Page 110 of A Dirty Business
I let him in.
I couldn’t not anymore.
Thursday night.
We had a hard day at work, and Trace came over.
I couldn’t talk about my day. I didn’t want him to talk about his, but he held me again.
He was gone in the morning, and I wasn’t going to think anymore.
I went to my shift at Katya, and I could feel him there.
He was watching me. I didn’t know where he was, but I knew he was there.
I went home after my shift, and ten minutes later ...
Knock, knock.
I let him in.
He was gone once again when I woke up, but today was Saturday. I had nothing to do today.
I didn’t know how to handle a day of nothing.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
TRACE
This was meeting number eight.
My uncle had started falling into the same pattern. I came in. There was small talk. He inquired about my sister, then he asked how my work was going. I answered everything, waiting for the real reason he’d asked to meet me. He’d get to it, and the last few times, it’d been the same request or warning. I considered it a forewarning of sorts. His health was bad. He needed me to take over the family business.
The time remaining was dwindling. I had a couple weeks to go.
Of course this was never expressed in a way where he was asking me to do it. He was telling me he wanted me to do it. It was an old classic Uncle Stephano way of where he paved the road with his intentions first, and then when it was clear, he marched right on through.
This meeting was different.
I noticed that immediately when his men stood up straight when I exited my vehicle. Before, they lounged. They nodded. They might have given a wave; sometimes they did nothing, and that was because I didn’t care for my uncle’s men. They only knew violence and used violence to get whatever they wanted.
This time, there was fear in their eyes.
“Tristian.” Stephano’s head guy, Bobby, gave me a respectful nod, opened the door, and led the way inside. We bypassed the kitchen, where my uncle preferred to do his meetings, and he took me down to the basement, into the back television room, where Stephano was on a back couch. “Tristian is here.”
“Ah. I see.” My uncle stood up and came over.
His hands went to my arms, and he leaned in. A kiss to my left cheek. A kiss to my right, and then he gave me another clasp on both arms, a smile before he stepped back. He blinked a few times before he turned away.
“What’s going on, Uncle Stephano?”
He cleared his throat, shaking his head. “We can get to that. Sit, sit, sit. Bobby, get us some drinks. I’m feeling wine tonight. The best red we have.”
Bobby gave a nod before glancing my way, a lingering look, and then he left.
I frowned. What was going on? “I’d rather we cut to the chase here. We’ve had enough of these meetings over the last two weeks, Uncle Stephano.”
“What? Oh. Yeah. Uh.” He waved to the couch he’d just stood from. “Sit. Have a seat. Relax a little. All in due time.”
