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“If the Twelve Tribes take the Sun-a-do away from us as well it might be.”
He grunts. “Ouch. Can they do that?”
“Anyone can do anything.”
“Okay. Will they?”
I think about it. “My reading is they either trust us or they don’t. If they do, we’re good to go. If they don’t, we’re out.”
Bruno says, “Sooner we flush out that rat the better off we’ll all be.”
I change the subject. “How well do you know this Jerry guy?”
“Uncle Jerry? That’s what the Don always wanted us to call him. When the Don first moved in, I was younger and to be honest with you, his brother Jerry creeped the hell out of me. Truth be told, he still does. Kind of.”
“So what’s your take? What’s your thinking about the families franchising?”
“Us? Getting sanctioned and welcomed into the fold by the Chicago mob? A big come to Jesus moment for all the families?” He chuckles.
“Yes. That.”
Bruno says, “I feel like somebody’s throwing mud in our eyes. All the years they gave us the cold shoulder. Now, suddenly, they want to fling open their arms and hug us to the bosom of the Five Families? The Commission suddenly realizes it’s all been a big mistake? Forgive me, but it smells like four weeks old fish.”
I shake my head, “That’s how it seems to me. But Alessio is crazy for the deal.”
“The deal where he’s being promised that he’ll be made head of the family and, not to mention, the head of all the families in the all new Washington Oregon franchises? Yeah, I wonder what is so appealing to him.”
I say, “Seriously. Don Romano and Don Pucci are just going to step aside, slap Alessio on the back and throw a party for him? The two top families get sidelined, and for what? Just for the sake of this ‘franchising’ scam?”
“Yup,” Bruno says, “That’s the fairy tale. That’s the carrot ‘uncle’ Jerry is dangling in front of Alessio’s nose.”
“And Alessio believes it?”
“Maybe it’s true. How would I know?”
I murmur, “Maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.”
After Bruno hangs up, I call Alessio.
Jerry is pressing me for an answer and I know the answer that I have to give him, but I can’t quite bring myself to do it. I’m not ready. Not yet.
The disrespect that Jerry showed to me the way he treated me, can’t possibly be what Alessio was expecting. He said, ‘You’re going to love him.’ Love him.
Alessio is not the most sensitive of people, I know. Even for a man. But he could be made of stone and that would still make no sense.
Before I do anything else, I have to see him. I have to look in his face and see if I can’t figure out what this all really means for him.
The thing I know that I’m avoiding thinking about is what I have to do if he really has taken it all in. If this really is what he wants. What it would all mean. Not only for me, for all three of the men. And for all everyone working and associated with the extended family and the businesses.
He answers after three rings. I tell him, “I need us to meet. Face to face.”
“I would love that too, Lucy. Right now, I just can’t.”
“Can’t, or won’t?” The pause is thick and heavy.
“Alessio, I need half an hour, that’s all. I just want you to look me in the eye and tell me this thing that your uncle is proposing is really what you want.”
“I’m thinking of what’s best for the family and the organization. That’s all I want, Lucy. It’s what I want and this is the way it has to be done.”
