Devine's Providence: A Novel Read online

  He talked like someone who learned all of his conversational skills from HBO dramas.

  “Get on with it,” said Zachetti. “We don’t have time for speeches.”

  Teddy ignored him, pacing in a circle around us. He puffed out his barrel chest as he spoke.

  “So then I gets to thinking,” he said. “This broad must be pretty goddamn important to have all these big shots looking for her. And if I can find her first, well…let’s just say there may be something in it for old Teddy Rocco.”

  I wanted to pounce on him and start beating him until he got to the fucking point, but the kid with the gun, scrawny as he was, looked like he didn’t have the experience for a patient trigger finger.

  “This would be a really big win for me. I’d get the Family in Boston to start to pay attention and take me seriously. If I could find her first. What youse guys want with her, and what those guys want with her, I don’t have a freakin’ clue, and I don’t have a freakin’ care. But if she’s that important, I’m thinking you all would be willing to pay.”

  “We get it, Teddy,” I said. “You have information. What is it you want?”

  “I want as much as I can get,” he said. “That’s good business. So you give me an offer. The broad goes to the highest bidder.”

  “The broad goes…wait…” murmured Zachetti. “Are you saying you have her?”

  Teddy stopped pacing directly in front of me and stared at me smugly.

  “I of course bring this to you gentlemen first,” he said. “Out of courtesy and appreciation of our past relations.”

  He kept the eye contact with me as he lifted one arm up and snapped his fingers. The scrawny kid scurried off to the back room, and returned leading a woman to us from around the counter. Her wrists were bound behind her back and there was a black hood over her head, but I recognized her t-shirt, skinny jeans and leopard-print heels immediately.

  “What the hell…” said Slim.

  I tensed up, yet held myself back. But Zachetti did not, and punched Teddy straight on in the face. Blood spurted from his nose. The scrawny kid reached for his gun but couldn’t get it out of his holster. I ran to him and kneed him in the crotch. As he doubled over instinctively, my fist was there to meet him in an uppercut—it was a handy, gratifying maneuver that I had perfected a long time ago but hadn’t had the opportunity to execute in recent memory.

  I helped the kid’s gun out of his holster and cocked it before he even realized what was going on. I stood back and pointed it at Teddy, who was just as dazed. I looked to Slim, who was just staring wide-eyed at the action from his spot at the door.

  “Don’t move, Slim,” I said. He slowly raised his hands.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said carefully.

  Zachetti walked over to Chelsea and ripped the hood off her head.

  She was gagged with a handkerchief, and had a black eye.

  “Oh my God, Teddy,” said Slim. “What the hell did you do, kid? She’s a civilian!”

  “For the last time, I’m not a kid,” said Teddy.

  “Oh, this ain’t good, Teddy. There are rules, you know. This type of stuff is off limits.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” shouted Teddy.

  Zachetti untied Chelsea’s gag.

  “Chelsea, are you okay?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I had this under control.”

  Zachetti scoffed a laugh. “Clearly,” he said. “So do you want the hood back on then?”

  “You’re making a mistake,” said Teddy. “You’ll pay for this.”

  “Stop fucking talking,” I said. I went over to undo the rope on Chelsea’s wrists.

  “You scared the hell out of me,” I said softly to her.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” she said. “I need to finish this myself.”

  “You had to have known Harry wasn’t going to just let you go,” said Zachetti.

  “Of course I wouldn’t,” I said. “Besides, it’s a good thing we did, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I don’t care what happens to me,” said Chelsea. “That’s my whole point.”

  “Maybe not, but I do,” I said.

  “You shouldn’t.”

  “Tough shit.”

  During our exchange, nobody noticed the switchblade Teddy had taken out of his pocket. I myself didn’t notice he was even moving until I felt a pinch in my side. And it wasn’t until I saw the blade sticking out of me that I felt the rush of pain. I keeled over, blood already soaking through my shirt. I cocked the gun as I fell and fired a shot in the general direction of Teddy, but it missed by a mile and sent plaster dust falling down from the ceiling.

