Our Thing

Loyalty Is a Loaded Gun

Mike DeFino arrives in New York with nothing but a duffle bag and the address of a loan shark. A dishonorably discharged Marine with few options, he quickly finds work as muscle for the city’s underworld. What begins as routine debt collection turns deadly when Mike saves the life of rising mob figure Pete Amuso during a violent hit. Impressed by Mike’s skill and loyalty, Amuso pulls him deeper into the organization.

As Mike proves himself—disposing of enemies, enforcing debts, and navigating the brutal hierarchy of organized crime—he becomes a trusted part of Amuso’s crew. But his rise attracts the attention of NYPD lieutenant Frank Sasso, a relentless investigator who believes Mike is the key to bringing the mob boss down. Sasso is willing to bend the law, plant evidence, and destroy lives if it means getting what he wants.

Caught between a paranoid crime boss and a corrupt cop obsessed with control, Mike’s life becomes a tightening trap. When the woman he’s falling for becomes leverage in the struggle, every decision carries deadly consequences. In a world where loyalty is demanded but rarely returned, Mike must decide how far he’s willing to go to survive.

A gritty, razor-sharp thriller, Our Thing by Daniel Kowalski plunges deep into New York’s criminal underworld—where power, betrayal, and survival collide, and honor is often just another weapon.

Step into the underworld and discover Our Thing today.

Excerpt from the book

The bus slowed down, and I was jostled awake. The driver hit the brakes hard instead of coming to a gradual stop. I looked out the window and saw a giant off-ramp that moved in a circle, with everything at a dead stop. The last thing I remembered before I dozed off was that we were in Pennsylvania, moving through the mountains. I took out my phone and opened the maps app. We were now in New Jersey, just outside of the Lincoln Tunnel.

The traffic barely moved, a baby was crying a few rows behind me, and the rising sun was nearly blinding. For being so close to the Big Apple, I couldn’t see anything besides the highway and cliffs. The guy in front of me reeked of BO, and I’m sure I was nothing pleasant either because it’d been two days since I’d had a shower.

I stood up and touched the rack above my head to make sure my backpack was still there. All my earthly possessions were in it, and they amounted to a couple of changes of clothes. I had five hundred dollars in my wallet and another five hundred in the bank. The cash came from selling my gun before I got on the bus. New York has some strict laws, and the last thing I needed before I started my new life was to begin it with a felony. But how little I knew then.

Half an hour later, we passed through the toll booth and entered the tunnel. It felt like I was on a path to hell by going underground. I knew that I was supposed to be impressed by this engineering marvel that passed under the Hudson River, but I wasn’t feeling it. To me, it felt tight, claustrophobic even. But once we were in, the traffic eased up, and it was no longer stop-and-go.

When we emerged, it was bright out. The immediate area outside of the tunnel in Manhattan was a bit of a dump, but I was impressed by the skyscrapers. New York could make you feel so small and yet so proud. Of course, once you get to know it, your opinion will change. I found that it looks better when you’re an outsider looking in, instead of an insider looking out.

The driver cut down 9 th Avenue, and I had never seen so many people crowded into one place in my life. Before today, the largest American city I had ever been in was Tulsa. This pace had an ugliness to it, too, though. Dirty, with a lot of weirdos on the streets. Vagrants, druggies, and crazies. Everything in Manhattan is a mix of old and new, and it created an overall impression of being run-down. In a way, it wasn’t much different than home.

When we finally stopped, I got off the bus and didn’t look back. My mission now was to find the R train so I could get into Brooklyn. The streets were bustling, people walking with unflinching purpose. I felt like a dumbass looking at my phone, trying to reorient myself. It looked like the train I needed was just a block away.