The Vendetta Read online

  He closed the door behind them, and they locked lips again. This time there was no doubt that her tongue was searching out his.

  She dropped her leather bomber jacket to the floor.

  “Dani…It isn’t the beer talking here, is it?”

  She smiled warmly, and then she kissed him again.“Shut up, Jimmy, before I change my mind.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Carmen was released in early November. Rossi picked his wife up and delivered her to the front door. He was lugging her three suitcases in both hands.

  When they got inside, he brought her bags up to Nick’s bedroom. It would be up to Carmen about the sleeping arrangements. He placed the suitcases on his son’s bed. His heart sank when he remembered reading stories to his kid out of some library book he’d taken out when Nick was just four years old. They’d gone everywhere and done everything together, back then. Even when his boy hit double digits in age, Ben took him to the amusement park in the northwest suburb, and he carefully chose rides that wouldn’t be too scary for the little guy, but Nick always begged to go on the adult rollercoasters, and it just about killed the old man to turn the boy down. Nick was too short to go on the big coasters, anyway. But there were always a few tears in the refusals. It was Ben’s ordeal as a father to tell his son no. It turned him inside out.

  Now he didn’t have to worry about everything that might happen to Nick. All that was stolen from him by Johansen, and there was nothing lower than a thief. Even murder was more understandable, because it was Rossi’s life. Getting your only son robbed from you was unforgiveable.

  She was standing behind him in the doorway to their boy’s bedroom.

  “Is this where you want to stay, Carmen?”

  “For now. Yeah.”

  Her face looked hard, unbending, so he didn’t remonstrate.

  “Fine.”

  He walked past her, but they made no contact.

  Then he stopped at the head of the stairs, and he turned back to her.

  “I gotta go to New York, this weekend. I’ll be back Monday.”

  “You bringing your whore with you?”

  Her eyes were dead. Like a shark’s.

  “I’m bringing Manny with me. That’s all.”

  “You’ll be lonely.”

  “Don’t start up, Carmen.”

  “Start? I’m finished. I don’t give a shit what you do.”

  “If you keep this up, we can pack your bags and head back to Lake fucking Vista.”

  “There’s no chance of that,” she smiled. “I’m never going back. I told that doctor that this was my last visit to the nuthouse, and you got nothing that’ll drive me back. Maybe it’ll be your turn, next time, Benny Bats.”

  “Don’t ever call me that.”

  “It’s who you are, Ben. So why not?”

  He turned on his heels and hurried down the stairs.

  *

  “It’s been a long time. I thought he’d never leave you alone.”

  “He couldn’t get out of here fast enough.”

  “I parked a block away, just in case.”

  “I don’t care. Park it in the driveway. Fuck him.”

  He laughed, and then he squeezed her right nipple. She yipped, slightly, the way she always did when he played with her. They were lying on top of the bedspread in the big bedroom, Ben’s and hers. She didn’t want to have him in Nick’s room.

  Bertelli looked down at her body. It made him hard even when he wasn’t with her and when he remembered every luscious curve of it.

  “You like it because it’s dangerous,” she told him.

  “Sure. But I’d like it better if you’d get rid of that prick.”

  “You’re not getting rid of your wife, Vivian, any time soon, are you?”

  “It’s complicated, Carmen.”

  “We’ve been doing this for three years, now. Talk about complicated.”

  “Maybe Benny Bats will propose a swap.”

  Her face darkened, and Bertelli knew he’d made a misstep.“Only a joke, Carmen. Didn’t you get your sense of humor back, yet? I remember you used to love to laugh.”

  “That was when my son was alive.”

  It shut him up to hear her words.

  “Is all this too soon?” he asked.

  “Come here.”

  When he got closer, she lowered her face below his waist. It didn’t take much effort for him to achieve liftoff.

  He turned and took her from behind.

  “You better go slow. I’ve been away for a while.”

  “Are we good with protection, Carmen?”

  “You don’t need a rubber, remember? I’ve been fixed.”

  “I don’t like it when you talk like you’re some bitch in the barnyard or out in the alley.”

  “Bullshit, Joey G. That’s exactly what you like to hear. It gets you so hard you think the head of your cock is going to split wide open.”

  He rammed at her violently, and she cried out. He had her by the shoulders and he punched his lower half at her again and again.

  He flipped her onto her back and thrust himself into her savagely, but she pounded right back at him until he couldn’t hold off any longer.

  They lay sweating and wasted on top of her marriage bed, the king-sized mattress Rossi bought them when he rose to capo.

  “This could get me shot,” he laughed.

  “I think you’ve shot everything you’ve got,” she purred.

  “We’ve been getting away with this for years, but I’ve never spent a whole night with you.”

  “That’s what makes it so exciting, right?”

  “You like strange, too. Don’t give me that illicit bullshit. Everybody likes cooze and cock on the side.”

  “Not everybody. My father and mother were loyal to each other.”

  “They must have been the only two truebloods in Cicero, then. Don’t ever believe anybody is straight, Carmen.”

  “I know you’re not.”

  “And you just got two pops, yourself. It takes two, sweetheart.”

