Chapter 16
Savvy
He’s been gone a full week. The morning after the fireworks, he came into my pseudo-office to announce he had to fly to New York for a few days. He’d given me more documents and IDs to work on, along with another list of rules for while he was away.
There was one thing neither of us said out loud after the Ferris wheel. We haven’t used a single condom, not the first time or since. I make a living noticing small details other people miss, but I let myself get too caught up in the pleasure to pay attention to that one.
I’m sure there’s a reason there, but I’m not ready to look too hard at it. Not yet anyway.
“It’s not that long of a drive to St. Louis, I’ll come visit. And you can come down to visit me whenever you want,” Cassie repeats the same mantra she gave me when she called to announce she’d gotten the job and would be moving to St. Louis.
“I’m sure me getting out of Chicago will be super easy.” I roll my eyes, then quickly continue when she frowns. “I’m not upset, Cassie. The job sounds good and it’s a good move. We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
“That’s right, we do.” She nods. “So. Are you going to have babysitters following you around from now on?” Cassie stirs a heavy scoop of sugar into her coffee mug while eyeing Damien sitting in a corner booth of the diner.
At least he’s trying to blend in. He’s hunched over his phone scrolling with his thumb, while shoveling hash browns into his mouth. A vast improvement from two days ago, when he stood at the door with his hands folded in front of him, like the president was going to enter any minute.
“For the immediate future, I guess so.” I bring my mug to my lips. “I’m not sure if he’s here to keep me from running away or to protect me.”
“Probably a little of both,” Cassie says around her mouthful of bagel. “At the boat last night, some guy was talking about that Vincent Ricci you told me about. Apparently, he’s starting to make a move on your guy.”
“One, he’s not my guy. Two, some rando was talking about this openly at the poker table at a public casino?” I push the hashbrowns around on my plate. “You must have heard wrong.”
“It wasn’t at the poker table. I went out the back, there were a few guys hanging around smoking. They shut up when I got too close and they realized I could hear them, so I didn’t get all the details.”
“What details did you get?”
“Just that Ricci must have balls of steel to go up against a man like Gabriel Valenti.” She pops the last bite of her bagel into her mouth and digs into the back pocket of her jeans for her phone. “Then this morning this popped up in one of those news ads when I was doing my morning doom scroll.”
She scrolls a few times, then taps on the screen before handing it over.
A warehouse owned by the Ricci group burned down in an apparent electrical fire. Vincent owns a small chain of resale shops in the northern suburbs, and it was a backup storage probably for the same reasons Gabriel has his pawn shops.
“Okay, there was an electrical fire. They happen.”
She wipes her napkins across her mouth. “I’m just saying that there might be something going on between your mobster and Vincent.”
“You have to stop calling him that. He’s not my anything.”
“He’s the guy who took your V-card. Finally.” She flashes a smug grin. It’s gone in a flash once she raises her eyes toward the door behind me. “He’s here.”
I straighten in my seat and take a deep breath.
“Remember. No matter what the ask, no matter how pathetic he sounds, the answer is no.” She points a finger at me. “I’m serious, we are not getting tangled up with his crap again.”
“I know. I already agreed with you.”
“Well, you have a soft spot for the downtrodden. Don’t fall for his bullshit.” She lifts her face up as Tony approaches the table and throws on a plastic smile. “Tony! Hey.”
“Hey, Cassie.”
Tony is three years older than us, but he looks like he just stepped off the high school bus with his ripped jeans, stretched out T-shirt and black combat boots. His wallet is tucked into his back pocket, anchored by the chain hooked to the belt loop of his jeans.
His hair is at least washed, though it’s about two inches longer than he usually wears it, and it hasn’t seen a comb in a few days.
“Here, have my seat.” Cassie scoots out of the booth and moves to my side, pushing me further in.
“Thanks.” He looks at the mostly picked over plates. “You guys ordered already?”
“Sorry, I was starved. We can get something for you if you want.” Cassie pushes the plate of toast toward him. “You can help yourself to the toast.”
He eyes it, then shakes his head. “Naw, I’m good.”
He’s not, though. There’re dark circles under his eyes, and there’s black and purple bruising on his forearm.
He’s using again.
Cassie’s nudge with her knee tells me she’s seen the track marks, too.
“You look good,” he eyes me with narrowed lids. “Where’ve you been? I’ve been texting you for like a week.”
