The Killer(4)

I was back out on the street a half hour later. The old man wasn’t as blind as they’d thought, and now it seemed I knew why they’d taken him out. It hurt that someone so close had murdered him and tried to wipe out my family for something so fucking evil. There was only one more ‘boss’ that needed taking care of and I’m on my way to him now.

Luigi Scarpelli was a relatively young head. He’d taken over just a few months ago from his own dad, who’d died of a heart attack. According to grandpa’s notes, the death was suspicious. The old man thinks the son killed his dad to take over on the orders of Arturo Villanova. All so they could move in drugs. Something grandpa would’ve never agreed to.

He was one of the only holdouts when it came to the drug trade. The other had been Scarpelli’s dad. Grandpa had wanted no part of it, and had made us swear that we’d never get involved in anyway. His own mother had died of an overdose when he was a young boy, and he’d never wanted any dealings with the stuff, not the buying, selling or trafficking.

His son in law and his grandsons had promised him that they’d always respect his wishes. There was a note, about the day my own dad had been approached by the scum. Their offer was probably pretty much what Luigi’s had been.

Take out the old man and he can take over. The fact that he wasn’t next in line, was nothing in their eyes, they cold make it happen. Too bad for them, my dad isn’t a greedy fuck, so he’d told grandpa what was going on. Two days later they were hit.





Luigi still lived in Brooklyn in a brownstone walkup. He had a wife and two little kids in the house with him; that won’t stop me. We had to circle one block over a couple times, because there was a lot of his men milling around outside. No doubt the word had spread that his two cohorts had been taken out, and he wasn’t taking any chances.

“Let me out here. Go to the corner and wait.” I pulled my skullcap down to just above my eyes and threw the specialty backpack over my shoulder. I’m sure Uncle Sam didn’t intend for his training would be used for this, but what the fuck.

I kept my six foot four frame dressed in all black to the shadows of the buildings as I made my way to the building next door. The scents and sounds reminded me of my childhood, when Grandpa would bring my brothers and I to his old stomping ground to show us off. Remembering his pride in us, in his family, brought a touch of sadness to my heart. He was gone way too fucking soon.





I used the specialty scaling rope from my bag to climb up the back side of the building next door to Luigi’s. Since there were literally streetlights on every single corner, not to mention cops here and there; I cat walked across the top of one building to the next.

I could’ve probably taken the fire escape, but there were too many things that could go wrong if I went that route. So instead, I cut a hole in the door leading from the rooftop, just one big enough to remove the lock. It was quick, fast and made no noise. No muss no fuss.

I could hear voices coming from behind his door, the sounds of a family getting ready for bed. The kids putting up a fuss because they didn’t wanna, a stressed out mom who was probably that way because her own husband was giving off vibes.

Any man in the business worth his salt, kept this shit away from his wife. She must only know from the little snippets she heard through the grapevine. Then again ma knows a lot more than she should. That’s because dad liked his balls where they were. It was weird to actually find a smile at a time like this.





I waited until I heard mother and children’s voices fading as if moving to the other end of the house, before silently making my way down the stairs. I did my trick with the door again and eased into the house.

He was sitting in his study chain smoking and checking his monitors every other second. He didn’t even know I was there until I stepped out of the corner and into his view after closing and locking the door.

I put a finger up to my lips for silence as he made to speak. “Who sold us out?” He shook his head from side to side as if to say he didn’t know. I took a quick scan of the papers on his desk and the computer screen, but none of it had anything to do with why I was here.

“You don’t know?” He kept his eyes on the weapon in my hand as beads of sweat started popping out on his fat face. If he even thought of asking me for mercy I think I would’ve done worst than I’d planned to him. Here was a man who’d killed his own blood for gain. Who’d set off the chain of events that led to grandpa being slaughtered like a dog in the streets.

His hands were still up when I plunged the knife into his throat. Blood went everywhere as I pulled it out and left it in his heart. He was dead before I even left the room. I could hear the sounds of a mother saying goodnight to her children as I headed back the way I came.