during that
shooting,” she shuddered and her eyes darted to the picture of her husband that
she kept on her desk. “Random acts of violence seem to be increasing. I hate
it.” Her husband, Frank, was a victim to such a crime when he was shot and
killed during a robbery.

   “It was scary and surreal. I’m just glad Grant is
going to be okay. Is this a good time?”

   “Yeah, I can always use a break from paying
bills,” she said with a laugh, rocking back in her chair and sticking her feet
up on the corner. Callie slipped her sandals off and I caught a flash of red
polish on her toenails. On the wall behind her I saw the collection of her oldest
daughter’s drawings had grown. Ally had improved over the school year.  “What’s
up?”

   “I didn’t know if my job is still available? I
understand if it isn’t, but…”

I could see the answer on her face before she voiced
it. “I’m sorry, Nat. I needed to hire someone.”

   “It’s okay; I figured you couldn’t hold it.” I
swallowed down the panic as my checking account balance was getting dangerously
low and didn’t really provide much of a cushion for a long job hunt. “Do you
know of anyone hiring that you could refer me to?” I asked, meeting her kind
brown eyes. Callie dropped her feet down and leaned toward her computer. She pulled
a pencil out of her hair undoing a haphazard bun that sent curls spilling around
her shoulders. Tapping the eraser against her bottom lip, Callie typed in
something.

   “Tell you what; I can use an additional
experienced server for Saturday nights as they’ve been off the rails lately.
You’re welcome to that and I’ll put my feelers out to see if we can’t find you
something else. Cool?” she looked up at me.

It wasn’t much, but it would give me some cash plus
time to get my resume together. “That’s great, Callie, thank you! When do you
want me to start?”

   “This weekend; if you can?”

   “Yeah, sure. Report at 4:00?”

   “You got it!” She stood and came around the desk
to give me another hug. “I’m glad you’re back.”

We said goodbye and I left her office. Collin was
still getting his bar ready and he silently watched me walk past. Things might
be awkward for the first couple of shifts, but it was only one night a week and
I could deal with the cold shoulder, although I’d miss his playful flirtatious
banter. Collin was forever hitting on me just to fuck with Jason and it was
always fun to play along. He and Jason were best friends and I knew Collin
wasn’t serious. He’d never do anything to hurt the bromance.

With some temporary income on the horizon, I stepped
out of Dirty into the hot late afternoon sun with less of a weight on my
shoulders, but the burden wasn’t completely lifted. Money was going to be tight
for a bit. Fortunately I grew up poor and knew how to be conservative. I’d been
spoiled being Dominic’s girlfriend and Grant liked to spoil me too. The BMW he
gave me as a college graduation present and that I was currently driving out of
the parking lot was one example, but I also remembered living on rice, peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches and store brand mac and cheese. I’d make do. I had
to.

DOMINIC

We gathered at “The Speak” where a revenge seeking
Joey D. paced the room like an angry bull circling an arena. I even called my
brother and Dante’s brother in for the meeting and of course Miranda’s brother,
Paulie, arrived with them. They were cousins, but just as close as brothers.
Johnny had mad tech skills and could hack into the police department’s server
for information about “The Giant’s” death. Not only was this helpful in
determining whether the cops we had on payroll were telling the truth, but if
the Feds stonewalled our resources, we had an alternative.

Johnny explained he was able to use a series of IP
addresses that bounced all over the world so if a breach were ever detected, it
would be extremely difficult to trace the hacker’s actual location. I don’t
know where or how he learned all of this shit. It clearly wasn’t in high school
or passed down from his dad because Uncle Al still had a hard time making a
call using his flip phone.

The Giant’s presence was noticeably absent. Not just
physical since his sheer size filled any room, but he rarely missed a meeting.
I didn’t like losing one of my own. None of us did. Whoever killed Anthony had
messed with my family.

My dad was the last to arrive and I gestured to Sam,
the doorman, to lock the door. Ordinarily when we gathered in the lounge area,
what used to be a living room when The Speak was a residence, we drank and were
in better moods. This time none of us wanted to cloud our minds or numb our
feelings. Clear heads were needed to figure out who was responsible so we could
enact swift retribution for our fallen brother.

We relocated to the kitchen and sat around a large
table that was used for intense, high stakes poker games. Sam stayed by the
front door as a lookout for anyone suspicious. We had been careful checking for
tails on our way over here.

   “Okay, so what do we know?” I asked Grant. He had
been the one in charge of contacting our friends on the force.

   “Not much. According to Detective Kaminski, the
Feds showed up and shut everyone out. Special Agent Phillips seized all of the
evidence. The H and money were left at the scene so it wasn’t a robbery.”

   “A definite hit, then,” Dante said.

