“Boss.” What was that? It was bugging him. “Boss.” Urgh, go away, I’m sleeping, he thought to himself, moving his arms closer together to better prop up his head. “Mr. Cavallone!”
“What?” he yelped, sitting up suddenly. He scrubbed at his face with his hands and wiped his mouth, then straightened his shirt and glared up at his subordinate. “What? What happened?”
The man shrunk away slightly. “It’s... it’s four AM, sir,” he muttered, bowing.
Dino blanched, and then hastened to say, “sorry for shouting, I was just half asleep and, and...” He trailed off, at a loss for words.
The man smiled. “Falling asleep over the paperwork again?”
“It always piles up this time of year,” the blond muttered, yawning and stretching. He picked up his pen again and glared at the papers as though they’d personally offended him.
“Maybe you should take a break,” the large man suggested, stepping away. He had his hands behind his back.
“Antonio, what are you hiding?”
“N-nothing,” Antonio replied, backing away, closer to the door.
“You stutter when you lie, amico,” Dino stated, standing. “What are you hiding from me?”
Guiltily, Antonio handed over a manila folder and hunched his shoulders up to his ears. “Our finances this month, sir.” He shuffled his feet and looked away. Raising an eyebrow suspiciously, Dino looked down at the folder and opened it. He read over the contents, a frown setting in between his eyebrows.
“We’re...” he murmured, glancing up sharply. Antonio looked at him, his face grave. “We’re in debt.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How can we be in debt?” Dino asked dubiously, collapsing back into his chair. He held his face in his hands for a moment. Antonio stood there with a sad look on his face. Dino ran his hands through his hair and looked up. “That question was not rhetorical, Antonio.”
Antonio snapped to attention and stuttered, but after a few false starts, managed to force out a response. “It was that territory war over in the east end of New York. The damages to the buildings and the weapons we had to borrow put us just under. We were pretty close to okay before that.”
“Pretty close to okay?” Dino murmured, half to himself. He shuffled through the papers, wrinkling his nose at the numbers. “We’re... two milion in debt.”
“I spoke to the rest of the famiglia,” Antonio said quietly. “We think some budget cuts are in order.”
“I can’t do that!” Dino cried, staring in disbelief at his subordinate. “It’s Christmas today!”
Antonio smiled gently. “Yes, it is. And we’ve finished our Christmas shopping and the next paycheque will be more than enough to pay the bills and feed our families.”
“I won’t do it,” Dino stated. He closed the folder and interlocked his fingers, placing his hands over it with a sense of finality.
“We need to pay the money back, boss,” his subordinate said quietly, “and I know you still haven’t finished all of your shopping.”
“I’m not going use your money for my own means!”
“So don’t. But use our money for the debt and pay us back later. It might take a couple of jobs to amass the funds, but for now, it’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal!” Dino squeaked.
“Have you seen my paycheque as of late?” Antonio asked. “Two hundred dollars is something I can make back in a day.”
Dino breathed harshly out his nose. “O...kay...” he muttered. Nodding, he said with a bit more force, “okay. Contact Reborn; see if there’s any way for him to help us out, or if he’s got any jobs to do that have cash rewards.”
“Yes, boss,” Antonio said.
“I’m not taking any of your money for Christmas shopping, though,” he warned, straightening up.
“Of course not, boss,” Antonio assured him. He bowed and left the room.
Dino scrubbed his face with his hands and ran his fingers through his hair. He checked his watch for the time – ten past four in the morning. With a heavy sigh, he opened a side drawer and took out a flyer for a jewellery store downtown. Circled multiple times in black pen was a picture of a 14 carat white gold chain, going for two hundred dollars. Dino, himself, was broke. His wallet had a couple of receipts and an IOU from Luna for five dollars when she’d dragged him Christmas shopping back in November and been just short for buying herself some candy. There really wasn’t much he could do with that money.
Maybe I could go to someone for a loan...He shook that thought from his head. No, he didn’t need more debt. He’d figure something out. He was sure of it.
Covering his face with his hands again, he started going through his options. Did anyone owe him? No. Did he have money hiding somewhere? No. Were there any jobs that he knew of that would – no. This continued for a few more minutes, and then Dino checked his watch again. Four-thirty in the morning. With a groan, he laid his head on his desk top. “Damn it, Chero,” he murmured, his voice sounding stressed. He stared at the picture of the chain. After a few seconds of staring blankly, he fell asleep again.
