"What's going on?" I muttered.

"Beats me," Nicky said. He was grinning. His eyes were lit up like I never saw them before. That made me more nervous than the two guns pointed at us.

"Open the trunk," the guy repeated.

I looked at Nicky. He shrugged. I opened the trunk. If they tried to put one of us in there, I was going to have to do something. But the guy just looked into it, then reached in and felt around.

Now there was only one gun on us. Unfortunately it was on Nicky, and the sonofabitch was paying close attention.

"Where's the money?" the first guy demanded.

I said, "I think you got the wrong guys, buddy. Who're you looking for?"

"Don't try to fuck us. You're Galante's guys, I seen you before."

Nicky burst out laughing. For real, too, not hysterics or anything. He thought this was hilarious for some reason.

"What's so fucking funny? How about I cap your friend here, you see how funny that is?" He jammed his gun into my ribs hard. That was gonna leave a mark. He slapped at the back of my waist a couple times, and then reached around to pat down my chest. Finding no gun, he moved his to the back of my head. "How about I blow your brains all over your pretty car?"

"Easy," I said. "Yeah, we're Big Nicky's boys. But we're not the guys you're looking for. We're some different guys."

"Just give us the money, smart guy."

"Here's my guess," I said, as calm as I could manage. "You're here to make a sale. Couple of Big Nicky's guys were supposed to bring the money, you're supposed to have the goods, only you decided you were going to screw Big Nicky instead. Ow," I added as he reminded me with his gun butt upside my head that I was taking too long to get to the point.

"You telling me you don't have the money?"

"Look at the car."

"You telling me -"

"Look at the car," I said patiently.

Nicky snorted another laugh as he realized where I was going with this. I didn't appreciate his sense of humor, considering it might still get us shot.

"I'm looking at it," the other guy said.

"You think a fucking delivery boy drives a car like that?" I demanded.

There was a moment of quiet while they considered the facts.

"Before you do something stupid," I said, "you think this over. There's a way you can live through this mistake. You can walk away now, and maybe we can try to name you later, but we never seen you before and the lights in this parking lot are half burned out. If your boss was willing to screw Big Nicky Galante, he's not about to hand you over for this. Or," I went on, raising my voice to stop an interruption, "you can take a shot at Little Nicky Galante, and find out what his dad does about it. But I tell you what, the things he's gonna do, whoever put you up to this is gonna gut you himself."

My guy stepped back. He looked at my face like he was trying to see if I was bluffing. He was starting to think about what I said. "Big Nicky's soft," he said. "He went fat and soft. And his pet hitter's dead."

Nicky laughed again, this time low and bitter. "I'm the reason he's soft, you five-dollar cunt. You wanna see what happens if you take me out of the picture? You wanna try and hit Sal Marino's son while you're at it?"

Both guys looked at me like that meant something. I didn't know why they would, but I gave them the eyebrow anyway. And then these two liabilities just turned around and started walking away. Not another word.

"Where do you keep it?" Nicky murmured, coming up next to me. He slid his hand up my back under my jacket. By the time I was done having a stupid horny coronary over that, he had my piece out and aimed. Two-handed, left hand cupping the right, just like a goddamn gun safety class.

He shot them in the back, one right after the other. One banana, two banana. One-shot kills, both of them. Got the second one before the guy could even turn to see what happened to his buddy.

"Jesus Christ, Nicky," I breathed.

He put my gun into my hand. He was still grinning, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You're the one who did it, all right? They were gonna ambush our guys, it was a good job of work."

"Shit, we gotta call your dad."

"I'll call him. You just drive the car."

We got out of there. I drove at random while he talked on the phone. I tried to listen to his half of the conversation and guess the other half, but I kept flashing back to him clipping those guys like it was nothing. And his hand sliding up my back. That more than the other thing, to tell the truth.

"You okay?" he asked when he was done on the phone.

I barked a laugh. "Am I okay? Christ. How come you act like some loser kid pissing away your daddy's money? How come I didn't know you're a made guy too? Should I not be talking about this?"

"I'm not a made guy," he sighed. "Why do you think I told Dad you did it?"

"Those were not the first guys you burned."

