All In by Land Alexa

Author:Land, Alexa [Land, Alexa]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2013-02-12T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Wait…Dante is flying halfway around the world to kill someone?”

“Didn’t he tell you?” Mrs. Dombruso asked as she handed my phone to me.

“He did, actually. I didn’t believe him.” I stared at her incredulously. “And…you’re ok with this?”

“Well, I’m worried about Dante, of course. Natori’s a very dangerous man. But this needs to be done. My grandson will never rest until he puts Sal Natori in the ground.”

“Dante’s in danger?”

“Yeah.”

I sank onto a corner of the bed and murmured, “This conversation has just gotten absolutely surreal.” With his free hand, Austin rubbed my back comfortingly.

Mrs. Dombruso got to her feet and said, “You look like you could use a drink, Charlie. Come on, let’s go upstairs and show this little cutie the Top of the Mark.” And she turned and bustled from the suite.

We were quite the ragtag group, me in my t-shirt and jeans with a jacket draped over the cuffs on my wrist, Austin in his big inside-out sweatshirt, and Mrs. Dombruso in her huge velvet head wrap and crooked lipstick. But the maitre d’ greeted her warmly by name, and we were immediately ushered to a table at one of the windows. We arranged ourselves so Austin was beside the glass, and he stared out at the sprawling cityscape with childlike wonder.

Mrs. Dombruso insisted on treating, and soon the table was loaded up with every appetizer on the menu. I was too dazed to eat, and Austin claimed he wasn’t hungry. But Mrs. Dombruso tucked in eagerly. “That hospital food, ugh! I wouldn’t give it to a dog!” she exclaimed.

I took a sip of the beer she’d bought me, then asked, “Ma’am…could you please tell me what exactly Dante’s doing? I mean, I know that you said he’s going to kill someone. But why? And…and does he do that a lot?” The whole mafia thing had suddenly gone from abstract concept to all too real.

“What, kill people? Of course not,” she said. “Dante, he’s more of what you’d call an executive. He runs a business. Granted, it’s an illegal business. But a business nonetheless.”

“Then what’s he doing now?”

Mrs. Dombruso dabbed her mouth with a thick cloth napkin and said, “In order to answer that question, I gotta tell you a story, Charlie. And it’s a terrible story. You wanna hear it?”

“Yes please.”

She paused for a long moment, and turned her head to look out the window. And finally she said, “You know the business my family is in. Well, we’ve been in that business for eight generations. Every generation has had its natural leaders, like Dante, and like his father before him. And leaders always have the biggest target painted on their backs.

“My son Paulie, Dante’s father, he made a lot of enemies. It happens in this line of work. And one of these enemies, a man by the name of Sal Natori, decided to make it personal. He went after my son not on the streets, but in his home, at night, while Paulie and his family were sleeping.

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