CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Bones
I STAYED SO busy searching for Joey Durante, that I didn’t even realize how close we were to Christmas until I came home late one night to find Markie, Ariana, and Angel decorating a giant tree in our living room. Angel and I had never felt the need to get a tree before, but apparently Markie insisted.
“Where’d this come from?” I asked, hoping the three of them hadn’t gone out without me.
“We had it delivered,” Angel replied. “Along with all the decorations. Markie’s been busy online shopping.”
Looking around, I saw exactly what he meant. It looked like Santa Clause had thrown up all over our apartment. There was so much red and green, my eyes were having trouble focusing. “Isn’t it a little early to decorate?” I asked, checking my phone for the date. “Wait, today’s the twenty-third?”
Markie nodded. “Two days. Thank God for expedited shipping. I’m barely going to have time to wrap all the gifts arriving tomorrow.”
“Nobody expects you to get and wrap gifts for everyone, Markie,” Angel replied, sounding exasperated. “You’re still recovering.”
“Online shopping and wrapping presents is not taxing.” She held his hand, giving him a smile. “I’ll be fine.”
“I won’t,” I said. “I haven’t bought a single gift yet. I’m so far behind. What about you?” I asked, approaching Ariana who’d stayed silent since I’d arrived. “You do your Christmas shopping yet?”
She gave me a sheepish grin. “Not a big fan of Christmas, so I usually put it off until the last possible moment.”
“Babe, it’s pretty last moment. You want to go see if we can knock out this gift buying shit really quick?”
“Are you sure you have time?” she asked.
No. I didn’t have time for anything but finding Joey Durante, but there was no way I was showing up empty handed to Ma’s on Christmas. “I have to go shopping for Ma and David. They don’t care how busy I am, they’re still gonna expect presents.”
“Let me get my purse,” she said, looking relieved.
When we climbed into my Jeep, Ariana thanked me for rescuing her from tree decorating. Surprised, because I thought all broads were into that sort of shit, I asked her why she wasn’t a fan of Christmas.
“Mom got crazy around the holidays,” she replied, her eyes softening as she looked away. “Crazy like Markie. She wanted everything decorated and smelling like cinnamon and fir trees. She baked the entire month of December every year. Cookies, candies, pies, cakes, we had baked goods coming out our ears. We’d make multiple deliveries to the local homeless shelters while mom preached about the importance of doing something for people with less than we had.”
“She sounds like a good woman.”
Ariana gave me a sad smile. “One of the best. But after she died, we moved in with Uncle Jay, and Christmas was just another reason for him to get plastered and bring strange women home. Markie tried to keep Mom’s traditions alive, but it wasn’t the same. The whole holiday just seems fake now, and I’m tired of faking it.”
I nodded, grabbing her hand and intertwining our fingers. “After Pops disappeared, Ma did her best, but I always felt like we faked the holidays, too.”
Ariana glanced down at our joined hands before looking at me. “I miss you, Bones. I know you can’t promise me anything, and that we need to keep this thing between us casual, but nobody gets me like you do, and I miss you when you’re gone.”
She looked so vulnerable I wanted to wrap my arms around her and shield her from the world. Shield her from my world. But that wasn’t what she needed—wasn’t what either of us needed—so instead, I raised our hands to my lips and planted a kiss on her knuckles. “I miss you, too, Ari.”
She beamed me a smile. “Good. Let’s hurry and get this shopping nonsense out of the way so we have time to go back to my place and unwrap each other.”
I chuckled, kissing her knuckles once again before focusing on the road. “You got it babe.”
* * *
Christmas came and went in a flash of parties and wrapping paper, with Ariana and I sneaking away for alone time every chance we could get, which wasn’t much since I was still searching for Joey Durante. Ariana, Markie, Angel, and I spent Christmas morning huddled around our tree exchanging gifts before heading to Ma’s to do the same. Christmas dinner was spent at Angel’s parents’, surrounded by his huge extended family.
