Chapter 1 The Incident
The little weasel was sweating bullets. Those beady eyes darting frantically from one man to another.
"I need to talk to Giadano...straighten this all out, boys." there was desperation and fear in that quivering tone. "This is all just a simple misunderstanding, I swear. I can fix this!"
"Mr. Giadano already 'talked' with the whore you banged last week. The broad you spilled your guts to, remember her, Manny?" Louis 'the Loop' Pryor was up close and personal, bending over Manny Levine's almost prone body. Pryor had his hands clenched on the guy's jacket front, holding Manny from any form of escape. "Sheila Royce. One of Sal Seduci's ladies, as I recall."
Louie checked with the other man who stood back, watching the street, which was clear. No one hardly ever came out after dark in this neighborhood.
Bad things could happen to some unsuspecting person when one least expected it.
Sean Kelly just wanted this shit over and done. Why Louie felt the need to draw it out, was a mystery. Louie seemed to enjoy the fear and desperation oozing out of Manny Levine.
"Word got back to Big Jake, Manny. He ain't happy with you. Maybe you should keep your trap shut when you're screwing some dame that has a big mouth. Misunderstandings arise." Louie explained the way of things.
"You guys know me. You know how it is when you're with a dame. A guy gets to thinking things. God is my witness, I was just shooting the shit." Manny's Adam's apple bobbed with his gulp. "I would never turn on Mr. Giadano...you know that!"
Both Sean Kelly and Louie Pryor did not seem particularly prone to such thinking, were their communal eye roll any indication.
It was very late.
Haven Hastings startled when the clock on the mantel chimed one o'clock.
The girl gasped, having checked the face of the old antique time piece. "Oh darn it!" she was alarmed and annoyed with herself.
The young woman grimaced, quickly shutting the pages of the book which had caught her attention early this afternoon. "I'm always doing this!" she sighed her distress, arising, putting the novel aside.
Something else Haven Hastings was always doing...talking to herself. She didn't really have any friends to speak of, preferring to keep to herself mostly.
It had been that way since her father's death a few years back.
Her mother had died in childbirth. Haven had never known her. She worshipped her dad, of course and his passing was a severe blow.
The young girl withdrew into a world of her own making ever since, where...for the most part, she was happy and content.
Haven found solace and companionship in the characters of books. She didn't have to get involved with them to any great extent so if they 'died', she was fine.
She could survive, which she almost had not, when her father left her.
This small book store kept her sane, and paid the bills. She lived over the shop and went to school in the interim. Hoping for some sort of future after she finished her courses at the Catholic Institute of Higher Learning.
She couldn't afford the tuition, of course but Uncle Frank said her dad set aside some money for just such an occasion.
Haven was determined to make it on her own but sometimes, it was so nice to have Frank in the background, for support and guidance.
Frank Esposito was a good man. He took over when his brother died and had been a constant source of love for Haven.
She adored her uncle.
Her uncle wasn't going to clean this messy shop however. And there was a meeting tomorrow morning of the Literary Club.
The woman hurriedly straightened and cleared the small interior. "What was I thinking?" she muttered her irritancy. "I always get lost in those darned stories. This is my own fault." she realized, glancing about for any missed debris she might have missed.
Haven gathered the three small wastebaskets, walking to the back door of the shop. Her hand hesitated as she reached for the lock on the door, however.
This was a bad neighborhood. Uncle Frank was always on her about finding another place to live.
The girl glanced to the trash cans in her arms. Maybe it would be better to just leave them for tomorrow morning. "Oh, don't be such a baby. It's only a few steps across the alley to that bin."
Opening the door, the woman poked her head out, listening carefully. All she heard was the usual sounds of the city. And even those were muffled by the buildings surrounding the one in which she lived.
The rumble of distant cars and the sound of far away music filtering up the stairs from Miller's bar down the street.
The girl carefully ventured out, hurrying across the dark space, emptying her baskets into the bin. She checked both ways, her movements halting, her body stiffening.
Down the end of the ally, two men were silhouetted against the flickering faintness of a streetlight.
