Tony Di Luca’s Brooklyn apartment was a far cry from the luxury of Alceo Dentari’s mansion, but right now that didn’t matter. Because if he and his partner Vincent Rinaldi couldn’t defeat the Moral majority this week on Retaliation he wouldn’t be needing it much longer.

“Vinny? Hey, Vinny, you lis’nin’?!”

‘Unh huh whu?’ blurted the big, balding behemoth as he jolted awake.

“Damnit, Vinny, we ain’t got time to sleep.” His smaller counterpart, Tony Di Luca, said as he slapped Vinny’s legs off of the chair he was resting them on, “We got til Sunday to plan for the Moral Majority or all we’ll be doin’ is sleepin’, capiche?”

Rinaldi groaned and lifted his leg back onto the chair, it didn’t stay there long though as Di Luca brushed it off again. Tony slid the chair away from Rinaldi and parked himself in it, leaning forward he fixed his eyes onto his partner’s and pointed a finger at his chest.

“I ain’t gonna let you screw this up like in that triple threat, you hear?” Di Luca said angrily, “You think you’ll be able to handle Virginia Quell this week?”

Rinaldi shifted in his seat, and returned the stare to his partner. Handling Virginia Quell wasn’t exactly his problem last time out, it was handling Nicky Corozzo, Jane Katze, Frank Dylan James, and Virginia Quell all at the same time. A minor detail that Di Luca had seemed to forget.

Probably because he was too busy being unconcious at the top of the ramp.

“‘Cause we probably wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d just stopped Quell from breakin’ that count.” Di Luca added, apparently oblivious to the hatred radiating from Big Vinny’s eyes. “Dentari would be fist champion an’ we’d be made men right now.”

So many thoughts floated around Rinaldi’s head. Wasn’t he the one that took Box out for that near fall? Wasn’t Di Luca the one taken out before they’d even made it off of the stage? But he knew, no matter how he was feeling, he didn’t have a hope in Hell of winning a battle of words with anyone. And so he rose to his feet and squared up to Di Luca. There was only one way he knew to structure his argument, and that was with a fist to the face.

Tony in turn knew it wasn't wise to stand off against the 6’8”, 367lb hired goon when he had that look on his face. “Look, this ain’t helpin’ nobody.” He said hastily, “There ain't no point in playin' the blame game. We should be focusin’ on the Moral Majority an' how we're gonna beat 'em instead a' arguin' 'bout who didn't do what."

Reluctantly Rinaldi backed down and flopped into his seat with a ‘thud’.

“Now,” Said Di Luca attempting to act as though nothing had happened, “I got an idea that Dentari’s gonna love an’ make sure we’re right back at his side, but I ain’t got a chance a’ pitchin’ it if we don’t beat Quell an’ James, capiche?”

Despite still looking like he wanted to drive a railroad spike through Di Luca’s eye socket Big Vinny nodded to show he understood. After all, he could just about comprehend the words he was hearing, even if he didn’t agree with them.

“We’re on our own for this one, Vinny,” Di Luca continued, “All eyes on us, so we’re gonna have to go out there an’ show the world just why Dentari picked up the phone an’ called us in.”

“On Sunday, Box is gonna have his hands full with Justin Voss. So if he’s got any sense he’ll stay in the back outta harms way.” Di Luca added as he balled up a fist, “An' if he tries to get involved an’ stick that beak a’ his in our business, I’ll make haggis outta him, I swear. We'll see how tough he is when that black heart a' his is boilin' in his own stomach...”

“Now I don’t want you under no illusions,” Tony said as he brought Rinladis gaze back to him, “This ain’t gonna be a wrestlin’ match, not by no stretch a’ the imagination. Quell an’ James can spend as much time as they want in trainin’, but that ain’t gonna change the fact that this is gonna be a straight up brawl. They ain’t gonna be afraid a’ takin no shortcuts, so neither are we. But don’t go gettin’ stupid, Dentari ain’t exactly gonna welcome us back with open arms if we go gettin’ disqualified.”

It was always ‘us’ and ‘we’ coming from Di Luca. Vinny again nodded despite still not quite understanding why he had to be stuck out in the cold because of Two Hands’ mistakes.

“We're gonna have to break the Moral Majority, An' that aint gonna be hard.” Di Luca said confidently, “They say a chain's only as stong as it's weakest link. An’ by her own admission Virgina Quell is that weak link. We break her, we break the Moral Majority..."

“‘Cept she ain’t gonna let that happen, is she?” Di Luca asked Vinny, who by that point was simply looking on with a clueless expression on his face. Planning and strategising wasn’t exactly his strong point either, “She ain’t dumb enough to get into no fist fight with either a’ us... so it’s a damn good job there there’s a second weak link in the Moral Majority.”

“They can brag all they want about how Frank Dylan James don’t feel pain, but we all know it’s only numbed by the alcohol.” Di Luca continued, “We’ll hit that dumb bastard so hard he’ll sober up in an instant, an’ then we’ll make doubly sure he feels everythin’ we do to him.”

“They wanna be know as vile cruel an’ brutal? They wanna be know as the trios champions?” Di Luca said with a smile and a half laugh, “After Sunday they’re only gonna be known as second best.”
 

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