Carlo sat across from me at dinner, and before he left, I briefed him on the limited new information I’d found on Joey. Carlo held up a hand, cutting me off. “Tomorrow,” he barked. “Meet me at the restaurant at noon and we’ll discuss your progress.”
Problem was, I didn’t have much progress to discuss. Still, I found Carlo at his favorite haunt, a classy off-the-strip Italian restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows, dark wood paneling, low-hanging chandeliers, and red-and-white tablecloths. The hostess led me to the Barolo Room, which seemed to be permanently reserved for the family. It had wine racks on both sides, a table for twelve running down the center, and a floor-to-ceiling window with dark drapes at the end to close it off from the rest of the restaurant. She passed me off to two of Carlo’s goons who asked for my weapons. I disarmed myself, placing everything into a box, which was promptly covered and set aside. Then they frisked me before letting me approach the underboss.
Carlo sat at the end of the table where he could see the rest of the restaurant while staying hidden in the shadow of the drapes. He sipped from a glass of red wine, occasionally picking at a plate of calamari in front of him. I approached slowly, waiting to be acknowledged. Some capos were power-tripping assholes who liked to make their people sweat it out for hours. But Carlo’s actions and words were always well thought-out. He didn’t need to flex for anyone.
He greeted me and motioned for me to sit. “Bones, sit.” His tone was pleasant enough, but I’d seen him compliment with one breath and kill with the next.
Wondering why I’d been summoned, but knowing Carlo would tell me whenever he was good and ready, I sat and familiarized myself with my surroundings. Outside the privacy provided by the room, the restaurant was full. People talked, glasses clinked, plates were served, all reminding me we were in a very public location. If Carlo had plans to off me here, he’d have to do something to keep the crumbs, the civilians, from noticing. Renzo had used a fire drill, but Carlo was much classier than that. I wondered how he’d do it. Poison? That was possible.
“Would you like something to drink?” Carlo asked, as if on cue.
“No thank you.”
He cracked a smile, making me wonder what he could read on my face. Carlo ran many poker games over the years, always making a mint because he could read people like nobody I’d ever met. “How’s my nephew?”
“Good. A little stir-crazy. Ready to get back to work full-time, but good.”
“And Markie’s still recovering well?”
“Yes.”
Certain Carlo already knew all of this, I couldn’t help but wonder what the small-talk was for.
“Relax, Bones,” he said, lowering his glass of wine. “I didn’t bring you here to kill you. I’ve never been big on theatrics. If I was going to take you out, you’d never see it coming.”
It was a promise, both comforting and alarming.
“You should know me better than to think I’d do it here.” He sipped his wine, never taking his eyes off me. I wondered what he saw, what he was looking for. Did I measure up? Was I everything he’d hoped I’d become that fateful day when he stopped out in front of my school and offered me a job? Did he see me as a son in the same way I saw him as a father?
Why hadn’t he told me about Pops?
Carlo studied me for a few moments more before asking, “Are you content with your position in the family, Bones?”
Taken aback, my mind raced, trying to figure out what he meant. As far as capos went, Carlo was probably the best one to work for. Sure, he was a hard son-of-a-bitch, but he was fair. He’d probably saved my family from starving when he offered me my job, and now I got paid well to have my best friend’s back. Why wouldn’t I be content? I didn’t even mind the other shit I had to do. Shakedowns, beatings, murders, yeah, that shit made me feel like a monster, but a little part of me also enjoyed it.
I was good at it.
And I knew that someone would always be the king of the Vegas underworld. Better to have a fair, reasonable man like Dominico Mariani on the throne than some asshole with no code.
“I remember the day I met you, sir. You showed up out of nowhere and you saved my family. We wouldn’t have made it through these years without you. Without the family.”
My mind drifted back to the day Angel found out about the arrangement I’d made with his uncle. We’d gotten close. I liked Angel. He was a good kid—smart and funny. Most weekends I stayed at his house, playing video games, working with his trainer, or running through his father’s family safety drills. No one questioned my almost constant presence. Then one afternoon we were in the swimming pool recovering from an especially grueling workout when Angel started asking me about my family’s finances. He’d noticed we were doing better and couldn’t understand why.
