The Beautiful People (10 page)

Those words stung as if
Brittany had physically slapped me. She was right, I wasn’t a Crimson girl and
I hadn’t really felt like I’d fit in since my first day.

            “Shut up!”
Grant bellowed. “Joey, get her out of here.”

            “Go home
Brittany. You’re not working tonight,” Miranda said. The crowd parted, letting
Joey and his angry cargo through.

            “What the
hell happened?” Grant asked.

            “Brittany’s
a tad jealous,” Dominic answered.

            “That’s an
understatement. She came completely unhinged. Is that why you carry a gun
Grant?” I asked with a shaky voice. Brittany’s outburst had rattled me more
than I thought. 

            “Very
funny.” Grant stared at me for a few moments, then turned and left.

            “He’s still
pissed, huh?” I asked Miranda.

            “Yup. Are
you okay?”

I nodded. Dominic
rubbed the small of my back and kissed the top of my head. We left the lounge
together and walked with Miranda to her office. Dominic turned towards me.

            “I’m sorry
about Brittany.”

            “Don’t
apologize for her. Besides, I instigated some of it.” I told Dominic what I
said and he grinned.

“Man,
I wish I could have seen the look on her face when you said that!”

            “Yeah, it
was pretty good.” I stared down at the floor, my false bravado quickly fading.

            “What?”

            “She’s
right though, you know? I’m not one of you.”

            “And I love
that about you.” He leaned down and kissed me. “Ignore anything Brittany says. She’s
just a mean, spiteful bitch.”

            “Dom, don’t
mean to break up the love fest, but you need to go set up your bar,” Miranda
said.

            “Yes, boss.”
He saluted, a playful smirk twitching across his face, and left.

I decided to take
advantage of the time alone with Miranda. “Why is Brittany so intense?” I had
seen many cat fights in my day, but never involved in one. Brittany’s temper
was fierce and quick to flare. Now I knew why Miranda warned me about her.

            “Her life’s
been kind of fucked up.”

            “Well, mine
hasn’t been a fairy tale either and you don’t see me acting like that.”

            “Brittany’s
father died when she was like ten years old and her younger brother is in
jail.”

            “Oh, that
is bad.”

            “Yeah, she
has a lot of anger.” Understatement of the year, I thought to myself. “Her dad
was a friend of my dad’s so he got her a job here to help out after her brother
got sent to prison. She helps to support her mom.”

            “I had no
idea.”

            “And she’s
had a crush on Dom since puberty so that is why she has you in her sights,”
Miranda explained.

I had been unwittingly
encroaching on Brittany’s territory. From working in the VIP section to dating her
childhood crush, I was taking things away from her. After losing so much in her
life already, I could understand why she would try to hold onto everything else
so tightly.

            We reached
Miranda’s office and I stopped while she unlocked the door.

            “She needs
some time to cool off and I’ll talk to her. She needs to know this behavior at
work isn’t acceptable.”

            “Well
thanks for giving me some background on Brittany.”

Miranda turned before
entering her office. “Everybody has a history and everybody has secrets,” she
said and shut the door, leaving me to stand there and contemplate her cryptic
statement.

The night passed by
without any more drama. Marco and his boys didn’t make an appearance either and
that made for a low key evening. It was a relief to walk into the employee
lounge and not worry about confronting Brittany. I passed Joey D. on my way out
and noticed he had fresh scratch marks all over his forearms.

            “Are those from
Brittany?”

            “Yeah,
she’s one crazy bitch. I’m glad I came in when I did, she can be nasty.”

            “I’m glad
you did too! Thanks for intervening.”

            “No prob.
Take it easy.”

I was still shaking my
head in disbelief when I walked up to Dom’s bar. He smiled and went back to
cleaning. He seemed distracted and not as cheerful.

            “Rough
night?”

            “Huh? Not
really.”

            “You okay?”

            “Yeah. I’ll
be done in a minute. I was thinking we should go out afterwards.”

            “We can
just go back to your place.”

            “No. I
wanna go out.” He placed a drink in front of me.  His abruptness made me feel
uneasy and my gut twisted into knots.

