I gave him a look. “Seriously, don’t risk yourselves. If you can help, then help. Otherwise, keep your heads down.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Enrico said, then hesitated. He looked like he wanted to say more, but shook his head and pushed open the car door. “Come on, Aldrik. Let’s get moving.”
I watched them go with a strange, sudden sadness. I knew that no matter what happened here, I wouldn’t see them again. Even if Hedeon forgave me, which wasn’t going to happen, I had a feeling Enrico would want to move on—and when Enrico left, Aldrik would go, too.
They were good guys, good soldiers. A little violent, definitely psychotic—but still good guys. I’d miss them.
I waited until they were out of sight before pushing open my door and stepping out onto the sidewalk. I headed toward the park walking slow, enjoying the nice day, smiling at old ladies, nodding at old men. The city teemed and buzzed with life, and I wanted to take it all in—then caught myself and stopped. I wasn’t headed to my own damn funeral and had to stop acting like it. I was going to leave the city, but I was also going to start a new life, a better life with Cora.
I headed into the park from the south and found Hedeon sitting on a bench across from a busker juggling. He seemed to enjoy the performance and didn’t look over as I sat down next to him, leaving a single seat space between us. I stretched out my legs and sighed, eyes scanning the park, looking for faces I recognized lurking nearby, ready to come put a bullet in my head.
“You can quit worrying,” Hedeon said, breaking the silence, “I came alone.”
“Can’t be too sure.”
“Where’d you stash your two stooges at?”
I grunted and scratched my head. “I’m not sure where they are right now.”
He nodded and slowly turned his gaze toward me. I met his eyes and didn’t look away as I thought of what we’d been through together— the way he’d saved me back when I was a stupid punk kid, the way he’d given me chance after chance, put more faith in me, given me more power and autonomy. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I was. Without him, I’d be dead or in jail, like so many punk, thug assholes before me.
“Where do we go from here, Hedeon?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.” He seemed to chew on that for a long moment. “I want to say, we move on, we forget it happened, but based on the size of the hole in the Leone family’s mansion, I’m not sure that’s possible.”
I grinned, unable to help myself. “Pretty big, huh?”
“Huge. Half the damn block went up.”
“I wish I could say they didn’t deserve it, but, you know—they definitely did.”
He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “You remember that first job I sent you on?”
“Sure, I remember. You sent me and a few guys to jump those asshole meth dealers.”
“You beat the shit out of their leader. Smashed his face into the pavement. Did you know that I got a call from him a few weeks after he got out of the hospital, begging me not to send you after him again?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “You never told me that.”
“Didn’t want to give you too big of an ego.”
I remembered those days fondly. My ego was big enough with his help back in those days—I was young and invincible and part of an up-and-coming street gang. I was cocky, arrogant, looking for a fight, thirsty for action, thirsty for violence. Those were good days, fun days, and sometimes I looked back on them and wondered how any of us survived.
“I know you can’t forgive me,” I said, keeping my voice low. “I know I can’t ask that of you.”
“It would mean war.” He said the words, clipped and serious. “You know that.”
“You can’t risk a war right now.”
“The city would back them.” He shook his head and for a moment, I saw a flash of anger, and believed that he might actually be somewhat on my side, despite everything. “The politicians, the police—all of them would back the Leones. That’s the fucked-up truth I realized when we took power. The whole city was involved in this, each and every one of them, all the moralizing assholes, all of them getting their beaks wet with our dirty money. The whole city, rotting from the inside.”
“You sound like that’s a bad thing.”
He laughed and shook his head. The juggler seemed to drop a ball, but kicked it up with his foot, and a few people nearby applauded for him. Hedeon tilted his head and tapped his fingers on the arm of the bench.
“For me and guys like me, it’s not bad at all. But for everyone else?” He shrugged and shook his head.