Page 75 of Clean Slade
As for my other plan, that was still in the works. I had my gun and bullets, but I didn’t have the opportunity.
Yet.
And even if I did it—whenI did it—what would happen next? Would Nino come after me? Would his capos?
When would this whole mess end? Would it be when I was dead? As long as Mac didn’t end up in his hands, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make.
Another minute passed while I mulled over my options and checked the schedule. My first appointment was in five minutes, but I needed to go now.
I scribbled a quick note and taped it to the door. I left another note for the girls and locked the salon back up. The world wouldn’t end if one pup didn’t get their trim on time.
As I jumped behind the driver’s seat and brought my car to life, I pondered whether I should tell anyone about this exchange.
The wisest thing would be to tell someone, preferably Slade, so he could convince me to not be stupid and to do the right thing, but was I going to do the wise thing?
When had I ever?
The other option would be to tell my father, but then I’d give him leverage he didn’t need.
What happened if it was all a trap? What happened if I got to the address and was shot in the back?
This was it. This was why I hated this world. Because you couldn’t trust anyone or anything. You couldn’t believe someone just because they said something, and you couldn’t be safe without risking your life in the process.
How could my father do it?
I knew he’d been born into this family, just like my grandfather and his father before him, but I didn’t understand why I was different—in more ways than one.
Would I have ended up just like them if I’d stayed? Would I be a cold and calculated criminal who didn’t care about blood or law?
I set off for Elmwood Road and thought back to my life as a mobster’s son. As the heir to a bloody throne.
Hadn’t I killed people too? Hadn’t I put drugs in the hands of the disadvantaged? Hadn’t I turned a blind eye to injustice?
Hadn’t Ibeeninjustice?
Maybe my tally wasn’t as high as my father’s or even Nino’s, but wasn’t I the same kind of monster as my father?
Only Annie had been my salvation. Annie and Grams.
I wouldn’t be where I was today if it weren’t for both of them.
Was that why I ended up different? Because I’d learned what love was early on? Was that why my father didn’t care about anything or anyone? Had he not known love?
The drive to Elmwood was short, and I immediately searched for number 14. It didn’t take long to find it.
It was a blue mailbox in front of an empty field. I had a feeling there used to be a house somewhere in that field, but if there had been, it was gone now, the growth around it completely concealing it.
It was nine twenty-six when I stopped the car on the other side of the road and watched the mailbox as if it held my fate.
It may as well have, all things considered.
The minutes ticked by, but nothing happened. No car stopped by, no movement was detected, no doom descended upon me.
At nine-thirty, I exited the car with slow, shaky steps and approached the mailbox.
Each step brought me closer to my father’s plan.
Cook in need of grease.Gain the dealer’s trust and become part of his network. Then, once they thought I could move a lot of product, they’d lead me to their boss, who was hopefully Salieri. However, he’d been part of my father’s family, so he would know to make the hierarchy far more complicated so he’d never be caught.