“You texted me twice, and I told you, I’ve been working.” I move my hands under the table.
Guilt floods me. It’s not a lie. I have been working. Gabriel left me plenty of work to do while he’s gone, but I can’t deny that I’ve been living in the lap of luxury while doing it. And by the looks of things, Tony’s been squatting in the new condo construction sites again.
“We’re here now, Tony. What’s going on?” Cassie asks straightforward. She props her elbows on the table and rests her chin in her hands. “You doing okay?”
He squeezes his eye shut a few times, like he’s trying to see through the fog of his high to make his ask.
I dig my fingernail into my palm, wishing he would just get it out.
“Yeah. I’m good. Got a new place over on Lake and Clark. I’m sharing it with a few buddies.” He nods along with himself. “Maybe I just wanted to see my sisters.”
When he smiles, my insides recoil. His teeth are rotting. He must notice our reactions because he drops his lips over his teeth.
“Tony,” I whisper.
He puts up a hand. “I’m fine. Like I said, just wanted to see my sisters.”
Cassie and I met Tony in the foster system.
All three of us were housed with the same family twice.
We were moved around a lot, especially after we hit middle school.
I had a new family almost every year. Cassie was a little luckier; her last placement lasted the last two years of high school.
But Tony started using drugs freshman year, and he started getting bounced around from foster homes to group homes to rehab facilities.
None of it took.
Sometimes you can’t outrun your demons.
“I mean, there’s this one thing.” He scratches at his neck, looking over my shoulder at the door, then at the waitress who’s kept a wide berth since his arrival. “Nothing big.”
Cassie tenses beside me.
“What is it?” I focus on his face, trying not to let on that I know he’s going to ask for something we can’t give him.
“Like I said I got this place with some buddies, but it’s small, you know? Three guys in a one-bedroom gets cramped.” His expression hardens when he looks up at us. “I’m not asking for cash. I’m just letting you know, it’s a small place.”
“Okay, Tony.” Cassie nods, dropping her hands under the table and covering my hands with hers to keep me from digging in my skin.
“I have an idea how to get some money for a bigger place, but I need you two to help. There’s a big poker game at the Inferno Club every other Friday night. Usually they only let members in, but every now and then they have like an open house thing. High rollers can come play.”
Cassie squeezes my hand.
“Sav, you make some bank statements or whatever to get one of those payday loans, and then Cassie, you come with me to the tables and do your thing, we can clean up.”
“The Inferno Club is run by the Valenti Family,” Cassie says before I can register the club’s name. “You want to cheat the mafia?”
“I’m not saying we cheat them, I’m saying we put the odds in our favor.”
“By cheating.” I emphasize. It wasn’t on the list, but I’m pretty sure helping someone cheat at one of his clubs is on the list of things not to do while Gabriel’s away.
“Savvy’s already dealing with blowback from a bad forgery at a pawn shop with them; doing this would put her in even more danger.”
His eyes fly to me. “What?”
“Nothing.” I elbow Cassie. “A deal went bad; I’m in a little debt because of it. Nothing I can’t handle.”
My news only seems to put more wind in his sails. “You see, this is the sort of thing that would pay off big. You could pay back whatever you need to pay back. It’s one paystub, or bank statement, I don’t remember which one they need.”
He rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands.
“I think it’s paystubs, which you could easily get if you got a job.” Cassie pushes. He’s the oldest of the three of us, but Cassie’s the most responsible. Also the best at pulling a job like the one he’s describing.
His face scrunches, and he slams the side of his fist into the table. The dishes dance and clatter. Water spills from the untouched glass. From the corner of my eye I see Damien’s head snap up, he’s watching now.
“Stop it.” I reach over the table and grab his fist. “Look, I can’t even if I wanted to. And Cassie is getting ready to leave town anyway. You’ll have to find another way.”
He turns angry eyes on Cassie. “You’re ditching us again?”
“I’m not ditching anyone. I got a job in St. Louis.
A good job, with a real paycheck.” She defends her decision even though there’s no need.
As luxurious as it is pulling in a meager living working one step of the wrong side of the law, having stable income from a legitimate source with no risk of a gun being pulled or the mafia stealing you away is nothing to shy away from.
It would be comfortable. Safe. Secure. Something the three of us have never had, at least not for very long.