It’ll never happen though. Feeling the tension settling in my shoulders again, I crack my neck. The feeling calming me and bringing me back to realization. I’m meant to be alone.My phone buzzes on the glass coffee table in the other room, the screen lighting up as it skids across the top. Getting up, I go into the sitting room and grab it, it’s my father.
Taking a deep breath, I pick it up.
“Hello?”
“Romeo, it’s time we talk.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I look forward, the door to my bedroom in my line of sight. I knew this was coming, I knew the devil would summon me.2Romeo“About what?” I sigh into the phone. Agitation making my hands ball into fists. This man’s voice alone makes me want to smash this fucking phone. Sometimes I think I’m solely on medication so I don’t kill him.
“You know what, stop with the games.” He raises his voice, and my nostrils flare. Doesn’t matter my age or position, he always talks down to me. Verbal and mental abuse takes a toll, but if you tell him that, he calls you a pussy. He doesn’t have a link of kindness in his DNA.
“I’m not the person for this…” I grit quietly into the phone. I can’t be like him, I refuse to.
“No shit, but again, let’s talk. Meet me at the Shady Tail in one hour.” The phone goes quiet as he’s hung up on his end.I love my brother, but hate him for leaving me to deal with this shit. We had a good thing going. He was the underboss and I was… well, whatever he needed. We worked good together. He knew me, is why, and I trusted him. I can’t help but wonder if I should betray our father and follow Kieran over to the other side, against our father and everyone we ever knew.
Something uneasy settles in my stomach thinking about that kind of betrayal. I don’t have it in me to do that, at least not yet. The night is still young.
Who knows where my head will be at after this so-called meeting with our father.
I chose to take a cab after the few drinks I had, so I pay my fee and get out. He drives off and I button the coat and look the strip club over. The lights of the club are bright with a LED tail blinking as if it’s waving back and forth, the name of the place lit up in blue letters underneath it.
Exhaling sharply, I head under the blue canopy where the doors are opened for me, I’m instantly greeted with the pounding bass of pop music, and a confusing smell of perfume and men’s cologne.
“Mr. DeAngelo.” A man nods his head at me, but I don’t recognize him. Father must have brought in new people after Kieran and Matteo left. A dancer trips over her heels, slamming down onto her face. I drop to her side and press my hand to the small of her back. Her skin is clammy and cold. She’s on the thinner side and has a snake tattoo wrapping around her hip. With all the dancing lights, I can’t see much more of her.
“Are you okay?” I ask her. Now on all fours, her blonde pigtails colored blue and pink, she looks up at me with a surprised look. As if she’s shocked that someone actually cares about her well-being and not if she will give them a discount.
Taking her by the hand, I help her to her feet.
“Go to the back and take those heels off, they’re too much,” I tell her, not caring what the rules of the place are.
“Thank you,” she says with a light smile, her creamy ass cheeks swaying as she walks away.
“That was nice of you, man. Most of the men that come in here are savages.”
I turn, finding the bouncer looking at me with a easygoing look and it occurs to me I did do something nice. Running the hand over the back of my neck, I try not to think too much about it. She fell, I helped. Wouldn’t anyone?
He slides a dark blue velvet curtain to the side, letting only me pass through. I give him a courteous nod and he drops the curtain back into place. Father and my uncles Tony, Leo, and Gio are all sitting around a poker table with a plume of cigar smoke above their heads. This is where everything goes down, where FEDS have had their own killed and tortured to get within earshot of these men and here I am as if someone pulled back the curtain of the magical Oz getting to see first-hand what goes down amidst New York. Father did have these secret meetings on a yacht that was passed down through the family, but Kieran burned that to a crisp. I feel the urge to smile thinking about it.