La Bocca (the mouth) (The Spitfire)
Read La Bocca (the mouth) (The Spitfire) Online
Authors: Jordan Silver
La Bocca
(
The Mouth
)
By Jordan Silver
Copyright © 2013 Alison
Jordan
All Rights Reserved
“Patrick I need a solid old friend.”
“Roberto is that you, how the hell are you my friend it's been
ages; I hear you're having a little headache out your way is that what this is
about? You need I should get some of my people on it?”
“Nah paisan, I've got it covered it’s my baby girl; you remember
Arianna yes?”
“Little Arianna is she still such a spitfire?”
“Mama mia if the enemy's bullet doesn't cut me down that child
will do it I swear.”
“A handful huh.”
“And then some, that's why I'm calling; I need to send her to you
for safe keeping until I send my enemies to hell where they belong. This
fucking gumbah Vasili is a pain in the ass, now he's not only greedy but
stupid. Word is him and his brother has concocted some scheme to force my
little angel into marriage with one of their sons.”
“Unethical, who would do such a thing to a young girl, what is she
seventeen, eighteen?”
“She just turned eighteen but that's not the problem so much; the
thing is she somehow got wind of it and is out for blood.”
“Come again.”
“The girl fancies herself to be some sort of gangster, my fucking
idiot brother's always filling her head with shit. Instead of baby dolls and
tiaras he had her playing with epees and shuriken. By the time I figured out
what the fuck it was too late. While I was busy building an empire that fuck
was turning my kid into his nephew.
“You know Alphonso was always
set in his own ways and since he never planned on marriage and kids I guess he
figured yours were gonna be his.
Patrick
laughed at his old friend's plight; though the two men hadn't seen each other
in quite some time; years in fact, he remembered well their younger days
together. Days spent on the streets of Chicago as young toughs trying to make
names for themselves. The old regime had been on its way out then and they were
determined to make their mark. There'd been a war back then too, the old war
horses hadn't wanted to let go but the young blood proved to be too much and
youth and brains prevailed. The mob took on new connotations then; yes they
still strong armed those who would oppose them but they were no longer in the
market for unprecedented killings. Blood on your hands was seen as a last
resort whereas before it had been par for the course. Back then in the back alleys
of a festering city two young toughs had made a pledge in blood.
“Do you remember our oath?”Patrick now asked Roberto.
“I thought you'd forgotten it's been so long.”
“Nah circumstances calls for a little change in plans but it's
still the same; besides it works out better this way since my Paddy is more
into the saving of lives. He has no stomach for the life; now his firstborn
Shane, perfecto.”
“Yeah? We'll have to sit down; I think that might be just what the
doctor ordered.”
“That much trouble is she?”
“If she wasn't my kid I would've capped her a long time ago does
that answer?”
“Send her to me, I'll straighten her out.”
Little did he know while he made that pledge to his old friend
that things would change almost overnight.
Chapter 1
My name is Shane Flanagan those who know me and even some who
don't fear me. In my line of work this is a good thing, a very good thing.
You see I'm a very bad man, bad to the motherfucking bone. I make
no excuses for myself. I would stomp a mother fucker just for fun, well maybe
not so much these days, but when I was younger, yeah.
Now I would shoot a motherfucker for stepping on my kicks and it
didn't matter if they were Chucks or Gucci. It all depended on what kind of
mood I was in, and who's doing the mother fucking stepping.
But I digress, as I was saying
people feared me all over this fucking place, so tell me then why this little
slip of a girl thought she could mouth off at me and get away with it?
Now this Arianna Rossi is a real pain in the ass, know what I
mean?
She lived upstairs of this pub that I'd just requisitioned from its
previous owner. I needed her place for something else so she had to go.
It's not like I was throwing her out in the street or some fuck. I
owned enough residential buildings, all of them way nicer than this piece of
shit that I could hook her up with a new pad, but no. She had to dig in her
heels giving me shit about tenant’s rights and lease laws and fuck all. The
fuck?
She must not have heard.
Anyway my little stepbrother James went to see Miss. Rossi on my
behalf for the one hundredth time and apparently this crazy ass chick had
hauled off and shot him in the ass.
Now James is a lying fuck, so
I took his version of events with a grain of salt. That's why I'm here now in
my office at my new pub, sitting across from the pain in the ass, who didn't
seem to know I could end her in ten seconds.
"So Miss. Rossi, we meet again."
Crazy lady rolled her eyes at me. I looked over to my right hand
man Michael who seemed to be having trouble not laughing.
Of course he would find this shit funny, his wife, my sister
Sophia wasn't much better in the crazy stacks. In fact all the bitches around
here seemed to either be on the rag or plum mother-fucking nuts. Except my ma,
ma was an angel among women.