“Did your mom get a raise?” he asked in that open, direct way he’s always spoken to me.
“Not exactly.” I didn’t know what to say… how much to disclose. Would he be pissed? I didn’t want to lose my best friend, and my family couldn’t afford to lose my paycheck.
Angel watched me. “What changed then?”
I respected him too much to lie, so I came clean. We both treaded water as I recounted what had transpired between me and his great uncle the day I got suspended for breaking a kid’s arm. Angel listened, his face a mask as I admitted I’d been paid to befriend him.
When I was finished, he asked, “So Uncle Carlo pays you to hang out with me?”
“Yes. But I’d be your friend even if he didn’t.” Angel had grown on me. He wasn’t like the other rich kids at the school. Sure, he was a geeky whiz-kid born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he was also a genuinely nice guy. He brought me food and helped me with my homework. His family was the most powerful in the city, but Angel was never cruel nor condescending. “You’ve become like a brother to me. If my job ended today, I’d still want us to be tight.”
He nodded. “And your family needs the money, so it all works out.”
“Yeah.”
“You had to do what you did to survive. I get it.” I’d expected him to be angry or hurt, but he looked almost relieved. He stretched backwards, floating on top of the water. “Besides, it could be worse.”
I gaped at him, wondering what could possibly be worse than finding out your best friend was being paid to hang out with you.
He cracked a smile. “One of the other families could be paying you.”
Angel had never had a friend before. Not a real one, anyway. Everyone in his life wanted something from him, so he’d assumed I did too. My family could suddenly pay our bills, so he was worried I was a traitor, probably selling information about him. That was the first time I got a full look at how fucked up his life really was. My family was dirt poor, but at least I had friends. None of them were like Angel, though.
And I would have never gotten to know Angel had Carlo not offered me the job.
“I appreciate everything you and the family have done for me,” I told Carlo honestly.
“Good.” He nodded his approval. “I’m gonna shoot straight with you, Bones, like I always have. I’m disappointed that you haven’t gotten your hands on Joey Durante yet. Despite my disappointment, I still believe in you. I still think you could be the greatest of all my enforcers. Seems like you’ve been going through some sort of slump, but I think I’ve got just the thing to get you back on track. I found out where Xaoc is holed up. I’m calling Renzo in, and I want the two of you to take a team of soldiers and bring that asshole to me. Then we’re gonna shake him down and find out if he’s connected to Joey.”
“Yessir,” I replied.
Carlo slid me a piece of paper while glancing at his phone. “Here’s the address; Renzo’s pulling up in the driveway now.”
Dismissed, I started to leave, but Carlo called out my name and stopped me. When I spun around, he stood right in front of me, his eyes were hard and his brows were slanted in anger. He wound up and sucker punched me in the gut. Doubling over, I coughed, surprised at the power behind the old man’s punch.
He shook his hand out and returned to his desk, giving me one more dark look. “Don’t disappoint me again,” he said before dismissing me with a wave of his hand.
Renzo was waiting in the driveway for me with a team already assembled. Xaoc had been staying at a resort in Jean, and Renzo’s SUV made the normally forty-minute trip in about twenty-five. One of Renzo’s men hacked into the resort’s security system and turned off the cameras as we raided Xaoc’s room, taking out his two guards before finding him passed out on the bed with a couple of underage-looking girls. We left the girls behind, but confiscated about ten kilos of heroine, a couple ounces of meth, and several automatic weapons.
Xaoc turned out to be one crazy motherfucker who had no game plan, as far as I could tell. We broke five of his fingers, smashed his hand with a mallet, took out his kneecaps, and removed all of his toenails, but kept insisting that he knew nothing about Joey Durante. In the end, Carlo tied a rope around Xaoc’s neck, giving me one side of it and Renzo the other side so we could treat Xaoc to the Italian Rope Trick before dumping his body alongside the highway south of Vegas.
Carlo’s hits were normally a lot cleaner than that, but he was bound and determined to make an example out of Xaoc. The next asshole who tried to move into our territory would think twice about it.