Indebted to the Mafia King
Dreams

Tony

I adjust the zoom lens on the camera, and the street below snaps into focus. Four twenty-somethings stroll down the sidewalk in the summer sunset, talking loudly to each other. The lankiest one says something that makes the bleached- blonde leader punch him. The final two laugh. With another twist, I zoom in on the only one we care about. Teo-Veniamin, as these fucks know him-cocks a fist back to hit the lanky one again, but the leader shakes his head. Together, the four of them enter a crappy electronics shop we've learned is yet another Russian front. I sit back from the camera.

"How's it look?" Mikey asks.

Like Dante sent another kid just about Seb's age into the goddamn lion's den without thinking. The phantom Seb in my mind shakes his head. He talks less than he used to, since the funeral, but I can't fucking get him to go away. "They look like besties." I shrug. "Nother guy in the group got hit. Not Teo."

Mikey nods. The sunset makes him look even older than he is, highlighting all the fine lines in his face. Seems fucked up that he's really only got ten years on me.

"How much longer do you think it's gonna be?" I ask.

Fucking stupid. I'm leading this watch, this whole goddamn mission now that Dante set it in motion. I should have the answers, not be asking for them. Mikey, who's been a Saint since Dante's dad was new, looks at me like he knows that. "I'm thinking a few more days. That's Artyom's place, and the other intelligence says he's the obschak, at least for this neighborhood," I say.

"Bookkeepers always matter." Mikey nods.

Silence falls. I ignore the phantom Seb dangling his feet off the edge of the rooftop. Fucking kid did that when he was alive, too. At least now I don't have to worry about him falling. "Where's Dante tonight?" Mikey asks. "I would've thought he'd be here for something like this."

The implication is obvious. I bristle right the fuck up. "He's working the business. You really think the boss needs to waste his fucking time on a rooftop? That's what he's got morons like us for."

Mikey puts up his hands. "Hey, no offense intended. I just keep noticing he's not around when he would've been."

"And I keep noticing your wife looking lonely," I bite back. "Need me to pay a visit out to bumfuck nowhere, cheer her up?"

He scoffs and takes one of the folding chairs we've brought up here for the long night of watch. "Fuck me, I didn't intend to set off the attack dog. Just figured you might know more."

Seb furrows his eyebrows. He's curious. Goddammit, I am too.

"About what?" I take the seat next to Mikey. We'll hear when Teo leaves. His posse is loud as fuck, and he'll signal us if something goes wrong inside.

"I just mean...." Mikey shakes his head. "It's different for him now. Adri and I have been living this life for a while, but everyone adjusts at their own pace."

Because of Eleni. Everything circles back to fucking Eleni. I feel like a bastard every time I think it, but sometimes I wish she'd never caught Dante's eye. Then, I wouldn't be having endless fucking conversations with capos and "allies" about Dante quitting the life. I shove up from my chair and march across the rooftop to the cooler we hid in the sliver of shade before the sun started setting. Mikey drinks dad beer, so I grab him his light shit, and a bottle of craft porter Seb had in the back of the fridge for a special occasion. I know he would want me to drink it, even if it tastes like dirt. With the tip of my pocket knife, I pop both caps off and return to the seat.

"What adjustment do you need, out there in Jersey?" I ask. Dickhead question, but Mikey's being a dickhead, and he knows better than to take me personal.

"Every time I leave the house, I gotta wonder if tonight's the night I call Adri from the last burner phone hidden on my person, tell her to grab the cash out of the attic, take the kids, and disappear," he says bluntly. "Every goddamn time. You need balls of steel to survive that, and I'm not saying Dante doesn't, but...we don't know if he does, you know?"

Seb straightens, worried.

"We?" I ask. "You been talking to the other guys about this?"

Mikey shakes his head. "Not on purpose, anyway. The rest of the guys fucking love Eleni, and they know what the two of them have been through. There aren't any rumblings to worry about. People are just curious."

Mark me down for that. I feel like I spend half my goddamn nights now, wondering what's gonna happen next. Will we drop the Russians? Will the triads and Cal team up and drop us? What the hell happens when all of this breaks? Am I ever gonna stop seeing my little brother out of the corner of my goddamn eye?

"You know, I didn't think Dante was ever going to be boss," Mikey says. "What?" I knew since the first day I met him.

"Did you see him in college?"

I nod.

"He had a career in football if he wanted it." Mikey stares at the horizon. "One in business too, proper business. He pulled grades like no kid I've ever seen in the life."

The grades, I fucking remember. Back then, I'd seriously considered throttling him so he'd stop coming home with a higher GPA to compare to my higher body count. Mikey shrugs. "I just thought he'd get out is all."

I nod slowly. I never thought that. Not until recently, when he joined up with the goddamn feds to get her back. I barely feel like I know him anymore. Maybe he doesn't have the steel balls Mikey is talking about. Fuck, I'm going to have to lead the Saints.

Seb hops up and does a silent victory dance.