An Unfinished Life (28 page)

“Mikey had a brother? How did I not know this? And now he’s a federal agent who has been assigned to prosecute me for the murder of Michael St. Clair? Where the fuck has this guy been?”

“From what we have found out so far, they lived together for only a short time, and then the parents split, taking one son each. He soon became a cop after Mikey’s death. He’s had a promising career climbing the ranks, making a name for himself in Boston and New York before joining the FBI.”

“So, what now…come at me and seek revenge for his brother’s death by using his position at the FBI? Why now after all of these years? It’s not like I’ve been in hiding. He must know where I’ve been and who I am? This doesn’t make sense at all. Too many years have gone by for him to still be raging war against me, unless he’s gutless and knew no other way until now. I guess I now understand why you wanted me out of California so badly. Dammit, Max! You should have come clean with me then and at least given me some heads up, so I could have watched my own back! But you took matters into your own hands, and now I’m fucked seven ways to Sunday. You left me open, Max! The one fear you say you were afraid I was going to do to the family, and now I’m the one exposed.”

“I’m so sorry, Jack. You will never know how much. We will do everything in our power to help you.”

“You’ve done quite enough already, Max. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll take it from here. Please leave, and don’t come back here unless I call or send for you.”

My dismissal gutted my friend, but his betrayal gutted me. Good intentions don’t always play out the way you envision them to be. I would eventually forgive Max, but I needed time to work through my feelings about it and hoped that his actions didn’t put my family and all that I valued in jeopardy.

I knew I had a little time left before Sara would discover this news. I left shortly after Max did and left word for Sara that I had some errands to run. She was so busy, I doubt she would notice me gone but didn’t want her to worry.

I had some cards to play—I always did—and it was time to roll the dice and hope I wouldn’t be denied my request. I had my own black book of contacts and sources I could call on if I ever needed things taken care of.

My hands were shaking to the point where I had to tighten my fists. Tommy had driven me to the scheduled meeting place after I received the message telling me the time and location. I recognized the estate immediately. It was the family home of the late Johnny Carlucci. I was met at the door by his men, who proceeded to pat me down and then cleared me for entrance. Tommy stayed behind but was also searched.

I took a seat in the library and waited for my meeting. I took time to peruse all the pictures that were aligned perfectly with each other. I was even in a few of them. One picture that I recognized immediately was of Johnny, sitting beside me at his table in front of the bakery. This was his favorite place in the neighborhood, he always said, and he asked me to join him for espresso. As I stared at the photo, my memory went back to that day.

“You want something, Jack. I know my boy. Ask me.” he said as he sipped his coffee and lit a cigar.

What would he say when I asked him to do what no one had ever dared to?

“Johnny, please let me go.”

He looked at me over his cup and then placed it back down to the table.

Inhaling a few puffs of his cigar, he then answered my request, “Why now, Jack? Why ask for your freedom now? I know why, and it is not of importance to you. Do you even know how much this saddens me that you sit here and easily ask me to cut ties with the man I see and love as my own son? Why, Jack? Why do you hurt me like this?”

I was sick to my stomach over what I did to that poor kid. I knew the days of living this life were over for me, and I just wanted out. I needed to be out before I lost any more of my soul.

“Johnny, I mean no disrespect. You have been very good to me and to my family, but I’m asking for you to let me go and to allow me to live my life without harm coming to my family for my walking away from your ‘family.’”

“You know, Jack, no man has ever confronted me and lived to tell about it. You are special, I always knew this. I also always knew this day would come for us, and I would have to make a decision, one that would probably hurt me very much in the end. I meant what I said to you. I love you like a son because you have proven your loyalty to me and to this family, and for that Jack…you are free. But you will always be a Carlucci where it matters most, and I pray you never forget who has your back in all areas of your life today, tomorrow, and all that will follow after that. Are we understood?”

I nodded my answer, but he surprised me by standing up and taking me into his arms. This was the highest display of respect a Don like Johnny Carlucci could give. He had a tear in his eye, but it never fell.

He stood tall and snapped his fingers for more espresso. Just like that, he had flipped his switch, and it was back to business as usual.

Our friendship sustained all of the years that followed our conversation. I could never change my past but only live with my choices and grow to accept them. I refuted when he treated me better than his own sons that were born to him. I couldn’t refuse him, nor could I ever ask him not to address me in any other way. I accepted his term of endearment and tried with great effort not to allow it to hurt my father. My father was a proud man, hard working until the day he died. To disgrace his memory by calling another man “father” would have destroyed him. I vowed to never call him anything but Johnny and always viewed him as a loyal friend.

Although at times my soul was tortured for what I was asked to do for him, I also knew what I signed up for the day he shook my hand and welcomed me into his circle of trust. My story had a different ending than Mikey’s, but he also knew what it meant to be part of the family and the consequences of betraying it.

“I hope you are at peace, my friend. It’s all I ever wanted for the both of us,” I said out loud not realizing I was no longer alone with my expressive thoughts.

“So poetic, but unnecessary, my friend. We both know he’s burning in the deepest realm of hell, don’t we, Jack?”

“Dominick,” I greeted him.

He carried the same build and look of his late father, but he would never live up to the man himself, and he knew it.

“Formal, and again, not necessary. Do you greet all your friends like that? Or is the curt tone reserved just for me? You called me, Jack, not the other way around.”

“My apologies, Dominick. I have some things weighing heavily on my mind.”

