“I have to work, but I will give any of you a couple grand if you slip a laxative into August’s sauce,” Sofia said, giving everyone a wicked smirk. “Mass,” she said, turning to me. “What’s the schedule? You going out or staying in town?” she asked.
“Looks like in for a while.”
“No shit. Nice. Alright. Well, you have my number if your grocery order changes.”
“Thanks, Sof,” Luca called, getting a distracted wave over her shoulder as she made her way outside.
Nino’s hand slapped onto my shoulder, making me turn to see him pointing at our brother whose cocky smile slipped from his face as he saw Sofia making her way out of the restaurant.
He quickly ducked into his car and drove off.
“You coming to Josie’s?” Nino asked.
It was no question that he would be there. Nino had offered Josie a lifetime of servitude since she had kept me from sure death during a shootout and kidnapping situation. He would be there, carrying heavy platters and loading the dishwasher. Taking out the trash.
Even though Josie would insist that he had more than paid her back for “just doing what anyone else would have done in that situation.”
Nino took shit like that seriously.
I couldn’t help but wonder how he was going to be able to juggle it when he eventually owed another person a ‘lifetime of servitude’ for doing something for him or his.
“I’m still jet-lagged as fuck,” I admitted, shaking my head. I’d just got in the day before, after flying back and forth to help the New York mafia deal with some shit in California, then New York, then California again.
They had their own enforcer.
Who was something like a wild animal.
But sometimes they liked to offer out more sensitive jobs to me when my own Family could spare me.
“Some good food would help,” Nino reasoned because, in our family, good food fixed everything.
“Tomorrow,” I assured him, shrugging. “Give Ma a chance to fuss,” I added.
“She does like doing that,” Nino said, nodding. “Alright. Go get some rest,” he told me before heading out himself.
“How did things go with the New York Family?” Luca asked when it was just him and Lucky left.
“You know New York. Complicated, but it all shook out. After going back and forth three times.”
“Anything we need to worry about coming back on this Family?” Luca asked.
“Nah. In the end, the disagreement was… solved. In the non-permanent way,” I explained.
“Really?” Luca asked, seeming almost as surprised as I had been when the New York boss informed me of the change in plans.
“Yeah. Would have been nice to know that before I found myself in that Shady Valley place for the third time. But I guess the Costa Family came to some sort of agreement with the Bratva there, so no one had any need for me.”
“Did you still get paid for the job?” Luca asked.
“Yeah. Costa even tossed in some money for ‘sticking me in some small-ass town in the middle of nowhere,’ so it all shook out. I’m just happy to be home.”
“It was California, man, how bad could it have been?”
“There are two places to go in town,” I told them. “A pool hall run by the Bratva family I was there to possibly off, and an Irish mob bar.”
“Oh, shit,” Lucky said, chuckling.
“And the only place to stay was some old-ass motel straight out of an eighties movie,” I added, having flashbacks to the small room with hideous drapes and a mattress where the coils were poking out in places. I needed to check my files to make sure I was up to date with my fucking tetanus shots.