"I'll take your word for it. Why do you fight for this street?"
Antonio Serrano thought. He shrugged. "For power, prestige, and . . . "
"Money?"
"That's what it all comes down to, sure. I'll give you that. "
"Work for me and the money will be bigger and quicker."
"Nah, that's like Mafia stuff, man. If I wanted to join the Mafia, I'd have done that a long time ago. Not me. No way. You think I'm going to work my ass off and turn over half my score to some old Italian guy? That's stupid. I'm not stupid. "
"Try it. I will give you one hundred and four thousand dollars for the governor. If it works out, I'm prepared to offer double that amount for the Vice-President."
"I don't know," Antonio Serrano said slowly.
"You don't have to kill anyone yourself. You have men. Send them. Pay them whatever you wish out of the money I offer and keep the rest. "
Antonio considered. Whenever he thought, his bushy eyebrows grew together into one long eyebrow. He scratched it absently.
"I don't know. I don't think my guys can handle this kind of action by themselves. I might have to go with them. You know, to keep them on target. They're not smart like me."
"It will be easy. The governor does not like guards. He has no Secret Service protection. What have you got to lose, my friend?"
"How do I know you'll give me the money afterward?"
"I have the money in my car. I will show it to you. Then we will go to a bus terminal and put it in a locker. We will mail the locker key to your home address immediately after."
"Hey, then all I gotta do is wait for the mail. What do I need to kill anybody for?"
"You will not do that."
"Why not?" Antonio asked.
"Because after you give me your address, I will know where you live," said Tulip.
"I could move."
"Not you. No one making your kind of money would live here because he liked it. This street is all you know. You were born here and you will die here. Besides, wherever you hid, I would find you." And to drive the point home, Tulip jammed his finger into the muzzle of Antonio's pointing pistol. The barrel split along its entire length.
"You got something there," admitted Antonio Serrano, examining his ruined Colt.
"It is a deal, then?"
"The governor, sure I can do the governor. He probably doesn't even pack a piece."
"Fine. Let me show you the money and we will go to the bus station. After that, you will have forty-eight hours to complete this job."
"One other thing," said Antonio Serrano as they walked to Tulip's car.
"Yes?"
"The governor. After I kill him, is it okay with you if I lift his wallet too?"
Chapter 15
The Eastie Goombahs listened to their leader's unusual proposition. When he had finished explaining his plan to assassinate the governor of the state, they considered their role for all of five seconds, nearly twice their normal attention span.
"No way!" said Carmine Musto, who saw himself as the next head Goombah, and decided that today was as good a day as any to take over. After all, he was nearly fifteen himself.
"You other guys?" asked Antonio Serrano, surveying the semicircle of his followers. He stood in the middle of his living room. The Eastie Goombahs, all of thirteen strong, lounged on his genuine zebraskin furniture, passing a roach from hand to hand.
"What's in it for us?" asked another.
"Prestige," said Antonio Serrano.
"What's that?"
"It's the same as recognition, only different," someone told him.
"Whacking the governor will make us big," said Antonio.
"Will it make us rich?" asked Carmine, who breathed through his mouth because his nostrils were hypersensitized from snorting coke all day. His eyes had that too-bright sheen that makes an addict look alert.
"Believe it."
"How?"
"Trust me. I got a plan. But we gotta pull this off first," promised Antonio cagily. He didn't want the others to know about the money that Tulip pussy had offered him.
"Who's paying you for this?" asked Carmine.
"Whatcha mean?" asked Antonio with an injured look.
He avoided Carmine's beady eyes. The dickhead, he thought. He's getting too smart.
"I mean," said Carmine coolly, "you ain't come up with this brainstorm yourself. Someone's paying you, right? How much?"
"Yeah, how much?" the others chorused.
"Fifty thousand," lied Antonio. "I was planning on splitting with you jerks."
"Fifty!" snorted Carmine. "Shit, man, you been took good. Wise guys get six figures."
"Okay, I got six figures," Antonio admitted, because being caught in a lie was normal, but looking stupid was dangerous. "One hundred thousand he's paying me."
"Oh, wow," Carmine mocked. "One hundred thousand. Split thirteen ways that's maybe two month's pay for most of us-chump change. You want us to hit the frigging governor for chump change?"