Page 60 of Waiting Game

“Hey bud!” Dimitri beamed, throwing the gun in his hands onto the table and standing to greet me with a gentle clap on the back.

“How you feeling?” Angel asked.

“Fine,” I sighed, “what are you up to?”

I looked around at the new product. It felt strange to be sitting on the sidelines, instead of deep in the job. I was Antoni’s right hand man after all, and usually everything flowed through me in some way or another.

“Packing up,” Dimitri said, glancing at the stash.

“Delivering today?” I asked.

Angel nodded, and wrapped the shotgun he was holding in a thin layer of fabric before loading it into the crate on top of the other product.

“Remember that Vivielli owes us from last time too,” I exhaled shakily as I sat.

“I’m sure we can handle the old guy without you, Lorenzo,” Robert rolled his eyes.

“I only worry that you won’t handle it ascalmlyas I would,” I frowned at him.

It was not always necessary to exercise our power to get payment out of people. Robert would take any opportunity to flash about his gun, and cause fights that The Family would have to finish. It may not have been the most honest job, but The Family was ultimately a business - and a lot of things could be handled in a professional manner.

That way, we got our money and no one got hurt. Vivielli was an older guy, a friend of Antoni’s father and had never had an issue with payment. I was now worried that Antoni sending Robert to deal with it, would create a problem where there wasn’t one.

“Maybe I should go,” I frowned again, looking at Antoni.

Antoni only shook his head.

“Just remind the bloke of what’s owing, and leave it at that. If it needs to be taken further, you wait for Ren to be back in action,” Antoni instructed.

Dimitri and Angel nodded, but Robbie rolled his eyes again.

Samuel, Toni’s younger brother, strode into the kitchen in his dirty work clothes, heading straight for the fridge. He nodded his head toward me in a greeting, and I returned it. Sammy mostly stayed out of things on our end of the business.

He kept himself busy with his workshop, and chop shop on the side. You wouldn’t know by looking at him, but he was probably Melbourne’s best, most efficient, and most notorious car thief.

Hundreds of cars he had stolen, pulled apart, rebirthed, and then sold on - without ever being caught. Sammy was a quiet bloke who kept to himself, and he very rarely involved himself in the darker parts of his family’s business. Like Valerie, he seemed to have a conscience, something that never hindered the rest of us.

It wasn’t to say that he wasn’t dangerous in his own way.

The quiet ones were always the ones to look out for.

Unlike Valerie, Sammy was no saint.

He left black fingerprints on the white fridge as he closed it, sitting down at the table and drinking straight from his huge bottle of orange juice.

“What you working on lately Sam?” I asked.

“Got a WRX in today,” he flashed a big grin and pumped his eyebrows.

“Really?” I leaned forward, rubbing my hands together.

“She’s perfect, man. You should come by later and give it a flog.”

“Oh fuck yeah,” I smirked.

I always tried my best to include Sammy whenever I could. Our families had always been intertwined. Sam was like a little brother to me, and so I was protective over him. I knew how tossed to the side he was by his parents, also just like Val. The thought of her ripped me out of my distraction, and back to thinking about how she had left - again.

I heard the door open and slam shut, and a pair of clacking high heels coming towards us. At first I thought that it was Vera, but as the kitchen door squealed open, I noticed Sammy sit up a little straighter and push his hair back and I knew exactly who it was.

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