“What happened next?” she asked.
“Well, the owner whipped it around, you know what I mean, aiming at the three of us,” Dante said. “And he’s like, get out, get out, and Vince’s yelling back at him to drop the gun, and the dude freaks out and shoots the gun. Goes off like a fucking explosion and like ten bottles of whiskey explode on impact. Nobody gets hit, but shards of glass smash against our friend here.”
“Cut me deep,” he said. “And the whiskey burned like hell.”
“So Steven’s, like, run!” Dante said. “He books it, and I’m following, but I look back and see Vince here still in the store. He stares at the owner, the owner stares back, and Vince picks up a bottle of whiskey that didn’t get blown to pieces. He picks it up real slow and just holds it, and there’s blood running down his arm from the glass shards, and he just stares at the owner. They look at each other for like ten seconds, then Vince turns and walks out of the store. It was, without a doubt, the most insane thing I’ve ever seen.”
Dante finished his story and leaned back with a huge grin on his face. I laughed and shook my head, and of course I remembered it a little differently.
Most of that was true, except for the last part. When the clerk shot that stupid gun, it flew out of his hands, which was why he missed. That’s when I grabbed the bottle and we got out of there.
But I always liked Dante’s version better, so I let him tell it.
“That’s wild,” she said, laughing and shaking her head.
“We drank that fucking bottle that night, too,” I said. “Every single drop.”
“You guys were idiots,” she said. “You know that, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” Dante said. “We’re well aware.”
“But we had fun,” I said, stretching my legs. I picked up my espresso and took a long sip.
Dante let out a breath and nodded. “We really did. Not like these days, now we’re a bunch of old fucking men.”
“Old men that work a lot harder than we used to.” I put my espresso down.
“Very true,” Dante said. He leaned back and let out a breath. “You know I’ve met with ten community people today?”
“That’s a lot,” I said. “How do you even do it?”
He shook his head. “We do a lot of shit, you know, but I believe in taking care of these people.”
“Admirable,” Mona said.
“We all do,” Dante said. “Even this guy. Especially this guy. I got the idea of meeting with local people from him.”
She looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Is that true?”
“I always thought it was smart to know what the local people thought,” I said. “I could do them favors, you know, help them out. And when things went wrong, maybe they wouldn’t rat on me, or maybe they’d even help me. I do them favors, they do me favors, that sort of thing.”
She snorted. “Of course. Self-motivated.”
“It’s not like that,” Dante said. “He helped people even when there was nothing in it for him. Don’t let him make you think otherwise.”
Mona gave me a shrewd look and just shrugged.
I turned away from her and sipped my espresso again. “All right,” I said. “This has been fun, but I gotta ask you something, Dante.”
He held out his hands, palms up. “Ask away,” he said.
“Have you heard any rumors about the Jalisco lately?”
Dante frowned and cocked his head. He looked at Mona then back to me.
“Is this something we should talk about?” he asked.
“It’s okay,” I said. “She’s aware of what’s happening.”
Dante let out a breath. “Okay then,” he said. “You’re going to give your father an early heart attack, you know that?”
“I know,” I said with a smile. “So what have you heard?”
“Just whispers,” Dante said. “Rumors, that’s all. I don’t think any of it’s true.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Apparently they’re gearing up,” Dante said. “Buying weapons from that Irish gang, you know, the Celtic Club?”
“I thought Steven wiped them out.”
“He did, mostly,” Dante said. “But some of the former members still had their guns. I heard they sold what was left to the Jalisco. I didn’t think anything of it, you know, that shit happens, and it’s probably for the best that Steven didn’t have to deal with a bunch of armed former enemies. But now looking back on it…” He trailed off and shook his head.
“How long ago was that?” I asked.
“Couple weeks,” he said.
I sucked in a breath and frowned. “We started negotiating with the Russians three weeks ago,” I said.
“I know,” he said, shaking his head. “So if the Jalisco started gearing up that fast, it means someone leaked almost right away.”
“Shit,” I said.
“Like I said, this is just rumor,” Dante said. “It’s not from a reliable source.”
“But the Celts did sell their guns, right?”