Page 5 of The Woman with the Wallet

“He said he doesn’t wanna see anyone before two today,” Nero said with a shrug. “Actually, they are having a problem.”

“The frat guys?”

“Yeah. They have some local crew leaning on them.”

“For money?”

“Yep.”

“How the fuck’d that happen? That street has always been ours.”

“Maybe they’re new. There was an argument in the bar area. So we didn’t get to finish the conversation. I said I’d be back later to talk about it. Figured that gave me a chance to come to you and Cosimo about it, see how you two want to handle it.”

“Alright. Well, I’m cool with you going back and getting more information. But you can’t be making any promises on behalfof the Family. Just get the information and bring it to me and Cosimo. Then we will all discuss what can be done.”

“It sounds like you’re considering letting me run point on this.” There was a hopefulness under Nero’s calm tone that anyone else who wasn’t related to him would have missed.

“I got a lot of shit on my plate already. I know Cosimo doesn’t want the headache. Depending on who this crew is and what they’re into, we might consider letting you handle it with the help of someone like Venezio.

“It’s all gonna depend on what information you get. So make sure you learn everything there is to know before you bring this to Cosimo. If he gives you the go-ahead and this shit blows up around us, it’s gonna be your ass—and your future in this organization—on the line.”

“Got it,” Nero said with a nod. His posture straightened at the idea of being given another chance to prove himself.

As much as I ragged on him, he genuinely was a good kid. He wasn’t a fuck-up just because he’d fucked up once. We all did shit in this job that put us in danger, that made our bosses want to beat our asses. That was just part of making your bones in a criminal empire as powerful as the Costa Family.

“Anything else?” I asked, itchy to get a move on.

“Ma said she hasn’t seen you at her table in a month,” he said.

“I know. I’m gonna make it this weekend.”

“Been saying that every weekend,” Nero said as he was turning and walking away.

My family was important to me. All six of my siblings and my parents. That said, trying to secure your position as a capo in a syndicate like this was two full-time jobs. And that was being conservative. Because while my job was mostly being Cosimo’s right-hand man, I also had to run jobs of my own to kick money up to him and our Capo dei Capi. That kind of shit gained you favor.

And word was that Ant had been sworn in and given his own crew. So the books were somewhat open. I needed to work harder to prove my worth to get another spot before they closed shit down again.

Who knew how long they would keep them closed after this.

I wasn’t getting any younger.

That said, if I couldn’t make it all the way out to Greenwich for dinner, I could at least call my damn mother every now and again.

I made a mental note to get that done sometime later. But for right that moment, I had something really fucking important to get to.

I was tempting fate to stay there in public for as long as I had already.

So I started walking.

I spotted her a whole block away.

Couldn’t tell you what it was at first that caught my eye. The city was full of women, each with their own kind of pretty.

There was just something about this woman’s pretty that made me look, made me stop to take her in.

She was tall and on the thin side under her cheap faux leather jacket and holey jeans. Her hair was cut into a long bob—or a ‘lob,’ I could hear my sisters saying in my head—and dark at the roots, but brightening to an almost white-blonde at the ends and around her face.

And what a fucking face, too.

---