Die Tryin' by Stavro Yianni Read Free Book Online Page A

gibbered.
    Nick Black huffed. ‘He probably wouldn’t have noticed her if you kept your mouth shut.’
    Charlie just looked away.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Marco asked, looking confused.
    ‘It’s Maria,’ Nick Black informed him. ‘Tony goes apeshit over her.’
    ‘Girlfriend?’
    ‘No,’ Nick XR2 replied. ‘Sister.’
    Marco squinted to get a good look at her. His eyes widened. ‘Bloody hell, she’s a proper sort!’ he exclaimed.
    Nick XR2 looked at him and nodded.
    ‘And that, my friend,’ Nick Black began. ‘is the fucking problem.’
    *****
    Nick Black quickly got to his feet. ‘We better stop him from doing anything stupid,’ he said before racing after Tony. ‘Hey! Tone! Wait!’ But Tony was in no mood to listen. He didn’t turn around, or even break stride.
    Nick Black managed to catch up with him and clap a hand on his shoulder. ‘Wait Tone!’ Tony simply threw his hand off and marched on like a cyborg that had overridden its circuitry. When he was like this, there was no stopping him. None.
    ‘Don’t do anything stupid, Tone,’ Nick XR2 said, sliding up by his side.
    ‘This prick’s all over her like flies on shit,’ Tony said, still facing forwards. ‘I’m gonna fuck him up!’
    ‘Don’t, Tone. There’s people everywhere,’ Nick XR2 warned. ‘Witnesses.’
    Tony finally glanced over at him for a split second telling Nick Black that the other Nick had somehow got through to him. And that was consistent with the fact that if anyone could get through Tony’s numb head it was Nick Theo.
    They reached the fairground, led by Tony, lights flashing all around them, Techno blaring at their eardrums. Maria looked up and noticed them coming towards her. She smiled. And as she did so, her silky black hair floating slightly in the breeze emitted by a nearby ride’s chugging engine; her dark eyes glittering like jewels, Nick Black thought to himself:
Jesus, she should be a model, no doubt about it. How she and this lump Tony were shot out of the same canon is beyond belief…
    ‘Hi guys,’ she said with a perfect smile.
    But, Tony was in no smiling mood.
    Instead, he roughly grabbed her by the arm. ‘Come here!’ he said, dragging her away from the bloke she was with.
    ‘Oi! Watcha doin?’ the bloke shouted, reaching out to grab Maria’s other arm.
    Tony turned on him, that Pit Bull snarl emerging on his face. ‘You fucking stay out of this!’ he sneered. ‘You’re lucky I don’t snap your spine in two, believe me!’
    The bloke—who looked to Nick Black like he could handle himself in a row—just stared hotly at Tony, probably wanting to kick off with him, but knowing at the back of his mind that he wouldn’t walk away unhurt even if he did somehow manage to floor him.
    ‘It’s all right, Mario. He’s my brother,’ Maria told him without much enthusiasm.
    ‘Your brother?’
Mario echoed, looking Tony up and down, and for a second Nick Black had no doubts Mario was thinking the exact same thing as him a few moments before.
    ‘Yeah, her brother, so do one,’ Tony ordered. ‘This is family business.’
    Nick Black stepped towards Mario, putting a friendly arm around his shoulder. ‘It’s all right, mate,’ he told him, speaking quiet in his ear. ‘He gets like this. Leave ’em to it, it’ll be all right.’
    Mario stared back at him hard. He was pissed, but he was also outnumbered. ‘He better not hurt her,’ he told Nick Black, pointing at him.
    ‘It’s his sister, man! Course he won’t hurt her.’
    Mario then seemed to chill a degree or two, and held his palms up. ‘Okay. Okay,’ he said and backed off a little.
    Nick Black puffed his cheeks, and then turned to face Charlie who was watching proceedings with a typical wide-eyed, freaked out look on his face. Nick Black guessed he was feeling a little guilty, thinking he had kicked all this off by spotting Maria in the first place. ‘Charlie,’ Nick Black called out to him. Charlie’s head spun round.