16. Angelo
ANGELO
“I have news.” Morgan sits down on a barstool, followed by my cousins.
I grab a few glasses and place them on top of the bar, staring at the guys as they sit in a row. “What’s the news?” I ask as I start to fill the glasses with beer, figuring whatever news he has will probably require a drink or ten.
Morgan doesn’t waste a moment and grabs the beer as soon as I set it in front of him. He guzzles half the glass, and James is giving him the side-eye, noticing Morgan’s unease. “Okay, so Quintin called me,” Morgan says as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Who’s Quintin?” James asks, turning his attention to his beer.
“We go way back. We enlisted in boot camp together, but his life took a different path from mine after serving. I reenlisted while Quintin went on a downward spiral.”
“And he’s a good source, how?” Thomas asks.
“No matter what shit went down in the last ten years, I know he’ll always have my back just as he did when we served together.”
I lean forward, tossing a towel over my shoulder, and stare Morgan straight in the eyes. “And by downward spiral, I assume you mean he got into some legal trouble?”
He nods. “A bit, but nothing major. He has his finger on the pulse of the neighborhood where our guy is supposedly hiding out.”
Joe leans forward, staring down the row of men toward Morgan. “You going to dance around the shit all day, or are you going to tell us what you’ve learned?”
“Quintin said he’s in a house and has paid local gang members to protect him.” Morgan shrugs and lifts the glass to his lips. “It just made things a little more complicated.”
“A little?” I raise an eyebrow.
“We’ve dealt with gang members our entire lives,” Morgan says, like it’s really not a big fucking deal.
I tap the bar in front of him, feeling like I need to impart some Chicago wisdom to my older, but not wiser cousin. “This isn’t the Chicago you grew up in, Morgan. Shit’s gone crazy since you left. There’s constant death and chaos on the streets.”
“Then it’s a no?” he asks before letting out a heavy sigh.
“It’s a dumbass move. We all have more money than we can spend in a lifetime, but I’m not getting my ass shot just to grab some asshole white-collar criminal with gang members surrounding him.
It’s not worth it,” Mike says, making all the sense in the world.
“Even if we live, Mia would fucking have my balls, bruh.”
“Anyone want in on this?” Morgan asks, looking from left to right but getting no response. “Fine. We’ll pass.”
Thomas pushes his beer mug forward and turns to Morgan. “I’ll give the information to my friends in the marshals’ office. Let them handle the shit. They have an arsenal behind them—and the law.”
“That’ll work. Then what the fuck are we going to do here for three more days?” Morgan asks like he’s in the middle of fucking nowhere.
“I don’t know. Eat, drink, fuck, and enjoy life a little bit,” I offer with a shitty smirk because there’s more to life than trying to get yourself killed.
This is where my cousins and I differ. I like the mundane. I enjoy a night at home or dinner with my family more than I care for the chase or danger. Morgan seems to crave shit that isn’t healthy, but that isn’t entirely new.
Maybe it was losing Marissa that made me realize the preciousness of life. It taught me to soak in the small moments, the times others would find boring, and revel in the calm.
“The parents have the kids busy all week. We should take advantage of the time away and the little bit of extra freedom,” Anthony says as he pushes his empty beer glass forward. “I, for one, plan to squeeze every bit of fun out of this week as possible.”
“Well, what do you want to do tonight?”
“Fuck,” Anthony hisses and pulls at his hair. “I don’t know. I feel so fucking old now.”
Joe elbows him in the ribs. “You are old, you dumb fuck.”
“We’re all old,” Anthony grumbles. “What the fuck happened to us?”
“We grew up. Shit isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either,” Thomas says. “Have kids, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Biggest lie ever.”
“Dude, you have a boy. Shut the fuck up with your bullshit,” Joe says through gritted teeth. “I have daughters to worry about.”
“Sucks to be you.” Thomas smiles.
“Eh, I already have my bail money set aside for Lily’s first date,” Mike adds with a shrug of one shoulder. “I’ve accepted that I need to scare the piss out of the first one, and word will spread like wildfire.”
“Some little shit keeps calling the house for Tamara.” Anthony closes his eyes like he’s in pain. “I won’t even feel bad for scaring the life out of him if he shows up at my doorstep.”
“It’s only the beginning,” Joe tells them before he takes a swig of his beer. “Shit gets worse.”
“Izzy had all of us looking after her, but our girls don’t have four badass brothers to deal with and protect her,” Mike grumbles.
“I don’t think Izzy would look at it that way,” James adds. “She said you were all a pain in the ass.”
“Still are.” Anthony raises his glass. “But she wouldn’t have us any other way.”
“I think she’d have a different opinion.” James laughs. “She says you guys ruined her teenage years.”
Joe laughs. “That was our job, and we took that shit very seriously.”
“What’s so funny?” Ma asks as she walks down the steps with Tate and Brax at her side.
“Nothing, Aunt Betty,” Joe says as he looks at my two kids.
Ma raises an eyebrow. “Who wants to go to the zoo with us?”
Tate screeches, and Brax jumps up and down, filled with so much excitement. Tate runs behind the bar and clings to my leg. “Daddy, do you want to come?”
I kneel down, holding my little girl close. “Baby, I have to work, but I’m sure Grandma will spoil you.”
“I’m getting a cupcake from Mom first,” she says, and damn it, if my eyes don’t start filling with tears.
“It’s a hard pass,” Mike tells her, ignoring the fact that I’m crying like a pussy. “There’s enough animals around here to keep me entertained.”
“Just don’t get yourselves in trouble, boys. I remember how you used to be when you were young,” she says, giving us all a look I saw a hundred times growing up.
“Ma, we were ten. I think we have a little more sense now,” I tell her.
She chuckles. “Men never have sense, and by the time they do, they’re too old to put it to any use.”
“She’s rough,” Anthony whispers against his glass.
“She’s the only one who would put up with Santino’s shit all these years,” Joe adds, but speaking so quietly, my mother doesn’t hear over Brax running in circles, squealing like a monkey.
“Well, we’re off.” She turns toward the staircase. “Tino, are you coming or what?”
My father’s footsteps are heavy but slow on the stairs. “I’m coming, woman. Calm yourself.”
There’s silence in the room because everyone knows Betty Gallo doesn’t put up with being talked to like that, even from my father.
Her lips are twisted as his feet touch the dark tile floor of the bar. “Baby,” he says and tries to wrap his arm around her, but she moves out of his reach.
“We’re off. Don’t get in too much trouble today.”
“Bye, Daddy,” Tate calls out before running out the front door and turning toward Tilly’s cupcake shop.
“I don’t know how you did it, Angelo. I can’t imagine raising two kids without Mia,” Mike says as soon as the kids and my parents are out of the bar.
I shrug. “You don’t really have a choice, but it wasn’t easy. I had my head up my own ass, consumed by grief for a long time, but somehow, we made it through it.”
“It didn’t get lost on me that Tate called Tilly Mom. How do you feel about that?” Joe asks.
“It’s bittersweet, but as long as my kids are happy, I’m happy. Tilly loves them as if they’re her own.”
“Going to have more?” Thomas asks.
For some reason, I feel like I’m being interrogated. No longer are they hurling insults back and forth; now they’re all focused on me and volleying questions back and forth.
“Whatever Tilly wants.”
I’d have half a dozen kids if it made Tilly happy. Whatever the woman wants, she’ll get. Putting up with me isn’t easy and becoming part of my family, one she didn’t help create, is something I’ll always be thankful for.