son. Throwing down in Choochie's, going to visit the old Don right in his house. You've been shaking up that family like a hornet's nest. Sharpening the blade, getting the crew back into action. Kicking their asses into shape. You got spirit! Figured they'd take you on as a capo, then you'd have Vinny's ear again.”
“Figured you'd put me to use.”
“Just so.”
Dane thought Special Agent Daniel Ezekiel Cogan might be out of his tree as well. The Right Reverend Matthew Colepepper probably had the right idea putting Cogan's mother in the asylum, but he shouldn't have stopped there. “You don't understand us Mediterranean types at all.”
“Naw, probably not too well.”
Glory drifted back toward Dane. “I'm sorry. I didn't know this rat fuck was playing me. I thought I was protecting myself.”
“You were. It's okay,” Dane told her. He thought about that day at the movie premiere, how she'd told him she was only attending as a favor to a friend. Cute, look at that, she'd told the truth again. Making contact with Dane under Cogan's orders. All because of Vinny, and nobody had even met with him yet.
Yeah, it was all pretty insane. Now that the mob was going legit, the feds wanted them to get back to the dirty dealing. The guy who wanted to go clean, they tossed his ass in the can.
“Why didn't you just ask Vinny yourself?” Dane asked.
“I didn't want to get that close to the situation, y'understand. Now, JoJo Tormino, he and I had been doing some talkin'. He was a bit sweet on Maria.”
“He wanted to marry her, but he got iced before he could pop the question.”
“I know it, and it was a damn sad thing to hear. Didn't figure him to go out the way he did. He was always cautious when meeting with me. Never took me to that bakery before, though, would've been nice if he had. He always wanted to meet in those there little strip mall coffee shops out on Long Island. He'd wear sunglasses, nervous as could be. That boy was headed for a heart attack.”
Dane could imagine it, seeing JoJo and Cogan discussing the future of Maria Monticelli's acting career. Getting Vinny to invest in Glory's husband's production company. JoJo getting his ticket punched because he wanted the love of his life to get into movies and say dialogue like
Dane frowned at both of them and felt a shard of hysterical laughter trying to shove itself up his throat. He swallowed twice to keep it down but he knew there was a sick smile on his face. “Even if I could get anybody in the Monti family to invest more of their time, effort, and money into drugs and the company… even if I could get them to launder the dirty cash and run out more guns… why the fuck would I want to? What do I get out of it?”
“Because it's what Maria Monticelli wants,” Cogan said. “To be on the screen. And you love her.”
There it was. The leverage that Cogan had been holding back.
Maria.
First JoJo. Now Dane. Everybody out of their head in love with her. Easily manipulated.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
“Vinny told my husband,” Glory Bishop said, sounding embarrassed. “He always talked about you while they were doing business, while you were in prison. How you were the one his sister should be with. How you were the only one who really cared about his sister.”
“He did?”
Cogan said, “I told you I had a feeling about you. That you were going to be his right-hand man. You're his best friend. All the other problems you've been having with the family, that's all the work of Roberto.” Saying it right this time, not Robert-oh.
“So, you think because I love Maria, I'll talk to Vinny and get him to do more drug trafficking with the Hollywood bigwigs, in which case more money and weapons will filter down to some South American shithole where a revolution is going on and the US government wants control?”
“Central America. Exactly.”
“Okay,” Dane said easily. “I'll do it.”
“Now, that there's the way to talk, son!”
“Don't!” Glory shouted. “Johnny, are you nuts? After hearing this bastard's lies and seeing how he works?”
“Now, don't be like that, darlin'.”
Dane and Glory stared at each other from across the glass table. A chasm had opened between them in only a few minutes and he knew there would never be any way for him to get back to the other side. Not that either of them would want to cross it anyway. Her eyes met his and there was a flicker of sorrow there, but not all that much, considering. They'd both had some fun and learned a few more things about the world worth knowing. All in all, it hadn't been a waste of time.
Cogan moved to embrace Glory, and she stood there allowing his hands on her. Angry, even disgusted with him, but they were still comfortable together. Her husband had gone away, what, nearly six months ago. Long enough for Cogan and Glory Bishop to forge one of those unhealthy bonds that could never be broken, no matter what happened. Just like the one between Dane and Vinny.
Dane said, “But I want you to do something for me.”
Cogan tipped his jaw to the side, giving a wary smile. Like he'd known this was coming, the price he had to pay, and just hoped it wouldn't be too much. “And what's that?”
“I need a name.”
“What name?”
Dane told him and Cogan spent less than fifteen minutes on Glory's cell phone getting the information.
Dane went to the window. He parted the curtains and saw two guys beating a police officer in an alley with his own nightstick. The cop scrambled on all fours trying to fight back, but they started kicking him until he rolled himself into a ball, face to the brick. Dane turned back to Glory Bishop and Cogan and saw they were holding on to each other again. He left them there for good.
TWENTY-FOUR
At dawn, Dane stopped by Phil Guerra's house and stole the Cadillac again.
He stopped over at his grandmother's house to check on her. She was up watching infomercials, sitting in her cotton nightgown with two crocheted blankets over her knees. Her lips were smeared black from eating licorice out of the candy dish. She said, “You think you can stop over at La Famiglia and pick me up some
“Sure, but they won't be open for another hour. What are you doing up this early? Trying to form a strategy to combat Mabel Guerra's psychological bingo attacks?”
“I had to pee and couldn't get back to sleep. That one, she sneaks gin and tonic in a coffee Thermos. They're going to ban her soon.”
She glanced up at him with an expression like she wanted to say something else, but she held it back. All this holding back, it was driving them all
“So what happens to me?” he asked. “In your nightmares. Do I get chased out of the village?”
“No, you take it over.”
It made him tuck his chin in. “What's that mean?”
“I don't know, but it worries me.”
“Why?”
“Don't ask such questions. We do our best to understand these things even the priests won't help us with. We feel our way through the dark.”
“Okay.”
