19. — all the king’s men. #2
Or some such size. He couldn’t remember exactly what she told him that morning as she woke him up with the best head he’d had. She didn’t do that very often, and he knew why, so when she gave herself over to him in that way...it did something wild to him.
“Well, the baby wants ice cream,” Carina repeated seriously.
“Ice cream for Carina, it is.”
Her laughter chased him out of the office, and all the way downstairs into the kitchen.
She leaned in the kitchen entryway as he showed her the different options from the two-door freezer.
She settled on a chocolate coated waffle cone with vanilla ice cream topped with caramel and peanuts.
His phone started to ring as she suggested, “I bet someone outside might like ice cream, too,” she said over her shoulder as he picked up his phone without looking at the ID. “Olive branch, baby.”
“Caio,” Salvatore greeted the caller, winking goodbye to his wife.
“Guess what your fucking golden boy did for me today?” asked Big Mike on the other end of the line.
Sal didn’t have the first clue what the man could possibly be talking about, except Nico. “Is this a good call or a bad one?”
“You think I’m calling if he’s fucking up?”
“I think you should,” Salvatore returned easily. “Yeah.”
“Well, he isn’t. I saw him for an hour in the late afternoon, he showed up at the Deli. You know we’re closed in the afternoon on Sundays, right?”
“Of course.”
“Right, well, he brings me coffee, picks up a mop, and mutters something about quitting smoking. I let him clean because who the fuck am I to turn down free labor? Me and Vauhn are just watching him crawl out of his fucking skin and I knew it wasn’t from a lack of cigarettes.”
“Are you getting around to a point?”
By now, Salvatore had pulled three ice creams from the freezer and set them, in the wrappers, to the counter.
“Said he took his girl to Chicago this weekend,” Big Mike said.
Salvatore cleared his throat. “Oh?”
“He didn’t mention her name, Sal, but I know. I was standing on those steps helping my wife down because you know she wore the worst shoes for that night. I heard what got said, I heard it all.”
“Do you want confirmation, or something?”
“No, but he kept her name out of it. What I’m about to tell you, he didn’t name her, but father to father, I want you to know.”
“Know what?”
“They partied, picked up tainted shit. He barely let her taste it, but he about died. I guess Carmine Marino came in at just the right time. Does any of this sound familiar to you?”
He had to be honest. “No, but Carmine had strict instructions regarding his communications with me this weekend.”
That man was another goddamn problem in his life that he hated the thought of dealing with.
“Hmm,” Big Mike muttered back. “Anyway, father to father, talk to your kid.”
“What was all that golden boy shit you threw in at first? Just for fun?” Salvatore asked, slightly annoyed.
“No, he is a go-between that I’m gonna use.
He’s got the in and knows about clubs in Chicago.
It’s an easy few hundred thousand a month between the two.
He was practically shaking at how he’d fucked up but that mind of his couldn’t let go of how he could turn that situation around in more than one way. Kind of crazy, ain’t it?”
“Sounds like Nico.”
“Kid’s told me three times he’s got ADHD.
The fuck, is that like a superpower? Because my daughter’s got that, and it is not the same.
She barely sits still and needs fifteen things going all at the same time just to keep her entertained.
I love her, and thank God she’s beautiful, because let me say... ”
Salvatore laughed under his breath and scrubbed at his face with his palm. “I’ve seen some of Nico’s records. He’s got a brilliant mind that hyper fixates on things. It’s like he figured out how to use it.”
“Well, whatever. Nico is gold. Everything he touches—gold. He just made me millions all over again, Sal. So, I’m gonna pull supply from Anthony Carcoli’s territory effective immediately.
And I’ll no longer sell bulk to him to his third-party deals.
Just so you know, when shit pops off. Given the way Marco behaved at the party with his brother, that five and half mil meant fuck all in the grand scheme.
Fuck, they burnt out two backrooms in my territory last week, but I just can’t prove it. Yet.”
Salvatore chewed over his thoughts. “You could absorb Anthony’s territory if you needed to, couldn’t you?”
“Are you suggesting I should?”
“I’m asking if you could.”
“Any day. He can get it.”
“Good to know,” Salvatore murmured.
“And Sal?”
“Yeah?”
Big Mike laughed a dark chuckle that sounded a hell of a lot like pride. “Get that kid his fuckin’ button, or I will.”
Salvatore eventually made his way outside after ending the phone call with Big Mike.
“Is that for me?” Carmen asked, bolting Salvatore’s way as he padded down the front steps at the sight of him with three cold treats.
“Yes, and ones to share, if they want some.”
