The Price of Honor by Aleatha Romig

Author:Aleatha Romig [Romig, Aleatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

NO LONGER DRY, my mouth filled with spit and bile. As I spat the disgusting combination from my lips, I was consumed with shame at my physical reaction. That was until I saw the red on my own fingers, undoubtedly, from Jimmy’s hands. Scanning myself, I noticed that my jacket and trousers were also marked. Without warning, my hands began to shake with involuntary tremors.

Closing my eyes, I inhaled—the combination of blood and vomit a putrid stench that would forever be in my memory. Another breath and another. Finally, I consciously willed the trembling to stop. Once it did, I stood and stepped over the mess I’d deposited in the gutter, closed the back door and opened the front passenger. Sitting inside my own car, I sat beside Testa, for once content to be driven.

I turned his direction. “There’s blood in the backseat.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to tell him that, but I did.

He looked my way and lifted one side of his lips in a lopsided grin. “I never liked how this car pulled to the left.”

My eyes narrowed. “What?”

My fried brain couldn’t decipher another riddle.

Testa put the car in gear and moved us along the street. As if in a dream, we were advancing through the city. The sky was black, but with the streetlights, it was as if day had re-dawned.

Testa’s voice brought me back. “When I brake, this car pulls. Damn roads are slippery. Could get in an accident.”

“The blood?” I said again, not certain what he was saying.

“It won’t clean. Blood don’t clean from fabric or carpet. There’s always a trace.”

I looked down at my hands, still tasting the rancid remains of my regurgitated dinner. I tried to make a plan. “Take me to the office. I need a shower. I also have a spare suit there.”

“Yes, boss, and then?”

“Then...I’m not sure.” It was difficult to think too far into the future, but I tried. “Tomorrow I buy Angelina another car. I’ll take her Continental. You take her shopping and get her something safer, whatever she wants.”

A surreal conversation as if we hadn’t just seen a man shot—four men or more shot.

Testa nodded.

I followed most of Carmine’s advice. After I’d showered, brushed my teeth two or three times, and changed clothes, I stayed at the office. It wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I knew why I was there. The clock continued to tick as I made phone calls to prospective clients and wannabe business partners. Each discussion was traceable. The telephone company would have records. Oren Demetri had been working late on Thursday night, as he did many other nights.

I didn’t fuck a secretary as Carmine suggested. Julie had long gone home, and that wasn’t an option. Even though there were women still in the building who were probably willing, I wasn’t looking. The only woman I wanted to see was my wife. I doubted that my return home would end the same way as an invitation to my office presented to one of the secretaries from the evening call center would.

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