All the traditions of marriage that she had expected me to follow. I’d do my best for her sake.
If she was here with me she would be giving me all sorts of advice on what to do in this situation.
But she wasn’t and I was alone.
Planning a wedding because I wanted to spite Dante and thought that everything in life could be done with the power of spite backing me.
My friends were going to kill me for trying on wedding dresses without them. We had always done everything together and now it felt like I was taking away a memory we were supposed to share.
But I couldn’t stop myself.
Selfish.
It was showing itself again.
I had to get this wedding planned because it was the last big thing I was going to be doing. This wasn’t just my wedding but the funeral of my freedom and I planned to go out with a hell of a party.
22DANTE
“How are we supposed to work with the Cartel if they keep on fucking sending people here to work in the places we’re distributing?” My father was losing his cool as my cousin Gio looked at me nervously.
When my father got started on the Cartel he would often go on long tangents about how working with them had been a foolish idea.
It had been my idea so it was that much worse to hear about it.
There were a few younger guys that were more my crew than my fathers.
My cousin Gio, who ran a lot of intel as well as fronted as our accounted. Enzo, who I had grown up with and despite him being a little air headed at times would be there for anything. And then there was my cousin Francesco, who I was sure my father wished was his son instead of me. But Fran was deadly and loyal, making plans with me since we were just two dumb kids.
I trusted my crew with my life.
“And whatever happened to that fucking Irish dickhead, Sean Murphy from South Boston who tried to fucking rig that card game last month. Did you send Francesco to deal with that scum of the Earth?”
As if on cue Francesco walked into the meeting looking around with a smirk that I’m sure the devil himself had taught him how to do.
“All taken care of Uncle.”
He greeted my father, nodding his head at me as he sat down at the table in the spot that his father would have sat if he wasn’t serving life in Cedar.
He hadn’t been a rat and everyone took turns visiting him, my father kept his commissary filled and the guards palms greased to give him a cushy life there. It was a sign of respect to take care of him for his service to the family.
My cousin Francesco was my best friend.
We had grown up together, as close as brothers. He was a couple years younger than me but Fransisco was different from me. I might have been bulkier but he was lean and strong, the sort of guy you wouldn’t look at twice until he was holding you by your throat choking the life out of you.
And he liked that role of choking the life out of someone.
Francesco was the villain of stories, the one who would kill on command and not lose any sleep over it. He’d go to St. Leonards after, say his rosary in penitence, and be in bed with whatever willing girl would have him.
And there was a never ending line of women who wanted him.
We looked like brothers, same curly hair but instead of wearing it slicked back, Francesco let it grow long, preferring the current style of it shaved on the sides and wild on top.
His eyes were the same as his mothers, a light green that held no feeling. We were about the same height, our builds different but he could still pass as my younger brother.
“Francesco, so good of you to join us.”
My father wasn’t mad about him being late. I don’t think he ever got really upset with Francesco. He always did his job and served the family first. My father appreciated the sacrifice his brother had made and looked after his nephew like a son.
“I’m sorry, Uncle. I woke up in quite a tangle this morning but I couldn’t miss the meeting or Dante’s engagement party. I am looking forward to seeing the bride.”
This is the problem with Francesco. He didn’t quite understand that a woman could be off limits and had been on the hit list of many husbands in the North End since he was sixteen years old.
He wanted to be the villain in the story.
“Business first.”
I looked at my father, giving Francesco a quick glance to let him know that his comment about my bride hadn’t gone unnoticed but I would deal with that after.
But he flashed a smile at me like he couldn’t wait to see me try.
Bastard.
“We have a meeting next week with the Cartel contact. We can talk about where they move product and if we increase our product we buy I’m sure that it won’t be a problem.” My father nodded in agreement with me, “We also have a big game going on this weekend and have invited a lot of people to come to it on Friday night and Saturday. I’ve planned to have the game start at 11 after the restaurant clears to avoid too many people seeing what is going on. The house should be able to get close to a million if we play our cards right.”
The pun slipped out as my father nodded, I could see he was impressed with the numbers that I was giving to him.