Chapter 30 Cesare
“Honestly, every time I check, everything seems okay about him. Came to New York, worked at Silver Dreams. He doesn’t have a criminal history, no ties or affiliations to any gangs or families.
As far as I can tell, he looks clean,” Rocky said.
“He sends money to Mexico, but from what I can tell, it’s to his family.
None of the hackers came up with anything alarming. ”
“So why the fuck am I watching him walk down the street, and Benito and his whore are leaving after him?” I asked, my throat tight.
“What?”
“Yeah,” I grunted. “He came out of this building and something told me not to leave.”
Benito wrapped his arm around Harlow. He pulled him closer, and they both looked upset about something. When they reached their car, Benito leaned down and kissed Harlow’s forehead. They stayed that way for a long time, and something tightened in my chest.
“Cesare?”
“Something’s up,” I growled.
“With Rafael? No shit if he’s meeting with your son.”
“No, something more than that.” I turned and headed back toward my car. “Something’s up with them too.”
I wasn't sure what had made me double back and follow Rafael. Some part of me had just felt… off. He’d been weird this morning.
Hiding his phone, acting differently, like he was uneasy.
I had to see where he was going when I saw him in that garage with Andrew.
Now, I was faced with a truth I didn’t want to look at.
“Rafael’s the rat?” Rocky asked.
“Looks that way.”
“Shit. Cesare…” He fell silent as my chest continued to tighten. “You want me to take care of him for you?” he asked quietly. “I’ll make it fast. For you.”
I stopped driving and yanked the car over. A horn blared, but I had to stop. My hands tightened on the wheel as nausea crawled up my throat. Before I knew it, the car door was open, and I was puking my guts out, half hanging out of the car as my hands shook.
“Cesare? Hey, you okay?” Rocky asked, alarm in his voice.
I’d had a lot of shit happen to me. People lying, leaving, betraying me, all of that was normal in this life.
It was how it goes. But this? It felt worse.
No one had ever betrayed me to this level.
Someone who I had slept with, talked to, got drunk with.
And all this time, he was going behind my back and feeding Benito information.
“Cesare.”
I straightened up and shut the door to the car. For a moment, all I could do was sit there. I stared ahead of me, every sensation in my body going numb. After another moment or two, I blinked, pulled back out into traffic, and picked up the phone again.
“Let me handle this.”
“You sure?” Rocky asked.
“Positive.”
I hung up the phone and threw it into the passenger seat. Every mile I drove felt like I could hear the truth on repeat running around my brain.
He’s a rat. He’s a rat. He’s a rat.
There was a lot a man could put up with, but a rat? That was beyond the realm of help. There was nothing left for me to say to someone like that. Except to take him somewhere quiet and put a bullet in his head.
I found myself at my club. The music was too loud, the floor was too crowded, but I couldn’t go home and look at Rafael. Not right now. As if he could read my mind, as soon as I was settled in the VIP section on the second floor, my phone buzzed and lit up in my hand.
Rafael: It’s boring when you’re not here.
Rafael: I’ve watched everything in existence I swear. And your cat tore up a very expensive blouse.
Rafael: Are you ignoring me? Do I seriously have to come to your job?
I stared at each message as it rolled in one after the other.
He sounded so carefree, as if he didn’t have a worry in the world all while he was sitting on my couch, in my place, plotting behind my back.
My hand tightened around the phone. Was this part of his plan?
Drag me in, pretend to be into me so he could stab me in the back?
“Fucking bitch,” I growled.
I was going to go home, wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze.
Already, I could imagine the look in his eyes.
The moan he usually gave turning into a cut off scream before he realized what was really happening.
I could see the exact shade of blue his lips would turn.
Feel the way his nails would dig into my flesh as he looked me in the eye and realized I knew exactly what the fuck he was.
“Cesare.”
A hand on my shoulder took me out of my violent daydream. Standing there was my old friend, Rocky. He folded his huge height into the booth across from me before my cousin Pietro joined him. Santiago, my other cousin, was the last to saunter in and join me. I looked around.
“Thought you could use some company,” Rocky said. “And a good, stiff drink.” He snapped his fingers at a girl. “Bring us over your best bottle of bourbon and a few girls. Come on, Cesare, time to snap yourself out of this shit.”
Snap myself out of it. I’d just fucking figured out what was going on at all, and now I needed to snap myself out of it?
That’s what I wanted to shout, but I didn’t.
Rocky was right. There was no time or place for sentimental bullshit in this job.
Emotions got you killed. I knew that all too well, but I’d been getting drawn in by some slutty siren in cheap whore clothes.
A woman sat on my lap. She was gorgeous.
Full-figured, a round ass, dark skin. She leaned against my chest. In another world, I would have my hand half way up her skirt before the night was through.
But I wasn’t feeling that tonight. The only thing on my mind was Rafael, the way he’d walked away from that building like his heels were on fire, and Benito walking out after him.
The whiskey slid down my throat, hot and velvety smooth. Every bit of the burn was worth it. At least it gave me something else to focus on. Something that wasn’t Rafael.
Rafael: Hey, it’s getting late. You okay?
Rafael: I’m starving. We should get pizza and watch a movie or something.
I shoved the phone back into my pocket. All this time, he was a distraction. While my sons and their partners were dismantling my life, shooting at me, and sabotaging contacts, he was the puppet meant to smile and take my cock.
I’d give Benito one thing. He was a smart motherfucker. Every inch of me despised admitting that, but it was true. He’d been playing chess while I had been thinking he wasn’t even capable of it.
Now look at how stupid I looked.
“Here.”
Pietro handed me a cigar. He lit it for me before he looked around the room. When his eyes fell on me again, he frowned.
“What’s up your ass tonight?" Pietro asked.
I grunted and cleared my throat. Then I realized, why the fuck was I doing that? I’d been grunting my whole life, and now over the past few weeks, every time I did it I tried not to. For him. For Rafael. He was an infection. A poison in my blood.
“Nothin’,” I said. “Rough night, that’s all.”
Santiago threw back his drink. “Shit’s been quiet,” he said. “Real quiet. Don’t like how that looks.”
“Me either,” I muttered.
“So, we doing anything about it?” Pietro asked.
“Lay off,” Rocky cut in. “I didn’t tell you cunts to come here and annoy the man. Sit. Drink. Bang a whore. If it’s not one of those three things? Fuck off.” His eyes flickered to me as I smoked. “You want some coke?”
Despite myself, I burst out laughing. “You want me to have a heart attack?”
“Hey, we’re still young at heart.”
“In the brain maybe,” I snorted. “But I’m pretty sure my heart is clogged with thirty years of prosciutto and bullshit at this point.” I shrugged. “And all the coke we did in our twenties.”
“And thirties," Rocky supplied.
“And forties,” Santiago added. “Come on. You two have been a problem for ages.”
I grinned. “And we’ll keep bein’ a problem for another fifty years at least.”
“Amen to that, brother,” Rocky said.
Our glasses clinked together. For a moment, the world outside of the VIP area of the club disappeared. The heat on my lap, the warmth in my belly, and the laughter of people I gave a shit about echoed around me.
I might not have my family. Hell, I might not even have the whore I’d brought and thought on some level that I loved. But I still had people around me. Somehow. And for an old asshole like me? That was a blessing.