Chapter 7 Elio #2
Here’s the thing that I tried to deny about myself.
When I was young, before I’d gone to college, my father had tried to whip me into shape.
He hadn’t exactly been completely legit back then.
He still operated on the fringes of the law.
Sometimes things got ugly. Sometimes that meant interrogating someone.
Breaking a few bones. Getting people to cry uncle.
I hated that.
But that didn’t mean I hadn’t learned all I could from my father.
College was my one ticket to leave and reinvent myself, and he didn’t even let me have that. Just after I graduated, my mother died, and I couldn’t just leave my Father on his own. The guilt was too much. There was also the responsibility of it all.
But by the time I’d returned, he had gone legit. No more interrogations, no more extortion, no more bone-breaking.
Word had gone around that the don had gone soft. Word must have reached Jimmy as well, because otherwise, why would he have sent men after Maria while knowing full well I was in the car?
Well, this should get word out that the don might have gone soft, but his son still had the fire in him.
It did not satisfy some deeply buried part within me. It sickened me that I had to do that. But I was capable of it nevertheless. And having done that, having sent Jimmy Donaldson a message that he was bound to hear with open ears, I’d taken responsibility.
Whatever would happen next, it would happen to me.
And I was ready for it.
After all, this was what my father wanted.
Robert and I drove back in silence. He’d sent the two men to Mt.
Sinai. Naturally, when two parties do something illegal, they both have an obligation to stay silent about it.
Those men weren’t going to go about snitching on me to the police just like I wasn’t going to go to the police about them tailing me last night.
We’d settled it amongst ourselves.
The matter was closed, until Jimmy’s next move, whatever that’d be.
“I didn’t know you still had that in you,” Robert said, pulling up into the driveway. “The way you went feral in there.”
“Listen,” I said, glaring at him. “Everyone knows you’ve got a big mouth and tell just about everything to everyone like you’re freaking Gossip Girl. I order you to stay quiet about this. Not a word, Robby. Not to your father, not to mine.”
“Of course, Elio,” Robby said. Did he sound a little scared of me? Good. It wasn’t my intention, but if it helped him fall in line, there was no harm in a little fear.
“Increase guards on the perimeter. Whenever Maria leaves the house, I want two guards with her. She doesn’t leave alone, got it? If she’s going to work, there are two guards at her office, standing outside, keeping an eye on things,” I said.
“Boss… who is this woman, if I may ask?” Robert asked, his voice low.
“There’s a lot of bad people in this world, Robby. People like you and me, people who live in the gray; there’s a lot of those, too. She’s not one of us. She’s not bad people. She’s one of the few good people out there.”
I didn’t expect him to understand, and so I left him in his somber silence, getting out of the car and stepping into the house.
And what a pleasant surprise this was.
Maria was standing there, dressed in a semi-formal shirt and jeans, walking around the house with my father.
“Oh, Elio, you’re back,” he said, looking at me with an eyebrow raised. “I was just having a delightful conversation with Ms. Thurman. Did you know she attended Columbia? My friend Rosenberg taught her English Literature.”
Jon Rosenberg was one of my father’s oldest friends and had been a longtime attendant of all of our parties.
He and his wife were both professors at Columbia.
He had gone to the same school as my father, and while my father had gone on to become New York’s fiercest don, Jon Rosenberg had pursued literature.
When he’d gotten tired of that, he’d started teaching it.
That’s where he’d met Rosaline Hoffman, now Rosaline Rosenberg.
“Small world,” I said.
“Your dad was just showing me his philosophy collection at the library. You never told me he was a fellow Schopenhauer fan,” Maria said, holding my father’s arm.
“I never knew myself,” I said confusedly.
“We never talked about it,” my father said, then nodded at me and Maria and took his leave.
I handed my coat to Tom and folded my sleeves up to my elbows, walking alongside Maria. “What else has my father been telling you?”
“It was super late when I woke up, and so he asked me if I’d like to have lunch with him,” she said.
“And?”
“He’s not as bad as you make him out to be. I found our conversation quite pleasant and enlightening,” she said.
“Are we talking about the same person here?” I chuckled as we walked down the hallway and stepped into the courtyard.
There was a fountain at the center, and along the courtyard’s edge, there were trees that got plenty of sunlight from above.
There were sofas placed by the fountain.
We sat there. It felt as good a place as any to catch up with her.
“Where were you?” she asked.
“Oh… just some business,” I said, shrugging it off.
“You mean leftover business from last night?”
I didn’t know what to tell her. Last night, I’d revealed a side of me to her that I’d never revealed to anyone. I could imagine that it’d be nothing short of heartbreak if I revealed to her that the same guy who was capable of such tenderness was also capable of breaking bones and sending threats.
“Jimmy Donaldson won’t be trouble anymore,” I said. “But, just to be safe, I’ve told the guards to accompany you wherever you go. Just until things cool down.”
“Can we go to the city today?” she asked. “It’s just… I’ve got things to do at the office, and I’m packing zero luggage. If you want me to stay here… I mean, do you want me to stay here?”
“Of course, one day down, six more to go,” I said. “Unless you don’t want to stay here.”
“I’m game,” she said, smiling at me. “But I haven’t brushed my teeth since the morning, and I need to get my clothes.”
“Why don’t you go freshen up and I’ll take you to the city? We’ll make a date of it, what do you say?”
“So we’re dating now?” she asked, color rushing to her cheeks.
“I mean, for six more days, if you want.”
“I think I want that,” she said, taking my hand. “What about you, do you want that?”
“I’d want nothing more,” I said, kissing her hand.
I watched her leave the courtyard, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Whatever was going to happen next, I’d better be ready. My father had warned me about Jimmy Donaldson not being a weak guy anymore.
I had to stay alert.
Especially after what I’d done today.