30. Prime
PRIME
Two-thirty in the afternoon. I’m sweating through my work shirt. There are only a few cars parked in this far-flung lot at the very edge of my parking empire. Deanna’s sitting on a pylon rapping a pen against her clipboard, one heel banging a steady beat like she’s got a song in her head.
I could watch her for hours.
Everything’s grim. It all feels wrong. The only reason I’m here without a gun is her. I hate it, this cage I’ve wrapped around myself, but I need to learn patience.
A truck comes rumbling down the street. It slows and makes a wide turn toward us.
Deanna looks up. She clicks her pen and slips it behind her ear. “Bigger than I expected.”
“Much bigger,” I agree, a knot of frustration in my chest. “Are you sure I can’t kill them?”
She comes to stand by my side. Her hand slips into mine and she hangs against me. “Another time, okay?”
“You ruin my fun.”
“That’s not what you were saying last night.”
“I wasn’t saying anything. You were sitting on my fucking face.”
“Hey!” She bites my shoulder playfully. “I wasn’t saying anything either. I had a big dick in my mouth.”
I kiss her fiercely, not caring who can see.
The truck stops nearby. Its gears grind and brake pressure releases in a sharp hiss. The door opens and Marco Carbone climbs down followed by three more Fontana outfit thugs, all of them openly carrying weapons.
“I wasn’t sure I’d see you,” Carbone says, stopping a few feet away. The rig continues to idle as one of his men goes around to open the back.
“What the fuck is that?” I gesture at the trailer. “We agreed to a small first shipment.”
“Plans changed. We need a full drop today.” Carbone’s eyes narrow. “Will that be a problem?”
I want to kill him. Rage flows through me like lava. I could do it too—I have a gun against the small of my back and I’d bet my life I’m faster than Carbone’s men.
But the trouble is, they’d end me soon after, and Deanna would die in the crossfire.
Not a chance I can take, even if there’s nothing more I want in the world than to see Marco Carbone’s eyes go lifeless and dim.
I want the last thing he sees to be my smiling, blood-soaked face.
“We’ll make it work,” Deanna says, patting my chest like she’s calming a rabid dog.
“That’s good to hear. Should we get going?” He looks around with a frown. “Where’s your vehicle?”
I gesture at several U-Haul-marked trucks. “I’m assuming they’ll be enough.”
“Better be.” Carbone snaps at his closest thug. “Get it opened and start unloading. I want to be out of this shit hole in less than an hour.”
“Yes, sir.” The thugs hurry off.
Carbone turns back to me. “You don’t have help?”
“Nobody I can use for this.”
“Why’s that?” Carbone’s sneer is disgusting. “Worried your boss might find out?”
I stare him down and don’t bother to reply, but he’s exactly right. I don’t fully trust my own men to keep this from Stellan, which is a good thing. It means they’re loyal to the Corsetti Famiglia, as they should be.
Only makes my life fucking harder.
“I’ll handle the logistics on my end. You worry about your product.” I check my watch. “You have ten minutes to unload.”
“Let’s get something straight, Prime. You don’t give me orders. You make requests and I consider them. Is that clear?” Carbone glances at Deanna. “Lovely to see you, Mrs. Spadaro.”
She inclines her head politely but says nothing.
I tap my watch. “Time’s ticking.”
Carbone laughs and shouts at his men to go faster. They carry crates from the truck to my U-Hauls, stacking them inside. It’s a tight fit, but the shipment luckily fills all three with barely space to spare.
Standing to the side and looking on is the most demeaning moment of my life. Carbone’s using my lots and my trucks and my logistics like they’re his own fucking plaything. It kills me, listening to him barking orders, ignoring me while he does it. This is my land, my castle, and I’m the king here.
Only I’m not anymore.
And I have to eat it. There’s nothing I can do but watch.
Deanna holds my hand the whole time. She keeps me grounded and reminds me why I’m doing this.
Without her, I’d have no reason to keep going.
Killing Fontana was my whole life. Looking back, I can see the straight line.
My obsession with amassing power and strength was always about finding a way to end Augustus Fontana’s life for what he did to Shawn.
Even as I found real friendship with Stellan, even as I found a place in the Corsetti mafia, even as I excavated some tiny fraction of purpose, none of it mattered.
In my core, it was always death.
Revenge built me.
And now that scaffolding is collapsed.
But Deanna’s holding me up. She’s my new purpose. A stronger, brighter purpose.
She’s a future, where revenge was only ever an end.
“Not bad for a first run.” Carbone wipes his palms on his jeans as his men finish locking up the trailer. “But we’ll iron out the wrinkles next time.”
“It’d help if you told me what you were bringing.”
“You’re lucky I tell you whatever I choose to tell you, Prime. Don’t forget, you’re under my boss’s boot now.” Carbone turns his back to me. “Until next time.”
He stalks off. I watch the truck pull out, engine roaring as it disappears down the street and away into the distance.
Quiet settles on the lot.
“You okay?” Deanna touches my arm.
“I’m fine.” I walk over and slam the back of the last U-Haul. I make sure all three are locked. “I should get moving. I only thought I’d have to make one trip, but looks like I have more.”
“Want me to drive?”
“Fuck no. If I get caught with a load of drugs in the back, that’s bad enough. I won’t have my wife go down because I’m feeling lazy.”
“Prime, it’ll be okay.”
I climb behind the wheel of a truck and look out the window. “Yeah, maybe it will. See you at home.”
She smiles and waves as I back out and start the first leg of the trip on my own, a long day ahead of me.