Smoking Leather Ladies

When Nikki returned home after Christmas, she would spend the next month focusing on attempting to expand her crew. For the operation she wanted to pursue, having five other women and a handful of men simply wasn’t going to cut it. Her goal was to find as many women as she could, making her outfit unique. The problem was finding those women, though. Certainly she could not find any more at school, she had gotten lucky twice before, a third time was highly unlikely. Before finding more foot soldiers, though, Nikki wanted to find a few more captains to go along with Al and Greta and then task them with building their own individual crews. In late January, Esposito invited his underboss, Carmine Barone, over for dinner. With Stefania staying at a friend’s house, it meant a night with Christina -- a mother of two young children --  whom she had become cordial with during the previous year. Since it was a night in, Nikki wore a tight red sleeveless turtleneck tucked into a pair of

With Christmas around the corner, Nikki thought it would be nice to get away, so she, Esposito, Stefania and Gina would be spending the holiday at the lake house. Nikki knew it would be nice for her mother to spend Christmas in a familiar place. Coincidentally, the day after they finalized plans, Nikki got a phone call from a person in the past. A woman named Margie, with whom she worked for early in high school for a charity for her community service requirements for school. Nikki had volunteered regularly -- more than what was required -- for the the charity during her first two years of school, including working the annual telethon for the children’s hospital. Margie invited Nikki to lunch, clearly unaware of the woman she had become and what happened to her parents. They had kept in touch over the years, but Nikki kept much of her new lifestyle to herself. Thinking it would fun to see her again, Nikki agreed to meet when she was “home” for the holidays. The day after they ar