Mobster's Angel (Mobster Series) (12 page)

I
’ve never heard this guy say so many fuckin’ words. I get the mop and wheeled bucket vehemently, getting pissed off. 
What do I look like, a fuckin’ house-cleaner?
  The words stutter in my mind.
Holy shit! 
Realization hits me hard. My head snaps up from mopping.  I look him straight in the eye.

“I’m supposed to be
Capo!
Antonio’s head-enforcer!
” I bellow.

“
Enforcer and
cleaner
.  It’s the perfect cover… I’m done.  I owed Delisi twenty-five years.  It’s almost over. This is your new job.  You’ll work with me over the next year.  Then you’ll take over.  If all goes as planned, it’ll be years before Antonio becomes Boss, and by then you’ll have been doing this for a long time.  You’ll still work with Antonio, but this way, no one will suspect you. They know you’ve been selected and raised to be Antonio’s enforcer.”

“Holy fuckin’ shit!  You’re
serious
!”

“You’ll be good at this.  You’re strong,
” he tells me.

I
’ve been standing so long in one spot over the bleached water that my eyes start to burn.  I’m trying to register what he’s saying. Me,
the cleaner
. 
Undercover hit-man… exterminator.
  My job will be to leave no trace, to wipe away everything when things go sour, to dispose of people who don’t follow the mafia code.  I’ll have a dual roll someday, just to hide my identity.  The secrecy of the cleaner keeps defectors and shit-stirrers loyal.

“
Trust
… it’s gone. She told me that you and Antonio taught her things… and that Joey… he taught her self-defense.  She’s grown up a lot in a few months.  I don’t approve, but we have to let her make the decision.  She hates me already.  I can’t risk damaging her more,” he huffs with more emotion than I’ve ever heard from him.

“What are you saying?” I ask
.

“Erin’s not cut out for this life.  I kept it from the girls.  It was wrong.  I should’ve prepared them, taught them the ways of the underworld.  It
was my mistake.” Patrick beats himself up.  I take it all in.  “Erin’s been broken, scarred.  I don’t want her to get hurt again.” He rummages around, not looking at me.  “Do you love her?” he questions.

“I tried to put it
aside.  I stayed away, but she showed up in my
class
,” I emphasize.  I suck in the breath that has been choking me for almost a year.  “I do… she’s all I think about.”

“I don’t think Erin knows her own feelings
when it comes to you.  I won’t interfere.  But we have to let her find out on her own.  Don’t push anything! She’s still only just about sixteen! Understand?!” he commands.  His voice was business, then remorseful. Now it’s threatening.

I don’t really know what Erin thinks of me. On one hand I think she’s into me,
and on the other it seems as though she sees me as a big brother or friend.  She only met me officially last fall when we left for South Bend.  I always knew her.  I paid attention and stayed in the shadows, watching.  I kept my distance.  I know it’s fucked up, being attracted to someone so young, but I couldn’t help it. I still can’t.

“I don’t think you would deliberately h
urt her or let her be harmed,” Patrick starts. “You’ve proven that much already.”

I nod and shift
the mop again, wiping up more blood.   The images of Erin, an angel in my eyes, shocked and suffering, plague me.  She didn’t deserve any of it.  It’s partly Patrick’s fault, and he knows it.  She never learned how to pick up the pieces, how to move on. 

The more time I spend with her
, the harder it gets to stay platonic. All I want to do is touch her, be with her, be there for her. But Patrick is right - she has to figure out what she feels for me on her own. 
What will she think if she ever finds out I’m going to be a cleaner, just like her Dad? 

This
is fucked up.

How’s school going? 

I get a text from Clarissa.  She is back at school in California.

Me: Good.  How’s school there?

Clarissa:
Lonely without u!   We miss u!

Me:
I miss u guys 2.

Clarissa:
Can u come visit?

A small emoticon
of a pleading smiley face pops up.

Me:
Hmm…  That would be fun. I could get a break from my mother.

Maybe Thanksgiving weekend
?

Clarissa:
Yippee!

Me:
I’ll ask my dad. 

Asking my mother would be stupid.  She won’t want to spend the money for a pla
ne ticket on a holiday weekend, especially after she nagged me to come all the way back to Palmetto.

A
n awkward, icky feeling comes over me. 
Brice!
  Clarissa hasn’t mentioned seeing him. 
I wonder if he ever came back to school?

And
Vito!
  I would miss him…  I kind of don’t want to go and not see him… but it’s a weekend, a holiday: I wouldn’t see him anyway. 
Weird.

I pop into Antonio’s car.  Dennis had a week.  The week is up.  It’s time for him to pay.  Tonio doesn’t bring up our conversation the last time we went to collect and I don’t either.  He would just haul off and punch me again.  That’s how guys are.

Tonio steers us over to the street
we saw Dennis last time where the buildings are closely cinched together. I see him a few feet down from where he was last week.  He doesn’t run when he sees Antonio’s car.

Tonio parks up against the curb and we get out.
Our car doors slam simultaneously.

“Hey, Dennis,” Tonio greets him.  He d
oesn’t run, but his face is full of raw fear.

“Hey,” he says softly.

“You got anything for me?” Tonio asks.

“Yeah.”  Dennis pulls a wad of hundreds out of his pocket.
His fingers are puffed out with white bandages. He hands the bills to Tonio.  I move close to Dennis and cross my arms over my chest.  Just in case this fucker tries to run. The money might not all be there.

Tonio counts.  He shuffles and runs
the bills through his fingers, counting them in his head.

