“Now you tell me who your buyers are, or I'm going to kill you.”
“You're going to kill me anyway. I'm not stupid.”
“No, I don't think you are. So tell me what you know. Our sellers got a little black book, where's yours?”
He shook his head. “You really think I'm the head of this operation? You're wrong. I'm just a distributor. You want to know who's really going up against Armani? Ask Armani himself.”
I gave him a sucker punch to the stomach. It felt good to get my hands on somebody again. To make them bleed.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“He's playing you,” he said through labored breaths.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“When the son’s away, the old man will play. Your old man needs to watch out. There's a new family in town. And they're coming for him.”
I looked over my shoulder at Marco. He was still standing over the man who he had shot. The guy was still yelling about his shoulder. It was starting to piss me off.
“Marco, get over here.”
He obliged and walked over quickly. “What's up?”
“This asshole said that somebody is coming after my family. You know anything about that?”
Marco shrugged. “No. Everybody knows that the Giotis are the most powerful family in town. No one would even try to take down your Pops.”
I looked back at the little shit who had his head hanging down, trying to catch his breath. “Hear that?” He didn't look up at me. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head up to my face. “I said, did you hear that? Nobody is messing with my family. So you better talk, before I switch to your other arm and make you bleed out here.”
“The Agnelli’s,” he spat. “They say that your family has taken something that belongs to them and they have had enough. They're the ones running the guns. I work for them.”
Fuck. Vienna.
It seemed since I went away for prison, shit had started to hit the fan. Maybe prison had been easier after all.
I shook my head as I walked away from him.
“What do you want to do with him?” Marco asked me. Anger boiled beneath me skin.
I didn’t speak, I just turned around and grabbed the hand gun off the table. He didn’t even look at me when I shot him. The sound of the gunshot echoed through the warehouse.
“Dump him in the water. All of them. Let’s go home.”
Marco nodded and removed him.
I went to the table and took the guns and my money. I left the grenades; I never had a use for that much destruction. It wasn't calculated enough for my taste.
I walked out into the crisp air of the night and Marco looked afraid.
“What?” I asked him, angry with his fear.
“You looked different in there. Something he said?”
I looked at him sternly. “I was following orders. It’s that simple. Now get rid of them.” I shoved the gun at his chest and walked over to my car. “I want to go home.”
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steering wheel. It felt good to beat the shit out of that kid. But it only lead to more questions and more problems. That was not the way I liked to do business. I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to go home and screw Vienna’s brains out. Now there was even more work to do.
18
Luka
I dropped Marco off at the office.
“You coming in?”
He nodded and walked into the building.
I waited until Marco was out of sight and I dialed Vienna's number and waited for her answer. I just needed to hear her voice. Tomorrow, all that I wanted to do was lay in bed with her. I wanted to have a lot to repent for at Sunday's mass.
“Hello?” she asked groggily.
“It's me. How are you doing?”
“I was sleeping. What are you doing? I thought you had work tonight.”
“I did. Things didn't really go as planned.”
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I could hear the fear in her voice. How could she be snitching on me when she sounded like that? She couldn’t be that good of an actress, could she?
“No, I'm fine, baby. It's just business. Business that I didn't want to have to deal with yet. I'd rather be at home with you. What are you wearing?”
She sighed. “Just a little something silky against my skin.”
“Describe it to me.”
I loved that she didn't even give it a second thought. “It's a light pink silk tank top with white lace accents. There's a white lace thong to match.”
“I'd like to see that.”
“You will. Whenever you drag your ass home. I'll be waiting.”
“Send me a picture. Something to tease me a bit.”
“Fine. I'll see you soon?”
“In the morning. I'll be there when you wake up, I promise.”