The F King:A Bad Boy Romance(30)

     



 

"Who do you work for?" I asked.

"You'll have to talk to my brother about that," said Austin.

We stepped out of the elevator into a poorly-lit office space that  looked to be undergoing renovations. Some guy sat at a desk with a  headset on, staring at a six-screen display setup full of fuck-knew  what.

He paid no attention to me, but another guy wearing a suit who was  almost as tall as Austin, if slightly less muscle-bound, was  scrutinizing me carefully. Austin pushed me down into a seat.

"Watch him," said the guy who must have been Austin's brother, then  turned to the strong silent type who had ridden up the elevator with us.  "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be killing somebody in  an hour?"

"Romano said he was gonna watch a movie, and he didn't want anybody to  disturb him for the next few hours. He was pretty much begging to die  early."

"OK. As long as nobody finds him ahead of schedule."

"They won't."

My brow furrowed. "Romano …  Acardi?"

Austin's brother told the killer to sit tight in case he needed him for  anything else and then turned to me. "That's right. Romano Acardi had an  unfortunate run in with a bullet, it seems."

"Who the fuck do you people work for?" I asked.

"Me. I'm Jace Barlow." He pulled up a chair and sat opposite me, looking  at my face carefully. "I know you're having the worst day of your life,  Ryan. Do you know why this is all happening yet? Did the Acardis tell  you?"

"No."

Jace looked up at his brother, then back to me and sighed. "Today …  the Acardis found out that your girlfriend is …  a cop."

My ears rang as if in the aftermath of some kind of silent explosion and  it felt like somebody was shoving an icicle through my chest. I shook  my head and curled up a little as my stomach cramped again.

"No. No. No, no, no. That's …  that's not possible."

"It's possible, and it's true. The Acardis tried to find out some  background about her, starting from just after Christmas as far as we  can tell. They got real suspicious when all their leads ran into dead  ends, and they just heard today from one of their sources inside the  police department that she's an undercover cop. They decided to go  scorched-earth on you. The cops that picked you up worked for the Acardi  Family. They weren't taking you to the police station, they were taking  you to your lab, where I understand they're installing some shackles."

I buried my face in my hands, then slid my palms to the side of my head  as if trying to hold my skull together. The idea of Sarina as a cop  after all this time threatened to blow it apart. The fucking love of my  life? I groaned.

"They sent some soldiers to kill your mom. I'm so sorry we didn't get  there in time to stop them. They've sent others to kill Sarina, and  anybody who knew who she was."

I sat bolt upright as if struck by lightning. "You gotta stop them!"

Jace raised an eyebrow. "Why? Let them do your dirty work for you."

"No! I... I've got to hear it from her with my own ears. Please … "

Jace stared at me for a frustratingly long time while I tried not to  scream my request again as if he hadn't heard. Finally, he turned to the  strong-silent-type.

"Alright, Eric. Since you've got some free time, go get her, bring her  back if it's not too late. Cumberland Dorm, room …  four-fifteen, right?"  He looked to me.

"Yes."

Jace turned back to Eric. "Go. Right now."

"Yes, sir."

Eric didn't walk, he ran to the elevator and disappeared a moment later.  I hung my head for a moment, then lifted it again, only to let it flop  backwards. I stared at the ceiling. Fuck this day.

"It never rains but it pours, huh Ryan?" Jace said.

I managed to bring my focus back to him. "What does that mean?"

"It means everything always fuckin' happens at once. We've been  infiltrating this city for months now and all this shit happens today,  when we were going to take the Acardis down anyway. That's why we were  stretched so thin. I didn't have anybody close enough to the hospital to  stop it."

"What are you, like, a shitty fairy godmother failing to look out for me or something?"

"I think you're already dealing with enough that I'm not going to get  all puffed up with my own self-importance at the way you're talking to  me.," Jace said. "No, I'm not your fairy godmother. I was thinking about  being your employer, though."         

     



 

"Not interested," I said.

"Hear me out. You're the whole reason I'm here. I was looking for you. I  found out you were the F King a few weeks ago. Even the cops don't know  that. Your girlfriend hasn't reported it if she knew it."

"She didn't."

I felt like my body suddenly weighed a thousand times more at the  mention of her name. I struggled to readjust myself in my seat.

"Austin, you got the keys for these cuffs?" Jace asked.

"Yeah."

"Get them off him."

Austin reached behind my back and I heard a click. He took the cuffs  away and took a seat near the elevators and the exit to the stairwell.

"I've been thinking about you a lot," Jace continued. "I was wondering  if you're loyal to them, or if you might be convinced to work for me.  After what happened today, I know you ain't loyal to them, but you say  you don't want to work for me either."

I watched him with dead eyes.

"So, let me lay out my benefits package for you to consider. Believe it  or not, I know what you're going through. I saw my own mother get killed  by …  well, not these fucks, but fucks a lot like them. I made it my  mission in life to take them down. First, I took Port Magnus from the  Picollis, then we took New Ashby from the Bertolinis. After that, it  became apparent that all these old mafia families are one and the same,  interconnected. The only way to make sure they don't grow back is to  fucking kill them all. I had to make sure my next move hit them in the  biggest single money-making operation any of them had, and that's you  and your F. They buried you deep. They're not exactly like the other  mafia families where you can sneak into their house and steal their  fucking Rolodex. My guy Dan here," he gestured at the man at the  computer, who waved without looking, "can hack anything from anywhere,  but in the end it was easier to buy this building right across the road  from Trafford Tower, so we could get mainline access to the data cabling  under the street."

I looked at the windows, which were covered by vertical Venetian blinds. "We're … ?"

Jace nodded. "Right across the street. Anyway, the benefits package. The  first thing I'll promise you is that, if you work for me, I'll make  sure you get all the revenge you can handle. You will make them hurt on a  daily basis, and I'm not just talking about in the wallet. I'm talking  about every kind of pain that you've felt today, and more. Nothing will  bring her back, and I can't promise any amount of revenge will even the  score in your mind."

I dropped my eyes from Jace and leaned forward so that my elbows were resting on my knees. "I'm listening."

"Second. Consider it a signing bonus. You might have noticed two guys in  the back of the van with you? These are the guys who killed your  mother. We didn't get there in time to stop them …  but we got there in  time to pick them up. They are my unconditional gift. To you. They are  your property. I have some places, and some tools, you might like to use  if you want to …  talk to them."

Every beat of my heart was like the worst cramp I'd ever felt. I felt  hot flushes and my hands bunched up into tight fists, shaking with  anger. To know that the two men that killed my mother had been so close,  they had been my makeshift mattress, really, was overwhelming.

The dreams I'd been having about that peaceful future on some nameless  tropical island with Sarina, my mother living out her golden years in a  nearby mansion …  that was falling to the ground around me like a  shattered window. There could never be peace, but there could be  vengeance.

"What do you need from me?"

"You're gonna have to relocate someplace where nobody knows you if you  want to live a life any better than the chains the Acardis thought they  were going to put you in tonight. I'll set you up with a new lab, new  staff, new accommodation. I'll match what the Acardis were paying you  and, if you don't fuck around with me, I'll give you the respect a man  of your expertise deserves. That's true, isn't it, Dan?"

"All good, boss," said Dan, not taking his eyes from the screens.

"So, do we have a deal?" Jace asked.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat, the grief for the life that  could never happen, and cleared my throat. My mother was dead. Sarina …   maybe dead too. "Yeah. Yeah, I think we do. You said the Acardis were  going down tonight. How?"