Thirty-four

La Murena didn’t draw suburban couples looking for late-night dining after a show and before returning to the kiddies.

Jack entered the windowless front door with only a glance at the inch-high red neon name above a bell to the left.

He was jumpy, which meant he was a wise man—or at least that his basic instincts were good. This was not a good place for him to be, but what he needed couldn’t be found anywhere else. He had to get Win to call off his watchdogs. It no longer mattered if the man paid for the death of Jack’s parents, not in the way Jack had originally visualized. Win Giavanelli was old and sick, and his power was dwindling. Jack just wanted out; he wanted to turn his back on the past and protect those he loved.

He wasn’t a fool. These people didn’t take kindly to goodbyes. His task was to sever all connections without appearing to sever them at all.

“Slummin’, Jackie boy?”

Sonny Clete got off his bar stool the moment he saw Jack.

Jack affected a bored countenance. “One of those nights, Sonny. You know what I mean. The ones when you know you need sleep but can’t get any.”

Α martini in one hand, Sonny sauntered up to Jack. “Sleep like a baby whenever I need to myself.” He talked around a toothpick clamped between his teeth. “Guess that comes from knowin’ the rules of the game and stickin’ to them. Avoidin’ steppin’ on toes that could make me real miserable.”

No translation of Sonny’s message was needed. “I envy a man who sees life in black and white,” Jack said. “There isn’t a shade of gray on your horizon, is there, Sonny?”

Moving the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other and back again, Sonny thought about that.

Jack’s hands were in his pockets, and he realized his palms were wet.

“Know what I think about gray?” Sonny said. “I think I don’t like it. Never did. It threatens the order of things—that nice black and white you said back then—I believe in that, and I get rid of gray just as fast as I can. Why don’t you go home and try to get some sleep?”

“I came to see Win.”

“Like I said, why don’t you go home and try to get some sleep?”

Jack decided he had nothing to lose by trying a very direct approach with this man. “I’m not a made man, y’know, Sonny,” he said, watching the other’s expression carefully. “Maybe it was out of respect for my mother, who didn’t approve of any of this, but Win never invited me into the family—not the way he asked you. D’you understand?”

The toothpick made another round trip. “I got it. But you want to be invited, don’t you? You want to be made, and then you want to be the fastest rising star that ever entered the ranks. You want what some of us spent a lifetime workin’ for, and you want it as a gift. But even if you got that, you’d be a boss without no army. Ain’t no good to be a boss if all your soldiers turn deserter.”

“You aren’t hearin’ me,” Jack said. “I don’t want any part of your action. I’ve got my own thing and it doesn’t… Sonny, I respect that you will be Win’s eventual replacement. Now, I need to talk to the man.”

“Why?” Sonny’s move was subtle, but it was aggressive and it cut off Jack’s path to Win’s private room.

“Personal,” Jack told him, losing his smile. “I’ve got some personal business with Win. If he wants to tell you about it afterward, that’s his business. I’ll say good-bye before I leave.”

He walked very deliberately around Sonny and headed for “The Room,” as it was called. The stiffness between his shoulder blades didn’t feel good, but he made sure he sauntered rather than hurried to knock on the carved mahogany panels.

“Yeah?” Win’s voice was loud and hoarse.

“It’s Jack.”

After a slight pause, Win called, “Get in here,” and Jack did as he was told. Once inside, with the door closed on Sonny’s angry eyes, he relaxed, but not much.

“You eaten`?” Win asked.

“Yes, thank you. I need a few minutes of your time, if you can spare them.” He wondered, not for the first time, when Win slept or showered or did all the things he obviously did do without ever seeming to leave this room.

Win spread his beefy, beringed hands. “My time is your time. Always has been. Sit down.”

Jack took a chair facing Win and saw the other man frown. He was a side-by-side guy. Looking someone in the eye didn’t come easily.

“I’ve been having some problems,” Jack said baldly. “You always told me that if I had problems I was to come straight to you. The last time you invited me here, you made a real point of it. So I’m here.”

