Rushed(98)

Margaret chuckled, then rubbed at her ribs. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts too much right now," she groaned, slowing down some more. "But I see your point. And of course, we're not men."

"That's somewhat sexist, but a good point," I commented. Planting my forearms on the mat, I kicked myself up into my first inverted balance pose, holding my feet vertically while I kept my stomach and low back tight for balance. Exhaling slowly, I held the pose for five deep breaths before lowering myself down and putting my feet back on the ground.

"Well, if you don't want to do family business, you can always open a yoga studio," she joked as she slowed to a strolling pace. "I don't think I could ever have done that."

"The hard part starts when I hit the ground," I said, sharing a maxim I'd learned long ago. I continued through my routine, Margaret hanging around and watching. It wasn't long. I was just trying to get my head right, and besides, the yoga I learned wasn't the type that you could do for an hour non-stop.

Margaret sat down on the mat next to me, doing some light stretches. "If you need any help . . . I raised a daughter in this household. I happen to know the rules better than most people. Of course, my daughter's fiancée ended up getting beaten with a shovel and having a gun held to his head. So, you might want to take any advice with a grain of salt."

"Actually, I just might," I said as I crossed my legs into a meditative pose. "But I'm okay for now. Thank you."

"Anytime."





Chapter 13





Tomasso





A day later, Luisa and I were no closer to finding our culprit. We were able to eliminate Brad, at least, but that still left Jake and Petey.

I didn't want it to be either of them, but if I had to have picked one, it would have been Petey. I'd known Jake Marconi since we were kids. We'd practically grown up together. He was one of the guys that I hung out with, and when I thought about the future of the Bertoli family, he was the guy I’d always seen in the position his father filled. There was a sort of generational completeness to the idea, and we'd both grown up knowing that we could always depend on the other for anything. That he was my friend as well just compounded the problem.

Maybe that was the reason that I decided to talk to Petey first. It wasn't that I didn't like the guy. He'd always been a decent sort of fellow. A little thick, and definitely the sort of guy who thought with his fists before he thought with his head, but until now, I'd never had a reason to distrust him. But still, someone made that phone call.

I tried to think of a reason that Petey or Jake would betray the family. It couldn't have been money. The Gaea Defense Force was the sort of group that did almost everything on the cheap. They rarely had two dimes to rub together. They wouldn't have been able to make a payment to a Bertoli man, not enough to buy one of our guys off, especially when they knew the consequences.

I sat out by the pool, resting my leg on the stool in front of me, watching as Luisa swam laps back and forth, a nice view as she went down doing crawl stroke before switching over to back stroke for the trip back.

Petey came out onto the deck at exactly noon as I'd asked him to. Pausing to watch Luisa's well-shaped backside cut through the pool, he shook his head before turning to me. "Hey, Tomasso. You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. Have a seat, Petey. How're you doing?" I wanted him relaxed, not thinking it was an interrogation. "Great weather today, isn't it?"

"With a hell of a view," Petey commented, his eyes drawing toward the pool again. "If a home nurse like that comes with the package, I'm going to go break my ankle next week."

I laughed and reached over, pouring him a drink. "Here, this should help. I know I've had more than my fair share. Helps with the ankle, actually."

Petey took my offered glass and sipped at it. "Thanks. It sucks about your ankle, but this is the life. So what did you want to meet with me about?"

"I've got myself one hell of a home nurse, but there are things that I need that I can only trust someone more familiar with our operations to get," I said. "I need someone that I can trust to do the job well. Do you think you can do this for me?"

I could see his eyes light up. He expected that if he got in good with me, that he'd have a better chance to become a full Bertoli family member. I felt a little bad about leading him on like that, but there was time to worry about it later. "What can I do for you, Tomasso?"

"I intend to rehabilitate my ankle faster than what the doctors are telling me," I said. "I need a few . . . performance enhancers that I shouldn't have delivered here.”

"What kind of performance enhancers?" Petey asked, looking over at Luisa, who'd just completed a neat flip turn before kicking off and starting her next lap. "That’s a pretty effective performance enhancer in itself."

His mouth was the main reason he'd never get beyond the position in the Bertoli organization he currently held. If he'd made such a comment to Pietro or my father, he'd have earned a slap across the face at a minimum. Still, I needed to draw this out some more. “Maybe, but that isn't the performance help I need. I need a little more.”

"’Roids?" Petey asked. "That's easy. I know a guy who sells them out of a CrossFit box—makes good money at it too. The Don wouldn't mind. He's pretty small potatoes overall."