Leveled

Chapter 17

Tony

I’ve seen Julia do this as I hung from her belt, from the cart, from inside the box. When something wasn’t right, she’s taken an extra half a day she didn’t have, whether the client could see the problem or not.

This time, it was a half-inch asymmetry that would drive me crazy.

But then I saw how it would hurt the whole job. She’s sabotaged jobs for a level of perfection that is invisible. There wasn’t a kid or parent who’d see that half an inch, and if they did, we’d be long gone.

Which we are. Once the Goddess is out of sight, the pressure is gone.

We’ve landed in Marina Del Rey for the night. We go to a crowded and noisy restaurant with gingham tablecloths and dim lighting. Dinner is not the celebration I hoped for.

“My white boy”—Tonya flicks her hand toward the window, where Dan is outside on a call—“has to bring the boat back home. He got us a hotel on the island. It’s just a couple of weeks.”

“A hotel for weeks,” Julia says. “Damn.” She raises her margarita glass, and we toast to a long vacation that I can’t give her.

“I’m not ditching you or the business,” Tonya says. “I just need a break.”

“It’s been a lot. But what if you cross paths with you-know-who?”

“The Duke estate emptied out after the incident. So, that leaves you guys…”

Julia doesn’t let her finish. “We’re in the black. I’ll do a disbursement. It’ll take a few weeks to find a place. By the time you get back, I’ll have an apartment. In the meantime, we’ll figure it out.”

My arm is around her and our knees are pressed together under the table. I’m not as bold as Caspian, but I wish I was. My hands want to be up her dress.

“You think I’m leaving you homeless?” Tonya playacts being deeply offended. “Have we met? Hi. My name is Tonya Cooper, and I don’t ditch my girls. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m not your responsibility.”

“No, no, I set you up already.”

“How?”

“You don’t have to take it. But I want you to know I took care of it, if you want.”

“Tonya. Where?”

“My father’s guest house.”

Silence takes over the table.

This is Julia’s choice. I have nothing to contribute here.

Julia doesn’t have much, yet she bought me glasses and gave me clothes to wear.

She feeds me. I’m a grown man. I shouldn’t have to depend on her, but I have no choice.

I came back into the world with nothing but the memory of how to make money.

“He’s going to badger me for Caspian’s pictures,” Julia says.

“He is. He wants to humiliate the Dukes on procedural grounds. He has a whole PR concept around their incompetence. Also, he says it takes the focus off me, because he knows I don’t like it. I didn’t expect that from him, but people surprise you.”

“Sure. Yes. But I can’t unlock the phone without erasing it.”

“Then let him badger you. He’ll figure it out.” Tonya’s eyebrow twitches as if she’s made a slam dunk.

My middle finger runs over a crack in the skin at the base of my thumb.

I have to do something. I don’t know what. I wish I did. The things I don’t know about this world outnumber every workaround I established in 1994. I am overwhelmed by the volume of my ignorance. I could easily trip over something everyone knows and hurt myself. I could hurt Julia.

Dan’s still on the phone with his sister. Tonya goes to the ladies’ room.

Julia and I are alone.

“You don’t need me,” I say. “I’m being a burden.”

“Don’t be dramatic.” It’s an order. She’s serious. No drama.

Fine. That works for me. But things still need to be said.

“I was supposed to help you with money,” I say.

“Caspian didn’t know market conditions. We’re all doing our best, including you. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine.” I sound annoyed. I am. But not with her.

“Listen to me.” She faces me, taking my shirt in her fists. “I would have gotten you out anyway. Maybe not today. But you’re all getting out. You and Caspian, for good. No more of this switching that’s happening. All of you. Even Giancarlo and Enzo.”

“He prefers Lorenzo, and he’d at least knock over a bank for you.” I don’t even start on what Giancarlo can do, or how dangerous he is when he does it.

“Yes, but I’d have to find him pants first. You guys come out naked as the day you were born. I knew that already. You didn’t catch me by surprise when you had nothing, okay? You didn’t trick me or hide the ball. I knew what I was getting into. My eyes were open.”

I look down at her—this perfect woman in the warm light. “You can’t stop me from making it up to you.”

“Go for it.” She shrugs. “But honestly, you don’t have to make a big deal about, like, unevenness or anything. My mom used to say it all comes out in the wash.”

“My mother said that too.” I pull her close, kissing the top of her forehead.

“What else did your mom say?”