“What kind of problems?”

“I think Sonny’s edgy around me. When you mentioned the idea, I didn’t take it seriously, but now Ι do. I think he’s afraid I want his spot, and that you want me to have his spot. I think he’s makin’ moves to ensure that doesn’t happen, and I don’t like the way he’s doin’ that.”

Win hefted his tumbler of red wine and drank deeply, never taking his eyes off Jack.

“The woman I’m going to marry got severely roughed up. And some goon’s been following my daughter around. I’m getting threats, Win, and I’m here to ask if you could find it in your heart to do something about that.”

Several more swallows of wine, and Win set down his glass.

He flattened his palms on the table and leaned toward Jack. “You got too much of your father in you. He thought he could call the shots, too.”

“My father was a member of the family. I’m not.”

“Not the way he was. But you’re close to me, and that means a lot of people are going to make assumptions—unless you go out of your way to show they don’t got any need to make those assumptions.”

“How would I go about doing that, Win?”

“Easy. I know it would hurt, but pay a little homage to Sonny. Let him know you respect him.”

Jack’s stomach hated that idea. “Can’t you make him lay off?”

“Maybe.” Win waggled his head. “But you gotta help me. You gotta play it my way. I’ve got troubles of my own. There’s a lot of talk about how I’m losin’ my grip. People are linin’ up, pushin’ for where they want to be when I’m gone, that kind of thing.”

“You aren’t going anywhere.” Jack’s jovial laugh didn’t ring true in his own ears. “You’re a rock, Win. Rocks outlive the world.”

Α faint smile crossed Win’s full features. “The rock’s wearin’ a bit smooth. It started wearin’ smooth a long time ago.” He leaned even farther across the table and beckoned for Jack to do the same. “I gotta tell you somethin’ in case there isn’t another chance.”

Jack was aware of an unpleasant thudding in his chest. He bent close to Win and didn’t flinch when Win caught hold of his hands. “I gotta look after my own first, you understand?”

Jack nodded.

“I got family. You know what I mean. Blood family. My wife and kids, and their kids. I got five great-grandchildren. I owe it to all of them to look out for their future.”

“I’d do the same thing.”

“But I want you to be okay. For that to happen, you gotta follow orders. Don’t do it for me, do it in your mother’s memory.”

Jack did flinch then.

“I never told you the truth about your mother. Now I got to do that. I loved her, Jack. I wanted to marry her.”

Revulsion turned Jack’s stomach. “I didn’t know that, Win.” He did know that Win was at least twenty years older than the woman he was talking about.

“She was a good woman. She was too good for your father, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She married him. I wanted her, but she would have your father.”

Jack didn’t remind Win that he must have been a married man with kids when he was trying to stand between Jack’s parents.

“You coulda been mine.” Win’s hands tightened on Jack’s. “I always think of that. That’s why I’ve taken care of you. If things had gone my way, you’d have been mine.”

And illegitimate. “What does this have to do with now?” Jack asked.

“Nothin’,” Win roared suddenly. “I’m just explainin’ why I had to look after you all these years, and why I gotta let you look after yourself now. I gotta take care of my own business. Sonny’s restless. He wants me to step down. I ain’t ready to do that, but I gotta handle things real delicate. I can’t allow you to mess things up for me on account of my own family needs me where I am for the present.

“Let me finish. Your mama wasn’t supposed to die. They got carried away. Leastwise, that’s what I was told.”

Jack believed, as he had always believed, that Win had advance knowledge of exactly what was going to happen at the home of Pierre and Mary Charbonnet on a sunny afternoon by the pool. Too terrified to leave, Jack had been watching through the pool-house window when Win arrived at the scene of the carnage. He’d come with the assurance of a man who knew what he expected to find. He’d shown no surprise. That could be only because he’d ordered it. Jack had also seen Win pull Mary Charbonnet gently from the pool and carry her to a chaise, where he covered her with a towel. That hadn’t made sense until now, but it didn’t make Jack hate him less or hurt less. Win hadn’t shed any tears over Jack’s father.

