Road to Respect ~ Sopranos

Chapter 23

Joseph

"This couldn't wait?" Joey asks Chris. "I need to take Adriana to some appointment."

"This guy is three weeks late, ok." Chris said as he pulled up to a tanning/ massage therapy place. In reality this was actually a brothel, owned by some coke head Joey didn't like. "It will only take a minute."

Joey groaned but hopped out of the car and walked inside. He saw the hostess smirk at him, but he stared at her emotionlessly. Ignoring her, stormed into the back where there were a few women lined up against the wall in bikinis and a few men on the other side, talking amongst each other on who would get a 'massage' from who. He ignored them as well and went into the back office where the owner was.

He was a scrawny guy with greasy hair that looks like he never washes and a patchy beard with some food stains along his chin. Joey also saw some white powder on the man's nose, while he was painting some race car. "Who are you?" The man asked. Joey didn't say anything and let Chris do the talking. Joey instead looked at the pretty Asian woman behind the man, wearing a pink dress.

"Doesn't matter who he is." Chris told the man.

The man scoffed and went back to painting. He blew on the car to make the paint dry faster. "How's it going, buddy?"

"Don't you own a fucking mirror?" Chris asked. "You look like you've been French-kissing the Pillsbury Doughboy." Joey snorted and turned to the gut just in time to see him wipe off some of the coke off his nostril and lick it up. "All right, come on, let's go. What do you got for me man?"

Joey walked over to the wall and looked at the man's model cars while the man pulled out an envelope and handed it to Chris. "Is it all there?" Joey asked Chris without looking at him.

"No." Chris said angrily. "What the fuck, Dominic?"

"It's half." The man said nervously.

"Three fucking weeks in a row now?" Chris pointed out, making Joey look around the room for something to use as a weapon.

"Business slow!" The Asian woman yelled. "We tell you! We pay security, what for? Kid break window, you do nothing. We pay no more!"

Joey picked up the wooden baseball bat in the corner of the room and started to smash the model cars that were hanging on the wall. He made sure each one was destroyed before jumping onto the man's desk and destroying the ceiling fan and then moving to the vintage stereo on the man's cabinets behind him.

The woman was cowering the corner, the man was frozen in place in his chair, and Chris was rubbing his head. "You have until tomorrow to get us the money you owe us plus a five-hundred-dollar late fee. I don't care who you have to rob or kill, or even if you have to suck a dick like those girls out there. Just get us the fucking money." He moved the bat under the man's chin and tilted his head up. "Understand?" The man nodded and then Joey turned to the woman. "Now, what was this about a broken window?"

Bruno

Silvio decided to let Joey decide on what to do with Jimmy Jr. So, he and Alex were in charge of him until then, and by in charge, they were supposed to make sure he didn't die by making sure he was fed, clothed, and stayed put. Basically, they treated Jimmy Jr as a dog for a week. Bruno and Alex were in one of the properties Joey owned, with Jimmy eating a sandwich in the corner of the room, his leg was chained to a radiator.

Suddenly, the door opened and Talia walked in with some fast food and a journal in his hands. "What are you doing here?" Alex asked.

"Joey asked me to meet him here." Talia said, throwing the bag of food onto the coffee table. She then turned to Jimmy. "This is him?"