Haven could distinguish mumbled tones, hushed and strained against the backdrop of dripping water sliding from a drainage pipe attached to the building next door.
The water pooled on the sides of the alley, running in oily glistens to Front Street at the end of the block down there.
"...W-Wait! NO!" the desperate, frantic outcry chilled the girl to the bone.
Haven stood, rooted to the spot, her blue eyes large and stricken.
"Please! No!"
Something about the man's tone frightened the woman. Haven instinctively took a step closer to her back door.
Her mind completely shut down, however, her senses stunned by the turn of events.
A bright flash of blue light accompanied a dull thud, followed by the distinct sound of something heavy hitting the street.
Haven gasped her dismay, her hand coming to her mouth to stifle the outcry of alarm threatening to erupt from her throat.
The two men reacted turning toward the sound. She could feel their eyes, her own widening.
"Shit!" one of the males snapped a 'realization'.
They had seen her.
Haven's body reacted before her mind.
She took immediate flight, sensing danger now. Having dropped the wastebaskets, she dashed for the opposite end of the alleyway, her only thought...get to people and a safe spot.
The only thing to come to mind was, the old corner drug store that stayed open late most weekends. With any luck, there might be some people inside that establishment.
Right now, she equated 'people' with safety. Or that is how Haven's frantic brain worked at that exact moment in time.
She ran as fast as her feet could go, her black leather Mary Janes getting water inside, the white socks already dripping wet for the pot hole puddles were deeper than first thought.
Haven barely noted, in her need to find some port in the storm.
She knew the neighborhood, taking one short cut after another, winding in the dark alleys from one block to another in her haste.
The girl rounded a corner, gasping a harsh outcry for she ran directly into the solidness of a hard, muscular chest, the impact taking the breath from her small frame.
Sean Kelly jerked his head about, his brain recognizing the sound instantly.
His first thought was...fuck, a fucking witness!
His next one...eliminate the threat now looming large on the horizon.
The 'gasp' was definitely feminine in nature, as was the shadowy figure down at the end of the alley.
She took flight.
Kelly motioned Louie Pryor to the left, while he took the right corner of the street.
He knew the neighborhood. She was headed for the store on Maple and Elm. As if more people would ensure her safety.
It just meant more witnesses to eliminate in Sean's world.
Fucking idiot!
He was breathing hard, for he was running full out. His urgency was to get to the bitch before she could reach her objective.
Could this fucking night get any worse?
First he was called out of a somewhat decent sleep by none other than one of Jake Giadano's henchmen...Lefty Russo. It seemed Big Jake needed a favor and he needed it post haste.
Something a guy didn't refuse. Not and stay healthy.
So Sean rolled out of a warm bed, came out in the fucking cold rain. Met Louie Pryor at some dive bar then headed out on the chore.
Everyone knew Manny Levine hung out at Hymie Goldman's bar on Cedar Street.
The little fucker bolted at first sight but Kelly was a smart guy, having sent Louie into the bar while Sean waited out back for just such an eventuality.
Manny told Sheila Royce about his longtime dream to leave the Outfit, retire to an island somewhere in the Pacific, informing on Big Jake to the Feds... that the Levine could keep his hard-earned money in the process.
Corralling whores was a tiresome, never ending job, according to the little Jew. He was looking forward to leaving it all behind and now, he had.
Just not in the way envisioned.
Kelly could not fault the guy's plan but it was a really bad idea to advertise his intentions beforehand.
As evidence would have it, at least.
For a ten-minute drive to the South side, one of Pryor's favorite dumping grounds...for it was a well-known fact, the police in this district were not overly zealous in their adherence to duty.
Why should this district be the exception, after all.
But the Southside Division could win not only accolades for dereliction of duty but might even take away some sort of trophy were one given out.
Pryor got bored listening to Levine's whining, so he popped the guy in the left eyeball to shut him the hell up, Kelly supposed.
End of story only, it hadn't turned out quite as expected.
Sean grasped a brick, to steady a turn off the main street, running full force into...
A very small, very fragrant, very warm bundle of terrified female.
Instinctively, his arms surrounded the tiny frame, if only to steady both bodies after the collision.
