9. — gowns and goons.
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Union, New Jersey
Nico, Big Mike’s Deli
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“Close the door, Vauhn,” Big Mike ordered the man at the private room’s doorway. The door minder did as he was told, but not before locking eyes with Nico and giving him a once over. Only then did he shut the door completely. “He’s sizing you up, kid.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. I thought when you said you wanted to see me, that you’d have good news. That guy looks like he wants to smash my fucking head in.”
“Well, you did just become another thing to check off his daily list. It keeps growing, and he doesn’t like to delegate.
Make sure you get his contact when you leave.
From here on out, I should only see your face if someone is dead, dying, or needs to be.
Otherwise, you run interference for my time and approval through him. Do you get me or what?”
“What constitutes the last one?”
Big Mike cocked one eyebrow higher than the other. “Excuse me?”
“I need clarification. For...possible reference. Allegedly.”
The man just stared, open-mouthed. “Seriously?”
“No,” Nico returned, shrugging it off. “I know when people need to die.”
He’d just never had to do it. Yet.
“Vauhn seems friendly,” Nico noted, slightly sarcastic, but hoping to move the conversation along. He had a deadline today.
“You should see what he can do with a knife,” Big Mike deadpanned.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Do. He also hates thieves.”
Nico smirked. “This must be a hard career for him. Aren’t we all thieving in a way?”
“Thieves who steal from me,” Big Mike added with a chuckle. “You really are something else, kid. It’s good you’re a conversationalist, because you’re gonna need to talk your way out of a lot of shit over your lifetime. Especially if you’re going where I think you wanna go in the future.”
Nico had given up on telling people to stop calling him kid at this point, so he just folded his arms across his chest and said nothing.
Big Mike seemed fine with that. “I’m gonna see you once a month for a while, less if I need or want to.
I hear you’ve got something like a hundred k left over from the money you made off my drugs, so make sure you’re putting that to use to get you a respectable due the next time I come calling for you to pay up.
Be busy. But I don’t want to hear about people seeing you, if you get my drift. ”
“You want me to stay out of Carcoli’s joints, is what you’re saying. The guy’s got a network of clubs across three states, but I’ll do my best.”
“For starters, make sure you do. Or try. I do have a bit of leeway there seeing as how Carcoli and I have an agreement about my distributors in his clubs.”
“You’ve got people dealing out of his joints?”
“Like I said, some leeway. I also heard you’ve got a lot of problems with your older brother, and those two, well...”
“Trust me, I know,” Nico responded dryly. He remained calm externally, but inside...a festering hated burned and raged at the mention of Marco and Anthony.
“Vauhn can link you up to guys on the crew whenever you need something. Don’t cause problems, and I won’t become one for you. That’s the rules. Got it?”
“Got it,” Nico said, nodding.
Big Mike tossed a standard, black smartphone Nico’s way. He caught it easily, barely giving it a glance before tucking it into his back pocket. Mike pointed his large finger Nico’s way but directed his next comment toward the phone only.
“Make sure that stays on. If you are doing business, it goes through that.”
“Understood.”
Big Mike gave him another once over before muttering, “Yeah, I think that’s about it.”
Nico hesitated on what the man meant. “You mean we’re done here, or...?”
“Unless you have something to tell me.”
“No, I just thought—”
“Use the shit you can get from people in the crew to make me money. That’s what I need from you. And if you need someone to hold your hand through getting it done, I think I underestimated what everybody says you can do.”
All he heard was everybody.
“You got people talking, kid,” Big Mike murmured, picking up on Nico’s sudden stillness and silence. “If I get to be the motherfucker who benefits from letting you show them why they should keep your name in their mouths, I don’t see the problem.”
“Unless I become one,” Nico replied.
Big Mike lifted one shoulder, shaking his head, too. “That’s right, but you know, I don’t think so. I’ve got a feeling about you.”
“Don’t worry,” Nico joked, “that’ll probably pass.”
He earned himself a laugh with that one.
“Get out of here,” Big Mike demanded, still chortling. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do, anyway.”
Yeah, he did.
A tux to pick up and girl to take to prom.
···
Nico parked the Mustang next to a freshly washed and waxed—as if it hadn’t just come off the lot two days earlier—Rolls Royce. The gleam of his vehicle reflected off the pink Rolls, and the cat sitting on the hood of the vehicle didn’t move a muscle as he exited the car.