The ride was quiet.
Dom’s dark eyebrows creased together forming a pensive expression. There was
something on his mind. That much I could tell. My repeated attempts to find out
didn’t yield anything, sending my imagination into overdrive. Dominic navigated
his Mustang down the dimly lit street. By the time he parked in front of the
now familiar condemned building I was convinced he was going to break up with
me. Once inside The Speak, he placed his hand on the small of my back and
guided me to the same small table we always sat at. Dominic went up to the bar
and ordered drinks. He came back with a bottle of Dom Perignon and two
champagne flutes. His face was brighter and the smile he flashed reached his
eyes.

“What
the hell?”

“We’re
celebrating.” He said as he popped the cork and poured the bubbly. He held up
his flute to toast. “To us!” He clinked his glass against mine and we sipped. After
a couple of glasses I was feeling the buzz. We were both laughing
uncontrollably at anything. I rested my head on his shoulder to catch my
breath. All of a sudden a commotion broke out in the back room. I heard a bunch
of men yelling and the doorman, Sam, took off down the hall. Gunshots exploded
and I hit the floor. Dominic hunched over me protectively. Our champagne bottle
was on the floor having been knocked over when I bumped against the table. Several
other patrons were crouched down in similar positions. Dominic made sure I was
okay and then leapt up.

“Where
are you going?” I hissed.

“To
see what happened.”

“Are
you crazy? You’re going to get shot!”

“Relax
Nat. Everything’s fine.” He spun around and left the room.

I stood up slowly on
shaky legs to follow him. Acrid gun smoke clouded the air, tickling my throat.
I peeked around the doorway and down the hall. My eyes saw the blood first. A
pool crept outwards from a man lying motionless on the floor. The man was lying
on his back. The force of the bullet had knocked him backwards in his chair when
it entered his head. What was left of his skull was the source of the pool of
blood. I couldn’t turn away. The slow creep hypnotized me. I could identify
bits of bone, stark white islands in a red sea. Chunks of brain matter settled
in the pool like gelatinous mounds. The dead man’s right arm was flung up over
his head, damming the flow, which had already started to coagulate and collect
in the grooves of the wooden floorboards.  A gun lay a few inches from his open
hand.

I wasn’t aware of the
sets of eyes staring at me. The sound of my brother’s voice broke my trance,
“What is she doing here?” There was an accusatory tone to his voice.

My head snapped up at
the sound of Grant’s voice. I looked away from the body and focused on the back
room. Grant was standing on the other side of the table flanked by Dominic and
Sam. All three were looking at me. Sam’s expression was of wariness, Dominic’s of
concern and Grant’s was all anger. I then took on the rest of the scene. Two
other men were lying face down on the table in smaller pools of blood. My eyes
moved to Grant again, he was the only one holding a gun.

The vodka tonics and the
champagne burned up the back of my throat. I bent over and vomited onto the floor
of the hallway. Dizzy, I reached one hand out against the wall for support. I
wiped my mouth with the back of my other hand and stared at a spot on the floor
that wasn’t covered in vomit or blood or brains. My heart pounding in my ears,
I tried to slow my breathing. I needed to sit but was unable to move at first. Slowly,
I slid down the wall and hugged my knees to my chest. I closed my eyes and
willed myself to get a grip. The heavy metallic smell of blood that hung in the
air wasn’t helping to clear my head, but I was eventually able to calm down and
became vaguely aware of people talking in the bar area behind me. No one else
had gotten up to investigate. 

“Hey
Uncle Al,” Dominic called down the hall, “Can you help Natalie for me?” Dominic
was trapped on the other side of the body and the lake of blood. A tall, wiry man
with salt and pepper hair and a goatee appeared at my side and helped me up. He
wrapped his arm around my back in a fatherly gesture and helped me across to
the bar. My legs were still shaking and I welcomed the bar stool. The bartender
set a glass of ice water in front of me and I gingerly took a sip, grateful to
wash down some of the bile residue. Uncle Al sat down next to me.

“How
ya doin’?” he asked.

“I…I
don’t know how to answer that.” I honestly didn’t. I was scared, sick,
horrified at the gruesome scene I had just witnessed and in shock that my
brother was responsible for the carnage. I was even more unnerved that everyone
else was so calm. It was like nothing had ever happened. “I need something
stronger than water.”

The bartender set a
glass of cognac in front of me. I took a healthy swig and braced myself for it
to come back up. Fortunately, it soothed my stomach instead and the warmth
spread out through my muscles, acting as an anesthetic for my nerves.

