Discouraged, Prek reentered the living room. There was a sudden silence. Prek could tell Genti and Neri had been talking about something and had stopped abruptly.
“What is it?” Prek asked.
The two men were looking at Pia. There had been a disagreement.
“How long before she wakes up?” Neri said.
“She’s got ten milligrams of Valium in her, so she’s going to be sleeping it off awhile,” Prek said. “She’ll start to wake up, but she’ll be very groggy. We can always give her another shot if need be. Buda didn’t answer his phone.”
“She’s beautiful,” said Neri.
“Our young friend here was just telling me what he’d like to do to her,” said Genti. “I suppose we could all take turns, maybe even be interesting to watch. What do you think, Prek? We should have done it when we were in her room last night.”
“I like my girlfriends to participate,” Prek said. “And anyway, we’re not doing anything till I hear from Buda that she’s safe to get rid of. Remember, she’s got an Albanian name. We got to be sure we wouldn’t be stepping on someone’s honor, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Oh, come on, Prek,” Genti said, “what are the odds of that? There’s two hundred fifty thousand Albanians in the area, and this is one girl. I’ve never seen anyone that good-looking related to any of us. She sure doesn’t look like your sister.”
Genti and Neri laughed. Prek didn’t. He had a premonition there was going to be trouble after everything had been going so smoothly.
Neri and Genti were sitting on separate couches. Neri looked like a dog in heat, practically panting while adjusting himself. He was looking alternately at the supine Pia and at Genti, who he believed was in his corner as far as having sex with the woman was concerned. Genti Hajdini had come up through the crew’s ranks at the same time as Prek, but Buda entrusted Prek with more responsibility and bigger jobs. As a consequence, Prek made more money than Genti, and when Buda wasn’t around, Prek called the shots. He knew this was something Genti resented, but it rarely was an open problem between them. Prek knew that Genti was still miffed about not being allowed to have his way with Pia the previous night.
“The boy did good tonight,” Genti said, pointing at Neri and making a shooting sound. Genti and Neri laughed again, then stopped and Genti looked at Prek. “Maybe we should reward him. Maybe we should reward all of us.” There was a heavy silence in the air.
“Who made you the boss, anyway?” Neri said quietly.
Prek looked from Neri to Genti and back again. Neri was still wearing the black jacket he’d had on when he shot the boy in the street and Prek assumed he still had the gun in an inside pocket. Genti might be armed too, for all he knew. His own gun was in the glove compartment of the van. Did he really think Neri and Genti would gang up on him and take him out? In this crew, as Prek and Genti both knew very well, stranger things had happened. Turning his attention back to Neri, Prek held his frankly impertinent gaze.
“Buda said I’m the boss when he’s not around.”
Pia let out a groan.
“Listen, you assholes! Buda told me we wait until he’s sure there is no family connected with this woman. You go and mess with this woman and Buda finds out she’s someone’s daughter or niece and you two haven’t been able to keep it in your pants? The uncle or father, whoever he is, is not going to be happy. He’s going to be unhappy with Buda and that means Buda is going to be very unhappy with you.”
“She’s unconscious,” Neri said. “Out of it. She won’t even know, at least not for sure. It’s such a waste. Like it’s a crime.”
“She’ll know, you asshole.”
“You not interested in girls anymore, Prek?”
Now it was time to stare down Genti. Prek knew that Genti’s comment was meant to rile him, but he decided to ignore it. “She’s a pretty girl, sure, but there are a lot of pretty girls.”
“I don’t see any others in the room,” Neri said. He was looking at Genti, hoping for support.
“You don’t want to be the reason for a blood feud. Trust me.”
“Unfortunately, he’s right,” Genti said. He got up from the couch and stepped over to Prek. He draped an arm around Prek’s shoulder and jostled him.
“We’re just screwing with you. If we get the all-clear, Neri gets his, okay? I might take a turn, why not?”
Genti stepped over to Pia’s body and with his forefinger lifted her skirt.
“Not bad, not bad at all. Whaddaya say?”
“I say we don’t touch her until we get the green light to whack her. When that happens, you two can do what you like. For the time being, help me put her on the bed to get her out of sight. You two are like teenagers.”
Prek went over to Pia and grabbed both ankles. “Come on! Give me a hand!”
With Genti and Neri taking an arm each, they carried Pia into the bedroom. There they tossed her onto the bed.
“Now leave her be,” Prek said, motioning his two colleagues to precede him back into the living room. As Prek followed them he wondered what the hell was keeping Buda.
56.
WEEHAWKEN, NEW JERSEY MARCH 25, 2011, 8:48 P.M.
So, Berti, what about this Grazdani girl?” Buda asked. “Anybody in your organization might be related to her? I’ve been told she’s in her mid-to-late twenties and gorgeous. A real looker.”
Berti Ristani was sitting behind a desk in his office in a small industrial building in Weehawken. Berti’s office looked for all the world like the workplace of a reputable building contractor. Supply catalogs were piled on the desk, the room was ringed with file cabinets, and a storage chest for architectural plans stood in the back of the room. Ristani was a contractor, Buda knew, but not all his contracts involved construction.
Berti leaned back in his office chair, his huge body causing the frame to complain bitterly. Berti’s florid face, tracked with broken blood vessels, creased a little as he pondered Buda’s question.
“Ah, yes, the business you came for. But I never see you, Aleksander, do we need to talk business? How about a drink?”
“It’s a loose end, Berti. It’s something I need to take care of soon and I’m trying to do the right thing. I can’t leave the situation as it is for too long.”
Berti Ristani had no business agenda he wanted to bring up with Buda, and he was mildly offended that Buda kept bringing up this Grazdani issue. He’d been enjoying talking to Buda about old times when they both first arrived from Albania. Back in those days it was no easy thing getting to America. Both had been lucky. On top of a common past, Aleksander Buda was one of the crew leaders Berti respected, and he’d been pleasantly surprised when Buda showed up unannounced.
“Okay, let’s find out. I know no one by that name specifically, but I do have two of my best guys with a similar name. But it’s not Albanian. It’s Italian. Anyway, I might complain, but I appreciate your concern like this. There’s been far too many blood feuds. Thanks for coming to talk to me.”
“It’s nothing, Berti. It would be foolish to act any other way.”
Ristani shifted his weight forward and the chair complained again. He placed his fleshy arms on the table and punched a button on an intercom.
“Drilon, can you come in the office for a second?”
Ristani looked at Buda.
“Drilon, one of my most loyal guys. He and his brother, who’s out on a job.”
“Anything special?”
“Not really. He runs a bunch of books in South Jersey, down to Philly. Friday nights, he likes to collect. He’s smarter than a whip, in contrast to Drilon, who, as the saying goes, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Oh,
