Cautious (Sequel to Disastrous) (7 page)

Lou shook his head, walked behind the desk, and hung his suit
jacket onto a coat rack. “Yeah, well, I guess that education I paid for was a
fuckin’ waste.” Gio shrugged and then placed his phone into his back pocket.

The six of us moved closer toward Lou, forming a U surrounding
his desk. Lou placed his wallet and revolver on top of a stack of papers and
then eased down into his chair. Once he was situated, he took a long hard look
at each and every one of us, not saying a word—just taking his time, scrutinizing
the six men before him. I straightened my shoulders as I shoved my hands into
my front pockets. Jimmie, to my right, had his arms crossed and was intently
focusing on Lou, while the others waited patiently.

Lou leaned back in his chair, laying an elbow on the armrest, as
his index finger and thumb framed his face. Crossing his legs, he let out a roguish
laugh. “I call bullshit.” Each of us gave the others questioning glares and
then turned our attention back on Lou. His smile widened. “I call bullshit
because it’s come to my attention that someone in this very room has been lying
to me.”

My breathing remained steady, but I felt a rush of heat course
through my veins. Jimmie shifted uncomfortably beside me. As I quickly glanced
over at him, I could see his forehead becoming damp. It was warm in the space
we occupied, but I knew my brother. He was fucking nervous. No one seemed to
notice the change in his demeanor but me.

Come on, Jimmie, don’t fuck this up.

“For years, I truly thought my men were loyal.” Lou sucked his
teeth three times as he slowly shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shame on me for
believing there were still devoted men in this world.” After one hard look at
each of us, he uncrossed his legs and leaned into the desk. His elbows were
placed on top of the wooden surface. He pointed an index finger and brought it
toward his lips as his thumb rested beneath his chin. He sat in deep thought
for a short period of time.

“What to do?” Lou questioned in a low voice. Then, as if
something lit up in his head, he spread his arms wide with a cocky grin. “Ah,
that’s right. If I need something done, I must do it myself!” He stood from his
chair, straightened his shoulders, and cracked his neck. Reaching for his
revolver, he tightened his grip around the handle, twirling and examining the
black metal piece in his hand. Everyone straightened, adjusting their positions.

Lou walked around the desk until he was in the center of us. He
slowly walked back and forth with his left hand behind his back. He gestured
with his right hand, tightly holding the gun, as he spoke, “See what I don’t
understand is, while thinking back on it all, I truly thought I took very good
care of my men.” Stopping to face me, he angled his head and asked, “Do you
think I do, Marky? Take good care of my men, that is?” I gave a curt nod in
response. With a crooked grin, he tapped the cold metal gun in his hand along the
side of my face, turned, and made his way back to the center. All traces of humor
washed away from his features as he stood tall and eyed every one of his men
before him. “If I take good care of my men, then tell me why the
FUCK
am I having this fuckin’ conversation!”
His arms spread wide as he glanced around the room like a lunatic.

“Tell me!” Lou’s face was slowly turning red as his anger built.
It was dead silent. The drop of a pin could be heard a mile away. Landing his
glare on Vinnie, he pointed his gun. “Vinnie, you got something to say?”

Vinnie shook his head. “No, boss.”

“Hmm.” Then Lou’s arm shifted over to Buddy. “Buddy, what about
you?” Lou asked.

Buddy raised a brow. “I’m the most loyal to you, Lou.”

Amused by that statement, Lou smiled mockingly as he approached
Buddy. “Is that so?”

Buddy stood his ground and nodded. “Yes, it is.” With both hands
folded behind his back, Lou leaned into him, their faces mere inches away from
one another as Lou drilled his eyes into Buddy’s for an awkwardly long time.

As if another idea just popped into his head, Lou swirled around and
made his way back toward the center. Raising his gun, he aimed it at Buddy.
“Eeny.” Lou smirked and then began pointing at each and every one of us, as he
continued. “Meeny. Miny. Moe. Catch a Rat.” The gun landed on Jimmie. I
stiffened. My body dampened with sweat as my heart thrashed against my chest.
All sound went faint, except for my breathing, which grew hasty. Everything
around me felt as if it was going in slow motion. I showed no sign of
uneasiness as I exhaled when Lou took the aim off of Jimmie and began to go
down the row of men again. “By his toe. If he squeals.” Mischievously, his
smile grew lopsided. “Then let the fucker go.” Without a second thought, Lou
pulled the trigger.

