Authored by Koslov

Dinner had been perfect, Danielle had fixed all of Raphael’s favorites. He knew that it had taken most of her energy for that. Javier’s wife – his aunt – had been sick for as long as Raphael had known her. It meant a lot to him that she had made this effort.

As tired as he knew she must be, his aunt was radiant, happy, nearly bubbly. “Next week is a big week for you.” She said touching his hand and smiling warmly. She looked to Javier, then back over to Raphael. “I’m very excited: Raphael; no: Orion, the superhero.”

Raphael nodded and tried to match her smile. He had mixed feelings about his ‘new job’. “It will be a change.” He said.

“Non-sense.” She chided him, “Enough of your negative attitude. This is the kind of thing where you make a break with your old life and start building something new.”

She dotted a napkin at the corners of her mouth, “Pardon me.” She said, rolling her chair out of the room. When she returned, she had a box. “This is for you. Go, try it on. I want to see how handsome you look.”

Raphael opened the box, then looked back at his aunt. “Really, this?”

“Yes. I had a designer in LA work on it for me.” She beamed, “You can’t wear those tailored suits when you fight crime.”

Raphael looked down at his expensive dark blue suit and nodded, he felt the cloth in the box. “Is this ballistic cloth?”

Javier nodded, “She asked me for some suggestions, that was the best I could come up with.”

Raphael nodded. “I’ll be back.” He said sheepishly.

He smoothed out of the wrinkles in the arms and took a good look at himself in the mirror. Jesus, those pants are tight. Maybe I can just scare the criminals away. He turned and looked at his ass. Yep, you’re going to have to work out like 4 hours a day to wear this thing.

“Come out!” She called to him, the excitement in her voice masking the weakness of it.

“OK.” Raphael said, pulling the half-mask over his head. “Here comes Orion!”

Javier smirked, as Raphael knew he would; but Danielle clapped her hands together. “Oh! You look so handsome, dashing. Ready to rescue all the girls!”

“You might want to let those pants out a little.” Javier said, laughing. “No sense in giving away your religion.” He did a very obvious ‘check out’ before Danielle chided him.

“Javy, cut him some slack. We can alter that, a little.” She smiled, “I’m so proud of you.”

The moment was both sweet and a little awkward for Raphael. Danielle and Javier were like his parents. They had no children of their own, Danielle had nearly died during delivery and the child had been stillborn. He felt their approval, and while it was not the same as his own parents. It was enough.

He bent down and hugged her warmly. “Thank you. It’s a wonderful gift. I will think of you when I wear it.”

She pulled his face close to hers and he felt the wetness of her tears, even as her he felt her face pull into a smile. “You’ll do fine.” She said, hugging him back. “You are so handsome!”

The conversation carried on for another hour or so until both Javier and Raphael realized that Danielle had fallen asleep. “Wait for me on the deck, I’ll be back in a few.” Javier said.

Raphael watched Javier pick up Danielle. He was go gentle with her. This was not the Javier that people knew. This was not the man who had three, specially made rings he wore when he wanted to beat a message into someone. This was a different man: loving and tender, a family man. Raphael felt his face begin to smile as his uncle cradled the sick woman in his arms, then carried her into their bedroom.

In moments like this, he found himself comparing Angelo and Javier. They were twins and, in many ways, exactly the same; just differently focused. Angelo was ruthless in business, while Javier was just ruthless. Angelo would cut throats in a business sense, Javier just cut them. Both were fiercely loyal to their family (and especially each other). The only real difference in Raphael’s mind was that Angelo had a wife at home and a handful of mistresses stashed all over town. Javier had Danielle. It was a fidelity that Raphael understood but couldn’t really relate to. It made Javier big in Raphael’s eyes; and it made Angelo very small.

Raphael found himself lost in thoughts of Danielle and Javier, lost in the sounds of the surf hitting the shore, so he was slightly startled by Javier opening the sliding door. “She sleeping?” He asked.

He heard Javier light a match and smelled the mix of sulfur with tobacco. “Yeah.” The older man said, voice muffled by the cigar in his mouth. “Want one?”

Raphael took the cigar and strike-anywhere match from his uncle. He nodded thanks and he smelled the wonderful aroma of aged Cuban cancer stick.

“We need to talk.” Javier said.

“OK.”

“You have make a clean break, from everything when you start with the Conquistadors.” Javier began. “No more taking business calls from me, or Angelo. No more ‘cleaning’ work for you; and certainly no more ‘enforcing’ work for you. You are going to make a name for yourself outside the family. When you leave here tonight, you leave you’re your phone; both your phones.

“These people will have to learn to live without you. Angelo will have to find someone else to move his mistresses or breakup with them.” His uncle said, he put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, “I’m going to have to learn to live without you.”

Raphael had been having misgivings and second thoughts about this for a week now. The idea that he would be a white-hat; the idea that he would be in the open; the idea that he would be on a team ... all those thoughts worried him. He liked being the bad guy, liked operating in the shadows, liked working alone. And, he was good at all those things. He wondered if Orion could be as effective.

The pros to this job were mostly no longer cleaning up the messes of people who despised him. Many of the tasks were demeaning to him. If he ever had to dump one of Angelo’s mistresses again, it would be too soon.

“Do you want me to stay for a few more weeks, until you get things down?” Raphael asked. “I think that Julio will be ready soon and Isaac Stabb is ready now.” Julio was Raphael’s assistant and a member of the family; Stabb was a lawyer who helped handle things from time to time. They were both being brought along to take over for Raphael.

“Raphael. Son. You’re going to do this.” Javier said, “And you start tomorrow, or as soon as we let those pants out.”