The Gambler(19)

It was an easy thing to pick the lock and slip into the room. He had the  lower half of his face covered, as did his men. There was no smoke or  anything unnatural looking in the room, yet the five occupants seemed  disoriented, good, the shit had worked.

"Take care of them." He walked past the first guard who tried to reach  for his piece, but whose arms seemed weighed down. Alphonso Bonata was  sitting in a high backed chair at the table, about to have his dinner it  looked like. His eyes widened when he saw the younger man and he tried  to call out but all that came out was a croaking sound as he flopped  back in his chair.

He thought for sure he would be cool, but nah. He shot out one kneecap  first just for the hell of it. "That one's for being a fucktard and  sucking up my airspace."

He'd intended to question the other man, but it was obvious he couldn't  speak and he didn't have time to fuck around and wait for that happy  occurrence. He'd have to get what he needed some other way.

"And this is for my wife and the hell I'm sure you put her through, you  fuck." He shoved the blade into the pigs' wide girth starting at the  navel and pulled up until he'd opened him down the middle.         

     



 

Alphonso's eyes and mouth widened in terror as the shock and pain hit  him. By the time Andros reached his hand inside his chest and pulled out  his still beating heart, he was dead.

Too fucking easy, he should've busted down the door after all. At least  then the fuck would've been able to put up a fight, which is what Andros  craved. This way seemed too fucking easy and was over way too fast. He  squeezed the beating mass in his hand before dropping it on the floor  and stepping on it. "Asshole."

"Toss it, I want anything that even looks like a computer; any papers,  and whatever's in the safe. We've got five minutes left." He walked away  from the carnage and pulled his phone to call the house and check up on  her.





They were in and out with two minutes left, not bad for a hit this size.  He was going to have to look into his and Jenna's security more  strenuously. If it was that easy for a motherfucker to off you these  days, he needed to be on his star player game. Then again, it's like  Garrett had said, everyone thinks he's a crazy fuck anyway, so he maybe  might take chances others won't. Their lost!

He used his silk handkerchief to clean off some of the blood from his  hands as they walked up the stairs to the helipad. The pilot already had  the shit going, probably never turned it off. "Hurry the fuck up yous,  I've gotta go find butterflies."

He had a flash of the old places where he used to find them for Alice,  places he hadn't been to in years. Maybe he'd buy some for now, no.  She'd asked him to catch her a butterfly. He found his first real smile  then as his heart lightened if only a little. If she was taking  instructions from his lil sis she was going to be a handful. He couldn't  wait.

His step was much lighter as he pushed through the door and jogged to  the plane. It was the perfect time to go butterfly hunting.

They became more quiescent at night, making it a little easier to trap.  He'd get her one or two for now, but he had an idea of how to keep her  happy if butterflies were her new thing.

It was something he'd been working on for his sister while away at  college that fateful year. He wondered what he'd done with those plans  he'd drawn up? Probably destroyed in his dark rage like everything else  on that night.





Gramps had said she was making waking noises, but the medicine had done  its thing and she was still out. He didn't want her waking up and  finding him gone. That's another reason he didn't waste time with Bonata  the fuck. "Shit; I didn't see who all was in there, was old man  Petridis one of them?"

"No boss he's still on the loose it seems."

He bet the wife knew where he was, and what about Minnelli and her  sister, should he go after them? The search hadn't shown any unknown  devices in his house, so if she'd been spying she was doing it within  the hours she worked with him.

Thank heavens he hadn't spent too much time around her, or hadn't been  dumb enough to give into her subtle come-ons. If they'd thought he would  spill shit after she'd fucked him blind, they were sorely mistaken.

He never said two fucks to any of the women he'd screwed around with in  the past. Never had too much interest in anything they had to say. With  his little Jenna he wanted to listen to her voice all day and night.

He called the men at the beach and got the confirmation; next he called  his guys on the warehouse and apartment where the rest of the almost  fifty Bonata men had been congregating, probably strategizing on ways to  catch his ass, murdering fucks.

He got the all clear, his enemies were dust; her enemies were dust. He  eyed the boxes of shit his boys had lugged on the plane behind him. He  saw computers: laptops, files, and a whole assortment of shit that was  meant to make him crazy figuring this shit out.

"Jameson, tell Frankie we have a change of plans, we need to swing by  the old place." The man nodded as he made his way to the cockpit to warn  the pilot before takeoff. Only Andros would think it was okay to change  flight plans in the middle of a flight.

The man would have no patience for the FAA rules and shit that you'd  normally have to adhere to. Besides, the old place was Andros's  childhood home not far from where he lived now, and they had a lawn big  enough to land.         

     



 

It was coming onto dark now anyway so who gives a fuck? Frankie took the  news in stride; he was accustomed to his boss's mercurial ways,  probably pulling a maneuver or some shit to outsmart an unfriendly.

He couldn't be farther from the truth. Andros had already put the  business of dispatching his enemies behind him. His only thought now was  on seeing the smile on her face when he brought her her butterfly.

He smiled again and caught his men staring at him. "What the fuck?" Everyone suddenly found something else of importance to do.

Things sure were changing; their boss hadn't pulled his berserker move,  as they like to call it. And they'd done a hit without destroying the  entire place; progress.

Maybe this Jenna Petridis would be good for him after all, good for all  of them. She'd probably just added a few years onto their life  expectancy, because just a few short days ago with the way things were  it had been a toss up.





Chapter 16





It had been a while since he'd been back here, back to this place of  darkness. He wondered now that he didn't feel that sense of dread, of  impending doom, as he walked through his old stomping ground. This place  that had once held such joy and had, because of the evil of a few young  men, become his worst nightmare.

It was here that he'd found her, broken and near death. Here that he'd  left his heart. They'd come here so often before, to catch the  butterflies that she seemed so obsessed with. She could sit for hours;  just watching the things flit around from place to place, mesmerized by  their antics.

He wasn't surprised to find the old net where he'd left it, no one ever  really came here; only him and the young innocent, who saw no danger in  the dank darkness of the woods, with its overhanging trees, that kept  most of the sunlight out in certain spots.

It was a lot worn and there was some damage, but it was lying there in  its hiding place, as if he'd just left it the day before. He ignored the  pain in his heart that came and went. He figured that would always be a  part of him, until the day he died. But he noticed it wasn't quite as  harsh as it had been even a day before.

He knew just where to go to find them for her; he'd get just one or two  for now, until he could make a place for them. Shit he needed the cage;  he'd have to find something around the house to keep them in for now. He  wasn't sure about letting them just fly around the room, they might  escape, and who knew how she'd react to that.

Always he was thinking of her and how to shield and protect her from all  life's little fuck ups. If he could take the brunt of all that life had  to throw at them, sparing her any and all of it, he would be more than  happy to take on all comers.

With his task at an end, he was suddenly in a hurry to be away from this  place. He missed her, he realized, as he headed back at a fast clip to  the plane that had landed on his parents' lawn.

He couldn't wait to see her, to touch her. "Find something to put these  in ‘til we reach the house." He passed his precious offerings off to  Garrett who looked around like ‘what the fuck am I supposed to do with  this shit?'





Back at the house, he took the stairs two at a time to get to her.  Gramps was half asleep in a chair next to the bed, while Sue was in  another, sewing or knitting, he couldn't tell which since they had the  lights turned down low. His eyes were only for her though, as she laid  sleeping. "I thought you said she was up."

"She was, but she was hurting so the doc gave her something, it was too  much listening to her fret from the pain and asking for you every other  minute, poor thing was in a state."