“You can take care of yourself. I been askin’ around. The brother didn’t know what the f**k he was doin’,” Vinnie pointed out. “He should never –”

Cal cut him off. “Tim was a cop, Colt says a good one. You gonna tell me he didn’t know what he was doin’?”

“I –”

“You don’t talk to Sal, I will,” Cal interrupted his uncle.

“Cal, you don’t want to owe that man,” Vinnie warned.

“He owes me. He got my blood and he got my cousin. He knows that,” Cal shot back.

“Cal –”

Cal leaned back an inch. “What the f**k is this? Why are you –?”

Vinnie’s torso moved forward two inches. “I lost one boy to him. You think I’m fired up to lose two?”

Cal shook his head angrily. “Jesus, Uncle Vinnie. I’m not gonna f**kin’ work for him.”

“He’s persuasive,” Vinnie returned.

Cal pointed to the house again. “Nothin’ would persuade me to jeopardize that.”

“Yeah, and Vinnie Junior had Francesca and he looked at her like she hung the stars and he wanted to give her everything. So he went out to find a way to do that. Easy way is Sal.”

“He was twenty-five,” Cal reminded him.

“He was in love,” Vinnie retorted, jerking his head to the house to make his point.

“Don’t pin that shit on Frankie,” Cal clipped. “You been singin’ that song way too long and you know that shit’s not right,” Vinnie pressed his lips together and looked away but looked back when Cal kept talking. “I got a business, I got money, I don’t need that shit.”

“For f**k’s sake, Cal, you nearly took her Dad down for buyin’ Keirry a CD!” Vinnie’s voice was rising. “Vi hangs the stars for you and I know you. You’re a Callahan. You’re a Bianchi. You’ll wanna hand her the moon.”

“I’ve already handed her the moon, Vinnie,” Cal told him and Vinnie jerked back.

“What?”

Cal didn’t repeat himself and he wasn’t about to explain. “And I was pissed at Pete because he’s up in the girls’ faces and he bought Keira a f**kin’ boy band CD and I live in this house. I gotta listen to that shit.”

Vinnie stared at him a second before he burst out laughing.

Cal didn’t laugh.

“I’m not twenty-five anymore, Uncle Vinnie and I’m not Vinnie Junior,” Cal stated.

Vinnie stopped laughing because he knew what Cal was saying. Vinnie Junior and Cal had a lot in common with everything. They both thought they found what they wanted at a young age and they both gave up everything for it. Cal wanted Bonnie and he wanted a family and he did everything to make that real. Vinnie wanted it all but most of all he wanted Frankie and he wanted to prove to her that he was worth her love.

But that was then. This was now.

Cal had learned the hard way that if you found something good, you didn’t have to give up anything. If it was good, you got everything you needed without giving up shit. Vinnie Junior hadn’t lived to learn that lesson because that lesson killed him. He hadn’t lived long enough to learn that Frankie loved him if he could hand her the moon or if he was making pizzas.

Vinnie Junior never got that and Vinnie Senior never admitted out loud that his son made mistakes with the choices he made in his life and the way he’d f**ked up everything for himself and for Frankie.

“You unleash Sal or I do it. One of us calls the marker,” Cal ordered. “And we do it for Vi and, I’m tellin’ you in case you haven’t figured it out yet bein’ around her and those girls, there’s no better f**kin’ reason to do it. Daniel Hart took away her man, her kids’ father and her brother. They were tight. All of them. He could have destroyed her. He could have brought her low. He could have changed those girls. He could have made her Bonnie. He keeps goin’ –”

Vinnie cut him off. “I’ll call the marker.”

Cal crossed his arms back on his chest, demanding, “Do it now.”

“Now?” Vinnie asked.

“Right now,” Cal said.

“But…” Vinnie looked toward the house then back at Cal, “pancakes.”

“Now,” Cal repeated.

Vinnie stared at him and Cal held his stare.

Then Vinnie pulled his phone out of his shirt pocket.

“Christ, son,” he muttered on a sigh.

“He needs to have a word with me, I’m standin’ right here,” Cal offered.

Vinnie looked to the heavens. Then he flipped open his phone. Then he called Sal.

The door slid open and both men’s heads jerked that way to see Kate walking out, Cal’s phone in her hand.

“Hey, Joe,” she said as Vinnie smiled at her and then wandered down the deck steps and out into the wet grass. “Colt’s on your phone.”

Cal took his phone from her when she got close. Then he lifted his other hand and tugged gently at her hair.

“Thanks, girl,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” she grinned, glanced at Vinnie who was now several feet into the yard, his back to the deck, his head bent, his hand to his hip and his other hand to his ear. Kate turned and skipped back to the door, went inside and closed it behind her.

Cal put the phone to his ear.

“Yo.”

“Need you at the Station, man,” Colt said without greeting and Cal’s back went straight as a bad feeling hit his gut.

“Why?” he asked.

“How soon can you get here?” Colt asked.

“Why?” Cal repeated, losing patience.

“You need a brief,” Colt explained.

“About?” Cal prompted.

“Some things you need to know. Some new things have happened,” Colt told him.

“Hart?” Cal asked.

“Yep,” Colt answered.

“Fuck,” Cal bit off.

“You had a bunch of cars in your drive yesterday. You guys still have company or do I have to send out a squad?” Colt asked casually but this question wasn’t casual. This question set that bad feeling in his gut to toxic.

“We got company,” Cal said and looked at Vinnie, “but send a squad.”

“Right,” Colt muttered. “He’ll be unobtrusive,” Colt assured him.

“Don’t care if he sits in the f**kin’ driveway,” Cal replied as he walked to the sliding glass doors, “just want him here before I go.”