   “Or a message,” I added, “but for me or
Demetrius?”

   “He was having problems with the 40
^th
Street Gang, but they’re not the type to leave cash and product behind.”

   “All the other exchanges went off fine?” Miranda
asked.

   “Yeah. We were all at Demetrius’ waiting for our
people to check in.”

   “It’s not a robbery and someone had to know that
Anthony and Demetrius’ man were meeting. This reeks of a hit,” Grant said.

   “If that’s the case, we have a small list of
people who knew about the meet times and locations. Either one of them set it
up or ran their mouth to the wrong person.” I looked around the table as my
implication sunk in. “We need to figure out who it was and fast.”

We spent the next two hours reviewing the short list
of suspects. Trust was already a frayed thread holding business deals between
criminals together. I had my organization to run and so did everyone else. Each
of us wanted a bigger piece of the pie and I wasn’t ignorant to think these
leaders weren’t capable of trying to seize control. The fact that the drugs and
money were left behind made me think whoever planned this wasn’t interested in
a quick take. They wanted law enforcement poking around and I already had heat
from the Feds. If they didn’t already know, it wouldn’t take long for them to
figure out who The Giants’ associates were and I knew Special Agent Phillips
was going to be up my ass even more. Fucking great.

At the end of the meeting, Demetrius’ gang’s rivals
were still at the top of the list of suspects followed by Egan. Out of the
others, he was the one chafing for a bigger cut and didn’t like that I was
heading up the heroin shipments. Next would be Ji because he was young and
wanted to make a name for himself, but then again, the same could be said for
me.

Since Egan and I didn’t get along, Dante agreed to
ask around and do some digging. I decided to have Grant and Miranda vet out Ji
while Joey D. and I were going to talk to Marcus, the leader of the 40
^th
Street Gang. All of this needed to be done below the Fed’s radar.

The meeting ended and as I was getting ready to
leave, my dad approached.

   “Dom, you got a minute?”

   “Yeah, what’s up?”

He sat down next to me at the table with his work
roughened hands stretched out before him. “I know you didn’t want to hear it,
but I think you need to reconsider having one of the soldiers with you as
additional protection whenever you go somewhere.”

   “Dad,” I started to object, but he cut me off.

   “Hear me out. There are too many unknowns with
Anthony’s death and any one of us could be targets – you especially.”

It was one thing to have someone following me when I
was with Natalie, just as an extra layer of protection for her. I was getting
ready to tell him no again, but by the way he sat with his shoulders hunched
and he ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair, I could tell he was
genuinely worried.

   “Okay, okay. It’ll be a pain in the ass, but if
it gives you peace of mind I’ll do it.”

   “Good. Leo is waiting outside and ready to escort
you wherever you need to go.”

My dad left and I was getting ready to stand up when
Grant sat down in the recently vacated seat. Miranda flanked me on the other
side.

   “Alright, what’s going on?” I asked.

   “What happened between you and my sister the
other night?” Grant asked and his glare told me he was asking as a brother and
not as my capo.

   “Why, what did she say?”

   “It’s her whole flying back to California this
morning that told me something happened.”

   “What?” I launched out of my seat and started
pacing. Just like my dad did moments before, I ran a hand through my hair.
“She’s gone?”

   “She couldn’t leave fast enough and didn’t let me
drive her to the airport. So, what the fuck happened between you two – I
thought you were making some progress?”

With a sigh, I sat back down and leaned back in the
chair to tell Grant and Miranda why I cut Natalie loose.

   “Great and when she got home we told her Grant
was healthy enough that she didn’t need to stick around anymore. She probably
felt rejected,” Miranda said. We both looked at her. “Yeah, that’s how girls
think.”  

Rubbing my hands over my face, I groaned. “I can’t
think about this right now. Honestly, with the shit going on it’s good
Natalie’s far away, which is precisely why I put an end to anything between us,
as much as it sucks.”

   “Damn, that means you’re going be one irritable
bastard until you get some pussy,” Dante, who was coming into the conversation
late, joked and I punched him. He stepped away laughing.

Sam unlocked the front door and everyone filed out,
walking to their respective vehicles. I spotted Leo across the street. He was
sitting on the stoop of a row home that was for sale smoking a cigarette and
had the classic summer uniform for South Philly on; a red Phillies tee shirt
and gold chain with tan cargo shorts and white sneakers. He flicked his butt
onto the sidewalk and made his way across the street.

   “What’s up, Dom?” he asked, nodding his head at
everyone leaving.

   “Come on, you’re riding with me. Joey, figure out
where Marcus is hanging and we’ll go pay a visit.”

   “On it,” Joey said before firing up his Harley.
The pipes growled low and then he romped on the throttle, taking off down the
narrow one way street, setting off car alarms in his wake.

