“Curious about where you’re goin’?” I ask.
He looks at me expectantly. And I know he is terrified. And it feels fucking great.
I fix the tape back over his mouth. His eyes get panicked and he tries to talk.
I laugh. “Say hello to your ma for me.” I slam the door.
And I walk away. And I don’t have difficulty doing that, knowing he’s about to be loaded into that plane never to be seen again.
During my last few sleepless nights I’ve had a lot rolling around in my mind and one of those things that has come up a few times is concern I’ll have trouble letting him go. Even had a momentary thought to send him somewhere else, someplace I can keep going back to.
But no, I don’t need to set up my own Porto Campo. What I need to do is find a way to let this go.
I need to do this for Violet.
I also need to do it for me. It felt good at the time, the ability to inflict pain on him for what he did to her, particularly after the second-guessing after I shot Max. But what it became for me wasn’t good, wasn’t healthy. And I almost lost my beautiful Violet because of it.
I have the girl. The girl loves me. The girl forgave me, thank God. It’s time to move forward and put Raymond Iadanza behind us.
But yeah, I’m happy he’ll have it rough. Rougher than I expressed to Violet. Porto Campo is a nightmare factory from the little I’ve heard about it and I’m sure the reality is much, much worse. I’m counting on that.
All Violet needs to know is that he’s gone, he’s never coming back to bother us, and as requested I did not kill him. And I was truthful about the fact that it’s up to Raymond how badly it goes for him there.
No, I didn’t kill him, won’t get to, but I’ll glean some satisfaction from the fact that he’ll spend the rest of his existence wishing I did, wishing he’d never fucked me over, wishing he’d never even touched her.
***
I get a call from Craig, the Numbers manager, as I’m merging with traffic to leave the airport. The alarm system has gone offline at Numbers. He says he’s unable to look in on all surveillance systems, but wants to know if I can have someone go there to make sure everything looks good. He says his girlfriend had a death in her family and is upset so if at all possible, he doesn’t want to leave her alone.
I tell him I’ll head over there, that I’m out on an errand and not far from the club so I’ll swing by on my way home.
I watched Craig closely when I was there two days ago. He seems like himself, though distracted, but when all this shit is over, he’s getting fired. I can’t have someone on my team that I don’t trust. That alarm went offline a couple hours ago and it took him this long to notice and call me.
He’s lost access to the systems, but I left the notifications on to see how long before he called or whether the place would suddenly get burglarized. Jag’s team knew it, too, and have been watching to see if anyone suspicious arrived.
As for Stephanie Whitley, she did a piss-poor job of pretending she wasn’t fascinated with watching whatever I was doing to the degree it was like she was my shadow the other day.
And the ugliness that came off her, she’s definitely felt like she has an axe to grind. Why? Because I fired Hoffman’s girl for stealing from me? Because Hoffman got a visit from Tony after they fucked with my clubs and my brother’s house? Because they feel entitled to the fruits of my hard work? Some people are so fucking entitled, so twisted up in their greed. Instead of looking at everything I’ve got and thinking about the hard work it took to get there and planning their own route to success, they scheme to figure out how to take it off the people who worked for it.
So, Stephanie Whitley got news Felix was found dead at the landfill, so is probably spinning her wheels wondering which of Hoffman’s enemies did it. Lowlife drug dealer known for playing in his lab and making bad drugs that make people overdose - I’m guessing he has plenty of them.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to keep his crew involved in ripping me off on New Year’s Eve for the sake of Hoffman, as some sort of homage to the punk.
Jag and his team are there making some adjustments to the system and Jag and the cops are ironing out the plan for New Year’s Eve. I haven’t let Craig in on anything because he’s sleeping with Hoffman’s mole and I suspect has no clue what her plans are. But I know better than to assume anything when it comes to money, greed, deceit, and the lengths a man will go to for his woman.