“What the hell did I do to you?” Vince looks back at me like I slapped him.
I shake my head, “Not you. I got to talk to you guys later.” The room goes quiet as I reach for some butter for the roll that’s on my plate. I don’t wait till dinner’s served. Never have. Everyone else waits, but Ma doesn’t mind if I get started without her. I don’t know why Ma bothers with the rolls. I’m the only one who eats them. Everyone else waits for the garlic bread.
“What’s going on Dom, everything alright?” Jack asks. Jack is like a second father to me. He’s just under my father in the business, or family, whatever you want to call it.
“Not at the table.” My mom bends down with a hot bowl of meatballs and places it in the center of the table.
I throw her an asymmetric grin, “aw Ma, you know I wouldn’t.” I take a bite of my roll and lean back in my chair, trying to lighten the mood for my mother. “I love the smell of your sauce Ma.”
She smiles at me and seems to forget the the cloud of tension still lingering in the room.
Jack is sitting next to my brother with his wife, but his eyes are on my father. The two have their eyes locked on one another like they’re having a silent conversation. I try to stay out of family business. Pops told me I’d take the lead one day, but I passed it up to Vince. He’s got the brains and the stomach to handle this shit. I’m more of a numbers guy. I help out with the books, but I like my side business I have going on. It’s fun. … Well, most of the time.
Jack’s wife, Jessica, gives me a tight smile from across the table. She’s new. Jack divorced his wife and then she disappeared. He wasn’t right for a while. We all knew what happened. She got pissed one day, he didn’t keep his dick in his pants. Like he fucking should. And she went blabbing about the wrong shit to the wrong people. The thought makes me want to put my roll down, but I don’t. After all these years, I’ve toughened up some. Jessica’s only been a part of the life for a little under a year. The women stay out of the business at all times. That’s our rule. It prevents the shit that happened with Jack’s ex from going down. Yet another reason Jack blames himself. She should’ve known though. What did she really think was going to happen?
Sitting around the table are more people in the family. Tommy and Anthony are good friends of mine, also my cousins, and also in the family. They’re a year older and a year younger than me respectively. Although they’re brothers they look nothing alike. Tommy’s a wall of muscle. His fucking muscles have muscles. I’d be shocked if he didn’t take steroids. I hope he doesn’t cause that shit will shrink up your dick. He’s a fucking hot head like my Uncle Enzo, so it’s hard to say if it’s from roids or just genetic. The younger one, looks scrawny next to his brother, but he’s lean and works out to keep himself in shape. His eyes are darker. Almost black. Anthony is a sick fuck. Tommy might be the muscle, but when we need to get information from someone, we turn to Anthony. Put him in a room with anyone, I don’t care who it is, he’ll get what he wants from you.
Two seats down from them is Uncle Enzo, he owns the bistro and the club. If someone’s trying to meet my father, they have to go through my uncle. He’s leaning over telling Jack something that I’d wager is a dirty joke if his tone and hand gestured are anything to go by. A second later, that half of the table is laughing up a storm and my father’s yelling out with a grin. There are few others around the table, Paulie, Joe and a few other guys I know. I don’t hang out with them really. I do the books like Pop says and I keep my nose clean.
Pops wasn’t fond of me being a bookie at first. He said it’s not good to do shit that could bring heat around the family. But when I started making contacts, like my vet friend, he changed his mind. I know he’s still proud of me even if I’m not looking to take over his empire. I’m not who he thought I’d be, but I’m still family and still worthy of being part of this particular family.
My Ma takes a seat at the other head and smacks Uncle Enzo over the head. “Hey!” he yells out and rubs the back of his head as everyone gets a good laugh in. Tony’s on my right, the nerd of the group and also a life long friend. He gets the intel that we need. And that reminds me of my girl. My hands itch wanting to feel her lush ass again and my dick jumps in my pants. I slip off my jacket and drape it over the back of the chair as Johnny walks in.
He takes a seat next to my sister, Clara. I’ve been noticing that lately. Not sure I like it. They’ve been friends for a while, but they seem different lately. The only people missing are my cousin Jimmy and his little boy Gino. Gino’s a hoot. His mom’s a bitch and is lucky she’s alive, to be honest. Not that I’d ever do anything to the kid’s mother, but still, she’s lucky.