The Last Days of Il Duce Read Online Free PDF Page A

friendly.”
    â€œWe’re not. But I’ve got some leverage.”
    â€œWhat kind of leverage?”
    â€œThe old man’s done something he’s not proud of. He doesn’t want people to know.”
    â€œWhat are you trying to say?”
    â€œJust what I said. Three-story condos, little boxes one on top the other. Redwood deck on the back. Garage underneath. It’s as easy as they get. I can make myself some real money, then I can get out of here. Get myself something in Los Gatos, Monte Sereno. Nothing fancy. Just a place.”
    â€œYou taking Luisa with you?”
    â€œSure,” he said, but I did not think this had anything to do with Luisa. I could see the dreamy glint in my brother’s eye, the kind of look men get when they think about what their life might have been. For my brother, Joseph Abruzzi Jones, it was those dry hills south of here where you could sit on your porch and all but imagine the ocean and the palms somewhere behind you and an Orchard that rolled down the peninsula all the way to the bay. Of course there weren’t any orchards anymore, and even the little stucco bungalows were being torn down for bigger homes, on land that sold for a million bucks an acre. My brother knew all this but it didn’t matter. He still had that look in his eye.
    â€œEldorado Condominiums,” he laughed. “That’s the ticket. And I got the goods.”
    I laughed too but I felt a chill in my heart. Though I hadn’t admitted it to myself, I’d seen a little door open in my life the day before at Jimmy Wong’s. Standing on the other side of the door had been Micaeli Romano and the job Jimmy talked about. And maybe there had been other things behind that door too. Maybe in that land behind the door it was no longer true that what was good for me was bad for my brother. Maybe Micaeli Romano was the man everybody thought he was, and a sweet life awaited me. But none of that mattered either. Because to open that door and walk through and stand on the other side with Micaeli Romano, that was the stuff of betrayal.
    â€œHe’s quite the stud, that Micaeli,” said Joe.
    â€œYou mean his son?”
    â€œI mean Micaeli.”
    â€œIn his day, maybe. He’s an old man now.”
    â€œA rich son of a bitch like him, it’s always his day. But not anymore.”
    I turned my back on Joe and walked down the old railway track. The twilight was coming on, the skyline darkening, and I could see fog rolling in over North Beach.
    â€œYou’re going to blackmail Micaeli Romano?” I laughed and filled my mouth with scorn. “That’s a good one.” Then I spit in the dirt and walked back to the car.
    Joe stood outside a long time with his back to me, staring out at China Basin. Then he came back and slid behind the wheel. I pretended to be looking at the city, but of course I could feel his big, thick-shouldered presence in the car beside me, and the air was stuffy with the smell of us. It was the Abruzzi smell, or Jones, whoever the fuck we were, and it was the smell of my mother’s food and my father stewing in his failure. I met my brother’s eyes but just as quickly I looked away.
    â€œYou slept with her, didn’t you, Nick?” he asked. “Right before the divorce?”
    I cracked the window to let in a little bit of air. The glass had misted with our breathing. I thought of the fogged windows of my mother’s kitchen, and I thought about the times Joe and Marie and Anne and I had sat at that table, and how later, after he’d broken with Marie, I’d watched him smash the glass out of those kitchen windows with his fist.
    â€œYou slept with Marie, didn’t you?” Joe asked again. I did not know why this was coming up now. I let the pause lengthen, too long maybe, then I looked him in the eye.
    â€œNo,” I said.
    He turned his head, thinking. “I am going to get that son of a