I waited anxiously outside the hospital for word on Vinny. The doctor came out.
“You’re here for Vincent right?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah I am, is he gonna make it?” I asked, nervously.
“He’s gonna make it” He said, smiling as he could see the relief on my face.
“Can we go see him?” I asked
“Sure thing, down the hall to the left” He responded.
I rushed down the hall and saw Vinny laying there, I saw the rest of the crew there as well, Louie, Johnny, Salvatore and Nicky. We were all relieved to learn that he was still alive. He motioned over for us to come closer and began to speak.
“I want you guys to find the sons of bitches who did this to me and whack them and everyone they love” He said.
He was visibly weak and it would be weeks until he could gain his strength back. This attack hit us hard, a hit on him was a hit on us as far as we were concerned and we were ready to do whatever it would take to ensure revenge would be served out.
“Hey Boss, who’s a gonna be in charge of things while you’s in here” asked Nicky.
“I’m making Joey the acting caporegime until I return, anybody has a problem with that?” He responded.
Everyone was open to the idea, I felt honored to become the capo even it was just temporary, it made me feel like I had become somebody in this world. I couldn’t enjoy that feeling for too long though, we had to get to work to find out who had done the hit. We decided to go to The Mad Hatter, an Irish bar run by Mikey O’Donnell, who ran a crew of Irish gangsters. We had an uneasy relationship with them, sometimes we’d have them do hits for us, sometimes we’d work together on jobs but generally we stayed out of their business and they stayed out of ours. Before we walked in I made it clear to everyone that I didn’t want any trouble and I knew they’d be looking to get us all riled up but we weren’t there to fight the Irish, we just wanted to know if they knew who was behind the shooting. We walked in and were instantly greeted by one of Mikey’s men who escorted us to Mikey.
“Hey, look is a the Italians!” said Mikey, with what had to be the worst Italian accent I ever heard. His men chuckled.
“Look, Mikey, we don’t want any trouble, as you know Vinny was shot two days ago and we need to know if you know anything” I asked.
“There was a shooting? Vinny got shot? Oh my, whatever will we do!” He responded, sarcastically.
I instantly slapped the table and leapt up, grabbed him by his shirt and threw him up against the wall, his irish bodyguards aimed their guns at me but my boys aimed their guns right back.
“Shut up Mikey, I know you know about the shooting so fess up, who did it, was it you?” I shouted.
“Look, I don’t know nothin’ about the shootin’ see and it couldn’t of been me, while I would love to see you guy’s in a ditch, we do have some business deals and I ain’t stupid, I know bloodshed is bad for business. That bein’ said, I’m just as worried as you guys, a hit like this means new competition is probably in town trying to get a cut of the action and I hate competition” He said. I put him down and we left the bar, I decided to take a break and go visit my gal at her place.
My gal’s named Nicole, Nicole Valentini. A women of class, a member of the upper echelon of society. Angelic blue eyes you could lose yourself in, shiny blonde hair and a body to die for, she was smart too, could handle her own, she had a killer personality, it'd suck you in, drive you nuts when you couldn't have it, like an addict and his dope. I was in love and soon I'd be asking her to marry me. I got to her apartment and knocked on her door, she opened and instantly our lips locked.
"Mmmm, Baby you're finally here, where were you yesterday at my concert?" She said, taking breaks to continue kissing me.
"I had to deal with some stuff, Vinny was shot" I responded.
"What? Oh my goodness, is he okay?" She said, gasping and taking a step back.
"Yeah, he's at St. Michael's, they're taking care of him, doctor said it'll be a few weeks until he can leave" I explained.
"I'm sorry, do you know who did it?" She asked, worryingly.
"No clue, but me and the boys are looking into it. Anyways I gotta get my mind off this" I said
"Well you lay in bed and I'll get spruced up for you" she said.
The night pretty much was going as expected until the phone started ringing. Neither of us wanted to pick it up until it got far too annoying for the both of us. Nicole got up to pick it up and after a few seconds looked at me.
"It's for you, it's Nicky" she said in a confused as she gave me the phone.
"Hello....okay...okay...alright, I'm coming" I say.
