CHAPTER FORTY-NINE TRACE
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
TRACE
This was meeting number eight.
My uncle had started falling into the same pattern.
I came in. There was small talk. He inquired about my sister, then he asked how my work was going.
I answered everything, waiting for the real reason he’d asked to meet me.
He’d get to it, and the last few times, it’d been the same request or warning.
I considered it a forewarning of sorts. His health was bad.
He needed me to take over the family business.
The time remaining was dwindling. I had a couple weeks to go.
Of course this was never expressed in a way where he was asking me to do it. He was telling me he wanted me to do it. It was an old classic Uncle Stephano way of where he paved the road with his intentions first, and then when it was clear, he marched right on through.
This meeting was different.
I noticed that immediately when his men stood up straight when I exited my vehicle.
Before, they lounged. They nodded. They might have given a wave; sometimes they did nothing, and that was because I didn’t care for my uncle’s men.
They only knew violence and used violence to get whatever they wanted.
This time, there was fear in their eyes.
“Tristian.” Stephano’s head guy, Bobby, gave me a respectful nod, opened the door, and led the way inside.
We bypassed the kitchen, where my uncle preferred to do his meetings, and he took me down to the basement, into the back television room, where Stephano was on a back couch. “Tristian is here.”
“Ah. I see.” My uncle stood up and came over.
His hands went to my arms, and he leaned in. A kiss to my left cheek. A kiss to my right, and then he gave me another clasp on both arms, a smile before he stepped back. He blinked a few times before he turned away.
“What’s going on, Uncle Stephano?”
He cleared his throat, shaking his head. “We can get to that. Sit, sit, sit. Bobby, get us some drinks. I’m feeling wine tonight. The best red we have.”
Bobby gave a nod before glancing my way, a lingering look, and then he left.
I frowned. What was going on? “I’d rather we cut to the chase here. We’ve had enough of these meetings over the last two weeks, Uncle Stephano.”
“What? Oh. Yeah. Uh.” He waved to the couch he’d just stood from. “Sit. Have a seat. Relax a little. All in due time.”
I sat, not wanting to, but I sat.
He moved to the back, where he kept a table. There was a pile of papers, and he shifted through some before his phone buzzed. “Yeah?” He grew quiet. “Yes. I do. Yes. Thank you.”
My own phone buzzed.
Ashton: At Katya. The old roommate is here, talking with Jess.
Me: Thanks for letting me know.
Ashton: Want me to pass on any messages? She’s alone.
Me: I’ll come by after this meeting.
Ashton: Want to guess why the old roommate showed up? I’m hoping they’re going to start bowling again.
Me: ?
Ashton: I like bowling. Your girl hasn’t gone for a while.
Me: You like bowling or you like who owns the bowling alley?
Ashton: Is there a difference?
Me: Where is this coming from? Have you been watching their group of friends Sunday nights?
Ashton: Maybe.
Me: Ashton.
Ashton: I checked in a couple times, just keeping abreast even though your girl wasn’t there.
Me: Did the owner recognize you?
Ashton: No.
“Here you go.” Bobby brought a wine bottle, two glasses, and a corkscrew into the room. After placing everything on the table closest to where I was sitting, he opened the bottle and began pouring. “Tristian.” He handed one to me, then filled the other.
I took it but only held it. No way was I going to drink from mine before my uncle drank from his. We were family, but we were still Mafia. Everything about this meeting was setting off my alarms.
“Thank you, Bobby.”
“You want me to ...?” He gestured to the door, and Uncle Stephano nodded.
“Yeah, yeah. Close it. Leave us alone. I need privacy with my nephew now.”
“Okay.” Bobby shared another look with me before he left, shutting the door behind him.
“Uncle Stephano—”
He stopped me, a hand in the air, and gestured to the door. “Make sure they’ve all gone.”
What? That was news to me. “Is there something I should be made aware of about your men?”
“What?” He continued to watch the door, listening, and once we heard a thump upstairs, he relaxed.
“Ah. Good. All good.” He moved his glass toward me.
“You can never be too sure. Now. How are you? Tell me, how is my favorite nephew doing? Still making all that money with your job and your businesses?”
