JAKE ROSEN AND I were having a drink at Shea’s Tavern in Southie, on the corner of West Broadway. It looked like one of those places out of the fifties, or even before that, next door to Al’s Bottled Liquors. We sat at a small table against a wall opposite the bar, right next to the shamrock stenciled into the floor. We were at Shea’s because Jake said he had to meet a guy in Southie in about an hour.
“A guy?” I said.
“Who knows a guy,” he said.
“Oh,” I said. “That kind of guy.”
“We never close,” he said.
He was drinking Budweiser beer out of a bottle. I was nursing a Black Bushmills, having decided that ordering a pleasant chardonnay was pretty much out of the question at Shea’s.
He was wearing the same basic uniform he’d been wearing when he’d showed up at my house: bomber jacket, jeans, and boots. This time he didn’t have his badge hanging around his neck, perhaps not wanting to scare the customers. Still had the cool Bradley Cooper vibe going for him.
Still cute as hell.
Just because I was in a committed relationship didn’t mean I couldn’t look.
Or wonder what kind of kisser he might be.
“Could somebody besides Jabari be looking to make a move on Tony?” I said.
He drank some beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, grinned, and leaned forward, focusing all of his attention on me.
“Everybody is always looking to make a move on everybody,” he said. “It’s why none of these guys wants to leave anything to chance.”
“Like Lisa,” I said.
“Anything new with her?” he said.
“Talked to her on the phone,” I said.
“Where?”
“I was in bed.”
“I meant her,” he said.
“She said Boston.”
“This may sound off-point,” Rosen said, grinning. “But were you alone in bed when she called?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I said.
Feeling a little flirtatious myself, despite the subject being discussed.
“A lot I’d like to know about you,” he said.
I let it go.
“She sounded scared,” I said.
“Of Tony?”
“I honestly couldn’t tell,” I said. “It sounds like she knows something she wasn’t supposed to know.”
“She say what it was?” Rosen said.
I shook my head.
“Tell her to come in,” he said. “We can protect her. I can protect her.”
“I was sort of thinking that might be my job,” I said. “Bringing her in.”
“Maybe you don’t know what you’re up against,” he said.
“That’s what they’re saying,” I said, “all over town.”
He finished his beer and waved at the bartender for another. He looked at me. I put my hand over my glass. The bartender brought Jake his beer.
“So who’s looking to make a move on Tony, if it’s not Jabari?” I said to him.
“It could be somebody from what’s left of Jackie DeMarco’s outfit, even if I’ve been up in their shit lately,” he said. “Or Eddie Lee, the king of Chinatown. I hear old Eddie’s not too thrilled that Tony is getting into the massage-parlor business. Could even be some of the headbangers still working for your former father-in-law. I’ve had to take a crash course in the various factions. What I know is that a lot has changed. You know a lot of this. Joe Broz died. Somebody took out Gino Fish. Things aren’t the same as they were with the Burkes now that Felix is dead. Bottom line? Tony thinks he’s positioned himself to be the biggest guy in town. But that doesn’t mean he’s there yet, even with a lot of the competition falling back.”
“So Lisa could be a threat, depending on what she might know,” I said.
“Bet your ass,” he said.
He smiled. I smiled.
“Not yours to bet,” I said.
“Not yet,” he said again.
He winked. Not all guys could carry off a solid wink, no matter how cocky they were. He could. And we were both quite aware that I was egging him on. Or just flirting with him as much as he was with me.
“Do you ever turn it off?” I said.
“When I’m dead,” he said. “And maybe not even then.” He reached over and tapped my glass with his bottle. We both drank. He pointed at my glass when I put it back on the table.
“If I’m trying to ply you with liquor,” he said, “I seem to be doing a crap job.”
“But you’re showing a lot of heart,” I said.
“Tell me you don’t feel at least a little chemistry between us,” he said.
“Not happening,” I said. “No offense.”
He grinned again. “None taken,” he said.
He finished his beer in a long swallow.
“Listen,” he said. “You and I, we’re on the same side of this. I know Tony got you into this in the first place, and I think I know why you got into this. But we both know this goddamn city would be a better place with him off the streets, same as your old man knew before us.”
“I’m not my father,” I said.
“Yeah,” Jake said, almost sadly. “Me neither.”
“I just don’t want what happened to Callie to happen to Lisa,” I said.
Rosen looked at me and shrugged. “Cost of doing business,” he said, “when you know too much.”
“Tough guy,” I said.
“Can’t survive if I’m not,” he said. “Listen, I’ve got a chance to take Tony out of play here. And maybe Jabari at the same time. What I’d mainly like to do is head off a bunch more people getting killed and find out what Lisa Morneau knows. Knowledge is power.”
“I’ve heard that one,” I said.
“These guys think they have all the power,” he said, “until they run into me.”
“How do you think Jabari really fits into all this?” I said. “Last time I checked, he’s just running a fancified strip club.”
“It’s more than that,” he said. “He’s picked off a few of Tony’s girls, just to fuck with him. Opened a house a couple of blocks from where Tony’s got that one over by Symphony Hall. And Tony’s not the type to just let shit like that go.”
“My ex-husband says that sometimes it’s best to just get out of the way and let God sort things out,” I said.
Jake said, “You don’t think that way and neither do I. Or you wouldn’t have your job and I wouldn’t have mine.”
He leaned forward one last time, put the blue eyes on me one last time, grinning again. Maybe there was a little chemistry going on here, not that I was going to tell him that.
“Tell you a secret?” he said.
“Sure.”
“When it comes to my job, and the way I look at these assholes?” he said. “The one with the God complex is me.”