I’m in the city for the first time in weeks, because I’m about to meet Tony and my father for our weekly lunch at one of my father’s restaurants in Little Italy. My mother’s plans for me were to work as a chef in one of dad’s restaurants, of which there are twenty just in NYC alone, some of which are world famous. In reality he just uses them to launder the money he makes from the thousand and one criminal endeavors he’s running. Mom’s plan actually sounded good to me right up until I hit puberty. After that, all I wanted was to be one of his men. Five years ago he finally relented and took me into his organization despite my mother’s protests. And now he’s finally letting me advance up the ranks.

Which means Kat is staying right where she is, no matter how much she wants me to save her. And I know she does, even though she hasn’t made her plea for a couple of days now. The more time I spend with her—and it’s pretty much all day everyday, and all night too—the more I want to give her exactly what she wants. Buy a house and move in with her. Take her to nice restaurants, and on tropical vacations, buy her expensive gifts and just have her all to myself forever and ever. But it’s even more than that.

I’m perfectly happy being with her right where we are, in the master bedroom of the whorehouse in Queens. I think she meant it when she said she’s happy there with me too. But how can she be? She’s a prisoner there. I’d even be happy living on the streets with her, under some bridge, or out the back of a car. If we do run away, that’s what we’ll be doing for the rest of our lives. Running. And anyone who ever tried to run from my father never got very far.

I arrived early, and the minutes before lunch starts are starting to drag. I want to go back to Kat. I wish she was here with me, that I could take her to a nice dinner, and an expensive club afterwards, and then to my apartment in East Village. I should at least bring her a gift when I get back, but I have no idea what. A nice dress? She has nowhere to wear it to. Some nice underwear? I’d like that, but she has plenty of nice underwear, and I prefer her naked. Maybe I’ll get her some flowers or perfume, but she already smells better than anything they sell in a store. Than anything I’ve ever smelled actually.

“Vinny, you’re early,” my father says as he walks up to the table. I was thinking about Kat so hard, I didn’t even notice him come in. His two bodyguards take their positions by the door, even though this place is tiny and closed for regular business whenever my father eats here.

“Yes, I made a poor prediction as to how heavy the traffic would be getting in,” I say, as I stand up and shake his hand.

Tony walks in just as we’re sitting down, but his two bodyguards stay out in the street. Only Dad’s guys are allowed inside when he eats here. It’s not like Tony needs bodyguards. He’s young, barely thirty years old, and besides he’s nowhere near as important as my father is. Though he does have a tendency to trample on a lot of toes in his day-to-day dealings with others.

“I’m not late, am I?” he asks jovially, flashing me an angry look like I deliberately tried to upstage him by being early. He squeezes my father’s shoulder in greeting before sitting down across from me.

The waiter brings a bottle of red wine and pours each of us a glass. There’ll be no ordering of food, since they’ll just bring out which ever of my father’s favorite dishes they decided to make today. Judging by the faint smell coming from the kitchen it might be Osso Buco. No one makes that better than my mother, and it is one of my father’s favorite dishes. She used to make it for him often when he visited our house while I was growing up. Which was pretty much every other night. Sometimes every night.

Tony and dad are talking about some important job that’s supposed to go down tonight, which I know nothing about, so I’m happy just sitting here and trying to decide what to get Kat. I could bring her some Tiramisu from this place, it’s the best in the city. But my mom makes it just as good, and she made it last weekend. Maybe I could get Kat a cat. Then she’d have some company when I’m not around. I almost chuckle at the thought.

“And how’s your charge working out, Vinny?” Dad asks. “Are the girls settling in alright?”

My brain freezes on the thought that he knows something about Kat and me for a second, but there’s nothing in his eyes to suggest it, as he waits for my answer.

“Surprisingly, yes. Much better than I expected they would. They haven’t broken any rules yet, or tried to escape,” I tell him.

“They’ll start making trouble, if you keep letting them have the run of the house all day,” Tony says.

