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I’m half expecting some insight from Jenkins, but I see his eyes focused on the rearview mirror.
“What is it?” I ask him, glancing over my shoulder.
“Nothing. I think there’s someone following us. I’m going to take a detour to Alessandro’s house.”
“Is that smart?”
“Evelyn, I don’t know who’s in that car. The last thing I want to do is lead them back to the home you’re sleeping at. I’m going to lose them. Just hang on tight.”
A quick tug on my seat belt lets me know I’m strapped in, but there’s nothing I can really do. Jenkins gets off the expressway before we can get to the Brooklyn Bridge. He knows these streets like the back of his hand as he cuts around one corner, taking the service road.
It’s only then that I see the tinted black sedan a few cars back. They’re definitely following us and getting closer. Jenkins heads down one street, swerves around a construction crew, and checks the time. Evening rush hour still has the major streets gridlocked.
My heart races as Jenkins blows through a red light in the nick of time to miss oncoming traffic, but the familiar flash of a red light speed camera shutters behind us. A part of me hopes it’s enough to blind the person who also blew through the light.
Cars honk and drivers shout obscenities as it looks like we’re shooting a Law and Order episode. Fuck.
More cars turn up on the side streets, forcing Jenkins to make a dangerous choice to head down the wrong direction of a one-way street. We narrowly miss one car, but the car behind us catches up and knocks the back corner of the car.
Jenkins tries to keep control, but we’re in a skid. The steady pelts of loose gravel caught under the tires along with screeching brakes echo through the air as we swerve into a turn. The car spins for what feels like forever until the force of a concrete barrier brings us to a full stop.
Hmm. Alessandro was right. The sound of bones breaking is a lot more distinct than the sounds of a punching bag. The window cracks as the airbag deploys and my head slams against the back of my seat.
Jenkins is bloody, his arm is at an awkward angle, and my vision is cloudy. I’m waiting for the shots to ring out, for the bullets to pierce through the car. But everything fades to black just as sirens wail in the distance.
19
ALESSANDRO
The way the light bounces off my mother’s wedding ring set has me stuck in a trance. My stomach is full and I’m ready to head home to my wife, my Evelyn. Love’s never been an option for me, and falling for Evelyn makes me want to do everything to keep the promises I've made to her and her family.
“Look at my boy,” Pop says, beaming from ear to ear. “I did the same thing, you know? Stared at that ring until I couldn’t stomach it. The craziest thing about this life is I can look a guy in the eyes while I put a bullet between them, but talking to your mother’s father? Getting a hard working man to trust his little girl with a goon like me? I was shaking.”
I laugh. “Grandpa Baldoni, I definitely don’t remember them much.”
“Yeah, well, that’s because your mother knew the life I was in and kept them at arm’s length. Once they found out their son was mixed up with me too, they washed their hands of us. It’s a shame because your mother loved them to pieces, but at least she had Oscar around. Now? Oscar’s alone, his folks are gone, his sister buried in the plot beside them, and he’s not getting any younger. No kids or anything. I imagine he sees my life, his, and yours, and may not like where his is headed.”
“Envy is dangerous.”
“But the power he has is enough. You know, if I decide to step down, Alessandro, you have a choice to make. I see your vision for the Family, and I see Oscar’s.”
“Yeah? What do you see?”
“I see you, your brains, your controlled rage that you wield like a surgeon’s scalpel. It’s exactly what a corporation needs in a CEO. A Mafia Don? I don’t know.”
“Pop, you know that I’ve always believed the old way of doing things is aging out. Technology makes it hard to get away with anything, and there’s no code these guys follow anymore. You can’t run an organization like yours forever because the list of people you can trust gets chopped down every week.”
“So, like I said, I’m still giving things some thought. Lara’s got some ideas about getting me out of the city a bit. She’s tough on me, but I like her. She keeps me young.”
I snicker and shake my head. “I heard she had you doing yoga.”
“Well, I fucked around and told her that I’d try anything once. Traveling to get a break from New York isn’t a bad thing while people think I’m on my deathbed. It lets you and Oscar sort through your taking over.”
“I don’t see Oscar stepping down peacefully.”
“He’s going to do what he’s fucking told because I say who’s the next don. Me. And my choice is, and has always been, you. Your choice is whether to lean into all these businesses you got washing the money or keep our boys on the street employed running the rackets. They got families to feed too, Alessandro.”
“I’ll figure it out. I don’t want anyone to lose any money, but some of these guys talk too much. There’s no reason that Don Montegna found out about the guy I sliced up in Zio’s pool house.”
