“… yeah, thanks, Tom. You’ve got my number if you find out anything new. Thanks for the help, anyway.”
I hung up the phone, ending the call I had been on with one of my old partners, Tom. We had worked together quite a bit when I first fell into the assassin game - it was tough work, emotionally and physically grueling, and Tom was there to pull me through it when it got too tough to handle. He was always on my side, treating me like a surrogate son. When he retired, he promised me that if I ever needed anything, including help getting out of the game, he would be there.
He’d been one of a series of calls I’d made that day trying to figure out what had happened in the Marino side of town that had led to Sabrina getting involved. I was certain of it - it had been Marino men who’d been sent out to hurt her, if not worse, but I just couldn’t figure out why. I hadn’t heard her name (or her family name) in connection to any mob stuff, and I just couldn’t put the pieces together in my head. Luckily, my investigative instincts were still as strong as they’d ever been, so I put them to work trying to piece together the truth.
From what I could gather, the Marino’s were finally getting round to expanding their empire. I had always known this was coming. After all, Leo Marino wasn’t the kind of man who would just sit on his ass, content with what he already had. No, I had worked with him briefly, back in the day, and he had been the scariest kind of mobster. The kind who you didn’t even really want on your side because he would turn on a dime and have you taken out before you could figure out what the hell you did wrong in the first place.
And Leo wanted to expand their business operations out into Sabrina’s part of town. Her restaurant was prime real estate - good price, good location, good size, just the kind of place they would need to run operations from. Most people I knew of wouldn’t go down the route of chasing out the previous owners just because they had a good spot in town, but Leo was the type of guy who wanted to make an impression on everyone around him whenever he arrived somewhere new. Obviously, scaring away Sabrina (or worse) by sending his vicious little goons after her was his way of spreading the news that he was now part of that part of the neighborhood. Setting his guys out to assault her was a way for him to demonstrate that no-one was safe from his machinations.
It had taken a lot of calling around to figure out exactly what was going on, and I was still holding off on getting in contact with a few people. I didn’t want my name to get mentioned too much in the same sentence as Leo’s, if I could avoid it, so I would space out my investigating to be sure that I didn’t get in any trouble. The last thing I needed was to put myself on his radar as the guy who had killed both of his men. Shit, if I’d known the attack was related to him… I wouldn’t like to think that I would ever leave someone in that kind of danger, but I had potentially dropped Sabrina and myself into a whole world of shit by saving her and killing the two of them. As far as she was concerned, they were just a pair of violent assholes who were now long-dead, and she could begin to put the whole thing behind her. Me, though? I knew that this was very likely just the beginning. As soon as Leo figured out what was going on, things were going to take a very nasty turn.
I put my feet on the windowsill and stared out into the watery mid-afternoon sky. Where did I go from here? I knew these people; I’d worked closely with these people. I knew that they would stop at nothing to get Sabrina out of the way- they’d already threatened her with rape, for Christ’s sake, and they would have gone through with it had I not been there. How do I not put myself in their way and defend her from this?
I stared at my cell for a moment. Well, there was a way to keep an eye on everything. From the inside. I had promised myself that I would never go back there, but… if it was to keep her safe. Yes, I had no decent recent to be so attached to her so soon after meeting her, but after saving her once, I was committed to keeping her safe. And I guess most importantly, she didn’t deserve any of this. She had done nothing wrong. That was maddening to me, especially now I was on the outside. But it didn’t have to be like this.
I tapped through the contacts in my phone and came across the codename Leo used to keep in touch with his hitmen, the name of a Chinese takeout place. He had insisted I kept the number on my phone even after I left; I had thought it stupid, hoping I would never have to bother getting in touch with him again, but he seemed insistent. In fact, it was the last thing he asked of me. And you didn’t say no to Leo, even though I had quit at the time and had one foot out the door, I knew that saying no would only end with me becoming victim to one of my former co-workers. I was pretty sure is was a culpability thing; that I’d be less likely to hand him in when his number was still fresh on my phone. Whatever it was, I had hoped that I would never have to use it again. Every time I scrolled past the number, I felt a little shudder of horror as I remembered all the terrible things I’d done for the person at the other end of the line. And now, here I was, thinking about calling him again.
