Page 95 of Bronx

“Boys.”

Our father surprises us both when he rounds the corner and greets us.

“Pop.”

He firmly shakes my hand and then leans in for a brief embrace.

“Glad to see you at dinner, Bronx.”

“Yeah, about that.” I glower at Seven. “I brought a guest with me.”

“A woman?”

“Yes.”

“Glad to hear it. Maybe Seven will bring someone over one day. I’m sure Gigi’s sick of being outnumbered in here.”

“When I find the right one, I will,” Seven says, which is an underhanded commentary about Karma not being right.

“Good luck with that,” I say facetiously.

“Let’s go meet your lady,” my father says as Seven shakes his head behind his back.

Dinner is nice.

The food is good and more importantly, it made my Mom real happy to see her kids all under one roof again. Gigi and Karma seemed to hit it off and while I gave her an occasional supportive smile during the night, in the words of Seven Masterson, things are not fine.

It only takes one conversation with that little jackass to shake my resolve and after dinner, I’m unusually quiet on the ride back to my place.

“What’s wrong, Bronx?” Karma asks, because I can’t get much past this woman.

“No work for you tomorrow, right?” I ask her.

“Not unless Brenda calls me in the morning with something.”

“Cool, I have a few leads on an apartment for you. We can take a look at them after breakfast.”

The silence between us is deafening.

Karma leans as far into the passenger door as she can and stares out the window. I pretend not to see the pained expression on her face in the glass's reflection when she simply tells me, “That sounds great.”

32

Bronx

Three days after family dinner and apartment hunting, I’m in a private dining room at one of my favorite steak houses in the area, having a T-Bone cooked medium rare and a lobster tail with Knox. My brother came through for me big time and got a lead on Lev by following the paper trail after he left foster care. The great thing about being a part of a state-wide system is that everyone has to write a report on you. You just have to know who to slip a few hundreds to in order to get access to them.

“Everything the girl told you about her brother is verified in these reports. The two of them definitely share a Mother. In her early days, she worked as a dancer. Real stunner too.”

A huge part of me is relieved.

I never once thought that Karma was playing me like Seven believes, but it’s still good to have confirmation of it in writing.

Knox shows me a picture of a stunning woman with sienna hued skin and hazel eyes. I can see a small resemblance between Karma and her mother. they have the same heart-shaped mouth and expressive eyes, but that’s about it for the similarities. Karma has the better body, gorgeous thick hair, and a smile that could melt an iceberg.

“But the drugs got a hold of her and never let go,” Knox continues by showing me a later picture of her Mother. “The girl’s dad was some small time neighborhood dealer but her brother’s Father was a bigger fish.”

He hands me another folder filled with stapled stacks of papers. “The Father was connected to the Romanian mob and went under several identities. One of them was Anton Volkov. I was able to find a picture of him that the state had in Lev’s foster care file. I’m not sure how accurate it would be today, but it’s a start.”