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Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty: Jackie
JACKIEAnyone who had been a student at a college, any college at all, understood the first rule of parties: Do not, for the life of you, be obvious. Obtrusiveness could make any one, any one at all, seem like an imposter at the party. Even its host.This party, however, was better than any she had ever been to. Not the energy, no. There was money here that she had only seen around her father. There was lustre to the money too, not like the kind she had grown accustomed to in San Diego. Frat boys with obscenely wealthy parents driving obscenely expensive cars around campus; boys who shone like oiled wood, only on the outside. Their interiors were often drab and dull. Hollowed out. Jackie detested that sort of wealth, the sort that made people lose their personalities, the type that people built the entirety of who they were around. Even when she was little, Jackie had never wanted to be a mannequin like those boys were. A fixture who achieved nothing more than making bad
Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty: Dante
DANTEWhen he entered the small gathering, a man he did not quite recognize called out to him. 'Dante!'Dante shook the man's hands with a quizzical look. Under the scarlet mask, he could not make out the man's face.'You do not know me, but I knew your father,' this man told Dante. 'We were good friends, him and I.' He still had Dante's palm in his and he was pumping it vigorously.'It is good to know. Nice meeting you, Mr—''—Kanan. Kanan *Johnson.'Dante knew the name. Most people in the city did. It was the name of one of Queen's most notorious dealers I'm the 90s. The man had long since retired, Dante had heard. Left much of his work in the hands of others, and now, spent most of his time vacationing. It was life to aspire to, Dante thought. A life that made time for rest. A concept his father never seemed to have understood.Dante asked, 'You are the Kanan? I have heard things about you. You knew my father?''Da
Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty Two: Andre
ANDRENick Noah stood at the stairs overlooking his guests, holding a glass and a spoon in his hands. The sodding man was wearing a blue tux and a white dress shirt underneath that. The chandelier light reflected dimly on his head.Andre had taken one look at the buffet table and had gone looking for much stronger alcohol. Everything the party had to offer was light weight, rich people liquor. And no matter how wealthy Andre became, one thing he could never conform to was rich people alcohol. It made him feel like an imposter. It always did. Luckily, he had brought a small cask of whiskey which was in the breast pocket of his clothes, so he edged into a corner of the room and proceeded to extract it. He took small sips of the burning liquid as he watched the crowd.Nick knocked the spoon against the glass again and again and it made a sharp clanking noise. He had everyone's attention in a few moments.'Welcome!' He boomed. A cheer rose up to answer his salu
Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty Three: Jackie
JACKIE'When was the last time you were at a party?' Jackie asked Dante as they walked the length of the hall together, walking so close to each other that their hands touched occasionally.'What?' Dante asked over the din of the music.'I said, when was the last time you were at a party?' She said again. 'A real party.'Dante had both hands in his pocket; he took one out and ruffled his hair in thought. 'When? I do not remember.'She laughed. 'That long ago?''It is not like I kept tabs. If there was a party, I just went. And then, one day I stopped.''Why did you stop?' Jackie asked. Dante was so tall, she had to look up at him. He had at least a head or two above Neil, and that, she thought, was really saying something.A masked woman sashaying past slid her hand down Dante's arm as she went. He smiled politely at her but never slowed his stride.'For one,' he said, 'I graduated college. And then, I started a club.'Jackie f
Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty Four: Andre
ANDREAndre liked to think that the worst things that could have happened to him had already happened. But when Nick and the crowd of onlooking mob bosses recognized Dante as one of them, Andre knew that Trent was just one of the incidents life had in store for him; that the worst was still a long time coming, that the world still had more in store for him.He stalked through the ball afterwards, barely able to contain the full width his anger. Somehow it seemed as though he had unwittingly handed even more power to the Bianchi boy than he had had the onset. In the process of trying to fix things, he seemed to only be making them much worse than they already were.He was at a corner of the room, leaning against a intricately designed Corinth-style column that stood tall in the ball room, watching the dance floor. To crown it all, Dante had found a woman, he was dancing with her. He was elated, if Andre was to tell by the look on his face.'You have any more
Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty Five: Dante
DANTEThe day that Dante returned to New York after his graduation, the first thing that he did was go to the Red Wolf Brooklyn. It was a small restaurant on 97 Wythe Avenue that his mother used to take him to, famed for its meat specialty. There was mezze, and there was meat and, of course, the best French fries that the entire city had to offer. At least, in his mother's opinion. The first few times that Dante had been there in that small, cramped space sizzling with aromatic spices, he had felt nausea. The meat was too seasoned he had said, and his father, Raymond, made a joke that it felt as though the air itself was seasoned. But they had gone at his mother's order, because that was simply the way that things were with them. The place had begun to grow on them and eventually, it became what his remembered his mother liked to call the ‘family spot’.Now as Imani parked the car in front of the building, he stared at it, wondering how in God's name he had made an impulse decision to