I try to remember anything my mother ever told me. She had a cigarette in her lips and a wooden spoon in her hand.

“She said, ‘I’ll give you something to cry about.’”

Julia laughs as if she’s releasing tension.

It’s our last night in the SkrillaKilla’, then we can either head up to Bellefonte Cooper’s house or not. It’s up to Julia. I don’t feel unsafe in her hands. I just feel useless.

“Your father is texting me,” Julia says. “He says I can bring Tony and he needs the pictures.”

A black Chevy Bolt with tinted windows circles the lot. Slowly, as if it’s looking for a space. Except there are plenty of open spots and the floodlights make it brighter than noon. There’s no reason to drive that slow. I feel for my piece out of habit, though I’m well aware that I’m unarmed.

“It’s a cute house,” Tonya says. “I stayed there when my mother was making me crazy.”

I’m so focused on the black Chevy I barely hear them.

It’s backing into a space in front of us.

It’s weird but not a big deal. Guys who are going to be a problem park in the twenty available spaces in the middle that they can do a head in and head out—both ways.

They don’t back in with the car beeping that loud.

“This car is so quiet,” I say of the Chevy, interrupting whatever Julia’s saying about the camera. “Except the beeping.”

“It’s electric. Like a golf cart,” Julia says. “That’s why it beeps.”

The Chevy just sits there. I can’t tell if the engine’s off or not. The tinted windows only let me see silhouettes moving against a lit-up dashboard and phones.

I’m not a tough guy like Lorenzo and Giancarlo, or even smooth like Caspian. But I have an eye for detail and I can whistle forty different ways. I was the watcher, and at this point, I really don’t like this car.

Without making a deal of it, I walk a couple of steps ahead, getting between Julia and the car.

The Chevy’s driver-side door opens.

I hold out my arm to stop Julia. Her friends stop with her.

A man gets out. His hair is mostly white and his skin is sun-dried.

“Gerry?” Julia says suspiciously.

“How you guys doing?” Gerry’s shorter than me, which is saying something. He’s barely out of the car and already, every sense of danger I ever had is tingling.

“Good.” Julia comes around me so I’m not between them anymore. There’s no way to politely move her back.

The passenger door opens. A white guy in sunglasses gets out. He’s built like a seven-foot pile of cinderblocks. He doesn’t join Gerry or acknowledge us. He just gets on the other side of the car and buttons his jacket. He’s carrying.

“Thanks for your help,” Julia says.

“About that.” Gerry positions himself in front of Sunglasses.

“About what?” Julia asks. Her back is to Tonya and Dan.

“Hi, I’m Tony.” I hold out my hand to Gerry. He doesn’t take it.

“Where’s the other guy?” he asks Julia, looking around for a man who’s taller and tougher.

“Caspian?” Julia asks.

We’re not doing small talk. I get between her and Gerry.

“Hi. I’m. Tony.” I say it slower, because talking fast isn’t the only intimidation technique Giancarlo drilled into my head. He said talking just a little slower makes them wait. It subtly gets them on edge. Irritated men make bad choices.

“Gerry,” he says.

When he takes my hand, I pull him toward me. Giancarlo taught me that too. “Nice to meet you, Gerry.”

“Yeah.” He unclasps my hand. I hold on for an extra second.

This is nerve-racking. I know I’m doing everything by the book, but a little voice inside my head reminds me that I’m not really cut out to be the face of an intimidation campaign.

“Sorry,” Julia says. “Tony, Gerry helped us get the job on the Goddess.”

“Like I was saying…” Gerry glances back at Sunglasses, then turns back to us. “About that. You do a job, you get paid.”

“They paid us.” Julia sounds a little suspicious, but not half wary enough.

“I know.” Gerry crosses his arms and leans forward in a way that puts him dick-first. “And you stuck all that cash in a bank.”

I’m scoping out the paths to the pier. They all suck, and a boat isn’t a good getaway vehicle until it’s ten feet off the pier.

My fault. I should have never let my guard down. I let us get cornered.

“It’s a bank?” Julia says. “Like, where else was it supposed to go?”

“Dan-oh didn’t tell you?” He scoffs then waves to Sunglasses, who nods. It’s some kind of sign, but one with a delay.

“Tell me what?” Julia says.

“Known this kid his whole life.” Gerry walks right up to Dan. “Dan-oh, you didn’t tell them about the finder’s fee?”

