His: Tony: The Sabatini Family by Fiona Murphy (mystery books to read .TXT) 📗

and into this life at only fifteen, it never fails to piss me off. The anger was always at myself. If I hadn’t gone to prison, he could have stayed a kid for a little while longer.  “I mean, dumbass, they shouldn’t have to. They deserve to be young and dumb and stupid for as long as they can be. Instead, they grow up too fast—learning the hard way.”

“We’re here, Boss, twenty minutes late. Sorry.” Vito mutters from the driver’s seat.

“Not on you, Vito.” As we get out, I nod at them both. “Grab something to eat, no gambling, nothing to drink. I need you two to stay up top and sharp.”

They nod, neither one of them surprised I don’t want them in the basement gambling. Tonight will likely end with me needing to kill someone. That’s usually how a meeting went with Johnny; it was about money or death. With Carlo at the meeting I thought it was money, but since Carlo is running late, it’s probably about killing someone.

I enter the private club I had once run, before passing it onto Dominic as a part of the Sabatini legacy. With the illegal gambling in the basement and the need to be visible here with customers, it wasn’t business I felt I could do well. So when I got out of prison the club stayed under his control, and I took back the bookie and loan shark business.

Johnny sees me coming, he holds up a hand to keep me in place when I’m about five feet away. I don’t move. Then I hear it and flick my eyes down, the girl is enthusiastic. I turn my back to give him his privacy.

The corner table in the bar area we’ve been given is my usual one. No one is ever seated nearby in case of business needing to be done. Carlo comes in, it’s clear he’s agitated. Probably upset he’s running late, which he knows Johnny doesn’t like. He frowns as he looks from me to Johnny.

“He’s getting his dick sucked. Something to make up for running late. I had a guy who didn’t want to pay. It might have felt a little too good to work out the stress of the week on him.”

Carlo shakes his head. Yeah, that’s right. Carlo is above getting dirty, hasn’t killed anyone in almost three years and likely hasn’t beat down anyone in twice as long. Any time he wanted someone dead or in pain he gave the order for his soldiers to handle.

The girl crawls out from under the table with a smile. She kisses Johnny on the cheek and whispers something to him. He chuckles and pats her ass as he waves us over.

I sit down across from him, Carlo on his right.

Johnny sighs as he tosses a picture at me. “I wanted to meet with you and to let Carlo in on it.”

I take the picture. It’s a pretty young girl in a white lace dress. “Let Carlo in on what?”

“Regina and Dom, them getting married. She just graduated from school. She’s giving me problems about coming back to Chicago. Says her life is in Italy. The damn nuns are even helping her, they’re paying for her to go to university. Got into the University of Turin, it’s a good damn school. If I wasn’t so pissed, I’d be proud of her. Once she finishes, she plans to go back to the school and teach.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Regina and Dominic? How old is she?” Ever since Johnny shipped Regina off to a Catholic boarding school in the north of Italy after her mother died, he doesn’t mention the daughter he had with his mistress much—other than to bitch about her not coming back to Chicago the way he wanted her to. Shit, the memory comes back. The week Regina was born and almost died. No fucking way, he was drunk. It was just talk that happens when you get drunk. “You were serious?”

“Yeah, I was serious. She’s seventeen.” I wince. “We give them a year on their engagement for them, you know, to get to know each other and shit. Give Dom time to come around on it.”

I’m shaking my head, she’s too fucking young. Dominic would lose his shit. She’s a girl. Then as I stare at the picture, I see it; her eyes are flashing with fire. It’s obvious she’s scared, but she’s also not going to back down. I like the fire in her eyes. She would need it to go up against Dominic. As soon as I consider it, I discount it. No way would Dominic go for a girl.

Carlo takes the picture from me. “You want Dom to marry Regina? Dom, the guy who gave up almost sixty grand a year in profit so he doesn’t have to get married? She’s cute, but Johnny, he won’t do it. Especially not with a chick this young. Dom isn’t going to come around in a year. He doesn’t even look at chicks unless he’s sure they don’t need to be carded. She could be a grade-A stunner and it wouldn’t happen. And no offense, but she’s no stunner.”

Johnny frowns as he takes the picture from Carlo and looks to me. “You don’t think he’ll come around in a year?”

Shaking my head, I sigh. “No, not going to happen.” Christ, why couldn’t this be about killing someone? “Let her go to school. Get some age on her and out from under the nuns. Dominic won’t touch her with a gun to his head if she’s under twenty-one. Once she’s done with school, there’s a much better chance.”

Of her meeting someone else and getting married on her own so Dominic never knows I had this discussion with Johnny and doesn’t speak to me for the rest of my life. “Dominic is not going to marry someone else between now and then.”

“It’s five years to get through school there. Five years out from under those nuns