the broad. But I ain’t doing nice today, so back off, Gabriel, capiche? Do not go there, right? Or else.”
Gabe was having a tough enough time adjusting to the way his life was playing without Benny turning all mafia don on him. Was he being
threatened
, with the ‘or else’ again? He wanted to ring Benny back and ask him what his problem was with Stella, but he thought better of it.
Stella must have been
very
careless for Benny, not the sharpest knife in the drawer by a long stretch, to have found out she was doing whatever she was doing. Gabe had no idea what that might be, buthe had no doubts she should cease and desist right away. He rang Stella, but the call went straight to voicemail and he mumbled something inane, about how she should call him back as soon as she got the message, and cut off.
As if his life wasn’t complicated enough, as if he wasn’t
paranoid
enough, he now had to worry about Stella, and whether meeting up with her in a couple of hours time was going to be cool. He found it difficult – strike that, he found it impossible to believe that Benny had a network of informants all over the Valley reporting back to him. He was a low-level dirtbag with muscle for brains, so he’d either found out by accident or, for some reason, he’d been having Stella watched. 24/7? Would he do that? Unlikely. But was it worth the risk, thinking that he wouldn’t?
Gabe pushed his bike down the sidewalk. His life was unravelling. It had become a never-ending parade of unanswered and often unanswerable questions and worrying about them was screwing with his head. The irony hit him that worry, specifically about how he was going to try and help fix his family’s situation, was kind of what had got him into this mess in the first place.
As he walked he texted Stella:
Benny watching u – careful yr not followed tonite.
Gabe wondered how come, if Benny really was such a moron, he’d managed to stay out of jail for so long. And what did it say about
him
, the almost-straight-A student who worked for the guy? Who, out of the two of them, was the biggest loser?
A light breeze blew in, bringing with it the kind of comforting smell of a garden trash fire. Following on, underneath those top notes, came something heavier and more earthy. For a second it didn’t mean anything to Gabe, then, as if he was sampling a perfume, trying to work out its different components, he took a deeper breath and it clicked.
His hand flew up, grabbing his T-shirt, the sharp edges of the small gold cross digging into his palm, and he whirled round, expecting to find the old man in the faded red baseball cap right behind him.
He was nowhere to be seen.
Standing alone in the street, normal, ordinary life going on all around him as if everything was totally fine, Gabe didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He wished he could go back a few days, to when all he had on his mind was getting througha Time of No Money; how simple did that seem now? Monday, when he could get the stash in his locker and give it to Father Simon, looked a long, long way off.
Anything could happen between now and then. The quiet voice from the dark place in his head reminded him, as if he needed it, that that also included him dying.
Chapter Twenty
“You want to do
what
?”
Gabe and Stella were sitting at a corner table, right at the back of The Pizza Parlor. Under other circumstances it might have been the romantic choice, the place for a private tête-à-tête, but not tonight. Stella, hair up and wearing a beret, sat with her back to the rest of the room. She looked different, but it was no disguise. His attempt at being incognito had been riding every back double he knew to the restaurant with his hoodie up. He’d pushed it off his head as soon as he’d arrived, not wanting to look ridiculous. They’d done the best they could.
“Go over to Morrison tonight, OK?” Gabe took a sip of his Pepsi. “I mean, why wait till Monday, right? Do it
Gabe was having a tough enough time adjusting to the way his life was playing without Benny turning all mafia don on him. Was he being
threatened
, with the ‘or else’ again? He wanted to ring Benny back and ask him what his problem was with Stella, but he thought better of it.
Stella must have been
very
careless for Benny, not the sharpest knife in the drawer by a long stretch, to have found out she was doing whatever she was doing. Gabe had no idea what that might be, buthe had no doubts she should cease and desist right away. He rang Stella, but the call went straight to voicemail and he mumbled something inane, about how she should call him back as soon as she got the message, and cut off.
As if his life wasn’t complicated enough, as if he wasn’t
paranoid
enough, he now had to worry about Stella, and whether meeting up with her in a couple of hours time was going to be cool. He found it difficult – strike that, he found it impossible to believe that Benny had a network of informants all over the Valley reporting back to him. He was a low-level dirtbag with muscle for brains, so he’d either found out by accident or, for some reason, he’d been having Stella watched. 24/7? Would he do that? Unlikely. But was it worth the risk, thinking that he wouldn’t?
Gabe pushed his bike down the sidewalk. His life was unravelling. It had become a never-ending parade of unanswered and often unanswerable questions and worrying about them was screwing with his head. The irony hit him that worry, specifically about how he was going to try and help fix his family’s situation, was kind of what had got him into this mess in the first place.
As he walked he texted Stella:
Benny watching u – careful yr not followed tonite.
Gabe wondered how come, if Benny really was such a moron, he’d managed to stay out of jail for so long. And what did it say about
him
, the almost-straight-A student who worked for the guy? Who, out of the two of them, was the biggest loser?
A light breeze blew in, bringing with it the kind of comforting smell of a garden trash fire. Following on, underneath those top notes, came something heavier and more earthy. For a second it didn’t mean anything to Gabe, then, as if he was sampling a perfume, trying to work out its different components, he took a deeper breath and it clicked.
His hand flew up, grabbing his T-shirt, the sharp edges of the small gold cross digging into his palm, and he whirled round, expecting to find the old man in the faded red baseball cap right behind him.
He was nowhere to be seen.
Standing alone in the street, normal, ordinary life going on all around him as if everything was totally fine, Gabe didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He wished he could go back a few days, to when all he had on his mind was getting througha Time of No Money; how simple did that seem now? Monday, when he could get the stash in his locker and give it to Father Simon, looked a long, long way off.
Anything could happen between now and then. The quiet voice from the dark place in his head reminded him, as if he needed it, that that also included him dying.
Chapter Twenty
“You want to do
what
?”
Gabe and Stella were sitting at a corner table, right at the back of The Pizza Parlor. Under other circumstances it might have been the romantic choice, the place for a private tête-à-tête, but not tonight. Stella, hair up and wearing a beret, sat with her back to the rest of the room. She looked different, but it was no disguise. His attempt at being incognito had been riding every back double he knew to the restaurant with his hoodie up. He’d pushed it off his head as soon as he’d arrived, not wanting to look ridiculous. They’d done the best they could.
“Go over to Morrison tonight, OK?” Gabe took a sip of his Pepsi. “I mean, why wait till Monday, right? Do it
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