Dante's Fire Chapter Sixty Six: Andre
ANDREThe Torrents was still open when Andre left the masquerade ball—at least according to the crimson lights that still shone at the front and inside the bar. From outside, the CLOSED sign that hung at the door was quite visible.Andre pushed the door open and the door bell jangled_ announcing his arrival. He was quickly encircled by the tepid air in the bar, a temperate contrast from what was to be had outside the double doors. Andre had not walked five steps into the room when the almost noiseless tap of bare feet on floor came padding towards the front. There was a rustling and Gloria burst through the gaudy curtain that separated the main bar from the rest of the building.'You cant be in here now, I am sorry. The sign outside says we are closed, doesn't... oh.' Recognition light up in her eyes. 'Andre, it is you.'Andre had switched his formal clothes for street gear. He pushed down the hood of his sweatshirt. The weight of the fabric rested in his back.'Gloria,' he said simpl
Dante's Fire Andre: Chapter Sixty Seven
He took her in with his eyes.She was dressed as she often was at hours after closure: in loose but revealing clothes, that showed off her midriff and shoulders. A thin layer of sweat shone on her brow, on the bit of her chest that the clothes left bare to the eye. She was staring at him too, he realized, with something like contemplation in her eyes.Under the scrutiny of her gaze, Andre wanted to stand straighter, he wanted to be taller, broader, even ythough he already was those things. More than most people were. There was something about the bar-woman that made him want to be better, to be the things he was not. The only person in this world who had ever had that effect on him was Molly. Not Big Jack, definitely not Raymond Bianchi, both of whom he had admired at a certain point. Both of whom he still admired distantly.It was only Molly. Sweet Molly of blessed memory.He pushed the thought of Molly away. Because, look how it ended. Look how she ended. In an alleyway. Everybody
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- Dante's Fire
Jackie & Big Jack: Chapter One-Hundred
JACKIEDante drove as though he meant to frighten her, in that peculiar fashion that she had seen people do in movies sometimes, when they meant to frighten their passengers into silence or verbosity. But he did not ask any more information of her, or her continued silence, which would have been unlikely. This left her to wonder what his endgame was. Was his plan to orchestrate an accident? To kill them both? He was intense, she granted him that. But he never appealed to her as suicidal.'Dante, what are you doing?' She asked tentatively.He kept his eyes on the road, never blinking. 'Is it not obvious?''You can stop the car. Stop the car, let's talk. It doesn't have to be this way.' She said. Now he looked at her. The rage that had returned had now dimmed in his eyes. Instead, there was only exhaustion. Soul-swallowing exhaustion.'You know,' he told her, 'you were the one person in this world that I believed I could grow to trust. Really trust. The one person. And then you just h
- Dante's Fire
Dante: Chapter Ninety Nine
DANTEJackie's phone beeped to life on the nightstand in the dark of the room, bathing the wall in white light, and for the third time, Dante ignored it. That night, the moon was a phosphorescent thing, and it poured into the room through the windows, spilling onto the floors. Over Jackie's shoulder, Dante watched it creep further into the room as the night drew on. The clock on the nightstand read 3 A.M in ominous red letters bright enough to betray the pistol Dante had laid next to it. But it seemed like nothing more than a few hours had passed since they had sex. The room smelled strongly of semen, fabric softener and—this close to her—cheap shampoo.Time stood still whenever Dante was with Jackie. He knew quite well that reality awaited him outside the doors of the hotel, outside of her arms, but while he was with her, his many troubles shrunk and the world ceased trying to swallow him whole, flesh and bone included.Even in the gloom, he
- Dante's Fire
Jackie: Chapter Ninety Eight
JACKIEThe Aurthurson Hotel burned a harsh silver under the glaring moon. Although it was gigantic in its own rights, it was dwarfed by the corporate skyscrapers around it. What they had in height, the hotel had in width.Dante parked the car in the parking lot and shut off the engine. He let out a long, tortured breath. Jackie examined him in the quiet darkness. He slumped into the seat and stared back at her.'Your grand plan is to sit here all night? Or are we ever going to go in?' She asked, humorously.He snorted. 'Real talk? I wish we would. It's peaceful out here. It's almost never peaceful in New York.'They stared at each other in the dim, contained silence of the car. It was the first time since the raid a semblance of calm had returned to him. He was composed again, the Dante she was accustomed to. Jackie knew caged rage intimately. In part, because she was Big Jack's daughter. In part, because she had felt it for herself. After the
- Dante's Fire
Nick: Chapter Ninety Seven
