“That was because he was afraid of Eduardo.”
“Because he respected Eduardo.”
“Whatever. He didn’t back off because he’d suddenly taken a liking to me.”
“Maybe he liked Holly.”
“He was going to kill her, too.”
“You got a point.”
“Of course I do. The point is, what’s going to happen when we walk in there? If we walk in there.”
“You’ll be with me.”
“You’re not big enough to hide behind.”
“He respects me.”
“Why, because he saved your skinny little ass from bullies when you were ten?”
“No, because I saved his fat ass from a long time upstate, and he appreciates that.”
“Okay, that takes care of you. What about Holly and me?”
“It’s transferable.”
“What?”
“The respect.”
“Look, these goombahs are murdering people they respect all the time, you know? The respect seems to kind of vary from day to day—one day you’re a prince of a guy, the next you’re in a fifty-five-gallon drum of lime in a New Jersey swamp, waiting for Judgment Day.”
“Stone, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so nervous.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had more reason to be nervous. I’ve been threatened and shot at and dragged all over the country, and—”
Holly broke in. “I did not drag you all over the country,” she said. “You came voluntarily.”
“That was only because I wanted to get you in the sack.”
“You had already gotten me in the sack. How soon you forget!”
Dino broke in. “You wanted to get me in the sack?”
“Oh, shut up. You know I was talking to Holly.”
“How do I know who you’re talking to? I can only hear you.”
“We’ve got to have a plan, Dino.”
“What sort of plan?”
“The kind of plan where men in black suits and body armor with automatic weapons and stun grenades go in first and let us know when they’ve got Trini handcuffed.”
“You don’t understand. Vito has a certain standing in his community, you know? He would not respond well to assault teams running up and down the aisles of his grocery store, tossing stun grenades. It would not reflect well on him in his neighborhood.”
“Well, we need some kind of a plan,” Stone said.