Chapter 4

From out of nowhere Nick fluidly stepped in front of Frank, grabbed the man’s arm and spun him around ramming him face down on the floor beside the booth with his arm bent at an unnatural angle before Mario could blink. Several of the woman screamed as blood spurted across the floor just missing Mario’s shoes while Nick crouched over the man like a predatory wildcat still holding onto his broken arm. Mario just stood there, frozen in disbelief at the whole scene as he watched Nick bend down and say something in the man’s ear to which he nodded quickly despite his screams. Nick then got off him and nodded to the other man to help his friend. Like Mario he just stood still, in shock as the scene unfolded in a flash. He seemed to suddenly snap out of it and quickly bent down and helped his friend to his feet without taking his eyes off of Nick. Judging by the other man’s expression, Mario figured that Nick was giving him that cold stare that he’d seen many times. They quickly left the club with the injured man holding his broken arm and bleeding like a stuck pig from his nose. Mario turned around and noticed that Frank hadn’t even moved. It amazed him that Frank knew and trusted that Nick had his back. He watched Nick shake his head at Frank as if to say, why do you do that? Frank held up his hands like he didn’t do anything wrong while a sly smile played across his face. Regardless of how calm things were now, he couldn’t shake that scene. He stood there with a stunned expression on his face.

It was a thing of beauty.

Nick moved with such speed and skill so contrary to his outward appearance, that it totally threw him off guard. Up to that point, Nick always seemed so calm and reserved, without a worry, self-assured and always moving at a confident casual pace. Until then, he wasn’t quite sure what he did for his boss. Now he knew. Quite Frankly, he was fascinated.

It was that moment that Mario realized that everything about Nick was deceiving for a purpose. The expensive suits and cool composure were used to throw off expectations of Nick’s hidden skills. He now knew the whole time Nick was observing, assessing, planning and anticipating everything around them. That incident just proved it. Despite their size and number, those men were blindsided. Now he knew for sure, Nick was a dangerous man.

Quite frankly, he was so impressed that he didn’t care what Nick did for Frank, as long as he could learn something, anything from him.

He focused on the present when Nick flicked open his cell illuminating the inside of the vehicle with a bluish glow and read a text message. Frank’s lifeline to Nick was his cell phone. Without it, he was sure Frank would be lost, because he relied on him a lot. Mario started the vehicle and drove towards his employer’s townhouse on the other side of the city, which was of the many houses that Frank owned. As far as he knew Nick only had one residence, a modest penthouse in the Upper East Side that must have cost a bloody fortune. Well, it would be compared to his one bedroom apartment in Queens that cost fifteen hundred a month.

Mario was in Nick’s bedroom once and watched him open hidden wall in his walk-in closet that housed some of the most fascinating weapons that Mario had ever seen. Not that he knew about weapons, but he was sure Nick knew how to use every single one of them or he wouldn’t have them. Obviously he wasn’t too concerned about Mario standing there and being aware of his hidden armoury. In fact he acted as if he wasn’t even there as he put his guns away and let the mahogany panel slide shut. However, Mario knew not to take that for granted because Nick was always aware of everything around him, even how many feet to the inch that he stood behind him. Well, he thought to himself, maybe I do know more than I thought about him after all.

The hummer pulled up to a modest townhouse on

Commerce Street in Greenwich Village. It was an 1830’s townhouse that his boss gloriously restored with all the modern amenities. Bruno Tucci answered the door. He was one of his boss’s personal bodyguards. Bruno was a very broad and tall man in his late fifties with a gray receding hairline. Although he may look clumsy and slow, he knew that it would be easier to fight a semi truck than Bruno. He was seasoned and strong. His fists were covered with scars which he could only assume came from the beatings he laid out in his time. The man probably had no feeling left there by the look of the scar tissue built up on his knuckles. At one time, Mario was sure that Bruno had a neck, but now he was thick all over. His neck just seemed to have disappeared into his broad shoulders and big head. He’d been with Frank, his boss, a very long time. Mario heard he’d served Frank’s father too and understood why Frank trusted him as much as he did Nick. He stood aside and allowed them to enter. He knew respect had to be earned from this family and although Bruno was involved with the organization longer than Nick was, there was no mistake of high regard in the older man’s eyes when he looked at him. As he watched the two men greet each other, Mario had hoped that some day people would look at him with half the respect as Bruno gave Nick.

“Good evening Nick,” said Bruno when he saw them. The big man shook his hand and grinned. He then turned to Mario, “Kid.” He said politely while greeting Mario.

“Bruno.” Nick said in a polite exchange of greetings.

