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I’m surprised.
Bruno agrees. “Alessio laps it up. Rolls on his back for it.”
Carlo says, “He never was the freshest cookie in the jar.”
I ask, “Was Jerry like that with you and Bruno when you were younger?”
Carlo laughs.
“Hell, no. He always treated me like I was shit on the sole of his shoes. We’re not a part of his family, and we never saw him as a part of ours. He gave Bruno the big swerve. I always thought he was probably afraid of Bruno. Even back when Bruno was a boy. Even then.” … “Personally, I think Jerry is a fake. There’s something about him sets me on edge. Always has. If he were anywhere near our business, I would think he was the rat.”
I lean forward. “You don’t think he could be?”
Bruno says, “Near our business? Or near enough to be the rat? I seriously doubt it. Alessio can be dumb, and his uncle has some big tractor beam over him, but I don’t think he would ever leave Jerry anywhere near one of our cookie jars. Aside from anything else, there’s still the whole Chicago thing. All of us feel the same about that. The Don did, too, even when it came to his brother.”
I say, “Meaning?”
Carlo is dismissive. “If they don’t want to recognize us then fine, fuck them. But if we can’t play with their toys then they can’t play with ours.”
I ask Bruno, “Do you buy into all that about Chicago’s seniority?”
“Like Carlo says, we don’t play in their tournament. How can they be senior to us if we’re not playing on the same pitches?”
There’s still no sign of Alessio. I can’t persuade Bruno and Carlo to stay around or spend the night.
Carlo tells me, “We need to check out the Sky Table Resort. You’ve got meetings with the Council of Elders in the next couple of days and we’ve been saying we’ll go and get familiar with how the Twelve Tribes group do things.”
I ask, “Will you go dressed as ninja bandits?”
Bruno laughs. “No. We’ve got clothes in the car.”
Carlo grins, “Ninjas at the craps table. It would be a blast.”
“If you showed up at a casino with those masks on,“I say, “the blast would be out of a shotgun
Bruno stands and hauls on his ninja pants and tee shirt. “I’ll go get the clothes.”
Carlo tells me, “We’re going as tech bros. See what you think.”
Most of Carlo’s friends are real tech bros. I don’t think the boys are going to have any trouble passing.
While they dress, Bruno asks me, “So, you got a thing going on with Don Pucci?”
“You were here in Blackridge, all that time?” I look at both men. They raise their eyebrows, looking around in expressions of angelic innocence. “I’ll need to act like I’m on show, twenty four seven.”
Bruno says, “Only when the show is for us, zuccherina.” It’s sweet they’re so possessive. I can still hear a little edge in his voice, though. I need to get myself a little one-to-one time with Bruno.
I tell them, “I hardly even know the man. We’ve met face to face maybe three times.”
“Oh,” Carlo pantomimes, “You say, ‘Maybe’? Really? You can’t be sure how many times you’ve met the top Don? The top man, the guy at the very pinnacle of the whole region?”
I smile with a sigh. It’s cute the way that he will make something out of anything that I say. I know that Carlo likes me best when we’re a little on edge with each other. He loves the sparring, and the spark. I can’t say that I object to it, either.
“I’m saying ‘maybe’ because the first time I met him, I was eight years old, and I’m sure the occasion made no impression on him whatsoever.”
“Do you remember what was said?” Carlo twinkles as his eyes narrow behind the look of a school principal interrogating.
“Sure.” I tell him, “We discussed the metaphysical poets and recent advances in molecular chemistry.”
