Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“You okay?” I asked, sitting down next to him.
“Think I’m supposed to be asking you that.”
“I have plenty of people worried about me.”
Huh.
That was a new development.
I went from being basically alone in the world to having several men (maybe even a dozen, if we were counting Remo’s guys) concerned about my well-being.
“I think maybe you don’t let many people worry about you. So here is me officially filing my concern paperwork.”
Remo shot me a smile. “Milo’s got himself a good one,” he said. “I’m alright, babe. I can handle the normal shit. And as much as I don’t like to admit it, someone getting beaten is normal shit. But a missing member of a more established branch of the Family, that was a lot.”
“Because of the pressure from the top?” I had no idea how the mob worked, but there seemed to be a hierarchy.
“Eh, Luca is a good boss. He knows how shit goes sometimes. But…”
“But you’re trying to make a name for yourself here and don’t want people always thinking about that one time you lost someone.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “I know he got back on his own, but if he hadn’t managed that, know the only way we would have found him would have been because of you. I won’t forget that. What?” he asked when a weird, high-pitched giggle escaped me. A slow, almost boyish smile spread across his face at the sound. It should have softened his devilish features, but it only made him look more darkly charming.
“That just sounded… very mob-like,” I said. “The family owes you a favor,” I said in a mock deep voice that had a chuckle escaping him.
“Those meds treating you good, huh?” he asked, green eyes warm.
“They’re helping.”
“They’re gonna pay. Know that.”
“I think the pit boss made them pay quite a bit,” I said, wincing even just thinking about the sounds of those cracks.
“As she should. No one should be able to put their hands on a woman and walk away from it. She threw your lock in the ocean, by the way. I can get you a new one.”
“I guess I don’t need it now.”
That part hadn’t really occurred to me until right then.
My career as a lounge singer in Atlantic City was effectively over.
And, yeah, I had some conflicted feelings about that.
On the one hand, working for Frank had been a misery. The pay was awful. His attentions were worse. On the other, I loved being on that stage. I loved the room. I loved the songs and the audience and the applause.
“You’re going to buy the casino, right?” I asked.
“That’s the plan. Once I work some shit out with whoever Frank owes money to.”
The dark way he said ‘work some shit out’ made me think it wasn’t going to be a civil conversation.
I should have been horrified.
A normal person would be.
But a normal person hadn’t been in that room with me, hadn’t been beaten and threatened with rape by the men who worked for that mystery man. A man who must have been even worse than them if he controlled them.
And I’m sorry, maybe my morals were skewed, but I didn’t think men like that should be allowed to be out and functioning in society.
“Are you going to renovate?”
“Have you seen the place?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Even the lounge?”
Remo tapped his knuckles on the table. “As far as I’m concerned, leaving that lounge the way it’s been since the place opened was the only good decision he ever made.”
“Oh, good.” The relief had my shoulders relaxing.
“You can come back and make a guest appearance anytime you want,” he said. “Though you’re gonna have to find a new piano player.”
“What’s wrong with Archie?”
“Aside from the fact that he’s a hundred and ten?” he asked.
“He loves the music.”
“He needs the money,” Remo clarified. “His wife was real sick for a long time. The medical bills ate through his retirement. So he’s working every night with hands that are screaming in pain.”
“How do you know all that?”
“Well, I saw him playing the first night I came to town. You can see it. But it’s my job to know the rest.”
“But firing him is just cruel. Who else would ever hire him at his age?”
“I’m not gonna fire him. I’m gonna retire him.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Means he gets a severance. He deserves one with how long he’s been with the place, but since it changed hands several times, there’s no reward for his loyalty.”
“But he wasn’t loyal to you…”
“No. But we all deserve some fucking dignity in our old age.”
“How can you afford to just… pay people who aren’t working?”
“The dirty little secret of the world is that all the wrong, selfish people end up with all the money. People who wouldn’t stop to piss on you if you were on fire. Dunno how the fuck they can look themselves in the mirror every day.