Read Online The Dame Did It by Joel Jenkins - Free Book Online Page A

a few little dens of
iniquity… and mostly jump ship to some other apple that has room
for you.
    “But those new businesses in Buffalo and up
in Canada belong to us, because my family built them under
my deals and direction. You know damn well that if I let you in on
this, you would work night and day to try and take things over.
Letting that happen would be a slap in the face to my family, and
dealing with it would be an annoying little inconvenience for
me.
    “So with all due frankness, my business
decision is that you can consider your family in the position of
someone with a bad case of the shits who has no access to a toilet. Capito ?”
    Vito’s expression remained oddly unchanged
as he seemingly vented a bit by rolling a napkin into a ball, and
casually tossed it across the length of the diner. It hit the young
woman sequestered in the far corner of the restaurant in the face,
and she looked in their direction. Seeing who was seated across
from her, she ran over to Gino’s side of the table with a bubbly
sense of excitement.
    “Oh my god, oh my god!” she blurted with a
tone of breathless enthusiasm. “You’re Mr. Provenzo! ‘The World’s
Greatest!’ I see you so often in the papers, oh my god you’re so
handsome and distinguished in person! Your pictures don’t do you
justice! Can I please please please have your
autograph?”
    “Oh brother,” Gia said with a roll of her
eyes. “I think I actually preferred all ‘a that tension to this
little bim.”
    “I can’t help being a bit popular and
admired, little girl,” Gino said, almost smiling. “All right,
missy, you can have my autograph. But then you gotta run along,
because I have some important business to attend to.” He tore a
large shred off of one of the menus. “I got some paper for you
here, let me just have Ira get me something to write with.”
    The girl giggled. “Ooohh, it’s okay, Mr.
Provenzo, sir, I have a pen and a little ink bottle in my purse.
Don’t trouble yourself, I’ll get it. Oh my god, this is soooooo
like a wonderful dream!”
    Gia shook her head. “Gotta love the
groupies… they bring their own pen and inkwell with them.”
    As promised, the still smiling girl reached
into her polka dot-decorated purse for the item she was
seeking.
    “So who do I make this autograph out to,
young lady?” Gino asked.
    “Ooohhh, you can just make it out to… the
bitch !” she retorted with a sudden drastic change of tone as
she quickly pulled a stiletto from her purse and shoved it into
Gino’s throat.
    Gino gagged in shock and pain as blood
poured out of his neck and mouth.
    “Papa!” Gia screamed in horror at the top of
her vocal capacity.
    “Boys!” Fido shouted as he jumped to his
feet. “That little bimbo was a plant! Kill them all!”
    It was now disturbingly clear to Fido and
his two fellow guards that Vito’s seemingly innocent hurling of the
rolled napkin across the diner in the girl’s direction was a signal
for her to drop her unthreatening veneer and fulfill her deadly
purpose. Vito groomed and paid her well for this specific task; a
plant who could appeal to Gino’s notorious ego—his sole
weakness—and look safe enough so as not to immediately arouse the
suspicions of his normally alert guards.
    As guns were drawn on both sides, the
gravely injured Gino Provenzo proved the rumors of his incredible
toughness were no fairy tales as he instinctively grabbed his
killer’s thin arm in a vice-like grip. The girl screamed and
struggled, but Gino was determined to prevent her from fleeing the
scene and escaping retribution for as long as his remaining breath
held out.
    Taking full advantage of Gino’s swan act,
the now insanely angry Gia grabbed the girl by her throat with her
left hand while grabbing the large glass pitcher of water with her
right one. She then smashed the heavy pitcher against the
teenager’s face, crushing her nasal cartilage into a mutilated
pulp. Screaming expletives at her father’s