“Then don’t do it,” I said.
“I have to.”
“There you go. I guess you don’t have choices after all.”
He clenched his jaw. “You know how many people you just got killed?” he asked.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Giving the Don that property in Chicago just guaranteed he’s going to push into that city and people are going to die. If you stood up and refused to give him anything, then maybe he’d never make that move, and lives would be saved. Are you a monster then, for letting him do it?”
I shook my head. “It’s different.”
“It’s not,” he said. “You’re forced into a shit position, so you’re making the best of it. Just like everyone else.” He shook his head and walked to the kitchen. “I’m going to call Steven and set this hit up. I’d go get changed if I were you.”
“Wait, you’re going to do it tonight?”
“Damn right,” he said. “Put on something black. Maybe something sexy.” He stormed into the kitchen without another word.
I sat there on the couch, body ringing as I digested his words. I got up slowly and felt like I’d just aged twenty years in ten minutes, like my whole world was coming apart at the seams and I was barely holding my stitching together.
I walked to the stairs, stared up them, and slowly climbed to my room.13LucaTemple University was an oasis of lights in the middle of lower north Philadelphia. The buildings jutted up from the city like futuristic fungus, separate from the otherwise blighted buildings just on their outskirts. The school was almost an entire city in itself, separate from the rest of the city around it. North Philadelphia was not the safest place in the world, and had been plagued by gang violence and general economic collapse for years. Temple was one of the few bright spots, one of the few places that was actively hiring and bringing more money into the community.
In that sense, everyone in the area loved Temple. But they also hated how it drove up the cost of living, made rents more expensive for local folks trying to live their lives, made food more expensive, restaurants unattainable, and increased police presence all over the place.
I had a soft spot for Temple. I could remember coming up to the school when I was younger and hustling the stupid college kids. I used to sneak into frat parties, break into the bedrooms, and steal as much money as I could get my hands on. I got my ass kicked once or twice, but mostly I dished it out much more than I ever got it. Those were some fun days, back when I was young and reckless and carefree, but now we were headed to the school on much, much worse business.
I reached Cecil B. Moore Avenue and turned left, heading up the numbered streets. Clair moved restlessly in the passenger seat, staring at the houses as they flipped past.
“I’ve never been up here before,” she said.
“Really?” I asked. “You live in this city, and you’ve never been to Temple.”
“Never had a reason.”
“It’s a nice school. Lots of stupid kids to fuck with.”
She gave me a look. “Is that all you ever think about, how to take advantage of people?”
I laughed softly and shook my head. “Not at all,” I said. “I think about how to keep my friends safe. I think about how to help my family.”
“Oh, right, I forgot. You’re the consummate gangster.”
“We can’t have a single conversation where you don’t give me shit, can we?”
She opened her mouth then snapped it shut again. She adjusted her hair, tightened her bun, crossed her arms. She wore dark jeans and a black tank top, and I could see a hint of her cleavage between her arms, just enough to get my heart beating fast.
“Fine then,” she said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Did you go to college?” I asked.
“I took some classes at Penn.”
“No kidding?” I smirked at her, genuinely surprised. “I knew you were smart, but I didn’t know you were that smart.”
She smiled a little bit. “Well, you were right, because I’m not. I dropped out after two semesters.”
“Huh,” I said. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Couldn’t handle it, I guess.”
“Come on, that’s bullshit. What do you mean, you couldn’t handle it?”
She shook her head and stared out the window. The houses were half crumbling, half boarded up. The grass was dead or dying in places, and in others it was overgrown and swallowing entire plots whole, the weeds going wild and jungle dank. Trash littered the sidewalks, plastic bottles thrown into bramble bushes, fast food bags rotting in the gutter.
Packs of college kids roamed the streets, moving in groups for safety. Stray cats flitted down the streets like ghosts, disappearing under parked cars with broken taillights and smashed side mirrors.