A loud ringing noise echoed in the room after the gun went off.
My eyes traced from the blood splattered on Lou’s shirt to Al dead on the
ground. He lay flat on his belly, his head landing on Lou’s leather shoes.
Kicking the head aside, Lou spit on the lifeless body and then made his way
behind the desk. The other men, including Jimmie and myself, looked at each
other, confused.

“Uncle Lou, Al was the rat?” Gio asked in astonishment.

Lou grabbed a cloth from the inside of his jacket. Removing his
shoe, he began wiping off the blood. “From the sound of it, Gio, it seems as if
you don’t believe my source was accurate. Is that so?” He asked. After wiping
off his shoes and putting them back on, he then unbuttoned his shirt, replacing
it with a fresh one that was removed from the desk drawer.

“No, not at all, it’s just when you mentioned a rat, my first
guess was Buddy. You know what I mean?”

“Fuck you!” Buddy coughed back and spit at Gio. The saliva fell
on top of Gio’s shoes.

“Fuck you. You fuckin’ cocksucker!” Gio began making his way
toward Buddy. The two of them had been going at it for days; it was some
unfinished business from years ago before Gio had skipped town. If you asked me,
it was really just a competition for Lou’s affection. They both were like sons
to him.

“Enough!” Lou slammed his hand on the desk and began barking orders.
“Vinnie and Buddy, take care of the body. Gio, go fetch the car and bring it
out back. I’ll meet you down there in five minutes. Marky, you got my money?”

Gio walked out the door. On his way out, he and Buddy exchanged pissed-off
glares. Buddy and Vinnie picked up the body from the floor and carried it down
the stairs. Jimmie reached for the duffle bag that was beside him and handed it
over to me. I placed the bag on top of Lou’s desk and unzipped it. “It’s all
accounted for.”

Lou reached for his jacket, slipped his arms through the
well-tailored dark blue sleeves, and smiled. “Good, how was the exchange?”

“Same as always with the Boyle’s: smooth. He placed another order
for this time next month.”

Nodding, Lou reached in the bag, took two large stacks of money,
and handed them to me. “You did good, Marky. Keep it up.” After grabbing the
bag, he left the room.

Once the door was shut, I turned and looked at Jimmie, gesturing
my head toward the door. Without a word, we both left Lou’s office and made our
way toward my car. When we entered, I twisted in my seat to fully look at him.
“What the fuck was that?”

“What?” He asked.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Jimmie. I know you. You were shitting
bricks in there. Care to explain?”

“What do you think, Marcus? When he said someone was hiding
something, I instantly thought about Michael. He’s going to find out sooner or
later.”

“No, he won’t.”

Jimmie tossed his hands in the air and rolled his eyes. “Come on,
Marcus! You can’t be that naïve? If he doesn’t know already, Lou is going to
figure out that Mia is Michael Sullivan’s sister, and when he does, Lou will
begin to piece together the fuckin’ puzzle. It’s only a matter of time. Al
wasn’t the rat. Lou was trying to send a message.” Huffing out a deep breath,
he sank his head back onto the headrest. “The one person that crossed my mind
while we were in there was my little girl. I can’t be a failure to her. And I
know you love Mia. I truly understand, but now you have to think about her too.
We need to dig deeper and get more info. There had to be someone Michael was
working with besides us. He was too smart to have done it any other way.”

With one last glance at him, I turned in my seat, started the car,
and pulled off.

What the fuck was I supposed to do now?

***

That night I lay in bed, staring blankly at the white
ceiling. My mind was sprinting with all of the chaos. I wasn’t being naïve as
Jimmie insinuated. I knew that eventually Lou would figure it all out. I guess
I had been in denial, keeping that thought tucked away in the back of my mind,
hoping it would all go away. My main focus for so long had been Mia, but I
couldn’t stop Jimmie’s words as they trampled through my head.

I fought back the urge to grab a drink. There was always
something soothing about having liquor course through my bloodstream. It made
everything seem to vanish in that moment. It was another weakness of mine along
with Mia.

