Miles Away (Carrion #1)(21)

Michael hadn’t uttered a word to Letty since he pulled the trigger, and she wasn’t sure if that was a relief or the very thing that would unnerve her completely. Michael sat on a chaise lounge in the dark of the hall, allowing his head to fall into his hands. The look on Michael’s face was not one of remorse or sadness. It was a look you might see on a child’s face when they were caught doing something wrong.

Dustin showed up with Dante and the Fish at his sides, each of them carrying a leather duffel bag and a few bright blue Walmart bags. As the front door groaned open, the badly mutilated body of Anthony Spinelli could be seen from the curbside, the right half of his face completely blown away.

“What the f*ck, man!” Dustin yelled when he saw the body of Anthony Spinelli on the floor of the foyer.

“Shut up…” Michael said. “Don’t be a * about it.”

“Where is my sister?” Dustin asked in an angry tone of voice. His eyes zoned in on his father’s face with deep scrutiny casting from his soft brown eyes.

“Oh, you know her! Ran upstairs in a tornado of calamity!” Michael said, completely disregarding his daughter’s feelings over her now dead boyfriend.

“You’re cold as ice, man. I have no idea what my mother ever saw in you,” Dustin spat as he walked from the foyer into the hallway. Pausing in the doorway of the parlor, Dustin’s gaze fell upon Letty’s face as an understanding look crossed his face.

“Are you all right?” Dustin asked as his soft eyes met Letty’s frightened gaze.

Letty sighed heavily.

I like Dustin a lot. He has the same warm demeanor that Miles showed me during our time together. They were both decent men caught in a terrible war.

After Letty gave Dustin a slight nod, he turned his head away from Letty just in time to miss the tears filling up in her eyes.

“Well…” The Fish asked in a thick South Philly accent. “What do we have here? Sixty-four days without an accident… I think that sets a record around here,” The Fish said facetiously. “You were doing so well.”

“Did I ask for commentary, gentlemen? Do the job I’m payin’ you to do!” Michael spat with an angry look across his face.

“Which is what, exactly?” Dustin asked as he glared at his father with a look of utter disgust.

“Mop, sweep and dispose…” Michael said, giving his son an equally unhappy look.

“So let’s get this straight,” Dustin said as he pointed to The Fish and Dante. “You two are nothing more than glorified f*cking trash men…”

Dante and the Fish glared at Dustin and proceeded to yell at him until he left the room. Crossing the parlor, Dustin climbed the spiral staircase to check on his sister. Dante and the Fish stepped into the parlor giving Letty a glaring look. Michael glanced over at Letty from his chaise lounge as the men regarded her. Their gazes were icy. It was as if they were cursing her for ever being born. Dante had his long hair pulled back into a ponytail and his shrewd eyes stared Letty up and down. Letty stared back, not giving him the opportunity to see her shake. The Fish, a man who had earned his nickname not only from his father’s fresh seafood business but also by his trout-like appearance, gave Letty a look of utter disgust.

“And what do ya propose we do wit’ her?” The Fish asked, pointing towards Letty as if she was last week’s garbage.

“You need us to take ’er out?” Dante asked in an inflammatory tone of voice.

So I am last week’s garbage, Letty thought.

Shifting her weight, Letty reached into the tall leg of her riding boot. Her fingers felt for the pocket knife that her father had given her for situations such as this.

Let them try and pull something on me. They don’t want to bring my crazy out… I’ll carry their balls around in my Berkeley bag.

Before Letty had the chance to pull a double Lorena Bobbitt, Michael shut the situation down. Michael backhanded each man’s head hard, damn near knocking Dante’s crown right out of his mouth. For being sick, Michael was still strong as a bull.

“Don’t you worry about her!” Michael spat. “Don’t you even look at her!”

“What if she talks?” The Fish asked, sounding defensive.

“Am I speakin’ f*ckin’ Swahili?” Michael screamed, his face turning a violent shade of red.

“What if she goes to the Feds?” Dante demanded to know as he cast an evil look back at Letty.

“And so what if she does? What do I have to lose? The oncologist gave me two months. Two f*cking months! That prick put his hands on my daughter. Now do what you gotta do and go!”

“That’s you! We ain’t knocking on heaven’s door, though!” the Fish said.

Michael gritted his teeth at the Fish. Grabbing a newspaper off his end table, Michael swatted Fish with the paper, the day’s headlines leaving a smudge on his forehead.

“Insensitive prick!” Michael spat. “Way to treat a dying man.”

Letty wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation. Michael Capadonno just whacked someone, and here he was calling someone else insensitive. Somehow, she managed to contain her amusement.

“Yeah, we’ll just get to it, then,” Dante said, giving Michael a look of trepidation. Pulling a box of black trash bags from the Walmart bag, Dante prepared for the messy job ahead of him. “C’mon, Fish.”