“Frankie, do you want ice cream?” Carmen shouted across the yard.
His daughter kept a smile on for Carmen. “Sure, bring me one.”
Frankie didn’t acknowledge him. Salvatore didn’t even let that bother him.
Carmen grabbed Frankie’s after Salvatore had already opened hers, but she paused, glancing over at her big brother who stood restlessly in the net. Nico did his best to avoid Salvatore’s stare directly.
“Nico, you?” she asked.
“Uh—”
“Nico can come get his,” Salvatore interjected, making the Carmen look at him questioningly after said instruction. “You go take this one to Frankie.”
“Thanks, Mister Gallo.”
He smiled at the girl beaming up at him. “You’re welcome, sweetheart.”
Nico waited until his sister found a comfy spot to sit with Frankie on stone benches before coming over to stand in front of Salvatore. “You don’t have to give me that.”
“Do you want it?” he asked.
“I’m more of a gelato kind of guy, really.”
“Me, too,” Sal said, “but the women of the house like these, so...”
Nico took the ice cream, but he didn’t open it right away. “Do you want me to leave?”
“You’re not breaking the rules, are you?”
“No, but—”
“No is a full sentence, and it was all I needed,” Sal cut in, hoping Nico would leave it at that.
Thankfully, Nico did. As he peeled back the wrapper from the waffle cone, he eyed Salvatore studiously. He couldn’t miss it out of the corner of his eye even as he watched Frankie and Carmen laugh about something he didn’t hear.
“You did drugs with my daughter?” Salvatore asked quietly.
Nico didn’t flinch. “With, being the key word, there. Not made, or asked her, or—”
“I get the picture.”
Nico eyed the ice cream, and then beyond to Salvatore. “Let me guess, Carmine?”
“Big Mike.”
That earned him a noise of surprise.
“He was close enough the night of the graduation party to know a few things. Are you okay?”
Nico had just taken a bite of the treat, but his head snapped up fast at the question. Around the chill in his mouth, he asked back, “You’re asking me?”
“If I didn’t care, we wouldn’t be standing here. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. I stopped shaking a couple hours back, but I don’t know if that was from the molly or my dad.”
Well, he opened the conversation. Salvatore dived right in. “Yes, speaking of that. What did I tell you again about bringing him closer than needed to my daughter? She might not look like him, Carmen, but she’s terribly close to him, Nico.”
“Do you care to know why I did that, or do you just want to assume my reasons?”
“On this property, my rules are always in effect. Including respect.”
Folding his arms over his chest as Nico spilled the details of the dinner with his father.
“Vanna had dinner made. She likes to cook on Sundays. When I showed up, Marco wasn’t there but he’d just left.
I brought him cigars, but we ate roast before he expected me to go upstairs.
In the office, he grilled me for an hour straight on Frankie, about the party, Marco, and you.
Just like that. I stuck to the story from party night.
It was new, and Marco tried to pull some sneaky shit that I didn’t appreciate given my history with him, and with Frankie. ”
“Did he accept that?”
Nico shrugged. “Sort of, and no. Because he knew about prom. Or that I took her, anyway, so he didn’t feel it was really a new thing.
I have a feeling Marco found out about that and took the information to him after the fact of the party because he and Anthony had been digging into what I was doing in my personal life before the whole shitshow went down.
Marco made that clear to me. So, yeah. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to say prom was just a favor, Giorgio said plain as fucking day that smelled like bullshit to him. ”
Salvatore wet his lips, considering the information. “So, he thinks me a liar.”
“The way he was careful about how he talked to me regarding you, no, he doesn’t trust you.”
Good. He shouldn’t.
“And so, you brought your sister here, why?”
“Because Vanna let me. Because she’s going to go home and get grilled by our father in a different way than he tried with me, but all he’s gonna get is that we played soccer, Frankie and I are friends, and you gave us ice cream.
I really couldn’t say no; that’s the first time I’ve been allowed to take her anywhere since I was seventeen.
Not to mention, I wanted to see Frankie tonight, I promised I’d be around. It just worked out.”
He nodded, seeing how Carmen’s word to her father could work in their favor.
“We done, then?” Nico asked.
Salvatore inhaled deeply and let it out in a slow breath. “One last thing—next time, you can use the net in the backyard. And the rest of the back property, if you find a need. I appreciate the honesty. A part of me still wants to kill you, though.”
“Yeah, she kind of did, too.”
He had a sneaking suspicion Nico meant the drug thing. The OD.
Well...
“Play stupid games,” Salvatore replied, “win stupid prizes, son.”