“One hand washes the other, Mel, you know what I mean?” Diamond said through a forced laugh. I didn’t. He was always calling me Mel instead of “Nickels” like everyone else, or else “Buffalo”. It didn’t bother me as much as it bothered him being called “Legs”. He was watching Lanskey eating his pasta, looking at me like as if he was letting me in on a secret, and then I looked at Charlie who was gawking at me with a cold, bloodless stare that went right through me. I’d heard Charlie was starting a murder for hire business, but I wasn’t interested.
“You want I should bust your other nose, Legs?” I said, looking right at him. I could see Charlie smile, and Lanskey choking on his cannelloni out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn’t backing down from Legs. You got to be like that with a guy like him, or else he’ll come after you when you least expect it; I knew …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Scribbler -- The Golden Years to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.