“Will you do something for me?” Win asked. “Will you be respectful to Sonny? Maybe you could ask him to call around at the Lucky Lady for a little present, say once a month. Tell him it was my idea. Tell him that and make it a meaningful present, Jack. Then I think you’ll be okay.”

He couldn’t let the rage he felt show. After so many years of feeling he had these unwelcome connections under control, and that he’d eventually punish Win Giavanelli, Jack saw it all slipping away, and he hated it. “You think that’s what it’ll take to make sure no one decides to have any more private chats with the woman I’m going to marry, or with my daughter?”

Win fell back in his chair. He appeared gray with exhaustion. “That’s what I think. But you know you always gotta be careful.”

“I know that Win.” Jack stood up. “I’ll consider your suggestions. And I’ll do what I have to do.” Whatever that might be.

“And you understand that I say these things for your own good? Because I think of you like another of my sons?” Only with difficulty did Jack choke out a yes.

Back in the bar and already dreaming of the fresh air outside, Jack’s progress was halted by Sonny, who stepped in front of him again.

Jack nodded. “Time to go home, I guess, Sonny.”

“Is that all you got to say to me?”

He wasn’t going to offer him “presents.” ‘No. I want to say something else, and I hope you’ll take it in the spirit it’s meant. Quit worrying, Sonny. You’re safe. Understand?”

Sonny’s pasty face turned purplish. “You arrogant son of a bitch. You think you get to say what happens in the family?”

“Not at all. It’s just that you seem to think I’m some sort of threat. I’m trying to put your mind at ease.”

Sonny took hold of a lapel on Jack’s leather jacket. “That’s good of you. Let me make a suggestion to you, Jack. Things can start being talked about. Things you don’t think will ever be mentioned, especially after five years or so.”

“Like what?” Jack was genuinely puzzled.

Sonny’s smirk wasn’t a pretty sight. “Like something a man might not want his daughter to know. Like how he was in the car his wife drove into a swamp. That he got out and she didn’t.”

Jack reached for the back of a chair and held on.

The action didn’t escape Sonny’s notice, and he puffed up with satisfaction. “I see I’m hitting a nerve here. I don’t suppose the man would want his kid to know how some said he should have been able to get his wife out of that car too.”

Jack shook his head. “I tried. I couldn’t.”

“So you say. But word has it you sat on the bank a long time before you went for help. In fact, you went for help only when someone you knew came along unexpected.”

Wilson Lamar. Wilson had been coming from a whorehouse tucked away beside a bayou on the banks of the Atchafalaya. Wilson, the respected lawyer who already had big political aspirations which Jack had been vocal in opposing. That night Wilson had made sure Jack understood that no one could prove he’d been coming from a whorehouse when he found Jack, but the fact that Elise was dead inside a car in the swamp was concrete. No official suggestion had ever been made that Elise’s death was anything but a suicide, and Jack didn’t want Amelia to know that her mother hadn’t been alone in the car. Elise had insisted upon driving and had begged him to let her go alone. He’d refused, and she’d sent them both into the slimy water.

“I see I’ve got you thinkin’, Jackie,” Sonny said. “I like that. A thinkin’ man. Get in my way and some little birds will start chirpin’.”

Jack stood tall, which was considerably taller than soft Sonny. “I’ve got a warning of my own to hand out,” he said. “Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. That means stay away from anyone connected to me. We aren’t a threat to you. Got it?”

“Maybe.” Sonny still chewed his toothpick. “And maybe I can make sure you’re never tempted to step over the line onto my side of the turf. In case you haven’t noticed, the papers have been real useful to some lately. I can’t think of a better way to spread bad news. Bad news for some. I think some folks must have an in with a reporter or somethin’, what do you think?”

Jack watched and waited. He wasn’t expected to respond.

“Yeah, well, I thought you’d agree. The last thing I’d want to see would be a hint that your poor little dead wife wasn’t the one driving the car that night after all—that you could have been behind the wheel. It would be a real shame if the rest of your life got messed up like that.”