I rolled my eyes and went to the door, then opened it up before I took up my place next to the window. I heard the door shut behind me before he set something on my mattress. The smell of toast and jam filled the room, but it was the scent of coffee that started my glands salivating.
I turned to look at my brother and saw him perched in a chair in the corner.
“Wanna talk?” Antony asked.
“No. Now get out.”
“Testy, testy. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Just tired.”
“I’ve seen you when you’re tired. This isn’t it.”
I simply shrugged.
“You haven’t been eating much lately.”
“Mom tell you that?” I asked.
“No. I noticed it. Well before she did. And I know when you don’t eat, something’s very wrong.”
“And I told you. I’m tired.”
“No, you’re not. Look, I know people around here think I’m some nighttime grunt with no head on my shoulders, but I see and hear more than people think. That’s the thing about men like me who blend into the shadows because of people’s presumptions. No one holds their tongue when I’m around because they don’t think I’m listening.”
“Do you have a point, Antony?”
“This has to do with the shooting on the docks, doesn’t it?”
I felt my shoulders tense as my eyes closed. I whipped my head around to him and glared at him as a small grin crossed his cheeks. Someone was talking, and I didn't like it. I didn’t like the fact that people were already whispering about how I had put a bullet between the eyes of a man who wouldn’t stand down. The only two men that were there with me were my bodyguards, and I sure as hell hadn’t told anyone.
Someone was getting fired today.
“I want everyone to get along,” I said. “I want to make things legitimate with this family. Why don’t people get that?”
“Because most of them are still stuck in the world Dad created. If you want to do things a different way, you have to get rid of those who refuse to change. You need fresh blood who will not fight you at every turn while you try to take this family legit,” he said.
“Easier said that done,” I quipped.
“What happened, Romeo?”
“Bullshit. That’s what happened. I went there with a check for twenty thousand dollars to pay for their troubles and told them we didn’t want the guns. I told them the ‘deal’ they had with Dad wasn’t a paper contract, so I wasn’t bound to any deal they made with him because I didn't shake on it. I even tried to tell them that plenty of men in the city would pay twice what they offered us for the guns they docked on the harbor. And they wouldn’t listen. Do you know what they told me?”
“What?” he asked.
“They told me that I was going to pay them their money, take the guns, and then keep doing business with them.”
“They clearly didn’t know who they were talking to,” he said, chuckling.
“Yeah. They fucking held this family for ransom. Said they weren’t going to destroy a decades-old relationship that greased their palms simply because I didn’t have the balls my father did.”
“Holy shit, Romeo. They really didn’t give you a choice, did they?”
“The men wouldn’t budge, Antony. I don’t get it. Twice. They could’ve gotten twice the money in forty-eight hours. Maybe three days tops. Why hold that shit over my head?”
“To undermine your authority? To show they had dominance over you now that Dad’s dead? It could’ve been any number of things, but you know what the common thread is?”
“What?” I asked.