Leo and I were on the way to my condo when my cell
phone rang. “This is Dom.”

   “Mr. Grabano, this is Rebecca at the front desk.
Did you place a service call for the cable company?”

I sat up straighter in my seat and my eyes narrowed.
“No. Why?”

   “They’re here claiming you called, but I know you
normally have us make those arrangements for you.”

   “Thank you for calling, Rebecca. My cable is just
fine. Please don’t let them into my condo.”

   “I won’t and you’re welcome, sir.”

I dropped my phone in the cup holder and shook my
head. “They’re getting fucking desperate.”

   “Who is?” Leo asked. He lit up a smoke and
cracked the window.

   “The Feds. They just tried to gain access to my
place. Be on the lookout,” I warned him as I turned onto Columbus Boulevard and
approached my building. Late afternoon sun glinted off of the river and cast
the bridge in a dusty gold glow. Sure enough, a generic white pick-up truck
with magnetic signs for the cable company on its doors was parked in the street
out front. As soon as I pulled up to valet, the truck peeled out and took off
down the street. After handing the keys off, I gave the valet driver a $100 tip
and asked him to sweep it for anything unusual. “Yes, sir!” he said with a
grin.

Next, I stopped at the front desk to thank Rebecca
in person. She looked Leo up and down and thrust her chest out when we
approached. “Mr. Grabano, that was quick,” she commented.

   “Yeah, I was just down the street when you
called. Thank you again,” I pulled out my wallet and fished out three one
hundred dollar bills for her.

   “Anytime,” she said with a smile.

We crossed the lobby to the elevators. I paced in
front of them while we waited. Between the Feds, Anthony’s murder and now
Natalie leaving, my mind was in overdrive.

Immediately upon entering my condo, I grabbed an RF
reader from a bottom drawer in the kitchen and gestured for Leo to stay quiet
as I did a sweep for listening devices and cameras. I hated being paranoid, but
Johnny had convinced me to take these precautions so I invested over five grand
in equipment. Nothing registered on the machine that looked like a walkie
talkie so I tossed it back in the drawer. I grabbed a beer and told Leo to help
himself then sat down on the leather sofa.

   “What’s the plan, Dom?”

   “Once Joey has tracked down Marcus, we’re going
to pay him a visit. Find out if he’s responsible for the hit on Anthony.”

   “Think he’ll talk?” he asked.

   “Joey and I can be very convincing,” I said and
cracked my knuckles.

It didn’t take long for Joey to get a location for
Marcus and soon we were all heading toward West Philly in a beat up Chevy van.
Joey drove and Leo sat in the passenger seat while I sat in the back since it
was windowless and not only cut down on making me an easy target, but any
street cameras would capture Joey and Leo in the vehicle, not me.

We drove past opulent fraternity and sorority houses
on UPENN’s campus, but that opulence quickly faded to worn out neighborhoods
where graffiti dominated alley walls and sneakers hung on electrical wires.
Water gushed out from a fire hydrant as kids frolicked in the spray to cool
off. A couple of older women, their white hair contrasted sharply against dark
skin, sat in the shade of their porches. They watched the kids playing, but
they also followed the van’s progress as we rolled past. This was the official
neighborhood watch.

After turning the corner, Joey D. pulled over and
parked in a commercial loading zone out front of a row home that had a black
man sitting on the bottom step. He instantly went on alert when we stopped.
When all three of us stepped out of the van, the guy stood up and pulled his
gun out from behind.

   “You lost?” he asked.

   “No, we’re here to see Marcus.”

   “You got an appointment?” He moved to block the
steps and adopted the typical thug pose with his hands crossed in front of his
dick, gun on full display, with his shoulder dropped in a relaxed pose and he
narrowed his eyes.

   “Really, it’s going be like that? You know who I
am.”

   “Yeah, I know who you are,” he said with a cocky
sneer.

In my peripheral view I saw Joey and Leo edge closer
on each side of me and they both had their guns drawn. Whoever this prick was,
he needed to check himself.

   “Deshawn knock it the fuck off and let them
through,” a deep voice bellowed from inside the house. The guy scowled, but he
did what he was told.

Joey D. went first and Leo brought up the rear. As
soon as we in the shade of the porch, my eyes adjusted and I saw Marcus holding
the door open. “Come in, Dom. I know why you’re here.”

We walked into a cloud of smoke that reeked of skunk
weed and filled the entire bottom floor in a haze. A pit bull with a heavy
studded collar lifted its head then lay back down. The dog was probably just as
stoned as the other occupants. Five of Marcus’ men sat around the living room.
A bong was on the coffee table as well as a box full of nick and dime bags. An
AK-47 and a Glock were also on the table next to a bag of Cheetos.