Roy Glenn - No More Tears In The End

“I have the place swept for bugs every day. But we can talk outside if it makes you more comfortable.”

I stood up and led Angee out the back door. Kevon and Angee’s men followed behind us.

Once we had gotten a little ways down the street, Angee got to the purpose of his visit. “I wanted to ask you about Stark.”

I wasn’t expecting that. “What about him?”

“I hear he’s a serious man, who’s deserving of respect.”

Now I knew what Angee wanted. He hasn’t been a player in this game since Cassandra got out. She had a dual degree in management and marketing, saw drug dealing as a business, and ran her program that way.

I learned a lot about business from her. One more reason to miss her. With the direction we’re taking now, Cassandra’s advice and involvement would have been invaluable to me.

When she left the country with me, Chilly sucked up what was left of her operation. With the rest of his Commission dead or in the wind, Stark controlled a big chunk of the drug market and Angee wanted back in. “You want to meet him?”

“I was hopin’ for something a little more than just an introduction from you, Mikey.”

“Like what?”

“I was thinkin’ that maybe you would take more of an active role. You could be kind of a stabilizing influence. You know, keep problems down.”

“What makes you think I got that kind of influence with Stark?”

“Come on, Mikey. You’re a legend ’round here. Stark probably grew up hearing stories about you. I hear this kid respects you; Idolizes you. And I also hear that you like him.”

“You hear a lot of things.”

“I do.”

Definitely wasn’t expecting this.

“I know I’m asking a lot of you. I know you’re tryin’ to move in a different direction. But with Stark out front you wouldn’t have to get your hands dirty. Naturally, you could charge a fee for your influence.” Then he hit me with it. “I would consider it a personal favor.”

Definitely wasn’t expecting this.

“You are askin’ a lot.” I stopped walking and looked Angee in the eye. “I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll set up a meeting with you and Stark. I have to think about what you just asked me, for personal reasons.”

“I understand completely, Mikey. All I can ask is that you think about it.”

“What him want, boss?” Kevon wanted to know as we watched Angee drive off.

“Something I don’t wanna do,” I said and started walking toward the club.

I definitely wasn’t expecting Angee to come outta nowhere with that shit. I should have told him no. I should have said, flat out, no. What you ask, I can not do. I should have said that I can’t do it for personal reasons that he is well aware of, and that I was insulted that he would ask.

But I didn’t.

I’ve been goin’ to Angee with my problems for years, and he never, not once, has asked anything in return-until now. As Kevon drove, I thought about what my refusing Angee might cost me.

On the way to Marshall’s fundraiser with Wanda I didn’t have much to say. She asked me what Angee wanted, but I gave her the same answer I gave Kevon. When she pushed it, I told her that Angee wanted to talk about Crazy Joe and to my surprise, she left it alone.

Crazy Joe Delfino used to do jobs with Angelo back in the day. Me, him and Angelo were supposed to hijack a load of cigarettes. But me and Angee got there late, so Crazy Joe did the job alone. He was arrested by Newark police at the tollbooth when he got off the turnpike.

Joe found out later that we were late because on the way to the job, we stopped to rob a jewelry store to settle an argument.

The robbery went off without any problems, but we got stuck in traffic coming across the George Washington Bridge. When we got there we found Crazy Joe’s car, but no Joe. Angelo found out the next day that Joe was arrested. Since then he’s been talkin’ ’bout killin’ me. He says it was my fault that he got arrested. It ain’t my fault that he went and did the shit by himself. He should have waited for us. That shit didn’t make no fuckin’ sense. But they don’t call him Crazy Joe for nothing.

We arrived at the fundraiser in time to catch the speeches. Marshall spoke last. Martin Marshall was a state senator who I’d done business with a few times. But he was such a greedy fuck that I had to cut him loose years ago. Since we had no business ties, when Glynnis told me he was involved in Cassandra’s murder, I wanted to kill him. But I knew that he would be more useful alive. Without Martin’s help, DeFrancisco might still be alive.

Now he was running for congress, and if you can believe the polls, he’s probably gonna win. It was good business for me to re-establish our association.

After his speech, Martin made his way around the room, shaking hands and nodding his head as people told him their problems or asked him for favors. When Martin first saw me I could tell that he was surprised to see me standing there, maybe a little scared. But he very quickly separated himself from the people he was talking to and made his way to me.

“Good evening, Mr. Black,” Martin said and shook my hand. “I am more than surprised to see you here.” he turned to Wanda. “How are you, Wanda?” She was no stranger to these events. “How did you ever get this guy out to a stuffy event like this?”

“All it took was the mention of your name,” Wanda said ’cause it was true. Martin’s involvement with DeFrancisco made him my best source of information about Pete Vinnelli. That and the fact that if he is elected, having Martin tucked away in my pocket just made sense.

“Is that a fact?” Martin said and leaned close to me. “There’s a place we can talk upstairs,” he said and walked off.

“I’ll be back,” I said to Wanda and followed Martin to the elevator. Neither of us spoke in the elevator or in the hallway as Martin led me to a room. Once inside, Martin took a small device out of his pocket and set it the desk.

“What’s that?”

“Everybody’s listening these days. This puts out just enough of a signal to make whatever they do pick up too distorted to be admissible in court.

“I could get one of those.”

“Yes. Now tell me what I can do for you? Actually, I’m not all that surprised to see you. I heard you were making a move to the other side of the street.”

“You heard that, huh?”

“If that’s true, we could be very valuable to one another.”

“Yes, we could. But I don’t know that I could trust you, Martin.”

“Yes. That unfortunate business about your wife.”

If I had my gun it would be at the base of his skull right now. Martin always was an arrogant fuck, but he wasn’t stupid. “I thought we’d settled that between us.”

“That was just a down payment.”

“Tell me how we call it even.”

“Pete Vinnelli. I want him. And you’re gonna give him to me.”

I looked at Martin and wondered why he was smiling. “He’s yours.”

“What are you smiling about?” I demanded to know. Damn he’s annoying.

“I’ve been expecting you.”

“Really?” Now I’m predicable.

“The last time we talked; you remember, you and Bobby forced your way into my house and held guns on me?"

“I remember, Martin.”

“I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t see any way that you could possibly connect me with DeFrancisco and Estaban. I underestimated you. It’s a mistake I will never make again. But there you were, with every reason in the world to kill me, but you wanted DeFrancisco, and I gave him to you. To make a long story short, I knew you’d be back one day and you would want Vinnelli.”

“You’re right. But I’m not the only one that wants him, am I? Vinnelli can link you to DeFrancisco. You want him-no, that’s not strong enough. You need Vinnelli dealt with.”