  “You don’t have any romance in you at all, do you, Joey G.”

  “Stop with that. Call me by my name.”

  “Giacomo?”

  “No. You should call me Joe. You’re no gangster, Carmen.”

  “Look again.”

  He laughed loud and long.

  “You don’t think a woman could do what you and Ben do?”

  “Yeah, if you’re some spic drug queen from Juarez.”

  “You really don’t think a woman could run a crew.”

  “You think about taking over for Benny Bats?”

  “What’s so unthinkable about a female capo?”

  “It just isn’t done, Carmen.”

  “You and Tony C live in the fucking Middle Ages. Jesus Christ.”

  “You’d have to kill your husband to do it.”

  “Isn’t that what you’re trying to do, Joe?”

  It stopped him cold. His face reddened, and he sat up.

  “I know it was you who sent the Sicilians to kill him at The Green Door. Didn’t you tell those two bastards that Manny always lurks by the front door?”

  “You’ve been misinformed. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You don’t have to lie to me, Joey. He’s going to kill you, anyway.”

  “I know there’s no love lost between him and me, Carmen.”

  “It was Calabrese who gave the order, though, wasn’t it.”

  He reddened even more deeply.

  He sat up as if he were going to leave, but then he hesitated, and he lay down right next to her again.

  “You like it rough, don’t you, Carmen.”

  He grabbed her by her hair suddenly and pulled her head to his groin. But when she began on him again of her own volition, his eyes shot wide open.

  She nipped the head of his prick, and he yelped. It surprised him more than it hurt him.

  Then Carmen began again in earnest, and in a little while he was slappi
ng his flesh against hers in a reborn fury.

  *

  She let Ben move back into the master bedroom with her on that following night, and she came at him like a lioness in heat. His puzzled face was replaced by a man with agony on his countenance. Carmen kept him up until three in the morning. He counted six climaxes for both of them before she was done.

  “What happened to you?” he asked as they lay in their soggy sheets.

  “I’m not crazy, anymore.”

  “But why the dramatic new heat, all of a sudden?”

  “You’re my husband, aren’t you? And I love you, don’t I? And I want you, right?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Why don’t you let me help you with the business?” she proposed.

  “What the hell’s with you?”

  “Don’t give me that man’s world bullshit, Ben. It’s almost the twenty-first century. Give me a job. You want me to whack somebody and make my bones? I’ll do it.”

  “You’re still a little nuts, aren’t you.”

  “I have nothing. Remember? I have no son. I have no job, and if I stay in this house with nothing to do, my next visit to the nuthouse will be permanent.”

  “You really mean it, don’t you, Carmen.”

  She studied his eyes.“I have to have something to do, Ben. Please.”

  “I got a bookkeeper.”

  “I’m not a clerk, Ben.”

  “You’re my wife. Why can’t that be enough?”

  “I want respect. Just like you and all the other capos and soldiers. Just like that old man who lives and reigns in Lake Forest.”

  “I thought I provided pretty well for you, Carmen.”

  “It isn’t the money. Don’t you understand what I’m telling you?”

  “Is this because you’re pissed off at me for the other women? You know they don’t mean shit to me.”

  “What if I cheated on you, Ben?”

  He looked at her. He was suddenly startled. She knew this jab had pierced him deep.

  “I’d kill you, Carmen.”

  “So why don’t I stick a knitting needle into your ear when you go to sleep?”

  “You haven’t got it in you,” he laughed.

  She kept her eyes leveled at him, and he started to color again.

  “You underestimate me, Benny Bats.”

  He watched her closely for an extended moment.

  “Maybe I do. But you don’t really know me, Carmen.”

  “You’re my husband. I know you, all right.”

  “Not the way I mean.”

  “You talking about the men you’ve killed with your own hands, Benedetto?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “You don’t think I could pull the trigger on anybody?”

  “I’m hoping the answer is no, Carmen.”

  “Like I said, husband mine, look again.”

  *

  Mark awoke when he heard his bedroom door softly open.

  The gun was aimed at his sister-in-law’s face, and then he lowered the .45 when he realized it was Marilyn.

  “Marilyn?”

  “I couldn’t sleep. I’m sorry.”

  “Is the kid, okay?”

  “She’s out like a light. She’s a sound sleeper.”

  “Come on in. Shut the door behind you.”

  She closed it gently, and Mark turned on the bedside lamp.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Come sit down over here.”

  He sat up in bed and returned the automatic under his pillow.“I’m sorry about the pistol. It’s just a habit.”He patted the bed next to him, and she hesitantly sat down right next to him.

  “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

  “I miss David.”

  He watched her plain face. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, at this hour. But it was a pleasant face. He felt totally at ease with Marilyn sitting on his bed in the heart of the night. He knew he probably shouldn’t because she was still a recent widow, and he’d never thought seriously and romantically about her. They were bonded through David, he reasoned, nothing more.

  She reached out and touched the blond scar that traversed his cheek.