“Well, good job, Dennis.”  Tonio smiles at him.  “Nice doing business with you.”

Tonio nods to me that we are all set.  I pat Dennis on the shoulder and he shrinks away from me.

“Stay out of trouble.” I tell him.

We pop back into Tonio’s car and drive away.  He hands me an envelope and the money.  I slip the money inside and seal it.

***
**

Tonio parks at the restaurant
and we head inside.  Antonio’s Pop is there, sitting with his head enforcer, Donny,
the knife
.  We walk to him and Tonio places the envelope in front of him.

“Good,” he praises.

He takes out some hundreds and hands both of us five each.  “Go.  Get some dinner.  Tonight’s special is eggplant parmigiana.  It’s delicious.”  He waves his hand in the air dismissively.

We start to walk towards a free
table when Mr. Delisi calls me.  “Yo, Vito.”  He flicks his fingers, signaling me to come back.  Donny gets up and leaves.  I sit in his seat.

“How’re you doin’?”

“Good,” I say.

“I heard you met with my
man
.”  He means Patrick.

“Yup.”

“Are yous okay with it?” he asks.

I shrug my shoulders
, noncommittally.

“I
’ve barely had time to digest it, but I know my place.  If that’s what you want, you know I’ll do it.”

“You’re a good boy.  I’m proud of you.  So is your pop.”
  He takes a heaping forkful of parmagiana and chews, thinking.

He pauses a minute to consider me before continuing.
“This girl.  Megan’s sister.  You like her.”

I nod.

The boss laughs, “I don’t know what it is with you boys, but...”  He pauses.  “But she’s a little thing, not too strong.  We sent her away.”

I nod again.

“Yous think she can take it.  Her mother brought her back, but I told Patrick to send her away again.  She doesn’t have the
oolee
or the stomach for this shit.”

I nod.

He cuts his eggplant and takes another bite, thinking.  “Yous wanna take a chance with her, that’s fine.  I won’t send her back. But nobody, not nobody knows your new job.”  He says low on his breath.

“I understand.”

“No bitches you bang… nobody.  Get me?  Tonio and the girl you put a ring on only.  That’s it.”

“Yes
,” I respond. He takes another bite and waves his fork as he talks.

“What is this shit with Baby?” he asks
, annoyed.  “He’s a fuckin’ nag.”

I shake my head
, annoyed too.

“I went to let off some steam and a fucker he’s got fighting
there now pissed me off.  I took him down twice, one time not in the ring.   Baby’s got his pants in a fuckin’ wad now cause I messed his shit up.”

“I told you, fight or don’t fight.  But Baby is fuckin’
pissing
me off.  Lay off messing people up outside the ring, ‘kay?”

“Yes, sir.”

He reaches across the table, pats my cheek, and looks me straight in the eye.

“You know I love you like a son, right?”

“I know.”

“Take care of that little girl.  I’ll be in touch,” he commands.

I nod and move to get up.

“One more thing.  No texting
. Everything is face to face or I call you.  Got it?” he orders.

“Yeah, Tonio told me.”

Across the room, Tonio and Donny are talking. I sit down at the table with them.  Donny gets up, taps me in acknowledgement on the shoulder, and goes back to sit with Tonio’s Pop.  My glass is full of red wine.  I sip it and it tastes good as it coats my dry throat.  A waiter comes right over.

“Two eggplants, Jared,” Tonio orders for us.

“Soup or salad?”

“P
asta fagiola,” Tonio says.

The waiter goes into the kitchen to place our orders.
  I take a big gulp of my wine this time.

“How did your meeting go the other day?” Tonio asks.

“Good.  Fuckin’ weird though,” I say, meaning it.

“He told me to back off,” Tonio says in a
n angry huff.  “I still think
she’s
too young, but I’m not her fuckin’ father, so I’ll back off.  But I don’t think I have to tell you not to mess with her.” Tonio’s voice is on the edge of caustic.

I shoot my eyes to his.  “I wouldn’t hurt her for anything in this fuckin’ world.” 

This is the lowest of the lows.
  My mother is pure evil. 
How could she do this?  It’s unfair!
  I don’t want to have dinner with Connor!  When I was away at school, Connor and his family could’ve come over every night for all I cared.  But now that I’m home, they decide to have dinner here at our house. 
Can’t they go out for dinner like the rest of the world does on Friday nights?  Or eat at the O’Connell’s?
  I don’t need this
B.S.
right now.

I have a good mind to sit here in my room all night or
to have someone pick me up. It’s not about seeing Connor really; it’s about the anger I feel towards my mother. She’s betrayed me.  She might have done this for her personal motives and not to deceive me, but still, it stings.

My phone dings with a text.  It’s my sister, Megan.

Megan: U OK

Me:
Fine

Megan:
It’s just typical Mom.

Me:
I know. U coming home for dinner?

Megan:
Can’t. Have stuff to do with Antonio. Sorry!

I toss my phone on the bed
in a huff.  I pace my room, trying desperately to contain my annoyance.  My irritation only turns back into seething anger at my mother. 
How dare she?  She can’t make me eat with them!

My eyes jut back to my phone on the bed. Maybe…  I pick it up and scroll through my contacts all the way down the list to V.  I press call.

“Yeah?” a gruff voice says.

“Hi, It’s Erin…”

“I know.”  So he does have my number.

“
I was wondering what you’re doing tonight? I’m kind of stuck at home and… thought… maybe you could pick me up.  I don’t care what you’re doing.  I just need to get out of here.”