  “Harry!” Chelsea screamed. Zachetti ran to my side. He drew his gun and swiveled around, but Teddy was already falling to the ground, unconscious. Slim was standing behind him, his blackjack still raised in the air. He poked Teddy with his foot, but he remained crumpled up, unmoving. During all of this, the scrawny kid had skedaddled out the back door.

  Chelsea held my head in her hands. Zachetti tore off his sports coat and bunched it up, holding it against my abdomen to try to stop the bleeding.

  “We need an ambulance,” said Chelsea.

  “I can do us one better,” said Slim, pulling out his cell phone. He rapidly sent out a text.

  “What the fuck is all this?” asked Zachetti. “I warned you not to cross us.”

  “I didn’t know he actually had the girl,” said Slim. “I thought he had just seen her. Or maybe was even bluffing. This ain’t right. You guys are friends of the Family. Since the old days. I didn’t know it was this serious, I swear.”

  “We’re not friends,” I sputtered. Chelsea shushed me and held my hand.

  “That was a long time ago, Slim. We helped each other out once, that doesn’t make us ‘friends of the Family.’ Our score was settled,” said Zachetti. He looked down at the pile of Teddy crumpled up on the floor. “But…thanks.”

  “This kid...” said Slim. “Thinks he’s the cat’s ass. Doesn’t realize there’s a code, you know? The Commission ain’t going to be very happy with him, carrying on like this.”

  It was around that time that everything blurred out of focus and grew dim. Slim and Zachetti continued talking in the background, but the last thing I heard before I blacked out was Chelsea’s whisper in my ear.

  “Hang in there, Harry. Please please please hang in there…”

  If there was a tunnel of light, I would have turned and ran away from it as fast as possible, back toward her voice. But there was no light, only blackness. Starting in on the edges of my vision and spreading inward, like an all-consuming oil slick. It covered not just my senses, but my thoughts as well, enveloping them in nothingness that was both comforting and terrifying at the same time. Even the pain in my side was overtaken by a crescendo of emptiness.

  Chapter 20

  I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS

  When I came to, I was lying on a very cold metal table. Large iron meat hooks loomed overhead. A bone saw and a large cleaver hung on the white-tiled wall.

  Oh God, I’m in a horror movie.

  I started to get up, but was pushed back down by someone holding my shoulders.

  “Easy there, cowboy,” said Zachetti. “Almost done.”

  The table was particularly cold against the skin of my back. That’s when I realized I was shirtless. I picked my head up and looked around.

  This must be the back room of the deli.

  I felt a pinch in my side and looked down to find an old gray-haired man suturing up my abdomen. A cigarette dangled loosely between his lips, threatening to jump out as he spoke.

  “Good evening, Mr. Devine,” he said calmly, without looking up from his work. “You’re a very lucky man.”

  “I don’t feel very lucky,” I said. “Who the hell a
re you?”

  “Just a good Samaritan,” he said. “Doing a favor for my old pal Slim.”

  I looked up at Zachetti.

  “Really? A mob doctor?”

  Zachetti shrugged. “Saves us a lot of unwanted attention,” he said.

  “Aaaand…there,” said the man, finishing up. “Well, here’s the skinny, Mr. Devine. Looks like the blade missed every organ you have. From what I can tell, anyway.”

  “Good thing too, doc,” said Zachetti. “He’d prefer to destroy his liver himself, if you don’t mind.”

  I ignored the jab and sat up, wincing at the sharp pain in my side.

  “I’ll wrap you up for now,” the man said, “but you’re still going to have to get checked out at a hospital. The sooner the better. Consider this just a spare tire, until you can drive to the nearest service station. I’ll give you the name of an E.R. doc at Miriam. He won’t ask any questions.”

