No Boundaries(87)
“I think the question is here, what do you know? I haven’t seen her in years, but I recently heard she is running with your family now, is that true?”
“Haven’t seen her, really? I’ve heard otherwise.”
I maintained my innocence. “Why would she be here?”
“No idea. A little crush I guess? Everyone knows you’re out. Armani has been talking.”
“And now so have you.”
He shrugged, “Not the same. See Armani got planted here by Roberto, to keep an eye on you. He wasn’t supposed to do any real business. But he got greedy, and he took some of my customers. I told Roberto but he won’t listen. So I figured I’d tell you, and you could take care of the problem for me.”
“Sounds fair, you get your business back, we get revenge on a rat. But Roberto will kill you if he finds out.”
“Doubt it.”
Roberto killing him wasn’t my problem, why did I care?
“Why?”
“Because I’m the only one who knows he planted Vienna here to kill you, and if I tell the family, well, they won’t be too happy about it. We’ve been under your father’s radar doing business on these docks for three years, if he fucks that up with some personal vendetta, he’ll be the dead one.”
“So what do you want me to do about it?”
“You take care of Armani. I keep my mouth shut. And this meeting never happened.”
“Obviously.” I thought about it for only a moment. “Fine. My father is meeting with Armani tomorrow at one of our restaurants. I’ll take care of it then.”
“Where? I want assurance the job is done.”
“We own a restaurant, down on Fifth. Best manicotti in town. Come there at 6pm and you’ll see. But not with your crew. I hate extra people.”
He nodded at me. “Sounds delicious. And I agree, extra guests just means extra problems. Besides this a favor for me, and me alone.”
“Fine. I don’t want to deal with any more business today.”
“See you around 6 PM. And just a reminder—I am the arms dealer at the table. So obviously I’ll be packing. If you don’t finish the job, I will.”
“I wouldn’t imagine it going any other way.”
Both of us sat there in silence for another minute or two before I stood and walked out. Marco held the door open for me and I descended the steps. I walked up behind my father. “Tomorrow’s meeting is being watched. I’m finishing this.”
He smiled at me like I just told him a funny joke and continued his conversation with some of the other regular churchgoers. I walked to my car and started it up. There wouldn’t be any Sunday dinner for me. I had to prepare.
21
Vienna
I looked at my phone, considering calling Roberto, but also considering smashing into a million pieces. Luka hadn't shared any shiny new information in the few days that we'd been together. And if nothing had come out yet, it wasn't going to. I made a clear decision in my mind. Luka had nothing to do with my parents’ deaths.
At least that was what I was telling myself.
I sat at the apartment without anything else to do. I considered going out for a walk or to go do some more shopping, but everything just seemed so frivolous. I’d come out of hiding to do a job, and I hadn't been successful in my uncle’s eyes. But I decided to call him and tell him my decision anyway. It was the easiest thing to do.
“Roberto, it's Vienna.”
“What did you learn?”
“Nothing. The Giotis had nothing to do with the death of my parents. It's time to let it go.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Roberto? Are you there?”
He sighed, “Of course I'm here. You're wrong, Vienna. I will convince you in the end.”
“You can try. Luka and I are together now. I'm not going to lie to myself and deny my feelings anymore. I want to be with him. And you're going to leave him alone, and leave me out of it.”
“Don't you want revenge? Your whole life was destroyed because of them. Don’t you realize that?”
I had realized that. Luka was building it back up piece by piece, and I couldn't risk things with him. We were starting our family now. I was terrified to leave Roberto—he might even try to come for me—but I needed to move on. “I built my own life now. Don’t ever call me again.”
“You’re just like your dumb mother. Running out on family, that's a death sentence. Look at what happened to her.”
“Luka will not let that happen to me.” I ended the call before I had a chance to listen to anything else he had to say. I made my decision. Now we just had to tell his family.