Lucky Read Online Free PDF Page A

a lumbering tourist in an I LOVE CHICAGO T-shirt.
    ‘Shit!’ she muttered.
    ‘What’s the matter?’
    ‘Haven’t had a hit in years.’
    ‘You could have fooled me.’
    She whirled the car into the parking lot of a supermarket and killed the engine.
    ‘Gotta get dog chow,’ she announced. ‘And baby stuff, food, things like that.’
    ‘Doesn’t your old man take care of the shopping?’
    ‘You experienced lunch. What can I tell you?’ She grimaced.
    ‘I think we’ve got to talk,’ he said.
    She nodded. ‘We will.’
    He followed her into the market. A six foot red-head in pink spandex pants and a crocheted boob tube smiled at him. He smiled back.
    A short bad-tempered man in a wrinkled white suit whacked her on the ass. ‘Quit it,’ the man said tersely.
    The red-head tossed long swirls of hair and pouted.
    ‘Vegas is full of hookers,’ Jess remarked.
    ‘Tell me about it,’ replied Lennie.
    The groceries came to sixty-three dollars. Lennie insisted on paying, but Jess fought him all the way.
    ‘You’re broke,’ she said.
    ‘Not at all.’
    ‘It’s unnecessary.’
    ‘Says who?’
    ‘Me.’
    ‘Take a walk, monkey face.’
    ‘Don’t call me that!’
    The line behind them applauded when she finally allowed him to pay.
    They fell into the parking lot laughing.
    A fat boy with long greasy hair was trying to gain entry to the Camaro.
    ‘Hey!’ yelled Jess indignantly.
    The boy continued his assault on the passenger window with a wire coat hanger.
    Jess dropped two paper sacks of groceries and charged.
    Lennie followed suit. Together they dragged the fat boy from his task. Stoned eyes signalled venom. He lumbered across the parking lot and set to work on a Ford.
    ‘I don’t believe it,’ Lennie said.
    ‘You’re a New Yorker now, you should believe anything,’ Jess responded sagely.
    They retrieved scattered groceries and made it to the house in record time.
    Wayland floated on a blue striped mattress in the pool smoking a joint.
    Simon cried wildly on a dirty Navajo blanket.
    ‘Shit!’ muttered Jess.
    It appeared to be her favourite expression.
    Lennie wondered if he should have booked into a hotel. It looked like Jess had enough problems without a houseguest to complicate matters.

Chapter Four
     
    ‘Hey, you’re lookin’ good, kid. Atlantic City agreed with you, huh?’ He winked at his daughter.
    ‘You know something, Gino, for an old man you’re looking pretty good yourself.’
    She never called him daddy. Only sometimes, in her mind, when it was late and she was tired and the memories came creeping back to haunt her . . .
    ‘Cut out the old,’ he snapped.
    They grinned at each other, linked arms, and proceeded to her private elevator.
    How alike the two of them were. The same smouldering eyes, dark olive skin, jet hair, and wide sensual mouths.
    They enjoyed the perfect relationship. So similar in every way. From food to movies to books to people, they almost always formed the same opinions. Gino would say, ‘I don’t trust that guy – not with my left ball I don’t trust him.’ And Lucky would add, ‘Lock up your right one – that dude is bad news.’ Then they would break up laughing, black eyes locking fondly with black eyes.
    They maintained separate penthouse apartments atop the two hotels they owned. Gino lived at the Mirage. And Lucky resided in the Magiriano. Together they shared a house outside New York in East Hampton. A white, old-fashioned mansion filled with so many memories . . . so much of their past . . .
    Once they had lived in the house as a family. Gino and his wife Maria, with their children, beautiful dark Lucky, and her blond brother, Dario.
    Now there was only Gino and Lucky. The two of them against the world. There existed a special bond between them no one could break.
    It hadn’t always been that way . . .
    *   *   *
     
    Gino Santangelo was born in Italy, and in 1909, at the age of three he travelled to America with his parents, a young,