  He wrapped my torso tightly in gauze then started packing up his equipment into a duffel bag. He paused, took a long drag from his cigarette, and looked me up and down. Then he rummaged through his bag and pulled out two identical striped button-down shirts. He looked at the tags on each collar and then threw me one.

  “Extra Large, I take it?”

  “Uh, yeah, thanks,” I said. “I guess this isn’t your first stab wound, then?”

  “You’re awfully curious,” the man said. He looked at Zachetti. “He a cop?”

  “Might as well be,” said Zachetti.

  The man nodded and drew on his cigarette.

  “Figured,” he said. “I’ll be going then.”

  He stood without moving, though, just staring expectedly at us. Zachetti took out his wallet and gave the man a wad of cash. The man nodded silently and went out the back door.

  I buttoned my new shirt as we walked out into the front of the deli slowly and carefully, limiting my torso movement as much as possible.

  Chelsea saw me and ran over. She looked like she was going to hug me, but leaned up and kissed my cheek instead.

  “Oh, Harry,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “Oh, I’ve been in worse scrapes than that,” I said. “It’s gonna take more than a puny little switchblade to take down Harry Devine.”

  I heard a mumble from the corner and looked over to see Teddy, now awake but gagged, arms tied to the arms of a chair. Drips of dried blood stuck to the side of his forehead. Slim was leaning on the counter next to him, eating thin slices of prosciutto.

  “Easy there, kid,” said Slim. “Don’t tire yourself out, now.”

  Teddy let out a muffled series of what I assumed were swear words.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. The gun I had fired into the ceiling was still on the floor. I carefully bent down to pick it up.

  “Signor Rocco has some answering to do,” said Slim. “On account of no one authorized kidnapping Ms. Woodstern. Some of the boys are driving down from Boston as we speak.”

  “We should get out of here, then,” I said, tucking the gun into my waistband. Zachetti nodded. I looked at Chelsea’s black eye. “Did he…did he hurt you?”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I got a little mouthy. He’s not used to being told off, especially by a woman.”

  A glaring red heat started in the pit of my stomach and rose all the way to the top of my head. Chelsea must have seen the steam coming out of my ears.

  “Really, I’m fine,” she said. “Can we just go?”

  There were more mumbles from behind Teddy’s gag.

  I sighed.

  “Chelsea, I…I don’t know where to start. I thought…what happened?”

  Between the pain in my side and the shock of everything, I was finding it damn near impossible to get the words out in the proper order.

  “I was asking around about Temple,” she said. “They grabbed me late last night and threw me the back of a van. I was asking the wrong people, I guess. It was stupid, I know, but I was getting desperate.”

  “That’s not what I was talking about,” I said. “You just left. That night…when we were together…it meant the world to me. I know I was an idiot to think it was special to you too, but…to just take off like that?”

  “No, Harry,” she said, putting her hand on my face. “Of course it was special. That’s why I left.”

  “That makes zero sense,” I said.

  “Tell me about it,” said Zachetti.

  Chelsea glared at Zachetti, clearly annoyed that he was listening in. She lowered her voice.

  “Harry, I don’t expect you to understand. We’ll talk, I promise. But we need to get you to the hospital.”

  “Agreed,” said Zachetti. “I’ll pull the car around, Harry, save you some steps.”

  “You go ahead too,” I said to Chelsea. “I’m going to take my time walking out.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m fine. I just want some last words with Slim here.”

  She smiled and squeezed my hand. Then she followed Zachetti out.

  “Well, Slim,” I said, “I know I said this the last time we had business together, but trust me, I mean it this time: This ends the story of us.”

  “Don’t worry, Harry,” he said. “You won’t see me no more. Not after this mess. After I help the bosses deal with our friend here, I think I’m officially retired. Got a place picked out in Boca Raton and everything.”

  “Retired, huh? Good for you. I’m envious.”

  Teddy squirmed in his chair and tried to speak, but we both ignored him.

  “Yeah, this thing of ours is getting too crazy, even for me. But we had some good times, didn’t we Harry? In the old days?”

