Chapter 11 Elio #2
That wasn’t to say that the rest of them were useless. They each had their uses, their own ventures, and we all had a stake in each other’s ventures. It was just that this yacht deal was our first successful venture, and it had bonded us pretty tightly together.
“You do realize that I’m going to have to beat the shit out of you in front of your father,” I said, getting in with James Harrow.
“Break a tooth, bruise my face up good, do what you gotta do, Romano,” James said, lighting a cigarette. “Whatever we do, the motherfucker has it coming. I mean, don’t you ever think about why we all broke off from our very wealthy and very successful families in the first place?”
“Of course, I know. In another ten years, these old timers are going to be dead, their organizations dissolved, their businesses bankrupt,” I said. “But he made it personal, James. He went after my girl. It sucks that he has to be your father…”
“Please,” James said, shaking his hand in the air. “When we get there, I’ll be sure to give my worst.”
And so drove the twelve cars up to North Creek.
Dresden Harrow would never see this coming.
In the late afternoon, as the sun began to set behind the many industrial complexes of North Creek, the twelve cars came to a skidding halt outside Jimmy Donaldson’s warehouse, and every single one of us got out of our car.
None of us were armed. Not even me. Dresden Harrow was not the kind of guy who took a show of force well.
If we were to fight him, it had to be with words and resources.
“James, he’s stepped over a line,” I said, walking up to the warehouse entrance and stopping. “Whatever happens inside, I need you to know this isn’t personal.”
“It’s personal for me. It’s not just sons who give a bad name to their fathers. That shit works vice versa too. Who’s going to do business with me knowing full well what my father’s capable of? They’ll assume that I’m somehow still associated with him.”
“Fair enough,” I said, watching the rest of our squad gather behind me.
I opened the warehouse gate, surprised that there wasn’t an army of guards stationed outside.
The first room was an antechamber. There was no one in there as well, but there was blood on the floor trailing from the next room. My heart sank, my hands losing all strength. I ran toward the room and opened the door.
“Oh, how wonderful, he joins us at long last,” Dresden Harrow said, getting up from the butchering site, holding two big cleavers. He looked around at me, revealing blood all over his clothes. “Come, come, young Elio. I was just showing Ms. Thurman here the best way to cut sheep meat.”
I looked at the mess he’d made on the floor. He’d slaughtered a sheep and was cleaving its body, undoubtedly a psychological tactic to make Maria break. I looked at Maria. She sat there calm, unbruised, tied to the chair.
“Hey, Elio,” she said calmly. “This two-bit cartoon villain thinks this scares me.”
“It doesn’t?” Dresden Harrow asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I was raised on a farm, Dresden,” Maria said, tugging the ropes. They all came loose, and she stood up, rubbing her wrists. “I’ve tied an animal no less than a hundred ways. A sailor’s knot? Are you kidding me?”
“Did he hurt you?” I asked, running over to her, holding her by the arms.
“He didn’t dare. He was too scared of you,” Maria said, smiling.
“You insolent woman!” Dresden Harrow stood up and made to attack her, but I’d gotten to him first. I landed a punch on his face, shattering his glasses, sending him reeling, crying, holding his face.
“Talk to her like that again, Dresen, I’ll kill you,” I said. At that moment, the rest of the twelve came into the room, surrounding him.
Dresden looked up to see his own son standing there in a group of men he couldn’t recognize.
“This is what you get up to in your free time, Father?” James said disappointedly.
“James…” he said in disbelief, standing up slowly. “How…”
“This,” James said, waving around at the warehouse, at the chair with the ropes on it, at the slaughtered lamb, at the guards standing by the walls. “This is how. You think some self-respecting man would like to associate himself with you?”
“I assume you’re the self-respecting man in this situation?” Dresden sneered.
“No, Father. I’m a knave. Like you. I’m just talking about all the businesses you’re in business with.
See, consider this an extemporaneous audit.
You may not have a reputation in the business world, but your businesses don’t operate under your name.
Suppose a video of this makes its way to the shareholders, to your business partners, to the purchasers.
Suppose six or so people are standing in this room who are closely related to those purchasers.
Suppose they pick up the phone and tell your six biggest purchasers that you’re just an old timer playing mafia boogeyman in your spare time,” James said, walking up to his father.
“You’d bite the hand that fed you!?” Dresden yelled.
“I’d cut off the hand that fed me. I’d chop that hand like you chopped that lamb.
There’s this great darkness within me, Father, a darkness all of us share.
We spend every waking moment of our lives trying to fight that darkness, trying to remind ourselves that we’re nothing like our fathers, but it’s a lie, Father.
A lie that can dissolve if you keep making trouble for me or mine.
Elio’s my friend. Hell, one of my best friends. You came after him.”
“He came after Jimmy!”
“Fuck Jimmy! What the fuck are you doing in business with him anyway!? He’s the most uncreative criminal to have ever lived in New York. In a week, the man’s going to be arrested, and the IRS will have him dead to rights. You wanna be on that sinking boat?”
Dresden looked ashamed, red in the face in a way that had nothing to do with all the blood spouting from his nose where I’d punched him. He was at a loss for words.
“So this is what you have been up to. Collecting mafia rejects, doing your own thing,” Dresden said, looking at the other men standing behind us. “Think you’re pretty fucking smart, huh?”
“If you give my friends or me any trouble, I’ll dismantle the defenses that you’ve set up to protect you from the Feds, the IRS. I have a copy of all your illegal ledgers; call it a bit of insurance. Another toe out of line, that ledger makes its way to the top.”
“You’ll inform on your own father?!?” Dresden shouted, advancing to attack James. I couldn’t let that happen. There was a lot of rage pent up in me. I leaped forward, shoving Dresden back, and punching him in the stomach, watching him roll over.