"No." He leaned the seat back and closed his eyes, just like he did the first night I drove him home.

"Don't go to sleep, man, you gotta tell me something. You been confusing the shit out of me all day and my fucking head hurts."

"I'm not sleeping. Just keep driving. I'm thinking it through myself. Lemme think."

"Jesus, Nicky. Okay. Jesus."

"Joey. Shut up and drive."

I shut up and drove.

I knew all the scenic byways in a fifty mile radius by now, since he liked to drive his friends around places like that. I took us out to a lake I thought was kind of pretty, that had a road all the way around it. I figured I could just do that loop over and over until we ran out of gas if need be. I had too much on my mind to get creative with the route. Besides, it was always real deserted around there, so if somebody was tailing us I'd know. I was starting to feel pretty paranoid by that time.

As it happened, we only went around once and a half before Nicky sat up again. "Pull into that beach thing. There's a parking lot for the beach."

I spotted the drive he was talking about and pulled into it. The lot was empty. It was after park hours, and getting a little cold for teenagers to go looking for outdoor makeout spots. I put the car at the far end from the pole lamp and turned off the engine. Nicky got out, so I followed him. It went through my mind that he was looking to cross me off, but the thought didn't stick. Not because it wasn't logical for him to do that - though it really wasn't - but because it just wasn't like him.

Not that I should've known what was like him or not, not with the surprises he'd been throwing me, but I just... knew it wasn't.

He went into a patch of woods, following a path he must've known was there already because it was just about invisible until we were on it. It came out on a little piece of grass at the water's edge. Not mowed grass, but long and bowed over and going dry with autumn. Unofficial grass. He sank down on it, stretching his long legs out in front of him and leaning back on his hands. How did I not notice the way he moved before? Had he always moved like a fucking leopard?

I flopped down next to him and hung my arms over my knees. I wanted to start grilling him but I didn't even know what questions to ask.

He said, "I went to breakfast with Jimmy DeLuca this morning. You know who that is?"

"Uh... rings a bell. Think my dad talked about him."

"Yeah, they were close, way back. Him and your dad and my dad. I wanted to ask him something." Nicky stared at the lake long enough that I almost prompted him, but then he went on. "I asked him why my dad keeps reminding me you're Sal Marino's son. He told me your dad was a steady hitter right up until he got sick. Did you know that?"

I shook my head. After a minute I realized he couldn't hear my head rattle, and said it out loud: "No. He didn't talk about specifics. I mean... you don't. Guess I'm not surprised, though. He taught me all I know."

"Yeah." Nicky sighed. "When Jimmy told me that, I understood why Dad thought you'd be sleeping with me."

Again that Twilight Zone feeling came over me, and my whole head heated up. "What? How's that supposed to make sense?"

Nicky suddenly sat up and threw a handful of grass at the lake, calm finally broken. "Fuck, Joey, I don't know where to start any more than you do! Will you shut up a second and let me talk?"

"Jesus. Okay. Talk."

He took a deep breath and let it out slow. "Okay. Here's the thing. Okay. So." Another deep breath. "Did you know I'm gay?"

I shocked the shit out of both of us by laughing.

"What the fuck is your problem?" he demanded.

"You tell me to shut up," I laughed helplessly. "Then you ask me a question, how'm I sposedta answer?" It was just nerves, but I couldn't stop, and after a second he started laughing too.

He shoved my shoulder. I shoved him right back. He shoved me again, and I flopped over on the grass, wheezing and wiping my eyes.

"Asshole," he grinned.

"Jerkass," I returned. "Heh. Okay. No. I didn't know. Uh... I'm not gonna be weird about it. If you were wondering."

He snorted and punched my arm good and hard.

"Ow!"

"You're rolling around laughing. You're not gonna be weird about it?"

"I'm done laughing."

"God you're a tool. No more fucking laughing, this is - shut up! This isn't even a little bit funny, what's wrong with you?"

"Had a long day," I snickered.

He put a hand on the other side of me, looming over me. I saw the moon through his hair, and it lit up the underside of his chin. I must've completely used up my brainpower for the day, because it actually surprised me when he kissed me. It did shut me up pretty good, though.