I wonder who told him about that. Probably Rocco. Does he also know I stopped locking them in their rooms at night?

“They’re already confined to the house, which is locked down tighter than Fort Knox. I see no reason for them to stay locked up in their rooms too,” I counter.

“They’ll grow over your head, just wait,” Tony says, and it sounds like a threat.

“I think it’s a good idea,” my father says, tapping me on the arm. “It keeps them happy, which makes them easier to work with.”

“That was my thinking,” I say.

“And that way they have a chance to talk with your mother, she likes pampering thems,” Dad adds, smiling faintly. I think the only reason he charged my mother with cooking and cleaning at the whorehouses was so she could make the girls feel more at home. Maybe she even asked for the job.

Dad doesn’t see the dark look Tony flashes me. It’s beyond mere anger, downright pure hatred and rage. He’s always been abnormally jealous of my mother, which is were most of his hatred for me stems from.

But I don’t think there’s much my father wouldn’t do for my mother, and he’s never made that a secret. He’d marry her tomorrow if he could, but a lot of his current power comes from being married to Tony’s mother, Cornelia nee Russo, so that’s out of the question. But for the past thirty years, since Mom became his mistress, he’s always treated her like his wife and she has never complained.

“That she does,” I say. “They’re probably all watching some soap opera together right now.”

I’m enjoying the darkness growing in Tony’s face way more than I should. But man, he’s never made my life easy, and I know his pampered, spoiled ass is one of the main reasons I had to wait five years before getting a task with some real fucking importance in my father’s organization. But if I play my cards right, I could take over the whole thing when he retires. I know Dad wants me to succeed him more than he wants to give the job to Tony.

The Osso Buco’s arrived and my father is happily eating it, completely oblivious to the staring war Tony and me are engaged in. Or more likely he’s just ignoring it, since nothing much gets past my father.

“It’s come to my attention that one of the girls, the one in the master bedroom, hasn’t been reaching her daily quota of online time. Seems she signs off by ten PM every night, and never starts before eight,” Tony says in a very complacent voice, which in no way matches the darkness in his eyes. How would he even know that? I know the time girls spend online is monitored by some geeks somewhere and reports are made, but those reports wouldn’t just reach Tony unless he asked for them specifically. They’re supposed to be coming to me.

Does he know about Kat and me? I’ve tried being discreet in the beginning, but not lately. I’ve lost all ability to not show how much I want Kat all the time.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” I say, deciding that the best thing to do is feign ignorance and lie. I hate the idea of making Kat do her full shift every night. But she might have to once in awhile from now on. “As far as I know, all the girls are doing their jobs. Maybe the geeks got their numbers wrong.”

“Well, look into it,” Tony says, and starts eating too. “We don’t want them slacking off. It’s bad for business.”

“Yes, look into it, Vinny,” my father says. “But don’t be too strict. They’re still getting adjusted, and it’s better to keep them happy for now.”

Tony chokes on a piece of meat, and coughs for a good minute before finally composing himself. And I realize again, as I have many times already, that if I ever hope to get him off my back, I’ll have to make a play against him. But we’re nowhere near that stage yet.

We talk of other things after that, and on the whole it’s a shorter lunch than usually. Just half an hour later, Tony and me are standing on the sidewalk watching my father’s car drive off.

“Whatever’s happening at the house, you better be careful,” Tony says. “Women are manipulative and cagey, and if any of them is making moves on you, it’s because she wants you to free her. Try not to lose sight of that when you’re fucking her tonight.”

He walks to his car without waiting for a reply, which is just as well, because I have none to give. He knows about Kat and me. That much is clear now. And the warning he gave me cuts very close to what’s been in the back of my mind these last two weeks.

I didn’t want to think Kat’s only letting me fuck her because she thinks she’s getting something out of it, so I ignored it. And I still don’t want to think that, because I think I’m falling in love with her. Underneath all that glamorous beauty of hers, she’s just a naive girl who didn’t know much about life before coming here. But she’s also a woman, and they know how to get things from men. She could very well just be playing me.