Now we were falling back into old patterns. I relaxed, just slightly, but scooting forward, I put my wine back on the table in front of me and rested my arms on my knees. “Uncle Stephano, you know I’m doing well. Everything is well for me.”
“Yeah?” He sat down in one of the deeper chairs, facing me. “And the woman? Are you still seeing that copper? Montell.”
“She’s a parole officer, and yes. Things are ... fragile between us.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Fragile? What does that mean?”
“It means we’re slow, but I’m still seeing her, or trying to. She’s basically the enemy—you know that.”
“I do. Yes. But you did good with her uncle, or the new guy who replaced him. He turned out to be a good employee for us. We moved a lot of shipments through that warehouse thanks to him. It was a good call what you did.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
He noticed my wine, and his eyes sharpened. Leaning forward, he motioned toward it. “Wine not good?”
“It is. I already took a sip.”
“You did? Good, good.”
He was thinking. And because I was able to almost see him thinking, that meant a lot of things to me.
He was tired. He was distracted. He was .
.. frenzied? Was this all because of his health?
It was a general rule of mine not to lie to my uncle, ever, but I tried to tell him as little as I could.
Being vague tended to appease him. He used to like to feel in control, but now my uncle was not coming off as being in control.
With him, what he could do, that made him extra dangerous.
“Uncle Stephano.” Calm. Quiet. I needed to ease into this.
“Hmm? Yes?”
“What’s going on? Why did you want to meet tonight?”
He stopped thinking and focused on me. Only me.
I knew my uncle was dangerous, though I’d never actually feared him. But right now was the closest I’d gotten to being scared of him. He was making me nervous. “Uncle Stephano?”
“Our problems have escalated.”
“Which ones?”
“Some of our shipments aren’t arriving. Getting lost. Stolen.
And there’s other skirmishes. More and more businesses are starting to refuse to pay us.
Some of our other more unsavory businesses are taking a hit too.
” He began waving a hand in the air. “One or two, they’re fine.
Normal. We can handle those, and we do, but we’re getting hit on all sides, and it’s got me thinking. You know?”
“Sure.” I wasn’t going to like where he was going with this. I knew it.
“And I think, what’s new going on? And then I think, this all started when you started banging that copper.”
Oh, Jesus.
“It’s not Jess.”
“But she’s a Montell. You know what happened with the other Montell?
Her daddy. He was a little piece of shriveled dick.
The smallest I’d ever seen, but he didn’t want others to know, so he liked to overcompensate.
Is that the word? Walked big. Talked loud.
That sort of stuff, but he was a moron.” His hand kept going, round and round.
“A total idiot, but he was in with the crew. We let him do some things for us, bust some heads, then your daddy. You know about this?”
None of this was sitting right with me. I shook my head. “I’ve not heard the exact story, no.”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay.” He drank half his wine in one gulp, and that hand started up again. “I’ll tell you. You sit. Relax. Want more wine? I can get Bobby to bring another bottle.”
“I’m good, Uncle Stephano. I’d like to hear the story.”
“Oh! Oh, oh, right. Your woman, huh? You want to hear about her daddy?” He tossed back more wine before standing and pouring the rest into his glass.
His movements were unsteady as he moved back, until he could sink back down.
As he did, the wine sloshed over the rim of his glass.
He didn’t notice. “Okay. Where was I? Oh, right. Your daddy and her daddy worked together, but they didn’t like each other.
Dominic had gotten his dick into your woman’s mother.
She’s a good-looking woman too. I still see her sometimes.
She’s started walking on our street, and she makes sure to wave to the guys when she does.
You know why she’s doing that, right?” He laughed, his eyebrows wiggling a little.
“She’s asking for some visitors, but don’t worry.
I’d not do that to you, not when you’re plowing the daughter. ” He laughed, loud and long.
There was something wrong with Uncle Stephano.
I hadn’t put stock into it when he’d first started talking about his health, but this wasn’t him. He didn’t act like this. He was reserved, cautious. Smart. He was being like his brother right now, like my father. His men’s reactions were making more sense.
“What happened with Jess’s father?”