Tommy pours them both glasses of wine. He gestures to the chair on one side of his desk and sits in the other. “Tension,” he says, “does not look good, in a family. Conflict does not look good.” He takes a sip of his wine. “It exposes us. It makes us vulnerable. You know Eli Leibovich?”

Joey shakes his head. No.

“You will, soon. He’s making a name for himself on the Lower East Side. Jewish. Smart as hell.”

Joey is used to the nature of a meeting with Tommy Fianzo. Tommy will get to his point eventually. His power affords him the right to express himself in whatever way he wants to. Even if he has just disappeared your best friend.

“I’m responsible for a lot of people, Colicchio. Not just you, and not just our flighty friend. A lot of men, and each of them has a family to take care of. So I look at someone like Carlo, and where you see a man who regrets his choices, who wants something different for himself and his family, I see a man who is endangering not just himself but me, and you, and everyone else in this Family. He was skimming off the top, did you know that?”

Joey did not know that. He knew Carlo was restless, ambivalent. Flighty. He didn’t know Carlo was reckless. Stupid. He pictures Carlo, sliding a dollar out of the billfold. A moth circling the flame of freedom. A body, trailing a spiral of blood in the East River current. His breath hitches up into the back of his throat. Betrayal of trust: the worst possible crime. Unforgivable. “I didn’t know, boss,” he says.

Tommy continues. “Well, he was.” Tommy pauses. A muscle twitches in the side of his neck. Tommy Fianzo is a good cook. He is a gentle father, when he wants to be. He is the most violent man Joey has ever known. To control himself in this moment must be costing Tommy a great deal. “He was stealing, from me. From us. And because it’s my job, I’m looking across the river at someone like Eli Leibovich and I’m thinking ahead about how to protect us. I’m thinking about how we can offer up a united front.”

Joey, unable to help himself, is caught up in the rise and swirl of Tommy’s words. Tommy Fianzo, with his chiseled-out chin and the low boom and swell of his voice, exudes confidence. Righteousness. Power. Joey knows all this. He knows how it works. The transition from knowing how it works to experiencing how it works makes him dizzy.

“I’ve always hoped you’d be my number two, Colicchio. You’re like a brother to me. You’re good at this. It’s why you understand that it’s a good thing Carlo Russo seems to have gone away. You understand how it solves a problem.”