“Justice,” Lee called out to me as soon as I entered the door. “Welcome. This way,” he directed me to the VIP room. “You’re looking well.”

I didn’t bother engaging in conversation. Whatever it was, it was unavoidable. My fate was sealed, it felt, by things that I couldn’t control and by past traumas I couldn’t move past.

“Listen,” he stopped me before we entered the VIP room. “You have a habit of pissing off mafia lords. You know there’s a new boss ...