“There.
Do you feel better?” Uncle Al patted my hand. He must have seen me relax. I
turned to look at him and saw the same green eyes as Dominic and Miranda, only
lined with crow’s feet. His skin had an olive complexion, like Dominic’s.

“I
do. Thank you.”

“You
just sit here. That mess will be cleaned up in no time.” My hands started
shaking again and I quickly took another sip. “I’m Dominic’s Uncle, Al Grabano.”
He shook my trembling hand.

“I’m
Natalie Ross.” It seemed to be an odd time for introductions. He was looking at
my profile and I could feel him evaluating my behavior. Now that the initial
shock had worn off and the booze had started to kick in I thought I was ready
to process the situation, a little bit at a time. “What happened?” I asked,
hesitantly.

“I
think we better wait for Grant and Dominic to answer your questions.” We sat in
silence. The smell of bleach wafted into the room and soon filled it up
completely. Scrubbing sounds drifted down the hall and a door slammed a couple
of times. The other men in the room carried on their conversations over drinks,
oblivious to the activities around them. After the second glass of cognac my
stomach burned a little and my eyelids grew heavy. I rested my head against my
hand and dozed off.

Men were arguing and I
recognized the voices as I became more coherent. Grant and Dominic were
shouting at each other.

“What
the fuck were you thinking bringing her here tonight?”

“She
needed to know.”

“No
she didn’t and even if she did, for her to find out this way? Brilliant fucking
plan!”

“Well
it’s done. I don’t like keeping secrets from her. She deserves to know who I
am.”

“What
about my secret, Dom? There you go, always thinking about yourself.”

“Fuck
you Grant. Would you have ever told her? ”

“I
don’t know - probably not. What’s up with you anyway? Why Natalie? You’ll
probably be bored with her in a month, like everyone else you’ve fucked around
with.”

“She
means a lot to me,” Dominic admitted.

“She’d
better, because if you hurt her, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Now,
now Grant, don’t go making threats against my nephew.”

Recognizing the
gravelly voice of Marco, I tensed up. This statement silenced Grant and the
charged atmosphere dissipated.

            “I’ll deal
with Dominic later, but right now we have a situation. Your sister, as pretty
as she may be, has become a fucking liability.”

I fully woke then and
opened my eyes. I was curled up on a leather couch and my head was on Dominic’s
coat.  At first I thought everything had been a bad dream until I smelled the
bleach. It cut right through the leather and cologne of Dominic’s jacket.
Feeling more alert, I sat up straight and looked around.

We weren’t alone. Uncle
Al, Sam the doorman, Dominic’s father, Rico, and Miranda were all in the dimly
lit room along with Uncle Marco, Grant and Dom. Some were standing, some were sitting,
and all were observing me. When Grant noticed I was awake, he moved closer to Miranda.
Dominic sat down next to me and his lap replaced the jacket. He gently stroked
my hair.

“Natalie,
we need to talk." It was Grant who broke the silence. Miranda touched his
arm. He reached over and rested his hand on top of hers and stood up straighter.
It was like they drew strength from each other’s presence. “What you saw
tonight cannot leave this room.” He glanced over at Uncle Marco, who sat in
silence across from the sofa Dominic and I were on. Marco gestured for Grant to
continue. “Our lives depend upon it.” I was taken aback at this statement and
at the serious expression on Grant’s face.

“Grant,
did you kill those men?” He confirmed by nodding his head. I gasped and shrunk
back against the sofa. Dominic put his arm around me. I shrugged it off and
hissed at him. “You knew about this.”

I looked to Miranda for
help. She had her arms crossed in front of her and was eyeing me warily. “What
is this? Are you guys like the mafia or something?”

Marco shot a warning
look at Grant. I gasped as realization sunk in. George “The Stump”, that guy
that was on the news, the mob hit. “Oh my God, this isn’t the first time you’ve
killed someone is it?”

Grant flinched slightly
at my words before answering carefully, “No it isn’t.”

I stared at my brother as
if seeing him for the first time. He had a hard time meeting my eyes. I didn’t
know what to say and Grant didn’t seem to either. The room filled with an
awkward silence.

Miranda left Grant’s
side to sit next to me on the sofa. “Natalie, I know this all must
be…overwhelming,” she looked at me, her eyes burning with intensity. “We need
to know that we can trust you to keep quiet.”