  “I think maybe you’re remembering those days with rose colored glasses, Slim. It was a crazy time back then, too.”

  Slim wheezed out a raspy laugh.

  “Yeah, you’re right. But what an adventure.”

  I nodded a reluctant agreement. Teddy mumbled again. He squirmed his head around until he was able to wriggle the handkerchief out of his mouth. He let out a gasp.

  “You fucking mick!” he spat at me. “I’ll get you for this!”

  I let out a laugh. “I’m not the one who tried to pull some renegade shit without talking to your bosses. You’re actually lucky you came to us first. Bought you a little time. If you had gone to the cops, you’d be dead already.”

  “You’re dead, Devine! I’ll fucking kill you!”

  “Stop making a fool out of yourself,” said Slim. “You tried a stupid play, it didn’t work. You lost, kid. It’s over.”

  “I’M NOT A FUCKING KID!”

  “Sure, Teddy.”

  “I don’t see what’s so important about that bitch, anyway,” said Teddy. “You must really have a hard-on, to go through all this trouble for her.”

  “Teddy, you’ve stepped into something so much bigger than you can imagine,” I said. “You’re in way over your head.”

  “Tell me something, Devine,” said Teddy. He was suddenly calmer now. He was changing tactics, and I had a feeling he was going to try to get under my skin. “Is she better at fucking than she is at fighting?”

  My instincts were correct.

  I knew he was just prodding me to get a reaction. I knew that he wanted to see me upset, and that the best thing I could do would be to ignore him.

  But I haven’t always done the best thing.

  “I mean, don’t get me wrong,” he continued, “the bitch can hold her own at first. But I’m just wondering, like after a while—when you’re really railing into her—does she just lie there like a dead fish and take it like she does when you’re beating on her? Because that kind of takes the fun out of it in both cases, don’t you think?”

  In one fluid motion I took the gun out of my waistband, clicked off the safety,
and aimed straight between his eyes. Slim dropped his prosciutto and stood at attention. Teddy never broke eye contact with me.

  “You won’t shoot me,” he said. “That’s not you. You don’t have the stones.”

  He was half right, anyway. Wrong in that I most certainly did have the stones. There was nothing stopping me from killing him right then and there. I’d be willing to bet Slim would even do the clean up work for me, too. The thought of this spoiled brat keeping Chelsea prisoner was enough to make my finger tremble against the trigger.

  But he was correct in that it wasn’t me. Not anymore, anyway. There was a time in my life where it most definitely was, but I needed all the good karma I could get in this stage in my life. Taking the life of an unarmed thug, deadbeat though he was, was no longer something Harry Devine would do. I was a lot of things, sure, but was I still that kind of guy?

  Long-suppressed memories started to ooze in from the dark corners of my mind. I tried to physically blink them away.

  He’s right: That’s not me.

  Teddy sensed my hesitation and let out a quiet laugh.

  I snapped out of it and lowered the gun, aiming at his kneecap. Slim, in anticipation, stood behind Teddy and stuffed the gag back in his mouth. But I was still hesitant.

  Maybe I didn’t have the stones after all. Maybe I had some grand noble moment of moral clarity. Maybe I realized that it didn’t matter, that just leaving him there to his fate was just as much of a death sentence as a bullet between the eyes. But mostly I remember just being tired. Tired of revenge, and grudges, and all the violence of that world I was no longer a part of. I didn’t want to do this anymore.

  My arm lowered. Teddy’s laugh grew louder behind the gag. A curled smile appeared on Slim’s face.

  I dropped the gun on the floor.

  “Get rid of that for me, would you, Slim?” I asked. Slim gave me a mock salute and a wink.

  “Until the next life, Pisan,” he said.

  I hobbled out of the deli, the bell above the entrance ringing cheerily as I opened the door. Zachetti was just pulling his SUV up to the front. I climbed into the backseat, which felt like climbing a ladder to the top of Mount Olympus. Chelsea sat in the back with me.