A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(75)

“She’s a parole officer, and yes. Things are . . . fragile between us.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Fragile? What does that mean?”

“It means we’re slow, but I’m still seeing her, or trying to. She’s basically the enemy—you know that.”

“I do. Yes. But you did good with her uncle, or the new guy who replaced him. He turned out to be a good employee for us. We moved a lot of shipments through that warehouse thanks to him. It was a good call what you did.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He noticed my wine, and his eyes sharpened. Leaning forward, he motioned toward it. “Wine not good?”

“It is. I already took a sip.”

“You did? Good, good.”

He was thinking. And because I was able to almost see him thinking, that meant a lot of things to me. He was tired. He was distracted. He was . . . frenzied? Was this all because of his health? It was a general rule of mine not to lie to my uncle, ever, but I tried to tell him as little as I could. Being vague tended to appease him. He used to like to feel in control, but now my uncle was not coming off as being in control. With him, what he could do, that made him extra dangerous.

“Uncle Stephano.” Calm. Quiet. I needed to ease into this.

“Hmm? Yes?”

“What’s going on? Why did you want to meet tonight?”

He stopped thinking and focused on me. Only me.

I knew my uncle was dangerous, though I’d never actually feared him. But right now was the closest I’d gotten to being scared of him. He was making me nervous. “Uncle Stephano?”

“Our problems have escalated.”

“Which ones?”

“Some of our shipments aren’t arriving. Getting lost. Stolen. And there’s other skirmishes. More and more businesses are starting to refuse to pay us. Some of our other more unsavory businesses are taking a hit too.” He began waving a hand in the air. “One or two, they’re fine. Normal. We can handle those, and we do, but we’re getting hit on all sides, and it’s got me thinking. You know?”

“Sure.” I wasn’t going to like where he was going with this. I knew it.

“And I think, what’s new going on? And then I think, this all started when you started banging that copper.”

Oh, Jesus.

“It’s not Jess.”

“But she’s a Montell. You know what happened with the other Montell? Her daddy. He was a little piece of shriveled dick. The smallest I’d ever seen, but he didn’t want others to know, so he liked to overcompensate. Is that the word? Walked big. Talked loud. That sort of stuff, but he was a moron.” His hand kept going, round and round. “A total idiot, but he was in with the crew. We let him do some things for us, bust some heads, then your daddy. You know about this?”

None of this was sitting right with me. I shook my head. “I’ve not heard the exact story, no.”

“Yeah, yeah. Okay.” He drank half his wine in one gulp, and that hand started up again. “I’ll tell you. You sit. Relax. Want more wine? I can get Bobby to bring another bottle.”

“I’m good, Uncle Stephano. I’d like to hear the story.”

“Oh! Oh, oh, right. Your woman, huh? You want to hear about her daddy?” He tossed back more wine before standing and pouring the rest into his glass. His movements were unsteady as he moved back, until he could sink back down. As he did, the wine sloshed over the rim of his glass. He didn’t notice. “Okay. Where was I? Oh, right. Your daddy and her daddy worked together, but they didn’t like each other. Dominic had gotten his dick into your woman’s mother. She’s a good-looking woman too. I still see her sometimes. She’s started walking on our street, and she makes sure to wave to the guys when she does. You know why she’s doing that, right?” He laughed, his eyebrows wiggling a little. “She’s asking for some visitors, but don’t worry. I’d not do that to you, not when you’re plowing the daughter.” He laughed, loud and long.

There was something wrong with Uncle Stephano.

I hadn’t put stock into it when he’d first started talking about his health, but this wasn’t him. He didn’t act like this. He was reserved, cautious. Smart. He was being like his brother right now, like my father. His men’s reactions were making more sense.

“What happened with Jess’s father?”

“Oh yeah. I forgot. Yeah, yeah. There was a fight. You see, her daddy wanted more power in our family. He wanted to climb the ladder, and he staged a coup against your father. But blood is blood. You feel me? He came to me about it, told me everything your father was doing, and I’m saying everything. The whores, the cops he was blackmailing. He had his fingers everywhere, and her daddy knew about it all. He gave me a proposition. He’d take out your dad if he’d get his job. Said he could take your dad’s position and do it better.” He began laughing, his shoulders shaking. “And you know the funny thing? I bet he could’ve. He wasn’t a stupid idiot. He was half-smart most of the time. The other half was dumb because what’d he think? That I’d choose him, an outsider, over my own blood?”

I was bracing myself. “What happened to him?”

“I had him killed. That’s what happened.”

“You did?” My tone was sharp. Everything in me was on high alert. Her brother had been convicted for their father’s death.