Chapter 284: Do or Don’t
{TYLER}
Having Clemenza over for dinner on a Thursday night is not my idea of a great time, but the situation in back here is becoming exponentially dangerous. The city is on a knife-edge, the tension making its way all over.
So on Thursday night, having recovered from our jet lag, we invited Lou Clemenza to dinner. It took a lot of negotiating and sweet-talking, but in the end, he agreed.
On his arrival, Sasha’s bodyguards patted down Clemenza, and Clemenza’s bodyguards patted down Sasha and swept the formal dining room for any stashed weapons.
"No one wants to pat me down?" I pouted, fluttering my eyelashes at Clemenza’s biggest bodyguard. He made a visceral face of disgust, and Clemenza actually laughed.
"I’ll do it," muttered the second guard. "Keep the fuckin’ peace."
Once everyone was satisfied, Sasha and I entertained Clemenza privately in the dining room, just the three of us. Meanwhile, the Clemenzas made nice with the Adonises in the sitting room closer to the entrance.
My takeaway from this night so far is that Clemenza is angry. He ate angrily, drank angrily, and made angry small talk. I said nothing and smiled sweetly whenever he glared at me. I acted every inch the perfect Mafia Wife, because I knew it would piss him off even more.
Sasha sat through the whole dinner with his lips slightly curled in the suggestion of amusement.
"I must say, Don Clemenza," my husband says now, "you’re very exercised by this business deal I’ve made. It’s perfectly legal."
"It ain’t the legality I object to," Clemenza growls. "And you fucking know it, Sasha. That company is three centuries old and is important to my Family!"