A Matter of Betrayal Ch. 04 by AngeloMichael

CHAPTER 4: IL CANTO DI MALAVITA
(Songs of the bad life)

Tuesday started much the same as Monday, after Colin and Aileen made themselves tear their bodies away from each other they both headed out of the apartment to their separate destinations. It wasn’t overcast today; the sky was bright blue with white fluffy clouds lazily drifting across. It was still bitterly cold though, in fact it was even colder than yesterday. All the partially melted snow and slush had frozen solid overnight and Colin had to watch where he stepped or he would end up with a broken neck.

When the Rosini brothers caught up with Colin as he crossed the street they lived on, that was when the day really began to diverge from the previous one. “Yo Asskicker!” Moe said as he and his brother caught up to Colin.

“Asskicker?” Colin queried.

“Yeah man, it’s all over the school how you and a bunch of no names kicked the shit out of the all mighty Seth and his regiment of rejects at basketball yesterday!” Moe said with glee then said “Damn! Look at your face, it’s fucked up!”

“It’s just a bruise it will be gone in a week,” Colin said.

“Yeah we heard about what Seth got in return, his ass is literally sore from the butt whipping you gave him yesterday.” Moe started laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world, Matt just stood there looking uncomfortable.

“How could it be all over school?” Colin asked. “It happened only yesterday andafter school let out.”

“Ah, well, there’s this thing calledthe internet that allows information to be exchanged between large groups of people almost instantaneously. Maybe you’ve heard of it?” Moe said.

“Oh,” said Colin.

“‘Oh’ he says. That’s it? No tales of victory? No recount of how the beleaguered forces of Gondor managed to turn back the evil might of Mordor?” Moe said.

“I swear if you reference that movie one more time in any way, I’m gonna tape your mouth shut myself!” Matt said. Moe gave his brother a dirty look.

“It was just a scrimmage match, it didn’t mean anything,” Colin said.

“Didn’t mean anything?!!” Moe said in a huff. “Sethnever loses at anything. Well, almost anything, I have seen him lose once or twice when he’s playing a game one on one with you. But when he’s got his team behind him, they’re unbeatable.”

“They lost three games last month,” Colin retorted.

“Did they?” Moe asked.

“Of course they did, it’s in the standings,” Colin said.

Moe’s voice became very hushed and he got close enough to Colin that he could smell the pancakes and syrup he must have had for breakfast on his breath. “If Seth didn’t really want to win those games do they really count as losses?”

“Moe…” Matt said.

“Why wouldn’t he want to…” Colin began saying and then Moe’s implication hit him like a slab of cement to the head. “You’re not saying Seth and his pals took dives in those games?”

“Let me ask you this: Seth has had that cherry red Mustang for what? Almost a year? Now a teenager driving a car bright enough to make fire look dim compared to it would attract a lot of attention, don’t you think?” Moe asked

Colin nodded while Matt said, “Massimo statte cito!” in a low voice. Colin picked up enough Italian hanging around the Rosinis and other Italians in the neighborhood to know that “statte cito” meant “shut up”.

Moe went on anyway. “You know how the cops are always busting teens for reckless driving or drunk driving or whatever? We do that shit, that’s who we are and that’s why insurance is so fuckin’ high for us when we do get a car of our own. But has Sethever gotten a ticket foranything, even a warning?”

Colin thought about it for a moment and he realized Moe was right, as far as he knew Seth had never had any traffic violations that he could think of; he hadn’t had any violations of any kind regarding the law now that he thought about. “No, he never has,” he said.

“Seth must be a very responsible driver then,” Moe said sardonically.

Colin knew that Seth was hell on wheels in that car, but he was still confused. “What does all this have to do with fixing games?”

“Do you know what the odds were on those games Liberty lost last month?” Moe asked. Colin shook his head in the negative; he really hadn’t been paying attention to it back then. “Liberty was favored to win by more than ten points for each game.”

“Statte cito, Massimo! Statte cito!” Matt hissed through his teeth.

“Vaffancullo!” Moe said which meant “fuck you!”

“Ah vaffancullo!” Matt said as he brushed by them in a huff and walked ahead of them.

“Moe just because our team lost to a few teams we were heavily favored to beat doesn’t mean the games were fixed,” Colin said. “The team could have been overconfident and not played to the best of their abilities; if there is one thing Seth has it’s over confidence.”

“Colin, I know those games were fixed. Okay?” Moe said sharply.

“How?”

