chapter 7: She Smokes

Chapter 7: She Smokes

Roy

“Oh, really? How come I never see any damn models when I am picking her up every day?” I smiled and shrugged.

“She wasn't even there for a child, she was reading in the grass.” I leaned against the countertop while he looked around for something in the future fridge.

“Reading?” Gabe sounded amused.

“And you will never guess what book.” He turned around and tossed me a beer and I caught it.

“What?” He sounded disinterested but fúck him, I am telling him anyway.

“Fight Club.”

That actually got a good chuckle out of him.

“No way. That is a humorous moment of fate for you.” He cracked open his can and took a foamy sip.

“You believe in fate now, do you?”

“Fuck off,” he sucked his teeth at me.

“Listen, did you hear about the meeting?” He added quickly after.

“What meeting?” Clearly I hadn't.

“Head of households.” He barely explained.

“Callan called it.” He nodded.

“If it is the fucking Blank Knight.” I huffed.

“I think it is, my father said, the three of us.” He told me

When Callan wants to be a prick, he sometimes tells me I am not head of household. That Gabe and my uncle are boss and underboss but that is not how the Vortex crime family works and he knows it. Gabe and I run shít together just below my uncle who is obviously still involved. Slowly, as they get older, we come more and more to the forefront though. That is how it has been the last few years.

“Oh, also, are you going to visit your father this weekend?” He pulled the beer can quickly away from his mouth to ask since I had taken a mouthful I took a second to gulp it down.

“I wasn't planning on it, why?” He bit his cheek in thought like he has the habit of doing.

“Well, we might need you too. If the Black Knight starts uprising out here, we want to hit them in the pen.”

Since my father held a pretty strong position within the prison, and all the mafia shut that still goes on behind bars, he has given orders and had his men carry out on behalf of our Cartel.

“Yes, alright, just let me know then. I haven't seen the bastard in over a month away.” I tried thinking back on the last time I saw him, I can't remember but it does usually focus around business.

My father is doing twenty-five years to life for a slew of racketeering charges and they are trying to pin murder on him but it hasn't stuck so well just yet. Any witness against him has surprisingly disappeared or blacked out. Can't hold a strong case with lost evidence and abandoning witnesses. Callan Harold knows too many men in high places for that. My father shouldn't have even gotten time but that all happened before Callan grew into his ranks, so we didn't have as many influential men in our pocket like we do today. The mafia will always have others in their pockets but it wasn't as deep until Callan came back from the military with secrets and high security clearance contacts. The bastard can make almost everybody disappear and I know he wishes I was one of them.

He would never actually do it because Harold and Vortex crime families have always been close and I am a high ranking official. There are rules of respect even amongst us crooks when it comes to our cartel. Like when he killed the Black Knight underboss, it was a big fucking move because targeting high ranking official of any organized crime group is basically always declaring a war. You would rarely ever get away with it without a huge blow out attached but he was Callan's actual enemy who kept trying to kill him first. So again, the rules shift and change. I am not Callan's enemy no matter how much he feels that I am, for that reason, he won't actually kill me. Unless he is positive he can get away with it then maybe….oh whatever. Fuck him.

“Back to this girl, you said she is a model?” Gabe suddenly switched topics again.

“Alessia? Yes she is very blonde and her lips, man. Her lips are the type you want around your díck, so full.” I started telling him and he asked if I got her number, I snorted at him.

“Seem excited about this one, does that mean she is more than a targeted fuck?” He asked. We finished the beers and started walking to the living room where Tracy was.

“No, no way, just a fu…umm, hook up.” I corrected my language in front of the child.

“What you called excited is just my finding her to be sarcastic and clever. It just made me laugh.” I told him.

He asked why, so I ended up just telling him the whole conversation. It is not like it was a very long one.

“A smoker, huh? I thought that annoyed you?” He asked.

“Umm, she doesn't look like a two packs a day kind of smoker. She gives me a foreign vibe, though I can't place her but you know over there everyone smokes.” I waved it off.

My mother used to smoke like two packs a day and my house growing up was like an ashtray. The smell clung to everything, she is a piece of work anyway, my father had me around her less and less over time until all that shit went down. I like talking about the past about as much as I like talking about religion or politics. As in I don't. The only politics we ever pay attention to are those we help win elections so we have them in our pockets.

“Father!” Tracy yelled from literally only across the room.

“Hey, I am right here.” He scolded her and her cute big eyes shifted to me. I swear she only just realized we were in here, children with their shows.

“Can I have juice?” She asked. She has since abandoned the goldfish.

“You have your cup in the fridge already poured, you are a big girl. Your mother tells me you do a lot more for yourself at her house, so I know you can go into the fridge and grab the cup.” He called her out and I chuckled.

“But you spoil her and she knows it. Of course she does more with the mother.” I shook my head.

“Father,” she whined.

“Come on, baby. You told me you were big.” I reminded her. She looked between us while biting the tip of her finger.

“I am big,” she slid off the couch and started walking towards the kitchen.

“Use that, it works.” I patted his shoulder and he shook his head.

“You baby the shít out of her.” I called him out.” He scowled.

“Let's see when you have a daughter.” I snorted.