The hours had elapsed, and soon, it was evening. Toni was lying on the couch in the living room. He sat up and looked at the clock. It was 4:58 PM. He had been resting for a while and felt the energy to get up. Before he decided what to do next, he heard his cellphone on the coffee table ring. Toni reached over for the cellphone to answer it. He held his close to his ear.
"Hey, it's me, Vincenzo," he heard Vincenzo say over the phone, much to Toni's surprise.
"What the hell do you want?" Toni asked contemptuously. "Someone to pick up your laundry? Or wipe your ass?"
"Don't be like that," Vincenzo replied. "Listen, I feel bad about everything... Come on. Drop by my place, I've got something for you."
"Yeah?" Toni asked. "What's that? A pair of concrete boots? A nice slice of arsenic pie? Forget about it"
"No," Vincenzo answered. "Come on, Toni, I feel bad about what went down. Salvatore heard about it, and told me we both need to grow up. This is me growing up. I'm sorry. Come on."
Toni didn't answer back. He just hung up the cellphone, stored it inside his pocket, and got off the couch, putting on his shoes and heading out the door. Outside, the sky was now an orange, cloudy evening. The breeze was gradually picking up. Toni went into his garage to find his Armored Bullet parked inside. He walked up to the vehicle, hipped inside, started the engine, and slowly backed out. He put the vehicle on drive and took the path heading to the road, where he made a right turn on the road leading to Saint Marks. The streetlights and headlights on the steadily moving cars shone brightly through the evening vehicles' horns were honking loudly. There were even Halloween decorations around several buildings. A plethora of pedestrians were scattered through the city as well, some of whom were dressed in eclectic costumes carrying bags with them.
Toni drove all the way down to Trenton to find Vincenzo's warehouse at the Atlantic Quays up ahead. He finally made it to Vincenzo's warehouse and parked up front. He could feel his heartbeat inside his chest. He had the premonition that Vincenzo would find a different way to set him up and was rather skeptical of his so-called truce. Toni wasn't worried though. Because he knew to prepare just in case. So after taking a deep breath, he hopped out of the vehicle and walked over to the warehouse.
As he stepped inside, he heard the sounds of cars driving and an explosion. "Ah come on!" he heard Vincenzo shout. "How could I have been caught in that explosion?! I wasn't anywhere near that car!"
Toni walked in the office to see Vincenzo sitting on the couch playing a video game. On the television, it appeared to have a character from a bird's-eye view walking out of a hospital in a city. "I didn't know you still played video games, Vinnie," Toni said, walking behind Vincenzo.
Vincenzo turned around to see Toni standing behind him. "Toni," Vincenzo replied as he put the game on pause and hopped out of his seat. "Just the man I was expecting." He walked up to Toni to face him up close.
"So, uh, what is that?" Toni asked, pointing to the television screen, the pause menu of the video game showing.
"That?" Vincenzo asked. "Oh, that's a video game. You can't be THAT dumb, can you?"
"I know it's a video game, asshole!" Toni snapped. "I meant what game is it?"
Vincenzo then turned around and grabbed a video game case off the couch. "Read for yourself," Vincenzo said, handling Toni the case.
Toni stared at it. On the front, it had a tall building in the morning city with a driving blue-and-white police car in front on the road, the words titled Grand Theft Auto in bold, orange-and-red letters on the front, complete with flames and six white stars designed around it. "This is the game you're playing?"
"Hey, it's rated 'M' for mature," Vincenzo told him. "It just came out last year, made by Rockstar."
"Oh yeah?" Toni asked. "And what do you do in it?"
"It's a game where you just drive around, shoot people, do missions to beat the game, and many other tasks," Vincenzo explained whimsically.
"So you just ride around town killing people?" Toni asked.
"Yeah," Vincenzo replied. "You got a bunch of different weapons to choose from, and when you kill people in missions, you even make money off of it."
Toni just stared at the case in confusion. "Man, whoever this Rockstar company that made this game is must have been trigger happy themselves," he finally said. "People actually pay to play this?"
"Hey, would you rather play something like My Pretty Unicorn?" Vincenzo asked smugly. He then took the case out of Toni's hand and tossed it back on the couch. "Okay, let's stop changing the subject and stay on topic here. Listen, Toni, about what happened to you with the cops the other day... "
"Yeah, I'm still pissed off at you about it!" Toni interrupted sternly.
"Come on, Toni," Vincenzo told him. "You really think I would set you up? After I had already gave you an apartment to stay into?"
"Make me believe you!" Toni demanded.
"Just think about this, Toni," Vincenzo told him. "You think I, a Capo of the Leones, would get the police involved in that shit? A snitch has no place in the mob, y'know."
"Well how do I know you didn't just plan this in private, huh?" Toni asked sternly. "How do I know you wouldn't have known the police would be right at the spot waiting on my ass? Huh?!"
"Toni, if I really wanted to set you up, would I actually risk my own ride just to get you out of the way?" Vincenzo asked.
That finally got Toni. He knew how much Vincenzo valued that car, meaning destroying it would have rendered it pointless to take revenge on Vincenzo if he really wanted to set Toni up. That's when Toni finally believed Vincenzo.
"Damn!" he muttered. "I got no answer to that. Okay, I admit it. You got me there, Vinnie."
"See? I told ya," Vincenzo replied. "Ya see how easy it is to just simply think harder about things like that?"
Vincenzo then motioned Toni across the room. "Now listen, Toni," Vincenzo told him, "this might sound hard to believe, but I been thinking. We both got off on the wrong foot here, and I suggest that we put all this behind us and let bygones be bygones. We're in the same family, and it don't make sense for us to be at each other's throats over this Mafia ranking bullshit. We should be showing that attitude to our rivals instead. So for now on, we'll be like partners, okay? Better than partners... brothers! So, come on. What do you say? It's what Salvatore wants."