I repeated Grant’s words
in my head.
Our lives depend on it
. Dominic reached for one of my hands.
They had balled up into fists on my lap and he was struggling to wrestle my
fingers free. “Nat, please,” he begged. “I can’t lose you.”

“It
would be a shame to lose Grant too. He’ll be hard to replace,” Marco
threatened. I was running out of time. Of course I was going to keep my mouth
shut. That was the smart thing to do when faced with an ultimatum like this.
Keep quiet or die? Hmmm let me think… it was a no brainer, but what scared me
was what I was agreeing to do. I knew three men were dead, murdered in cold
blood by my own brother. I didn’t know the reasons why, I didn’t know if they
were bad people who deserved it, but by agreeing to stay quiet their blood
would forever be on my hands…and their death scenes would be forever engrained
in my memory.

“You
can trust me,” my voice quivered and I looked directly at Marco. “You have my
word. I won’t turn against my brother, he’s family.” Dominic squeezed my hand.
Miranda breathed a sigh of relief and got up to stand next to Grant.

“I
told you it would work out,” she whispered in his ear.

Uncle Marco stood up,
commanding the room’s attention. “I’m glad to hear that. Just remember if you
tell anyone – anyone, both you and your brother are dead,” Uncle Marco warned,
his black eyes void of all emotion.

“I
understand.”

“Well,
now that that’s all cleared up, welcome to the family, doll! You’re going to
get to know all of us a lot better.” With a flip of an invisible switch Uncle Marco
was jovial. He crossed over to me and yanked me up off the couch. He kissed
each cheek before giving me a big hug that lifted me off of my feet. He set me
down, grabbing a quick handful of ass and I had to steady myself. Dominic stood
up and wrapped his arm around my waist.

“I’ll
talk to you later about this,” Marco said to Dominic, then turned around and
left the room with Uncle Al and Dom’s dad close behind.

“Nat
I am so sorry,” Grant said. His shoulders were tense, like he was carrying the
weight of the world.  

“How
long have you been killing people Grant? Is this a hobby of yours?”  

“Not
a hobby, a job.”

“Now
that I’m involved, I want to know everything.” I looked around the room at
Miranda, Grant and finally Dominic. “Everything.”

Dominic nodded, he understood.
We had agreed to be honest with each other. I swore to protect his family in
order to protect mine, he owed me the truth. 

“Let’s
go back to my place. We’ll eat some breakfast and talk,” Dominic offered. Grant
and Miranda agreed. We stepped out of the room into a small hallway. To the
right was a set of stairs that led down a flight. I realized that we had been
in the same house the whole time. Just one floor above where the three men had
been shot.

The sun had come up while
we were cloistered inside and it felt like we were in slow motion as the rush
hour traffic buzzed around the Mustang. A million questions raced through my
mind. None of these were answered until we were inside Dominic’s condo. We
gathered around the granite breakfast bar drinking coffee.

“Grant
when did you get involved in this shit?”

He
set his mug down and paused before answering. “Five years ago. You were a
senior in high school.”

“How?”

“Remember
that construction job I had over the summer? That was Grabano and Sons.”

“Oh…but
that was construction. When did you start blowing people’s heads off?”

Grant inhaled deeply
before beginning. “These guys showed up on a job site and Dom’s dad was pissed
they were there. It was one of those brutal, muggy July days and tempers were
pretty hot. Things started to escalate and one of these guys pulled a gun on Dom’s
dad. I didn’t even hesitate and ran up behind the guy and tackled him. The gun
skittered across the ground out of reach. Well then his buddy jumps on me and
instinct took over. I threw him off, grabbed the gun and turned to see the guy
charging at me. I shot him in the chest, point blank, and he crumpled to the
ground at my feet.” Grant paused to see how I was handling the story.

Despite the fact that
he was describing a murder, I was actually fascinated. My boring, serious,
take-the-fun-out-of-everything big brother had a side to him I never knew
existed.  Grant continued, “Dom’s dad was impressed with how I handled myself.
He also liked that I protected him. So, he introduced me to Uncle Marco. Turns out
killing people doesn’t really bother me. Plus, the money is really good.”

“Whoa
and I thought I was the one keeping secrets from Mom.”