I was becoming weak, and that was the one thing that I couldn’t
become while managing that lifestyle. Weakness was a sign of failure. I’d come
too far to fail. Mia was my greatest weakness and I knew that. I had to find a
way to juggle it all, because if I kept going about everything the way I had
been, she’d be the death of me.

CHAPTER SIX

MIA

“What’s wrong, Mia?” Megan chirped from the other end
of the clothing rack.

I hadn’t realized that I was dozing off. Yawning, I forced a
smile. “I’m just tired. I stayed up all night studying for an exam.”

“Sorry, I promise I won’t keep you long. This is the first date
Jeremy is taking me on, like an actual date.” She smiled as her eyes glistened.
“I’m nervous.”

“It’s normal to be nervous. Do you know where he’s taking you?”

“Yeah, the restaurant is called La Matrix d sover?”

I bit back a laugh. “
La Maître de saveur
?”

Megan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, that place.”

Not able to help it the second time around, I burst into a laugh.
“It’s French for ‘The Master of Flavor.’ It’s a
very
nice restaurant.” I
was beyond impressed with Jeremy. He never took a date to an elaborate place. That
was a definite sign that he appreciated and respected Megan.

Megan clapped her hands excitedly and jumped in place as her long
light brown waves bounced along with her. “Oh, I’m so excited. So you know
what’s appropriate to wear for this restaurant?”

“Oh yeah, come on, we are off to search for the perfect cocktail
dress.” I winked.

***

Several hours later, we found the perfect dress for Megan’s
date. We went our separate ways as I went home and she went to her place, well,
the place that she shared with my mother. Sara had come a long way since the
day she waltzed back into my life. Our mother-daughter relationship wasn’t
perfect, but we were working on it. We had made it a priority to meet up once a
week, despite our busy schedules. Tomorrow, we had plans for dinner.

In the meantime, Marcus was coming over that night, so I had to
prepare for our evening. It was our fourth date night. An entire week had
passed since we made up. As much as I would have loved to have spent every
single day with him, our hectic schedules just didn’t allow it, unless we had
been living together, and that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. After a
long, exhausting week for the both of us, we decided to stay in and watch
movies.

I had set up the living room so that we could have an indoor
picnic, with an oversized blanket and pillows spread across the floor, along with
all the junk food known to man. As I stared down at my grand attempt to romanticize
a regular night at home, a hint of disappointment ran through me. I hadn’t
exercised in weeks, and all the junk food and late night take-outs were
beginning to show—on my ass and hips.
Tomorrow
, I thought to myself.
Tomorrow
I’ll begin working out again
.

“So, what do you think?”

I swirled around, and my earlier concerns about my rapidly increasing
weight vanished. Jeremy looked positively handsome in a black suit, light grey
shirt, and matching silk tie. His curly blond hair was well kept and blue
sparkly eyes glistened.

“I take it by the huge smile on your face that you like what you
see?” He raised a brow.

“Jeremy, you look amazing!” I stared at him in awe for a few
seconds before padding my way toward him. Resting my hands along his chest, I
ran them across his suit jacket. For some reason, I wanted to make sure every
single crease or wrinkle was smoothed perfectly. I felt like a proud mom, which
was an odd thought. I loved that he and Megan were becoming closer, though I
hadn’t had the chance to discuss their relationship with him. “Jeremy?”

“Yes?” He whispered.

As I adjusted his tie, I quickly glimpsed up at him. He was
staring down at me with a slight grin. His aqua blue eyes sparkled with humor. Nerves
pricked through me, and I began to fiddle with the tie. I brought my focus back
down to my fingers. Wetting my lips, I cleared my throat. “So, you and I really
haven’t had time to talk.”

He shrugged. “Talk about what?”

Letting out a soft sigh, I pressed my hands along his shoulders.
“Well . . . about you and Megan.” I looked up. His expression grew serious. “We
don’t have to talk now. . .” I quickly added.

“What do you want to know?”

“How are you feeling? What are your intentions? Are you taking
this seriously?” I blurted all out at once. His lips twitched aside. “Look.
You’re my best friend, Jeremy. Hell, I see you as more of a brother than a friend.
Megan’s my cousin. I just want to make sure that neither one of you gets hurt. I’ve
never interfered with your relationships unless I was asked, but I feel as if I
need to know what’s going on between the two of you, for my sanity.” I laughed
once.