All the world seems to melt away as I hold her there. We’re not standing in a public place, we’re off in our own world, far away from all our troubles, all our danger. A place we’ve visited before when things got too heated. A place we went when we both were young and naive. Things haven’t changed so much after all.
Just the world around us has.
But I eventually feel her soft lips leaving mine, and she looks up at me, her smiling eyes proud of the thickening shaft growing between my legs. But I can’t let everything go unspoken between us. Looking at her evenly, our eyes locked, I level with her.
“You’re in danger, Serena,” I say softly yet firmly. “I won’t lie to you.” I watch the ghost of fear wash over her face briefly, but she swallows.
“You mean...those guys you fought with.”
“The Cleaners.”
She gives me a puzzled look, and I turn back to the aquarium tank with her in my arm, hugged to my side. “There have always been a lot of gangs fighting for dominance down in Spanish Harlem. There’s always been a small Italian presence, but they’ve kept to themselves for a long time. Now, Spanish Harlem is changing, and they got pushed out with nowhere else to go. A group of them calling themselves the Abruzzi family showed up in the south side of the Bronx a while back. They earned a reputation, and the nickname stuck. They’ve been pushing into our territory.
“That’s who was at my shop?” she says, her eyes widening. I squeeze her side. “Is that why they were there? Why would anyone bother with my shop if-”
“The Cleaners don’t play by any rules, Serena,” I say. My voice is low, both to keep our conversation quiet and keep her calm. “The man harassing you, Lorenzo—he’s the so-called Don’s son. He’s a spoiled man in a family of upstarts,” I say, not hiding the edge of disgust in my voice. I don’t like mafia politics on a good day, and the Cleaners are the worst of the worst. I’ve been...tactful in how I describe the situation, though. The last thing I want is to scare her too much.
“Oh God,” she breathes, leaning into me. “The mark on the window today...this isn’t going to go away, is it?”
“I’ve been assigned to protect you, Serena,” I say, looking down at her, and I can practically feel her heart flutter as she looks up at me. “I don’t want the rest of my associates getting involved unless I’m the one calling the shots. I’m going to keep you safe and out of all that business.”
I know old memories are getting dredged up, and I see the shining hint of tears welling up in her eyes. I squeeze her, and she opens her mouth silently before saying, “Do you think that’s going to be a problem? That the m-that your associates are going to start caring about my shop?”
“No,” I say firmly, squeezing her hand. “I’ve made sure of that. And if that changes, Serena,” I say, leaning in to whisper into her ear, “then the mafia can go fuck themselves. You and I are the only ones I care about, carina. I’ll be right here, at your side, watching over you. As long as this heart of mine is beating, I swear, nothing will touch you unless you want it to.”
Her lip is quivering, and I meet her embrace as she hugs me, sinking into my arms, and I feel a tear stain the shoulder of my shirt.
Growing up with families like ours, you don’t escape the shadow of the mafia. But maybe together, we can keep just one light aflame to see us through the dark.
Sometime later, I walk her through the rest of the aquarium to ease her mind off of such heavy things. She’s spacey at first, but soon, the play of the dolphins and the gentle, hypnotic floating of the jellyfish we pass help her smile, and by the time we get a bite to eat, she’s chatting about some biology class she took in college as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
It’s the little things that give me some hope for the future. But even so, as the day winds down and we make our way out to the parking lot and look up at the dark sky, I know we can’t escape our troubles that easily. I hold her tight to me as we make our way down the parking lot that’s not lit up by nothing but street lights.
While Serena has a spring to her step, I’m already expecting what makes her freeze in her tracks when my car comes into view.
“Bruno-”
“I know,” I say, my eyes darting around the lot as my gun hand twitches.
Parked next to my car is the black sedan that was tailing us earlier today.
BRUNO
“Be casual, follow my lead,” I say as I guide her to the side, walking away from my parked car.
“Where are we going?”
“Just stay close to me,” I say as softly as if I were teaching her how to drive a car. “Do what I say, and be ready to run if I tell you to.”
“You know I won’t,” she says, tenacious even in a tense situation, and I can’t help but smile. That’s my girl.
“Then just be ready,” I say, my hand on the small of her back as I guide her.
There’s going to be trouble tonight. That much is unavoidable. I know we have eyes on us now, and it won’t be long before they close in. But if we’re going to have a fight, I will pick the battleground. We’ll do things on my terms.
The boardwalk is next to the aquarium. It’s still only as well-lit as the street lights will let it be, but there are less surprises in an open space than in a parking lot. I guide us onto the wooden planks, empty for a long way on either side by this time of the evening. Most people are either heading home or know better than to hang around the waterfront at night.
It’s mostly empty, anyway. My eyes have been scanning the area as I guide Serena out, and by the time we step onto the boardwalk, I’ve spotted the men following us out there. There are three of them. I size them up. They’re big, one of them almost as big as me.
“Bruno?” Serena whispers.
“Remember what I said,” I assure her as I guide her to the nearest light, watching the shadowy figures present themselves about ten paces away from us. The looks on their faces tell me they’re about as ready to drop the pretense as I am. Riegelmann Boardwalk is basically a straight line—two of them are up ahead of us, and the big guy is behind us.
“You boys lost?” I say to them, looking between both of them. “This area can be a little dangerous at night.”
“Shut the fuck up, Lomaglio,” the big one addresses me by my last name, his deep voice rumbling from a mouth with a missing front tooth. “You know what this is about.”
“Oh, Lorenzo wants his teeth back? Sorry, didn’t bring ‘em with me,” I say, rolling my shoulders back as they take steps forward. “Tell him to meet me himself if he wants ‘em. I’d say you could bring back some of your own and tell him they’re his, but it looks like you tried that already.”
As he makes a snarling face, I notice his hand twitch as if for a gun, but he stops himself. The NYPD station is just a block away. I have no doubt the cops have been paid off to turn a blind eye to the area for the next hour or so. That kind of thing happens all the time, even by my own associates. But even so, I’m guessing they didn’t give a bribe big enough to ignore gunshots in the police’s back yard.
Instead, I see the big guy’s fist glimmer in the lamplight with a pair of brass knuckles.