  Then she lowered her face toward him and she kissed him solidly on the lips. Instead of recoiling, he pulled her close to him and returned this unexpected heat. Then he threw back his sheets and she stood and pulled her light night gown over her head. She was only wearing panties. They were far more enticing than he’d expected from Marilyn, but there they were.

  She pulled them down and they dropped silently to the floor.

  Then she shivered suddenly, and she covered her breasts and pubic hair with either hand.

  He reached out and grasped her left arm and guided her to him. He pulled her to the mattress, and she lay side by side.

  He bent over and kissed her again, and she moaned and threw her arms over his head. She could feel him nudging her, below, and then she spread her legs, her knees bent and in the air, her feet against the mattress.

  “I’m being a fool,” she lamented.

  “You don’t know how.”

  He rolled over and onto her, and then they were together.

  *

  She was gone at dawn. Gone from the bed, but not from the cabin. He could smell bacon frying, and there was the scent of fresh coffee, as well.

  He put on his jeans and a tee shirt, and slipped on his sandals.

  She was out in the kitchen making the meal, but the girls apparently hadn’t risen, yet.

  He turned her about, at the kitchen stove, and she had a spatula in her right hand. She looked extremely domestic to him, and she also made things happen inside him that hadn’t occurred in there before.

  He kissed her. It lasted long enough for her to drop the spatula.

  Then Morgan came out of the bedroom, and he separated from Marilyn, and he sat down at the rectangular dining table and she went back to preparing the food. Next it was Elizabeth who emerged in her pink robe and pink bunny slippers, and finally they had all assembled for the morning meal.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “These two killers were from the island,” Jimmy told her.

  They were sitting in Parisi’s office, and Jimmy’s gaze lingered out the window behind her at the lake and at the chilled blue waters that awaited the beginning of winter. It was November, and there was snow in the forecast, but it wasn’t supposed to amount to much.

  “Their real names are on the sheet,” he indicated to the piece of paper on his desk.

  She picked it up and read it.

  He liked the look of absolute focus on Dani’s face. She was such a serious young woman, and Parisi grinned at her.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Nothing. I just like looking at you. You’re so studious.”

  “Very funny…So we know their names. Interpol has no record of them.”

  “That’s because they’re contract assassins. They rarely have IDs for punks this young. But when you get away with murder, they don’t have paper on you until you get caught or get dead.”

  She had to smile back at him.

  “This’ll be a deadend, Dani. I’ve seen it before. They don’t leave prints unless they get whacked, themselves. No one talks. At least not the Sicilians. They’re very old school. Omerta. The silence. The Outfit, however, is not quite as old-fashioned. The old ways are disappearing on these shores. There’s no loyalty. These locals don’t buy into the family concept the way they used to.”

  “You seem pretty well-versed in these guys, Jimmy.”

  “I love it when you say my name. How many weeks did it take for you to drop the ‘Detective’ shit?”

  “I’m evolving, I guess.”

  “Don’t stop evolving, then.”

  “Back to business, Detective Parisi.”

  “We have to sniff around with the locals. Europe is too high a wall to climb over. Interpol’s good, but there are barriers they still haven’t broken with these islanders.”

/>   “So where do we start?”

  “We already struck out with Rossi. It was self-defense, and our beloved Prosecutor has to have a case. You know how that works.”

  “You have contacts,” she replied.

  “A few. But I wouldn’t count on anything. They’re terrified of Rossi, of all the capos, and especially of Tony Calabrese, the Boss of Bosses.”

  “Lunch time, isn’t it?”

  There was the slightest hint of humor on her face.

  *

  Lunch time and dinner time took place at Dani’s apartment on north Clark Street. They did eat lunch, but it was hurried along by the pre-lunch activities.

  “We never have enough time,” she huffed, nearly out of breath.

  Parisi lay behind her, and he moved up and down against her slick, sweaty back.

  “We don’t have time for round two,” she told him.

  “We’re always short on time. Even on our days off.”

  “It’s lucky your mother can watch the kids. They must wonder what the hell happened to daddy.”

  She rolled over and faced him.

  “I promise I won’t say the ‘L’ word.”

  Her face sobered a little bit.

  “It’s hard not to say it,” he explained.

  “I don’t want to be in that corner, Jimmy. We’ve already talked about all this.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll stop.”

  “You know this can’t get to that point. I don’t want to commit to anybody. I want a career, not a family. And I don’t want to be the bad guy, here, because you know I care about you. It’s not just what we do here. You know that.”

  “I’m a mastodon, Dani. I know what you want. I just want a lot more. But I don’t want all this to cease, either.”

  “Me neither.”

  She kissed him, and then she pushed him onto his back and positioned herself astride.

  Her body was brown, like her face. It was sleek and sculptured in a lean musculature. There was no excess on her frame, and Jimmy slid his hands down her sides. She shivered, and then she began.

  Her breasts were small but perfect, with small dark red berries for nipples. He touched each of them with the tip of a forefinger, and she shivered once more.

  “We’re going to be late to work,” she protested.

  But she never stopped rising and lowering until they were depleted and exhausted and lathered enough to have to walk into her bathroom and head into the shower together.