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“You always want to break kneecaps,” Tiger said, folding his arms as he waited.
“I don’t tell you how to do your job,” Bat said, grinning at Tiger.
“Dan, Dan, Dan,” Felinus said evenly, ignoring his men’s bantering as he flicked his knife open. “You already gave me all of these lines about how you didn’t mean to steal from Vinny and the Family and how you wished you could take it back. To put it bluntly,” he pushed the bat out of the way and straddled Dan’s lap, knife pressing into his cheek, “I’m tired of hearing about it. You aren’t a child who made off with a candy bar when his mother was busy with the shopping, or a teenager who thought he could get away with a CD at the mall. The money didn’t just fall into your pockets. You didn’t take twenty dollars on an impulse. You stole thousands from my uncle and this Family.”
“I-I had to,” Dan stammered, still crying. Leaning back as much as the chair could allow him, he tried to put distance between himself and Felinus. “I had to! I needed it-” He stopped talking as the blade cut into his cheek.
“If you truly needed it,” Felinus whispered, watching blood roll slowly down Dan’s face. “If you really just ended up too deep and couldn’t dig yourself out, all you would have had to do was go to Vinny. He liked you. He likes your ma. He would have helped you. He might still help you because he’s just that understanding of a person. But you are going to suffer first. You are going to tell us who has all of the money you took, every last dime.”
“I-I can’t,” Dan sobbed, his entire body trembling. “Please, Gatto. I can’t.”
“You can,” Felinus told him, getting up and flicking his knife closed. “And you will.” He jerked his head towards the van.
Tiger grabbed the chair and threw the whole thing into the back, Bat jumping in after their plaything for the evening.
“You should have talked to Gatto and Dog while you had the chance,” Bat said, practically singing the words, as he swung the bat towards one of Dan’s bare feet.
“Snake,” Felinus said as Tiger slammed the doors on the scream.
“I lost sight of them but they’re in the stacks near the employee lounge,” Snake reported into his ear. “The headlights spooked them.”
“Fine,” Felinus said, walking towards the maze of crates. “Bat is going to call you with accounts. I want every penny back to Vinny’s accounts by morning.”
“Sure, sure,” Snake said. “I’ll have everything taken care of. I’m just a call away as always.”
Felinus smiled. He had found the hacker five years ago when a Capo had gotten too comfortable in his position and had started lying to the Don and Underboss, taking more than his share, and fucking over the Family. It had been Snake who made it possible at his uncle’s bidding but the barely legal kid had been running from his own monsters. Had been seeking the safety of family. Seong “Snake” Kim was a God sent to Felinus. At eighteen, the kid had skills that Felinus still couldn’t believe were possible and he held loyalty to Felinus, and by extension the Family, that was far above anything that could be paid for. Loyalty and trust that made him stay when Felinus would have allowed him to run. “I’ll be in touch.”
* * *
Issac Maus had been having a day. It wasn’t a bad day as far as his life went but it wasn’t a good day, either. First, he had run out of shampoo that morning. Then the snow started which meant he had to fend off Dimitri’s well-meaning but annoying offers to drive him to the apartment his classmate thought Issac lived in. That made him run behind so the free shelters had been filled, leaving him short on options.
He had thought it was starting to turn around into something he could salvage into a forgettable day. One of the volunteers had been able to find a toiletry bag so he’d have shampoo for tomorrow. The latch he had broken on his last day of temp work at a warehouse that summer was still busted so he was able to crawl in through the window. He had intended on going to the office near the front of the warehouse. If the door was unlocked and the couch he had seen when he was interviewed was still there he could sleep comfortably. If not, there were chairs in the break room he was sure he could put together to make a passable bed.
Then he had seen the lights.
He should have left immediately. He knew that nothing good could be going on in a warehouse at nearly midnight on a Monday. But he hadn’t wanted to try to find another place to sleep and his accounts were already slim after his final tuition. He couldn’t afford to pay for shelter this early even if he found a winter coat on cheap or free.
Now he was trapped. Literally trapped. When he had gone back to the window after seeing the beaten man under the office, there was a car parked in front of it, its headlights pointed towards the windows. In the high beams, he could see the sensors that had been installed on the window. They had known about the broken latch, and instead of fixing it, they set him up.
Breathe,he told himself, looking around slowly. Take it in. You are smarter than this. The still, quiet voice in his head was always more accented than his own, giving him comfort even as he noticed the additional cameras pointing towards the main paths and windows. The stacks, as the maze of crates were called, still appeared under-monitored. Hitching his duffle into a more secure position, he moved along the wall and ducked back into the narrow paths of crates.
In the distance, he could hear screaming, not clear enough to make out if there were any words and he found he had to stop as his legs shook. The screaming came and went. He forced his feet back into motion. He needed to hide. He didn’t want to hear this anymore. He needed to-
There was a narrow gap between two crates and he practically threw his duffle bag into it, following with his backpack. It hurt to breathe as he pushed his way into the far corner. The scream came again and he hunkered into the dark corner, closing his eyes tight and covering his ears.
* * *
Felinus stopped outside of the gap he had tracked his intruder to and licked his lips. He could feel the chill of the night creeping into the warehouse even with its thick walls and double-pane windows.
He could hear the person breathing, deciding it was probably a man, and smiled. They probably thought this was a good hiding spot and if they were dealing with anyone else they might be right. But Felinus had spent years perfecting the art of finding the little hidey holes people tried to put themselves in and all a tiny space like this was was a better cage for the Cat to play with his prey.