Now as for James, that fuck wasn't really my stepbrother, he's not
my father's son and he's not my mother's, rumor had it that my grandfather who
I inherited the business from used to mess with his mother.
How the fuck he ended up in my house is a mystery, but I was a kid
when all this shit happened so I don't know fuck.
Grandpa stepped down three years ago when I turned twenty three.
Dad's a heart surgeon, he's as far removed from this shit as you
can get. I take lives, he saves them. We have running debates on the subject
every Sunday at the dinner table, but that's for another time.
Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do with 'the mouth'.
"Why did you shoot my little brother?"
"I should've known he was another pig."
Michael almost choked the fuck.
"Do you know who I am Miss. Rossi?"
"Yeah yeah, the big bad Shaney Flanagan, so what?"
Did she just call me Shaney?
I had to glare at Michael to shut him the fuck up.
"So you're not afraid of me huh?"
"Contrary to what has been written, I don't believe in
playing poor and helpless to give my enemy a fake sense of power before he
attacks, I believe in kicking them in the balls to start shit off."
"You read Sun Tzu?"
"What's it to you?"
"Just wondering why a little girl like you would be reading
the Art of war."
"Because I have to deal with dumb motherfuckers every day,
next question."
This chick was fucked in the head, there's no other explanation. I
can't off someone who's touched, ma would have my hide.
Besides I could think of better uses for that mouth of hers.
Well you've gone and cooked your goose but good haven't you Ari, are
you insane?
I'm sitting here wondering why the hell my mouth won't stay shut,
now mind you I give as good as I get, but this is Shane FUCKING Flanagan, the
guy takes out people for less and here I am giving him shit.
I blame my dad, my dad rest his soul, always taught me,'never show
fear' if you can't fight your way out of it, talk your way out.
Well looks like your sage advice was about to get me whacked
daddy. It wasn't just that either, for some reason I wanted to show this ,specimen
that he was just a man, if I nut kicked him I'm sure I'll get the same reaction
as I'd get from Joe the bum up the street.
Now he's studying me like an
insect under a microscope, study away buddy, when you figure it out let me in
on it, hell if I know what my problem is.
"Well, did you have anything else to ask me, some of us
actually work for a living?" See, my mouth had finally had enough of me
and decided to get me done in, or maimed one or the other.
"You still haven't told me why you shot him."
"Oh that, I didn't like the cut of his pants , people
shouldn't wear their butt crack for the world to see, first of all it's tacky
as all hell and secondly it's unsanitary , why the CDC haven't cried outbreak
on that shit yet is beyond me." That's right Ari dig your grave just that
much deeper by being a smart ass.
"Are you on some kind of medication for this shit lady?"
"What shit, you think I'm crazy cause I'm not afraid of you Capone?"
He put his head in his hand and started muttering under his breath, I think he
was saying the Latin mass, sounded like something I'd heard in church eons ago.
"Babe, seriously answer the fucking question so we can both
get on with our lives."
"What difference does it make, you’re not going to believe me
over your precious brother anyway, and I hate wasting my breath, you never know
when you'll end up in an enclosed room with no air, and you'll wish you'd saved
that wasted breath."
Okay I heard that loud and clear this time; he'd muttered an
insult under his breath but not far enough under. He's been doing that the
whole time.
"Well if you wish I'd save my breath this time stop asking me
questions." I was on a roll, I think. The big guy in the corner was red
faced and he kept puffing out his cheeks, I think he might be constipated, poor
thing.
"Arianna, answer, the fucking, question."
Okay, he didn't yell but let me tell you, those words, said in
that particular tone, in that particular way meant business. I'm not stupid, I
wanna live, I've got shit I wanna do.
"He put his hands ...somewhere he shouldn't."
I saw him straighten up in his chair on full alert. What the hell?
"What did you say?"
Oh, yeah, I had kinda whispered that but I'm sure he heard me. I
repeated it louder anyway and watched as his face reddened. I hope that anger
wasn't at me. Stupid, why didn't you grab your gun on the way out the door?
Because I didn't have time that's why.
"Tell me."
And I knew this was not the time to be snarky, he was pissed the
fuck off, I don't know why though, the guy killed people for a living why
should he care if his brother grabbed my ass?
"Not much to tell, he grabbed my ass, I gave him the
impression I was interested and wanted to go put on something sexy just so I
could get to my gun in the other room, at which time he saw said gun and tried
to run, that's why he got it in the ass and not the balls."
"You were going to shoot him in the nuts for touching your
ass?"
"My ass, my territory, I call the shots."
He looked over his shoulder kinda.
"Get his ass in
here."
"Well, if you're having a family reunion I need to be going
I've got shit to do."
"Sit down Rossi."
"Look buddy, you might have all day to sit around and pal
around, but I've got to make a living. And since you've closed down this pub
where I made that living, I need to hit the pavement to find a job. Capisce?
"