“Mr. Tucci,” Said Mario, wishing everyone would quit calling him kid. He also secretly wished Bruno wouldn’t smile, he had too many teeth missing and looked more menacing than happy. He knew that it was only Bruno out of all of Frank’s men that called Nick by his first name. Everyone else addressed him by his last. It just showed Mario how much respect Bruno had earned from Nick. Mario still addressed him by his last name or just called him Boss and he was the closest person to Nick for two years. He couldn’t begin to imagine what Bruno had done for him to be given such a privilege.

“He’s in his study.” He nodded in the direction of the room, “can I take your coat?”

Nick nodded and removed his coat and gloves handing them to Bruno before he walked down the hall to the large den that served as Frank’s main office.

Mario walked several feet behind Nick. He was glad too. If he walked in front of him he felt it would be like turning his back on an open lion cage with Nick’s arctic stare frosting his back.

The double doors to Frank’s office were guarded by two more men. They opened the doors to allow them entry when they saw who it was. It was times like this that Mario was glad to be Nick’s driver. His boss’s men respected Nick, so they also gave him some measure of it. He’d heard mumblings from them in the past about why Nick had Mario, when there were more seasoned men around him eager to show their loyalty. This made Mario feel special, or favoured in a sense by Frank Castile. It must have all originated from that first day in the taxi when he’d met him. It had to have been something he said or did, that convinced Frank that he was perfect for what Nick needed. Needless to say, Mario never took advantage of his sought after position. He worked very hard for Nick and Frank to prove he deserved what he was given. In fact he couldn’t ever recall either one of them complaining to him about the tasks he did, and for this family, no complaint was a good sign.

There were two more men inside the room on either side of the door. Mario knew Frank genuinely needed a lot of protection He’d made quite a few enemies in his expanding empire. Although if Nick was available to accompany him, that’s the only person he took with him. It gave Mario the understanding of how good at his job he really was.

Frank stood up when the men entered. A genuine smile spread across his handsome face. He approached Nick and gave him a respectful a hug. Frank was as tall as Nick but not as muscular. He was ten years Nick’s senior and when his Frank Senior died he took over the family business. The business consisted of prostitution, drugs and money laundering among other endeavours. He was able to turn his father’s business into a multi-million dollar industry and brought it into the twenty-first century. He also ran quite a few legitimate businesses, mostly to serve as a front for his money laundering. Real estate was Frank’s most recognizable and prominent business and he was known as a real estate mogul, not a drug lord because he had a brilliant head for business and was able to conceal that dark side of his life. He contributed to major charities around the city and fattened the pockets of many elected officials. He was also a close personal friend of the mayor and contributed heavily to his last campaign. When Nick returned from Iraq almost three years ago, Frank gave him a large piece in the business. However unlike Frank who was a gregarious socialite, Nick stayed in the shadows. It was what he preferred. Nick may have been better looking, but Frank was the forefront, the businessman. Mario was amazed at how much they actually looked alike but their demeanour set them totally apart.

Mario gave Frank a respectful hug. He then stood back from the two.

“I need you to wait outside kid.” Frank said to Mario.

“Yes sir.” Mario turned and left the room without hesitation. He knew that this would be one of those conversations that involved Nick’s hidden talents. So he did what he was told without explanation.

Frank poured Nick glass of whiskey and handed it to him after Mario shut the door behind him. “I need your help.” He took a drink from his own glass, set his eyes on Nick and continued, “There’s a charity event at the Mayor’s this Saturday evening. I need you to be there with me. There’s some land we own down in New Windsor that we need transferred to residential. I want to build Condos there. It’s a nice piece of land. It would bring a huge profit. I have my guys do the construction. The building inspector is in to me for about thirty large, so passing code isn’t a problem.”

“And why me?” Nick spoke as one of his eyebrows raised in question.

“Well for one, you’re my brother. You need to be seen more, this is a family business.”

Nick took a swallow from his glass. He didn’t say anything but his expression said plenty as he eyed him over the rim of his glass, there was more to this.

“Alright, alright,” Frank grinned knowing that familiar look, “I need building permits pushed through and in exchange the mayor has problem and his daughter happens to be married to it….”

“No.”

“Hear me out. Her husband has taken to abusing her regularly. He’s into gambling at the tracks, and when he does win, it goes up his nose.”

“Tell her to leave him. This sounds like a family thing, Frank.”

“She told her father that he’d kill her, the Mayor believes him. He’s bailed the bastard out of debt over and over again for the sake of his daughter and he still takes to abusing her.”

“Hire a bodyguard.” Nick drank the contents of the glass and set it on Frank’s desk keeping his eyes on his brother.

“Or a hit man…” Frank finished.