“Stella kitty,” he practically cooed to the cat, “what’s her doing, beautiful girl? Can I pet her today?”
The cat pretended like she didn’t see him, but he had been working on this for a while. Sometimes she let him pet her, sometimes not. Sassy, the dog, wasn’t as difficult if he had treats. Seemed she was always on a diet of some sort.
The cat, on the other hand...
The end of Stella’s fluffy, white tail flicked against the hood of the car the closer Nico came to her spot.
He knew she would allow him to pet her when she stood as he came up alongside and lifted her head to meet his extended palm.
That was all he got, just the rub of her soft fur against his hand before she jumped down from the car.
As if she knew what was coming next.
“You get off that fucking car!” yelled Carina. From the front door, she spied Nico and told him, “Oh, good. You’ve already got the tux on. I’ll bring out the bowtie. The photographer is just getting done, and he’ll keep a distance to take some shots out here. Did you grab a boutonniere?”
He lifted the plastic containers for her to see. “I’m not totally incapable, sis.”
Even if he did need to make reminders on his phone for a lot of shit. Including the flowers. That couldn’t be helped.
Her lips pursed, but she said nothing else, instead disappearing back into the house.
Nico pulled out his phone to check the time. He heard the front door open at the same time he blacked out the screen. He had to blink to take in the sight coming across the paved driveway.
In a pink dress that draped similarly to a ballgown from the waist down, Frankie darted his way far faster than he thought was safe in heels like she wore.
The tall stiletto, open-toed shoes peeked out from the high slit in the left side of the skirt and under the hem.
Something pink glittered from her finger, around her throat, and dangling from her ears.
The sweetheart cut of the structured top of the dress with thick straps at the shoulders allowed the jewelry she wore to be displayed.
Her hair, tied back into a classic chignon, had his fingers itching to pull it all loose just to see how she looked with mussed hair in such an amazing dress.
Fuck.
He’d really done this, hadn’t he?
“I was starting to think you were going to be late,” Frankie told him as the two met in front of the cars.
He barely noticed the others coming out of the house but still clocked them. He tried to keep his focus on the person who needed his attention the most.
“I wasn’t going to miss this for anything; I just had some things to handle.”
Frankie grinned wide. “Oh, like what?”
He pointed at the freshly washed Mustang. “I heard you wanted to pull a double ride into the prom parade.”
“It was just an idea.”
“Yeah, that’s not what you texted me last night.”
“I said it would be nice, pink and black.” She pointedly looked between the Supra and Mustang and then gestured at the two of them. “Pink and black. Don’t act like you don’t see the vision.”
He adored that she even had one, and it somehow, currently, involved him. And his car. Bonus.
“I see the vision, and she’s standing right in front of me,” he murmured.
Her grin turned into something else, then, and she almost wouldn’t meet his stare, but he found it through her lowered lashes.
“Did you get me a flower?”
“Pink carnation. We can put it all on closer to the venue. No need to let them wilt.”
That, and he didn’t want so many eyes on him as he got close enough to touch Frankie. Not when she looked like that and kept staring at him the way she did.
Frankie looked back at the house, at the photographer snapping pictures from thirty feet away and her father and stepmother waiting near a pillar. “I think they’re gonna drive ahead so they can see the entrance and our entry.”
“So, I’m driving the Rolls, right?” Nico asked, smirking.
Frankie guffawed. “In your dreams, but I might let you take it for a spin after.”
Nico’s mind stumbled on that comment. “After?”
That hadn’t been discussed.
“A minute, Nico?”
The call came from the house. Or rather, the man standing next to the pillar. He cleared his throat, gaze jumping between a suddenly nervous Frankie and Salvatore who had stepped slightly away from Carina, waiting for Nico to move.
He didn’t even think about it, it almost felt like he couldn’t control the movement as he leaned in to press a kiss to Frankie’s cheek as he passed her by, murmuring, “I don’t know who picked out that dress, but good fucking choice.”
He left her sharp intake of breath behind, still hearing it seconds later.
Still feeling it.
Even as he realized what he’d done standing toe to toe with her father.
Carina, holding a pink and white bag that looked very expensive, barely paid them any mind as she crossed the driveway saying, “Don’t forget this. His bowtie is in the bag so make sure he puts it on correctly and take pictures. I want pictures!”
“Oh, like the press won’t be there,” Frankie replied. “You’ll see it all, anyway.”
Press?