Page 9 of Ribbons and Roses
As I show an attentive Serena how to roll snow in your hands and build the foundation of the snowman, I’m inundated with bad memories.
I see blood in the snow.
My blood.
I remember how I was seven years old, barely older than Dominic is now, and I’d been out in the snow messing around. Lucius was in his office ranting and raving about some situation involving the Pizzutos.
He’d caught sight of me playing in the snow and glared from the window. One second I was laying in the snow, making angels. The next second, I was laid out in the snow, half unconscious after he’d charged over to smack me around for ‘having too much fun’.
“What d’you think this is, scarafaggio?” he’d snarled, kicking me in the side. “You think this is all fucking fun and games? You think you’re gonna play around like you’re at some amusement park? This ain’t Disneyland! Get the fuck in the house!”
The moment fades before my eyes as quickly as it emerged. Serena’s little angelic voice returns.
“Daddy?” she asks, poking me in the knee. “Daddy?”
“Yes, Rena baby?” I reach out to pull her closer, realizing she’s been talking to me this whole time. “What’s the matter?”
“I wanted to know… I wanted to make her nose!”
“That’s right, who can forget her nose? Do you remember what goes on the nose of a snowgirl?”
“A carrot!” she squeaks excitedly.
“And what’s a carrot?”
“A vegetable. Like the ones Mommy puts in my soup! They’re yummy and good for you too!”
I can’t help the chuckle that comes out of me. My little girl’s smart, just like her mother.
“How about we go grab some from the kitchen? We’ll bring out a few so Dom and Bryce can make their snowpeople too.”
“Okay!”
Her tiny hand curls inside mine as we head back toward the house. The four-year-old skips at my side, as innocent and joyful as can be. The total opposite of me and the dark shadow that seems to follow me everywhere this time of year.
“Psycho! Long time no see.”
Stitches cracks a grin as I walk through the office doors of Nirvana, the nightclub that’s been in the Mancino family for decades. These days, now promoted tocapo, Stitches is in charge of day-to-day operations.
I only stop by occasionally.
Stitches pops to his feet the second I walk in and joins me at the leather sofas in the middle of the large office.
“I wanted to see how our competition is doing,” I say, sitting down. I spread out as I do, arm curled along the back and my right ankle at rest on my left knee. “Has Axis been keeping up with Nirvana?”
Stitches scoffs. “You think they’ve got lines around the block like we do? Psycho, Nirvana’s stilltheclub to be at on a Friday and Saturday night. Any night of the week. Even a damn Sunday. The Belinis have tried—and failed—at the nightlife crowd. Nobody wants to go to Axis and listen to their half assed DJ’splaylists and pay thirty bucks a drink. It was foolish of Pauly to think he was ever gonna compete with us.”
“It’s not just the nightclub. It’s the casino too.”
“I haven’t heard good things,” Stitches says. “I’ve sent a couple associates off the streets to check it out. He’s stiffing a lot of his customers. Only gambling addicts keep falling for it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he goes out of business by next year.”
“He’s still an amateur. That much is clear.”
In the years since the last Don, Hector Belini, was taken down, the Belini family has struggled to find its footing. They went from being the second most powerful crime family in Northam to being the bottom rung. Even the bratva and yakuza factions have outpaced them.
To compete, their newest head of the family, Paulio Belini, has been trying to make up for lost time. He’s set into motion several endeavors, hoping to bring power and prestige to the Belini name again.
One of those endeavors has been opening up his own nightclub and casino to compete with Nirvana. It would become a hub like ours for business dealings and other illegal operations.