Page 122 of Married with Mayhem

I see more staff hanging around than what I remember. A few are rough and tumble ranch hand types. The rest are the sort of grim wise guys I’ve been looking at all my life. As Cass grows more powerful, more minions are required to do the legwork.

There’s no doubt the Tempestas are reaping the benefits of the New York families falling into disarray after last year’s war. The power vacuum back east resulted in the loss of whatever foothold New York had in the west. When the Amato and Barone empires went up in smoke, the Tempestas moved right in to shovel up the scraps. From what I hear, these days no one so much as hosts a card game west of Chicago without Cass Tempesta’s blessing.

Cass’s lips move and Julian quits speaking. He turns around and waits in cold silence beside his father. I’m expected to go to them and I see no point in dragging out the inevitable.

My uncle’s smile is chilly but he opens his arms and kisses each of my cheeks in the old fashioned way. “My nephew. You’ve been gone for way too long. We’ll make up for lost time.” His calculating eyes sweep over me and note my wet jeans. “What happened?”

“Fell in the creek,” I say. “I’m fine.”

Julian catches my eye and smirks. I doubt Cass would be bothered about Getty’s shitty behavior and even if he was, the old tattletale codes die hard. I’ll deal with Getty myself.

Cass isn’t interested anyway. He’s already starting to walk away. “You boys go get cleaned up. After two solid days on the trail you could stand to be hosed off. Then we’ll have dinner.”

His heavy boots thud on the steps leading to the front door and he disappears without looking back, leaving me alone with Julian.

“Carmela set up your old room,” Julian says. “You remember where it is, right?” He starts to follow in his father’s footsteps up the stairs. “I hear tortellini alfredo is on the menu for dinner.”

The pair of wide iron doors to the house are already wide open. My cousin stops at the threshold and glances over his shoulder. “You better move, Monte. Get cleaned up and try to look halfway decent before showing up in the dining room.”

It won’t get me anywhere to complain that I don’t want to hang out and eat fucking tortellini. What I want is to get this meeting finished and burn rubber right the hell out of here.

More than anything, I want to get back to Sabrina. Ineedto get back to her. Every hour I’m away from her digs a deeper pit of torment through my soul. I can’t even call her. She must be worried by now.

It’s a shame that no one around here is especially concerned with what I want. At least a shower doesn’t sound half bad so I might as well follow orders and get on with it.

The interior of the house is outfitted in dark country vibes, like a log cabin mated with a vampire lair. Every room is always cool in the summer. As a kid, I’d forget just how massive and cavernous the mansion was until I stepped back inside. Nico and I would joke that the entire first floor of our house would easily fit into the Tempestas’ foyer.

I’m still standing just inside the entrance, temporarily stuck on old memories, when Carmela, the Tempestas’ devoted housekeeper, shuffles this way while holding a pair of tall silver candlesticks. She’s got to be in her late seventies now and movesa lot more slowly than she used to but she acknowledges me with a smile. “Dinner will be ready in an hour. Oh, your brother called the main house line while you boys were gone.”

“Nico called? What did he say?”

“He just wanted to know when you’d return. It sure would have been nice if he’d come with you for the visit.”

“I’ll call him back right now. Where’s the phone? I lost mine.”

She examines one of the candlesticks and frowns. “These things get tarnished so easily. I’ll have to polish them again.” She turns around and starts walking rapidly in the other direction.

That may or may not be weird. She’s harmless but she’s fanatically loyal to the Tempestas.

The house has something like fifteen bedrooms but during my stays here I always slept in the same room. I’m struck with some unpleasant déjà vu as I jog up the broad staircase and seek out the third bedroom on the right.

My duffel bag is already sitting in the middle of the bed. There should be a sense of comfortable familiarity with being in this room where I slept so often. Instead, it just feels eerie.

Dragging my bag into the attached bathroom, I’m not surprised to discover it’s already stocked with soap and towels. Hospitality, at least on the surface, is a feature here at Storm’s Eye. You might get jumped and bloodied to within an inch of your life but at least you had a nice towel to dry off with after your morning shower.

Following a quick date with soap and water, I’m rummaging through my bag when I think of Julian’s warning to ‘look halfway decent’. Uncle Cass is a stickler for formality at dinner time. Too bad. All I have are jeans and t-shirts.

As I exit the guest room, I still haven’t seen a soul since Carmela ran away with her tarnished candlesticks. Now that the inevitable meeting with my uncle is finally here, I’m tornbetween feeling impatient and feeling wary. I’ll need to keep a lid on my sarcasm and remember who I’m dealing with.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs I can hear a low rumble of voices. Pausing to listen, I would guess the voices are coming from the direction of the dining room located to my left in the east wing of the house. A whoop of laughter rises above the din and my jaw clenches. I can recognize Getty’s spiteful cackle anywhere.

I’m intensely aware there are security cameras in every room. Most are hidden. I’m sure at least one is pointed at me right now.

Still, since no one has yet tracked me down and hauled me to dinner, I’m going to take advantage of this temporary freedom to search for the phone. Carmela said Nico called the house so this means there’s still a landline connection around here somewhere. I don’t expect privacy in any call I make from this house but at least I can give Nico a heads up that I’m alive and unscathed and he can relay the news to Sabrina.

Even the most fleeting thought of her name makes my chest tighten like nothing else. I’m desperate to get back to her. Once I successfully appease my uncle with this lame ass family dinner, maybe I’ll be out of here before dark. This means I’ll reach Sleepy Rock in the middle of the night but I don’t want to wait.

There’s no phone in the immediate area and none to be found in the next three rooms I stick my head into. The most logical place would probably be my uncle’s office. If I’m caught poking around in there it might cause a problem but I’ve already got problems so I’m doing it anyway.

---