The Second Time Around
10

The black Cadillac parked on the curb behind a dark gray SUVwith tinted windows and black powder-coated steel bumper guards on the frontand back. The driver stepped out of theCadillac, scanned the area briefly with one hand under his jacket. Then the broad-shouldered man stepped to theback door and opened it.

Lucky Aricello stepped out of the Caddy and straightened hisjacket. He walked up to the driver'sside window of the SUV, and the tinted glass rolled down. One of his button men sat in the driver'sseat with two enforcers in the back.

"Which one is the Professor's?" Lucky asked, and the man pointed to a Tudorstyle house three driveways down on the opposite side of the street. Lucky walked down the sidewalk until he stoodopposite of Professor Mathis' home. Thelawn was meticulously manicured as were the shrubs that lined the front of thehome. Four beautiful rose bushes satunder a window that Lucky guessed would be the kitchen.

Light still shone in three of the windows, though no shadowsmoved in the house. Everything along thestreet was still, quiet. No dogs barked,and no cars moved along the broad avenues. Lucky checked his Rolex and saw that it wasn't quite midnight yet. He strolled back to the SUV and the glassrolled down once more on the driver's window.

"Keep an eye on it," Lucky said, "Anyonecomes home, anyone goes in or out, you call me, understood? Me,"Lucky repeated, "And no one else. Don't make any moves until you hear from me."

The button man nodded and rolled the window up oncemore. Lucky walked back to his Cadillacand the driver/bodyguard that stood by his door. After one last look down the street atProfessor Mathis' dark and empty home, Lucky slid into the soft leather seatand the driver closed the door.

"Call the restaurant, Anthony," Lucky said to thedriver, "Have them let Dessa know that I'm on the way and that I got heldup at work."

"Right away, Mr. Aricello," Anthony answered, andLucky pressed the button to raise the partition between the driver'scompartment and the back seat. TheCadillac had been modified to serve as a sort of low-key limousine forLucky. It also sported bullet resistantglass and armored door panels to protect against most calibers of firearm. Lucky had risen to his current position inthe Boston Family when his predecessor had stopped at the wrong intersectionand a Russian hit squad had fired more than two hundred AK-47 rounds through thedoor and side of his stretch limousine, killing him, his mistress, threecaptains, and the driver.

Lucky didn't know of anyone out to get him, but his formerboss could have said the same thing the day before he was hit. He clicked on the overhead lamp and openedthe file on the seat next to him once more and began reading. Something just didn't quite fit with thisProfessor Mathis. The man had been ahabitual loser, small time, betting no more than fifteen hundred at the timeand racking up a considerable debt. Normally, Lucky would let a fish like that land himself in hot water,then he'd turn up the heat and squeeze them for all the juice they wereworth.

But today that pattern went right out the window. Professor Mathis went from making risky smalltime bets to dropping twenty grand on a called winner that actually hit. And immediately after that, he leveragedthose winnings across three different betting profiles online to lay twohundred thousand on four full ticket races, each with a possible pay out of thirty to one.

And then the unthinkable happened--all four races hit.

Lucky now owed this Professor six million dollars in thebosses' cash and he couldn't even replace the man. For the moment, at least, he'd been able to keep the marker quiet, but thatwouldn't last. Once his superiors gotword of it, Lucky might replace himself sitting in the wrong intersection justlike his former boss had.

Suddenly,Lucky didn't have much of an appetite.