“I don’t disagree with you there. Michael St. Clair, yes?”

“The very one.”

“The one that raped and brutalized your daughter. That pig should have been slaughtered and hung out by his balls in a field where vultures could pick at him until there was nothing left of him. Why, after all this time that has gone by, is your revenge carried out now? You always were the complicated one, weren’t you, Jack? I never understood you like my father did. Maybe he was the only one that could. Did you know how it distressed him to know that you wouldn’t seek retribution upon hearing about your girl? But of course, in his eyes, you could do no wrong. The sun had risen and set upon you. The prince who never accepted the throne even when offered by the king himself. A pity, Jack, it really is, but that’s the past, right? You’re here now and back where you belong. Father would be so proud.”

“Knock it off, Dominick, and enough with the jabs about the past and
your
father. He’s gone now, rest his soul. Don’t stand before me and disgrace his memory with your bitterness. It is not my fault you were never regarded in the manner you expected to be. You have it all now anyway, so let’s not revisit the past again. You know why I’m here, so let’s get down to it.”

“Oh, Jack, always hostile. Lucky for me, you were searched at the door, or I would have to worry about that famous temper of yours. Have a seat, fix yourself a drink, and help yourself to a cigar. It may help you take the edge off a bit.”

“I’m fine.”

“Have it your way. You called for this meeting, so talk.”

“Dominick, I know we haven’t always agreed, but I always knew you to be fair and never to act in haste. Only a handful of men knew why I had chosen to not take the path you all expected me to after my Nicolette was attacked. I had my reasons, and they were explained in detail to your father. I knew that if ever there was a time I needed help, it would be given to me freely. So I need your help with this. Tell me: why was permission granted for the contract to go out on St. Clair without my knowledge? This is what I demand to know.”

“Y
ou
demand
? How dare you come here and utter those words to me after all I have done for you—what this family has done for you. You can be a self-serving sonofabitch sometimes. It really amazes me how soon they forget.”

“I never asked you to do anything for me, Dominick, nor did I use any of my friendships to get what I wanted. I was doing just fine on my own, and there was an end date. I just wasn’t there yet.”

“Bullshit! You were never going to get there, Jack, because you were bullied into a corner by all who claim to love you. Like your weak and pitiful brother who didn’t have the balls to take out that piece of shit when his daughter, his precious princess he vowed to always care for, got hurt. He failed her! And he failed and broke his promise to you. That was your first mistake: to believe him and allow him to just take her away from you. Your next mistake was allowing yourself to be manipulated by your wife. You don’t have to tell me what she means to you, because I have it myself with my Talia. But, my friend, my love also knows that she can’t push me into doing something I don’t believe in. To go against everything I am would be destructive to our marriage, and to me as a man. And lastly, your daughter. You made unrealistic promises to an eighteen-year-old girl that you would always be her knight in shining armor.”

“You were bullied, Jack. Backed up against the wall, and it has cost you in more ways than they could ever know. They don’t want to see the real you, but we do, Jack. This family has always been here for you, even when you turned your back on us and walked away. My father was an old fool, but I am not. So when Max asked me to set in motion what you already had in place, I freely gave him my blessing.”

“It wasn’t Max’s or your call to make. It was mine.”

“The hell it wasn’t. If you truly believed that, Jack, then why the call to us? Why bring us into your confidence and then expect us to not have an opinion about it? But again, my father did what you asked of him and respected your wishes. I, on the other hand, owe you nothing. Your wishes were respected for far too long, and when Max brought me up to speed and told me everything that was happening, how could I sit back and do nothing? Don’t you understand? That sick fuck was never going to leave your daughter to her life once he got out. Oh yes, my friend, it’s right there in that file if you cared to read it. He was set to be paroled, free to come and go as he pleased, and his first stop—which is clearly depicted here—was your daughter! I am the head of this family, and I will do as I wish. And to hell with what you agree with.”

Same old Dominick. He never beat around the bush. He didn’t have to. His mouth had gotten him into trouble more times than I could count. Half the time, I had to bail him out and reason with Johnny on his behalf. Nothing was given to him, he had to take it once his father had passed. He was the first born and was the heir apparent to the fortunes and businesses that Johnny built from nothing. Dominick was more progressive than his father. Modern at times, and aggressive in acquiring the knowledge to keep bringing his family into the new way of thinking and not being defined by the past.

“You are too quiet, Jack. Penny for your thoughts? Did I hit a nerve?”

“You always do, Dominick. You have that way about you.”

“What can I say, Jack? It’s a gift. I’m growing tired of this conversation. Let’s move on. You want to know what happens next. Well, the feds have the case, and they are running full speed ahead with it. Let them search all they want, but they will never be able to tie this murder to you or this family. All our bases were covered by ten layers of cement. On the record, this was just another inmate who got clipped in prison, but to one Federal Agent Dante Marino, it’s a way to get to you. Don’t look so surprised, Jack. Yes, I am well aware of Marino and his unsuccessful attempts to bring down the Carlucci family. He’s tried before and has failed. I am not worried, nor should you be. But there is another agent involved, and one that is new to the mix.”

“And who might that be?”

“Let me show you, if you please.”

With a few keystrokes, Dominick pulled up the other member of Marino’s team.

“Oh, fuck!” I said.

“Recognize him?”

“I do. That’s Jacob, Jacob Paulson. My niece’s brother-in-law.”

“Oh, the plot thickens. So is he also not to be touched, Jack? The list is so long, I lose track sometimes.”