Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Goodnight, Leo,” I whispered, a small smile forming on my face.
“Goodnight.”
I moved away from him, the taste of his kiss strong in my mouth.
So comforting.
So sweet.
And so necessary.
Not in a sexual way. The last thing on my mind after that crazy night was getting intimate with anybody. That small dose of intimacy was just enough to take the edge off of me. Felix had gotten on my nerves as usual, and Leo was there to help me find some peace. He didn’t know it, but, to me, this was more important than getting drunk. Because that’s what I would have if the two of us had gone out: Drink my ass off, in order to forget my brother’s pathetic attitude.
22
MATTEO
So much money to spend.
Millions and millions of dollars.
But nothing to spend it on.
The irony painted an awkward smile on my face.
I looked at the tall stacks of wads in my storage room, recalling what we had been through to get them. We had suffered a lot for that cash. Just when we all believed we would put it in our first endeavor, we nearly lost Felix, which was another blow to our confidence.
We were all stunned. None of us would go ahead and say it out loud, but our long silence during the first few hours after the event was quite clear. Whenever one of us did say something, it was about Felix’s condition. Not once did we bring up the deal that went south. It all changed when Piper paid a visit to her brother. That’s when we all mentioned that we should have noticed his last name. And that was also the moment when we realized that we had accomplished nothing. The guns we were supposed to buy had gone up in flames. Worse still, if we wanted to buy another shipment, we would have to meet up with the people who considered the docks their turf. We just couldn’t go back there, thinking things would go smoothly. We had to come to an understanding with whoever was running the show. It wouldn’t come cheap—we all knew that. Yet, it would be preferable to one or more of us getting shot or even killed.
The following night, I texted Cesare and Leonardo, asking them to meet me at “Amanda’s.” I wished the venue was different. I wished it was some big, nice bar in downtown Manhattan. For that to happen, though, we’d all have to be in a good mood. We’d all mean to celebrate, and none of us wanted to party up all night. As far as I was concerned, we needed a small, relatively quiet place to enjoy a few drinks and go over our mistakes. That way, we would avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
I sat at the table in the corner of the hall, Emilio Clapton’s “Layla” playing from the speakers. I shook my head to its rhythm, humming its lyrics, drops of moisture rolling down my beer bottle. My fingers firmly around it, Cesare and Leonardo walked in. As one would expect, they both had disappointment written all over their faces. More often than not, they liked to visit Amanda’s. They would head over to my spot in a bit of a hurry. Well, not this time. They dragged their boots across the floor, their expressions grim as a waitress followed right behind them. I just had to wave her away. Those two were dying to get things off their chest…
“You don’t have to look so cheerful, boys,” I told them. “I mean, we only screwed up one job.”
“One of these days, I’m going to hurt your sorry ass,” Leonardo snapped, sitting down across from me. “Where did you…?”
“Relax, Leonardo,” Cesare interrupted him. “He’s just trying to lighten up the atmosphere. It’s what he does. You should have known that by now.”
“Really?!” Leonardo squinted, his voice dropping down an octave. “So, I should just laugh? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah, you idiot,” I said, my tone calm. “Okay; we didn’t get to buy those guns, but we could have been blown to pieces. We were not. We dodged the bullet. Or rather, the rocket. Speaking of which, how’s Felix? Did he get discharged yet?”
“Just this morning,” Cesare said, waving that waitress back to our table.
We ordered some drinks, Leonardo’s anger not troubling me one bit. He wasn’t exactly famous for his cool head. I could—and would—handle it. What did worry me was the near future. We were planning a move into a world we were eager to get into, but it had been surprising us every step of the way. Even a fool could see the facts, and I was no fool. We hadn’t been prepared for this. We had been anticipating some hurdles along the way, but none of us was ready for what we had encountered so far. None of us had anticipated the various setbacks that could even have killed us. They didn’t, but I could make no mistake. They had put something dreadful in all of us.