Mobster’s Fate

The slice of the bullet whizzing through the air knocked me on my ass. A hit to the shoulder. Fuck!

“Alex!” Carlo rushes to my side. He yanks me forward. “It’s clean; it went straight through.” Relief washes through him. Carlo bounces up from where we are hidden behind the car and fires three shots;

Boom

Boom

Boom!

He crouches back down next to me. “Get in,” he orders. “They’re running.”

I stay low and open the door using my good arm. I climb in the back and lay against the cold black leather. The slippery wetness of my blood covering it.

“Alex? You good!” Carlo has made his way into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah.” Pain shoots down my arm. I clutch it with the palm of my hand.

“We’re going to a hospital! Hang on!” Carlo is doing something with his phone and a disembodied voice resonates in the cabin of the car.

Turn right at Summer Street. In point four miles, turn left on Essex.

Carlo weaves and bobs the car driving fast. His phone is talking, guiding him through New Jersey.

“Damn runners!” He curses.

“Fuck,” I moan, the tendons in my arm stinging.

“Stay with me.” Carlo is tense.

“Is it me or did you think you saw Caesar?” I ask, fire burning in my shoulder.

“I saw him. That mother fucker!” The car takes a sharp turn and I have trouble keeping myself immobile on the seat.

“I’m sorry.” I tell him. If I didn’t take one in the shoulder, we could have snagged those two guys collected or had Carlo’s Pop in Chicago to call in the cleaner. Either way we would have been on our way home. It doesn’t help that Ennio is in the market for a new cleaner. We will never know who it is. It keeps the family and associates loyal not knowing.

Meryl’s face flits across my mind and I use my good arm to cover my face. The pain in my heart hurts more than the pain in my shoulder. She up and left. No call, no trace… she took off. I have never wanted anyone in my life. I have to get back to Chicago. I need to retrace her steps, figure out where she went. I have some of our guys doing some recon to search for her but nothing has turned up. It’s odd. We find people. It’s what we do. Half of the people that borrow money from the Mob Boss run. Tracking them down is part of the job.

Carlo screeches to a halt next to vehicles that I can see from my position resembling ambulances or for emergency. The door by my feet flies open. I lift my head and Carlo is right there with two females wearing scrubs and name badges.

“Slide him out…slowly,” Carlo commands, ordering around people who do this shit for a living. Fingers wrap around my ankles and tug on me freeing me from the backseat of the car. Dizziness radiates throughout my body. I hate this weak feeling. One of the nurses is asking Carlo questions. He is being very nice; he is snapping at them. An oxygen mask is slipped over my face; another takes a pair of scissors and cuts my shirt off my body in the parking lot.

~Alex, Mobster’s Fate