“What?” Dan looks stunned.

Sunglasses moves behind us. We’re cornered.

“Back off him, first of all,” Tonya says. “Second of all, I get it. Fair. How much are we looking at?”

“Fifty.”

“Fifty dollars?”

“Percent.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Tonya says. “Nuh-uh. Nope, nope.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Do we care?” Julia isn’t going to capitulate. I’m glad. I fell for a strong and capable woman who doesn’t take any shit.

However, I’m not the backup she needs.

Was I useless to the crew? Not by a sight.

Was I out front because the glasses made them hesitate?

Sure. Have I gotten hit when I couldn’t duck in time?

Yeah. That was me. Then they got the idea we were easy, so Caspian could lay down the terms. If they didn’t like them—and the first time, they often didn’t—Lorenzo was both quick and strong.

He always managed to put someone down so Giancarlo could… do what Giancarlo does.

And that’s how four guys ran a big corner of the Port of Long Beach.

Tonya and Julia are pretty tough, but women get taken advantage of in ways men don’t. Dan will be noble, but he hasn’t lived the life.

My guess… neither has Gerry. Not like the guys and me.

And Sunglasses? I’d bet the entire toolbox that he’s an off-duty cop, just from the way he walks.

He won’t get punished for being on the wrong side of the law, but getting caught will be humiliating.

That’s like death to a bastard like this.

He can take out that gun, but using it will be really inconvenient.

So, again, I get out in front. “You’re a smart guy, Gerry. You didn’t come here to make it so we couldn’t pay you. And these are ladies, so let’s—”

The world goes sideways and my entire body goes unf. I’m on the ground. Sunglasses is standing over me. His pant legs are in focus, but his face is a blurred mass of beige with a dark line through it.

“Hey!” Julia is about to do something stupid, so I grab her ankle.

“Babe?” I say, sitting up. “Can you get my glasses?”

I can’t see her. I’m sure she’s pissed. I’m sure Tonya and Dan are baffled and pissed. Gerry’s probably just baffled.

Julia kneels and puts the glasses in my outstretched hand. I wink at the blur of her face.

The lenses probably have a few new scratches, but they’re good enough.

Giancarlo used to say pacing was everything, so I take my time putting them on, then I lean into Julia until I can see the fear and rage in her eyes.

“I have it.”

I’m asking a lot. I’m asking her to see me as a man who can handle this. A man who’s bigger than he seems. I’m asking her to transmit that confidence to Dan and Tonya.

I get up quickly and sidestep Sunglasses, getting in front of Gerry. Then I stop short—with deliberation.

Pacing. If you own the pace, your opponent is either impatient or surprised.

It’s all about balance.

“You were saying?” I ask.

“You trying to be a hero for pussy?”

“About the money. You were saying?”

“I’m paid first,” Gerry says.

“Understood.”

This surprises him. He looks over my shoulder and gives a single shake of his head—probably telling Sunglasses to hold off.

“This is Newport Beach,” he says. “From the pier to the airport, I make the wheels turn. Me. This is mine. But don’t think I can’t find you wherever you go.

You can’t hide. I’ve got people everywhere.

If these little girls think they can fuck off to LA, they just give me a reason to come for them.

I’ve been running shit here since you were in diapers. You capeesh?”

Capeesh? Is he fucking serious? Lorenzo broke fingers for that shit. Between the noxious use of Italian and the fact that he and I are technically—from the viewpoint of diaper-wearing—about the same age, I can barely keep myself from laughing.

I hold it back. Julia’s counting on me to handle this. Gerry’s not even a two-bit gangster, but fuck if he doesn’t have me over a barrel right now.

“You came here to warn us.” I speak softly. At the docks, I’d get my ass kicked for making a rival strain to hear me, but Gerry’s not going to risk his payday over my volume. He’s been dealing with rich sweethearts for too long. “You met us to clear up the terms.”

“Exactly.”

“You got the message across. Loud and clear.”

“That’s right.”

“Next time you won’t be so nice.”

“Three business days, one of you better have my money, or someone’s getting folded in two.”

I nod. Make him wait. Look down, then up. Not too long. Just enough to put him off balance. “Thank you Gerry. We appreciate the warning.”

“Good.” He jerks his head at Sunglasses, who goes around to the passenger side. “Don’t fuck this up.”

They slam their doors and drive away. When the car gets to the parking lot exit, the right blinker goes on before making the turn.