NickColeman Spears was the sort of man who did not give a sailing hoot about anyone else's sensibilities. Nick figured this out the day that he met him. A man who cared little for politics, but paid attention to it anyway, just like himself. So when he heard that the man had gone out of his way to go after Dante Bianchi, he was pleasantly surprised.It was in the tabloids, the raid. Not the police commissioner's involvement in the raid, but the raid itself. Bluish photos of Ambience taken from a distance showed dark police vehicles blocking off the main entrance from the street. Passersby stopped and stared in the snapshots. Were he younger, the old man would have been damn near ecstatic. But now, he only thought it would have been even better if Spears had finished it, had brought the goddamn Bianchi out of his precious night club in handcuffs. But hr had not. He had found nothing. This part did not leave Nick surprised. Impressed, but not surprised. Th
- Dante's Fire
Andre: Chapter Ninety Six
ANDREThe snow that gathered at the top floor of his building had melted with the coming of spring, and the water that it had left behind formed shallow puddles at the corners of the roof. Damp wetness was everywhere you looked on the roof, every surface you touched. Andre had not been here for a long while. He had forgotten what a view Brooklyn was at the darkest hours of night, and how much better the view was in the light of day. He had forgotten the rows and rows of buildings, some as tiny as pebbles in the distance, others skyscrapers, bursting through the cotton wool clouds.Memories are feeble things. But it was all coming back to him as he stood there, staring out into the day. It did not seem so long ago now, since he had been there with Nick Noah, Trent in a building some distance away, with a sniper trained on him. A much needed precaution.This time, however, like the last, Andre was not alone. Gloria was at his side. She was dressed as she oft
- Dante's Fire
Spears: Chapter Ninety five
SPEARSThe team of officers came through the front doors like an avalanche, breaking the mountain slope. This, at least, was what Spears imagined it would have seemed like to Dante Bianchi.He had taken the rear, coming in as the last man, his hands deep in the pockets of his Police parka, the handle of his firearm protruding like a leathery bone from his utility belt. Ambience was a tall building, and the lower floor could be traced with the eyes to the VIP section in the upper floor. Only staff were in the building at the time, and one of them, a woman was descending the stairs when they charged through the front door unannounced. She stopped, clutching the steel railing in a fright. Leo Daniels was ascending the steps, talking to the Oman as he climbed. The bartender was startled, too. Spears did not blame him. Cops were never bearers of good never.Soon Dante Bianchi answered them. He came rushing down the stairs, in a suit that distinguished him, gave him t
- Dante's Fire
Jackie: Chapter Ninety Four
JACKIEWhen Dante called again, asking if she would come to his club, Ambience, Jackie had said yes without pause. There should have been that fear of sounding desperate, that apprehension that he would hear her rapid, almost desperate yes, and wonder, and maybe even guess correctly that she wanted to be there only so she could go through his things so she could get into his head.But there was no fear. That gave her cause to worry. Neil had warned her many times already. The last time was the day before the call. He had picked her up from work the other day. She came down after a long, grueling shift to find him waiting in his car outside. Even though she would much rather had taken a taxi, she let herself be talked into entering the passenger seat.'Dante is dangerous.' He had told her. 'Volatile.''Oh, and you are not?'Neil ground his teeth together. She could tell he wanted to pound the steering wheel. 'Not like this. I watched him shoot a man in
- Dante's Fire
Big Jack: Chapter Ninety Three
BIG JACKHe cut the frizzly beard he had grown on the journey. In the mirror, when he looked he had become another version of himself. A man who was familiar in a distant fashion, but who was still a stranger. Big Jack washed the shaving cream off his cheeks and chin and felt the smooth, new flesh there. Another thing Joaquin would never be able to do.The fight at the motel had left him with a limp, slightly imperceptible, but still there. He limped out of the bathroom with its ornate mirror and shiny ceramic, back into the room that had been allocated to him. The windows in the room were open, and a gentle breeze played with the shutters. For there, Big Jack could catch a glimpse of the street. A row of palm trees lined both lanes on the road, the early morning sun was the colour of a cob of corn. He was leaving, finally. Everything felt distant in a way already. Like he was never there, like he was just passing through.McCoy had made his staff leave him some clean
- Dante's Fire
Dante: Chapter Ninety Two
DANTEColeman Spears was just as punctual as he had expected. The bloody man was correctness itself, what with that firm jaw, those self-righteous eyes that seemed to have the ability to make anything he did not approve of combust if he fixed them with a stare for enough time. Which was what he looked to be trying to do to Dante when he spotted him in the midst of the festivity.Dante took his hand in a firm grip. The man's giant paw of a hand almost swallowed his. 'Finally,' he said through a smile that was more clenched teeth than it was actually excitement. 'I get to meet the man running the city.'Spears snorted. 'I could say the same for you. The people seem to believe you are the one in charge.'Dante's arm was in grave danger of being crushed. Flattery and subtle violence? One handshake and a sentence and he absolutely loved this guy.He managed to get his hand out of the vice grip and smiled. 'Well, this is New York. The people think what they
