“I saw the necklace on her, thought I’d do you a favor. Don’s starting to think you’re taking too long with this job. I was trying to help.”
“Bullshit. You just happened to be on the fucking corner when she came past?” I raise my hand to slap him but I’m so fired up that I backhand him instead, cutting my knuckle on his top teeth. He grunts, spitting bloody foam to the ground.
“That’s disgusting, Dwayne,” I say. “You’re a mess.”
“I know that,” he says with a groan. “You think I wanted any of this? I had no choice but to come and spy on you. Shit man, would you lighten up a little?”
“Could be a lot worse. Would you like it to be worse? I’d sure like it. Keep talking.” He’s got his eyes like he’s resigned to me killing him. “You better tell me the truth.”
He looks at me at last. “All right, all right. The Don did send me. That’s the truth.”
“And?”
“Walter gave me a call just now, okay? Paying me twenty grand to get the necklace back to him so you won’t kill him.”
I loosen my grip, letting him drop to the ground. He lands heavily, letting out a groan of pain. I step back from him, pulling out my gun again. “What’s to stop me from killing you right now, Dwayne?”
He looks up at me with a defiant glare. His sudden confidence makes me want to shoot him in the face but I know he’s not brave enough to square up to me alone. It’s the Don protecting him that makes him glare at me. That thought is enough to make me hold off but only just.
“Go ahead,” he says, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “But how do you think it’s going to look when the Don hears about it?”
“He doesn’t need to know. I’ve buried plenty of made men in my time.”
“He knows I’m here. Knows I’m supposed to be watching you, seeing what’s taking so long. He’s getting suspicious of you, Enzo. Thinks you might be looking at taking his job. You kill me and he’ll know it was you. No one else would do it, not in a pissant little burg like this.”
He gets slowly to his feet, wiping blood from his eyes. “You’re not going to shoot me,” he says with conviction.
“Why not?”
“You’d have done it already. Now, you want to talk about why that girl’s so special?”
“You don’t get to ask me questions, Dwayne.”
“Yeah, yeah, the great Enzo Lauria. Master interrogator. Expert torturer. I know all that. The point is it’s not me asking, it’s the Don. Don’t you get it? You’re slipping up. She’s got the necklace on her. Why not just shoot the bitch and take the fucking thing? Why are you following her around like a lovesick puppy?”
I whip out my gun and press it to his forehead. I didn’t hear anything much after the word bitch. All I know is that I close the distance between us so fast he has no time to register what I’m doing.
He stumbles back into the dumpster and his head slams into the rusted metal. I move the gun until it’s pressing firmly into his nose, broken bone grinding against the barrel.
Despite the pain, which must be excruciating, he continues to glare at me. “So you are sweet on her. And there was me thinking the only thing you ever loved was that gun.”
I’m about to pull the trigger when I stop myself. “Tell the Don I’m on top of this,” I say, putting my gun away like it was never out. “I see you in this town again, I’ll rip your skin off and make you eat it like I did with Little Tony.”
I toss a wad of napkins at him from out of the dumpster. “Clean yourself up and get the fuck out of here,” I tell him. “Good seeing you again, Dwayne.”
He straightens himself up, making a big show of brushing himself down before smoothing out his hair.
I’m still shaking with rage and the urge to paint the grimy walls with his useless brains is overwhelming. I close my eyes for a few seconds to get a hold of myself, opening them just in time to see his back disappearing around the corner.
I lean against the wall and let out a sigh of relief. If I’d killed him, I’d have been in big trouble. The Don would find out. It would prove to him that I am thinking of taking over. How does he even know that? I haven’t told anyone about my plans yet.
I better call the Don and check in, act natural. It takes a few minutes for my adrenaline to subside long enough to make the call. When I’m sure I can sound calmer than I feel, I get my cellphone out.
He answers after a couple of rings. I can hear someone screaming in the background. The sound of the cattle prod at work. “Enzo,” the Don says. “Give me some good news.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“You’ve got the file and the necklace?”