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I smiled at him. “There’s always someone who will take a job for a price. Do you remember what happened to Dave’s family?”
The colour drained from his face. He didn’t need to know that I’d sent them far away to set up a new life. I wasn’t a fucking monster.
“I suggest you tell me what they gave you and what you gave them in return.”
“Okay, okay. But don’t hurt them.”
“Talk.”
“They paid me cash in hand. They just wanted information on the strip clubs. Who runs them, and how the girls are recruited. Where the records are kept. That sort of thing. They wanted to know about the new clubs.”
“Why?”
I had an idea why: it would be easier to remove girls from new, less established clubs.
“They didn’t say.”
I brought the bar down across his left kneecap, and he howled.
“Okay! Okay,” he sputtered, dribbling and panting. “T-they need a fresh supply of girls.”
“Brexit affecting their smuggling?” I asked.
“I-I don’t know.”
“So you thought selling out girls in our clubs, ones under our protection, ones that make us money to known traffickers, was a good idea?”
“They threatened me and my family,” he cried.
“A running theme. But you made a payday, too.”
He nodded, sagging forward, snot trailing down from his nose.
“Why would you double-cross me?”
He lifted his head, blinking his swollen eyes. “You-you’re less scary than them.”
I chuckled lowly. “Really?” I stepped closer and whispered. “Do you know the real reason why colourful animals are deadly?”
He shook his head, confusion lighting his distorted features.
“It’s not to deter as nature programmes want us to believe. It’s to tempt. They are the sadists of the animal kingdom. They draw you in to see you die up close.” I slipped a flick blade from my pocket. “Do you want to know why I smile and joke?”
He blinked at me stupidly.
“Because the nearer I am, the deeper the knife slips in.” I angled the sharp steel upward to slip past his ribs, driving it into his heart.
Eddie swung back with a strangled cry. The blade slid free, drenching my hand in a gush of warm blood. His eyes were wide as he coughed and gurgled. Loch stepped up beside me, and we watched his final flailing splutters as the pool of crimson widened on the plastic sheeting beneath him.
“That was poetic,” Loch said when Eddie finally exhaled his last breath.
“Feck off.”
I tossed the bar back on his table again to piss him off and grabbed the cloth he held out to me. I knew soon he’d be itching to wash off the mess he caused. He was such a dichotomy: so adept at torture but also a clean freak.
“Are we doing the other one tonight?” He signalled our men to start the clean-up.
“Why the fuck not?” I said, wiping off my blade and pocketing it.
