“Jesus, Emilio,” the guy said. “Are you dead?”
The guy on the floor gurgled something as his lips moved.
“We have to get him to a hospital.”
“Give it time,” I said. “Then you can just take him to the morgue.”
“You’re a crazy motherfucker, man.”
“Where’s Aldo?” I asked.
“Waiting for you. We have to be secure about this. There’s risk.”
“There’s risk just sneaking up on me like that,” I said. “And you left Winter alone.”
“I’m not at liberty to talk,” the guy said and turned around.
The guy on the floor was wheezing now. I reached down and lifted him, grunting as I turned him.
“There,” I said. “So the blood flows out. You might survive.”
I sat back and caught my reflection in the rearview mirror. I was smiling. Smiling. Why? Because I had just beaten some guy half to death for no real reason? My smile faded. This was why Winter shouldn’t have been near me. We shouldn’t have slept together (over and over and over again). She shouldn’t have shown me pictures or anything.
I was in too deep.
Aldo probably knew it.
The car stopped and I was led into the back of a warehouse. It was some kind of storage center, no doubt a front for Aldo and his business connections. For every one legit storage unit rented, there was probably ten with bodies or stolen shit inside.
There were two men guarding the main office door. They frisked me, took my gun, and then opened the door.
And there he was.
Aldo.
Leaning against a desk, arms folded.
The office looked like any other normal office.
Aldo reached down and grabbed a picture frame from the desk. He turned it around and pointed to it. It was of a man and woman, cheek to cheek, smiling. They were on some mountain, smiling big.
“You know who this is?” Aldo asked.
“No idea,” I said.
“His name was Andrew. Worked here. Manager type. But then he kept poking at me. Got real fucking annoying. You know where he is now?”
“One of the storage units?” I asked.
“No. He loved his job so much. He told me that. This was his goddamn career. So I had him buried right beneath this floor.”
It made me shiver to think. Some guy tossed into concrete as it was poured for a new floor in the office.
But that was how Aldo and his family did business. They did what they wanted, when they wanted, and they generally acted upon emotion. And Aldo always kept his cool.
“How’s Endo?” I asked.
“Tripp, I know you’re a smart guy,” Aldo said. “It was always strange to me to see someone like you fighting on the streets. You were like a dog fighting for a piece of old meat. But you could fight. And you listened. You never asked for more than what I was willing to give you.”
That was probably the best form of a compliment I’d ever gotten from Aldo.
“Do you understand what I’m getting at?” Aldo asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“You came here to protect Winter. That was your job. You know, the Red Aces have come to me several times for assistance. No different this time. But I know what I was looking for. Guilt is a powerful thing, Tripp.”
“Guilt?” I asked.
“I know everything,” Aldo said. He pushed from the desk. “Everything.”
“Meaning?”
“You know why you’re here now,” he said. “Not to protect her, Tripp. I want to know where my granddaughter is.”
The words came at me, attacked me, and I stepped back.
“So you know,” Aldo said with a grin. He put a hand out. “I’m not mad at you, Tripp. You went above and beyond, like I knew you would. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist her. She’s a beautiful woman. Just tainted.”
“How?” I asked.
“Endo,” Aldo said. “The guilt. It was eating him up. See, we had a meeting about making him. Think of it as a promotion. He’d be on my level in the family. With that kind of power comes a responsibility that not many can take on. So he started talking. Told me about a deal he had with the Red Aces. About a woman he met. And how she fucked him over. Tricked him into getting her pregnant.”
“That’s not how it happened,” I said.
“You were there?”
“No. But Winter…”
“Is manipulative,” Aldo said. “The second she was done with Endo she moved on to the next guy. Rocky. Poor Rocky met his death and now she’s latched onto you. Right?”
I gritted my teeth, refusing to answer.
“Oh, come on, Tripp,” Aldo said. “You’re telling me you haven’t fucked her yet? I know you. You like to fight and fuck. That’s your gig.”
I swallowed hard and started to feel angry. I felt used. I felt like I was part of a plan that I wanted nothing to do with. Worse yet, my heart had been put in the middle of everything too. I really cared about Winter. I think I loved her.
“Trust me, I know I’m right,” Aldo said.