I hovered my finger over the “call” button for a moment or two, hesitating. Did I really want to do this? If I went back, it would be even harder to extricate myself, and I had the blood of two of Leo’s men on my hands. I couldn’t be certain that they were Leo’s men. Hell, assholes did asshole shit every day of the month, but it they were, I needed to get on the inside. And besides, if he figured out that I was the one who had put those two assholes in the ground, I wouldn’t be far behind them. It would be smarter to get him back on side before he figured out that I was the one who took the two of them down. If I could gain his trust again, I might be able to drip some poison about someone else into his ear and throw the suspicion off me.
I pressed the button before I could back out. I wasn’t sure what compelled me to do it, but it happened almost without a second thought. The phone buzzed a couple of times, during which I had to fight the urge to slam it back down, and eventually, Leo’s voice came down the line.
“Golden Wok Takeout, how can I help you?”
“Leo, it’s me, Anthony,” I muttered. I could already feel the dark, sticky awfulness creeping up on me once again, lapping around my feet as it had done all those years ago. His voice was familiar, in the way that nasty little voice in the back of your head that hates you and wants you to know it is familiar too.
“Anthony? Anthony Dorello?” He sounded dumbfounded. “What the fuck are you doing getting in touch with me?”
He sounded pissed, but then, Leo never exactly sounded full of the joys. He had told me that if I ever wanted to come back, I could, but I knew that would come with some element of groveling. He wasn’t the type who worked on reasonable boundaries; no, he enjoyed twisting the knife, making sure everyone knew why he was the one in charge of this operation. How long had I worked for him? Ten years, maybe? And he still talked to me like I was an affront to his very existence.
“I… I want to get back in the game, Leo,” I told him. I couldn’t believe the words were coming out of my mouth - not after all the times I’d sworn to myself that I was done, that there was nothing anyone could do to drag me back in there. I closed my eyes, pressing my fingers to my temples. I tried to still my brain, but it wasn’t working. It was begging me to stop, to slam the phone down and write it off as a dumb prank.
“What in the name of holy fuck are you talking about.” Leo didn’t phrase it as a question. “You serious?”
“Deadly.”
He laughed coldly down the line at my accidental pun. He always had had a twisted sense of humor.
“You best not be fucking with me here, Ant, because I could really do with someone like you on the team again.” His voice was measured and calm, though I could hear the hint of a threat beneath the cool surface.
“I’m not fucking with you,” I promised. “I need the money.”
There was a pause down his end of the line as if he was considering my offer. Then, with a small snort, he replied, “I never thought I’d be saying this, but yeah. Come back. You can still find me at the same place… just come by tomorrow sometime. I’ll fill you in on everything.”
“Okay.” I tried not to sigh. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was going back to Leo, to the Marinos, to everything.
“Oh, and be careful - some guy’s been asking around after us, apparently, so don’t tell anyone that you’re back with me,” Leo warned before he hung up.
I tossed the cell onto my counter and ran my fingers through my hair. So, I had already aroused some suspicion. I was off to a flying start, clearly.
Much as I tried to make light of the decision I had just made, I knew there was no getting away from it. I had gone backward. I had started out taking on jobs for people like the Marinos when I was sixteen, a full-fledged hitman by twenty, and retired and out of the game six years after that. And now, less than twenty-four months beyond my retirement, I was back. Not just back, but aligning myself with one of the most deeply unpleasant men I’d ever had the lack of pleasure to meet.
And what for? For her. I could tell myself all I wanted that this was out of curiosity or a sense of adventure or whatever, but I would have kept my nose well out of it unless she was involved. Sabrina. I tested her name in my head as if trying it on for size. What was it about her? I stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out if I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life. Because it felt a hell of a lot like I did.