Grant’s mouth twitched.
“Yeah, if she only knew,” then he got serious again. “Mom can never know!”

“I
know, I know. Geez, calm down.”

Miranda laughed at our
exchange. “Grant, I think she gets it.” I regarded Miranda and her poise. She
was so petite yet had such a big presence. I could tell she was used to being
in charge.

“Where
do you fit into all of this Miranda?” I asked, diverting attention away from
Grant.

“Well,
Marco is my father and he is considered the Boss of the Philly Mob.”

“You’re
serious – the mob? For real, like the Godfather?”

“Yes.
Dominic and I are part of the next generation. Dominic’s dad, my Uncle Rico, is
the underboss. I’m the oldest and have been learning to run the legitimate
businesses as is Dominic. Right now we’re focused on Crimson.” At least Dominic
hadn’t been lying when he told me he was learning the family business. I just
never would have guessed that the family business was the mob. “Apparently, because
I’m a woman, I can’t be a ranking member, so Dominic’s next in line. But, we’ll
see…if a woman can run for president, than I can run the mafia. “

“Yeah
right, like Uncle Marco would let that happen!” Dominic chuckled. “I can hear
him now ‘over my dead body…’.”

“That
can be arranged,” Miranda said and nudged Grant with her elbow. They all burst
out laughing and I stared at them horrified.

Dominic saw my expression
and calmed down enough to explain themselves. “It’s mafia humor. Get it?”

“Ha,
ha…hilarious,” I said and rubbed my temples, as if massaging the information
overload. Dominic leaned over and kissed my forehead. “So why did you kill
those guys tonight? What did they do wrong?” My morbid curiosity needed to
know.

“A
couple of reasons. They owed Marco money and they were telling secrets to the Nucci
family,” Grant revealed.

“Who’s
the Nucci family?”

“A
rival family,” Miranda answered. “They want to control the Philly mob. Technically
“The Commission”, which is made up of leaders from the Five Families in NYC, decides
who runs the show here, but you have to prove that you’re capable. Our family
has been doing a good job, and Uncle Marco has improved relations between the
Philly mob and New York, but a rival family can take us out. It’s happened
before.”

“It
has?”

“About
twenty years ago, there was a real war with people getting killed left and
right. Scarfo was convicted when his own capo and soldiers ratted him out in a
classic example of a total power struggle. The Philly Mob used to have a spot
on The Commission, but it was revoked during this time and lasted for close to
ten years.”

“The
Feds really started cracking down and practically wiped out the mafia…or at
least they have the media believing that,” Dominic chimed in. “After the last
boss got sent to prison, the Grabano brothers stepped up and helped settle
things down. It’s been somewhat peaceful since. We’ve repaired a lot of the
damage with the New York families, but it hasn’t been easy.”

I sat in stunned
silence processing the brief history. “What’s a capo?”

“A
capo is ranked underneath the underboss, sometimes there are more than one.” Dominic
laid out the hierarchy for me so I could understand. First there is the boss,
who was Marco, and then the underboss, who was Dominic’s dad Rico, Uncle Al was
a capo being that he was the youngest of the brothers and Dominic and Grant
were considered soldiers.

“So
you don’t have to be blood-related to be a soldier?”

“No.
If you do good work and play by the rules, you can get promoted fairly quickly.
Loyalty goes a long way. That’s how I got here,” Grant answered.

I shook my head, still
in disbelief over all that had happened. There was a lot to absorb, but it
explained a lot of things; the expensive cars, the beautiful homes and Dominic’s
ability to have the ice skating rink opened up after hours for a date. Not to
mention the endless stream of cash and the respect Dominic received when we
were out. Not just respect, but fear. The same reaction Grant received,
although I never really paid much attention until now.

“Do
you guys like own the city or something?” I asked.

“Almost.
We have a lot of pull and can get things done,” Dominic answered. I shuddered
knowing I had just witnessed one of the ways they get things done.

“Where
did you guys put those men that Grant…” I couldn’t bring myself to say killed.

“My
dad had a crew come and get the bodies. They’re probably already buried
underneath several tons of freshly poured concrete at a job site in Wayne.” I
stared at Dominic speechless. There really wasn’t anything to say. Those men
would probably be on the missing persons list for eternity. Only the Grabano
family, Grant, and now me, knew what happened.