He held up his hand to thought for a few seconds, as despite how much sense Vincenzo was making, he was still skeptical and wanted to make sure that Vincenzo wouldn't try to stab him in the back again. So after 15 seconds of thinking, Toni finally returned the gesture to Vincenzo. "Alright then," Toni told Vincenzo. "But don't try any funny stuff with me, or else you'll know what I'll do."
"That's great," Vincenzo said. "Which reminds me, you still owe me a new car!"
"Excuse me?" Toni asked, making a confused face.
"You still gotta replace that old ride of mines you destroyed!" Vincenzo replied. "Sal's son Joey owns a mechanic shop over at the block, right?"
"Yeah," Toni replied with a nod.
"Well let's go," Vincenzo demanded, guiding Toni to the door. "Time to pick up my new ride!"
Toni didn't say another word. He and Vincenzo walked out of the building and returned to Toni's vehicle. They hopped inside, and Toni started the engine and drove off. "So I heard you whacked this JD fella, huh?" Vincenzo said. "That guy was a tool, wasn't he?"
"Let's just say if he betrayed one boss, who's to say he'll never do the same to another?" Toni replied.
Vincenzo just laughed. "Too bad he didn't live long enough to know that Made Men always have to be Italian, never Irish, eh," he stated.
After a while, Toni saw Joey's mechanic shop up ahead and parked up front. He and Vincenzo hopped out and walked over to the building. As they entered, they saw Joey working under his Bobcat.
"Joey, che succede?" Toni greeted.
"Toni, pleasure seeing you again," Joey replied, still under the vehicle. "This ride was leaking oil. So I had to tighten the screw under here and now I gotta refill this tank with more oil."
"Yeah, well I need a fast car," Toni said. "A Banshee to be exact."
"What, the Armored Bullet ain't fast enough for ya?" Joey asked.
"See, it ain't for me," Toni said. "It's for my partner here."
"Your partner?" Joey asked, finally sliding out from under the vehicle.
He looked up to see Vincenzo standing right next to Toni. "Oh, it's you, Vinnie," Joey said, his tone of voice sounding more contemptuous. "You need a new ride?"
"Fast ride," Vincenzo replied. "One that can go really fast. You got that?"
"I do," Joey told him, pulling himself onto his feet. "But it's gonna cost ya."
"I got that covered," Vincenzo replied, pulling out a large stack of money out of his pocket and handed it to Joey. "Keep the change, and give me whatever's useful."
"Follow me," Joey said, guiding Vincenzo to his set of vehicles. "I built all of these myself. Made 'em all from scratch. make your choice."
Vincenzo took a few more seconds to think as he stared at every last one of them. They were a variety of convertibles, go-karts, trucks, and so one. After 30 seconds, Vincenzo finally pointing at the black vehicle with white stars designed on the sides.
"I'll take this one," he decided.
"The Zip?" Joey asked. "Well it's all yours then, Vinnie. Go ahead and take it for a spin."
After a few minutes, Joey handed Vincenzo the keys, and soon, the latter had rode out of the shop and onto the road. But not before staring ahead at Toni's Armored Bullet and Toni himself.
"Alright, Toni," Vincenzo told him. "Now that I got my new ride, let's race."
"Race?" Toni asked.
"Yeah," Vincenzo responded. "You badass enough to take out those Sindacco scums, right? Well let's see how badass you are on the road. If you want my respect, you'll have to show me how badass of a driver you are. You and me, around the road three times."
Toni didn't argue back. He just hopped into his own vehicle, and he and Vincenzo got ready to race each other through Trenton. There were very few cars on the road, so this would give both of them a good opportunity in the race. After a while, the race began, and Vincenzo had gotten a head start, speeding inches away from Toni. Toni decided not to get cocky and kept his foot on the gas pedal as he attempted to catch up.
Vincenzo had beat Toni to the first lap, and Toni remained determined to catch up. He kept his foot on the gas pedal and sped aster, slowly closing in on Vincenzo as the two made a sharp turn on the curved road. As they continued racing through Trenton, taking multiple turns on the road, they were now neck-to-neck as they finished the second lap simultaneously. Down to the final lap, they both were speeding as fast as they could, staring at each other at one point to let each other know they were determined to prevail. In a few more of the same sharp turns they made around the city of Trenton, they got closer to the point where they started racing, and Toni had zipped past Vincenzo at the very last second, winning the race.
As they finished, they each came to a complete stop and hopped out of each of their vehicles as they faced each other. To Toni's surprise, Vincenzo didn't get mad about losing the race. In fact, he was more graceful than ever.
"Well done, Toni," Vincenzo congratulated. "You race pretty good."
"I'm a mobster," Toni replied. "Honestly, though, I never expected you of all people to take a loss very well."
"It's all about respect, Toni," Vincenzo told him. "I never mind losing to someone so determined to prove his courage. Consider this a challenge. I hope you and I could grow to appreciate each other."
"Only time will tell, Vinnie," Toni said.
"Precisely," Vincenzo responded as he headed to his new vehicle and hopped inside. "Drop by at my place and see me sometime. I could feel this bond gradually evolving."
Toni watched as Vincenzo sped away. It seemed that Vincenzo was finally turning a new leaf. But he still wasn't sure that Vincenzo was being genuine. This was why Toni wanted to spend more time with Vincenzo, in order to be sure he was really serious. So Toni decided to hop into his own vehicle and start the engine. He made his way back to Vincenzo's warehouse.