Moe let out a long breath then said, “Let’s just say the basketball games aren’t the only things Seth has been fixing.” Moe glanced meaningfully at his older brother walking ahead of them.

Matteo, the school’s star wrestler. Colin hadn’t been paying much attention to the wrestling matches just like he hadn’t been paying attention to the basketball games but he thought he recalled hearing Matt had lost a few matches here and there which was odd because it was rare for anyone to beat Matt.

“Oh Matty,” Colin said under his breath. He considered Matt an upright person; it just proved how strong Seth’s influence was if even he could be corrupted.

“Our family is having some tough times right now, we’ve been really short on money,” Moe said. “Our dad was laid off last year and he hasn’t been able to find a job that pays even close to what he had been making.”

“I still can’t believe Matt would do that.” Colin said.

“It was your fucking cousin that put him up to it and convinced him to do it!” Moe said hostilely.

“Moe, my head is spinning here, first you are talking about games being fixed and then you are mentioning how Seth never gets ticketed. What’s the connection? You’ve got to explain to me what this all means!” Colin said as he noted in the back of his mind that never in his entire life would he have thought he would be asking Moe Rosini to explain something to him.

“Colin, you’re smarter than me when it comes to tests and getting good grades and all, but it always amazes me how dumb you can be about how the neighborhood you live in works,” Moe said. “Your cousin has an in with at least one of the Bosses.”

“Bosses?”

“Oh Cee, man do I have to say it? Organized crime!”

“You mean the mafia?” Colin asked.

Moe raised his eyebrows, “Look I’m only gonna say this once because you’re my friend but if I ever hear you making assumptions about me or my family we’re through, got it?”

“Got it.” Colin said nodding his head.

“Just because my family is Italian people assume we either know somebody in the mafia or are in the mafia ourselves. It’s one of those fucking stereotypes we all got to live with. You don’t know how many fucking Sopranos cracks I have to put up with every day! The only reason I know what I know is not because I’m Italian, it’s because I live in this neighborhood and can see what’s happening with my own two eyes. It don’t take Italian blood to see it, anyone can if they look hard enough, your cousin sees it very clearly.”

“So Seth is with the mafia?!!” Colin asked.

“Not so much the mafia as organized crime, there is a difference. The mafia isn’t just Italians anymore, now you got the Russian mafia, the Black mafia, the Japanese mafia. They are constantly bumping heads with each other now and when they bump heads people notice, people like the Feds. Around our neighborhood? Yeah we got some mafia ties, but who really runs the show are the Bosses. They stay underground and try to draw as little attention to themselves as they can. They figure let the ones with the high profiles fight with the Feds and each other over who’s got the right to rule where. They don’t give a damn which mafia is the current power in the area, whoever it is, they just pay them enough money to keep them off their backs so they can rule their small territories in peace.

“Keeping a low profile is the main objective for the Bosses outside of making money and staying informed about what’s going on in their territories. The Bosses even work together sometimes if there’s enough profit or incentive in it. It’s an underground crime network. Sometimes conflicts arise between two or more Bosses, but then they just send out their foot soldiers to settle the matter, in other words the gangs, while the Bosses stay hidden in the shadows. Most of the people in the gangs don’t even realize they are working for a Boss, they just think they are part of a local crew and the leadership stops with the guy who’s giving them orders.”

“It sounds to me like there isn’t much of a difference between organized crime and the mafia, the Bosses just sound like they control smaller areas,” Colin said.

“Okay, so maybe they are both forms of mafia,” Moe said grudgingly, “but they are two different forms, there’s high profile and there’s low profile. Some people love to advertise that they are made men, but that’s fuckin’ idiotic. There’s no more immunity for made men anymore, the ones that bring the most attention to themselves also bring either a Fed to their doorstep or a bullet to their brain. That’s what being high profile costs you. The Bosses are definitely low profile.”

Colin was trying to grasp in his mind the entire meaning of what Moe was trying to explain to him when they arrived at school. “We’ll pick this up later,” Moe said.

Ricky Woods was standing outside the building talking to Matt who had gotten there a couple minutes before Colin and Moe. Colin looked over at Matt, he still found it beyond belief that he would do such a thing, but Colin supposed if their family was really hurting for money throwing a few matches wouldn’t seem like such a big deal, especially if Seth was the one who talked him into it.

“Hey Colin!” Ricky shouted, “Nice look you got there, you might wanna think about wearing a bag over your head the rest of the week!” He started laughing.