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Gio knew me. He’d been working for me for nine years now and witnessed many of these basement meetings. In my eyes, he must have seen his future. The promise of no surprises was as dire as the fate he was about to crumble to.
“Now, now. Cat got your tongue? Be a good boy and tell me all about it.” I stared at him, my lips twisted into a manic smirk, my eyes still and not daring to so much as blink once.
“I did none of that, I swear.” He cried out, his words cresting on hysteria.
“And you’re a liar, too. How could you have ever called yourself a Man of Honor?” I shook my head from left to right in fake reproval. “It’s okay. I’ll give you a small incentive.”
In less than a second, the small blade I had in my boot was buried deep into Gio’s thigh, a dark chuckle leaving my chest as he yelped in pain.
I looked over to Francesca, making sure she was okay. Her features had dipped into Hell, too. She had fury and anger scribbled into every wrinkle of the frown she supported while her eyes were stuck on Gio’s.
“I have another one in the other boot. I was thinking of you when I put it there.” I said, slapping his face twice before grasping his jaw and forcing him to look at me. “Now tell me, why would you want to set me up? Why would you want my wife to see me with another woman?”
“I didn’t do anything. Please, I swear!” He shouted, his words drenched in agony.
“Come on, Gio. How long have you known me? Do you really think I don’t know you’re lying?” I took the second knife from my boot and tapped the blade on his leg. “I’m giving you a chance to rethink that answer, or this next knife will travel a little further up. Right about… here.” I threatened, riding the unused knife up his thigh, poking the tip into his groin. “We both know how weak you are. We both know that you will not endure what I’m going to do to you, so save yourself some pain and start. Fucking. Talking.” I pushed the tip of the blade further into him at each word, watching as his breath hitched each time it pinched more into his jeans.
There was anger and fury burning me from within, but I didn’t allow it to surface. Not yet, at least. I controlled my emotions, replacing them with a misplaced smile. I knew it was more unsettling for my mood not to match the predicament. Scary in its uncertainty.
“Here’s how this is going to go. Since you’re so loyal to your new boss and don’t want to talk, I’m going to cut you until you do. I’ll cauterize every wound with that torch in Liam’s hand to prevent you from bleeding out, just so that I can cut you all over again until I either get what I want, get bored, or… you die. Want to rethink that answer? Last chance!”
On cue, Max pushed a metallic cart our way, the top decorated with a variety of blades in different shapes and sizes. Gio didn’t even have to look to know what it was. Just a couple of months ago, he had been the one pushing that cart towards me.
“Matt!” Liam called, now standing behind Gio. “The tip of his right pinky is missing.”
Motherfucker. I stopped my jaw from clenching, slowly inhaling until my lungs were completely full.
“So, Gio. You're in bed with the Yakuza. How’s Hiro Naoki doing?” I sarcastically asked, using all my strength to remain calm. “Wait,” I suddenly said, placing the knife back into my boot and pushing the cart back. “I have a much better idea. Liam, get Hiro on the phone. Let me tell him one of his newest family members is ratting his plan to us. Ask him where he wants us to leave him so they can pick him up and show him what they do to traitors and their actual family.” I smiled, facing Gio again. “No need for us to get our hands dirty. They’ll deal with you.”
The Yakuza had no respect for anyone but their own while they served a purpose. Unlike the Mafia, family was never off-limits for them. If they had to gut everyone from the family dog to the eldest grandmother, they would without a second thought.
We were honorable men, and with that oath of silence also came the notion that our family was not responsible for our actions and, therefore, were not to be harmed in the event something like this happened. Some were less honorable than others, of course, but Gio knew that was a rule set in fucking stone for me.
Gio knew I would never go after his mother, his sisters, their children. I would get what I needed in another way, but harming innocents who didn’t take part in this wasn’t an option. For the Yakuza, on the other hand, it was all game.
“How long do you think it will take them to hunt your family down? Two hours? Twenty minutes? Something tells me they will not respect you the way you are trying to respect them.”
“NO. NO!” He shouted, his head falling forward in defeat. “Please. I’ll tell you everything you want. I don’t think I understood the question before. Can you ask me again? Please, I beg you.” He pleaded like the weak cock sucker he was.
“Tell me everything. Start from the beginning.” I sat back, leaning onto the chair, calmly waiting for Gio to start talking.
“They caught me. They promised to protect me and give me everything you never did.”
“Well, that struck a wrong fucking cord,” I said, pulling the knife from my boot again and stabbing him in the other thigh. A knife now sticking out from each one of his legs.
Gio screamed his lungs out, and I gave him a second to compose himself because I’m a generous man and all.
“Carry on. I’d advise you to choose your wording better, but then I wouldn’t have a reason to do something like this, and this meeting would just be boring.”
The fucker couldn’t mutter a single word, his face growing red as he tried to hold back his screeches of pain.
“That was just rude, Gio. What have I never given you that you so eagerly wanted?”
“You have everything!” He shouted, his voice still strained from the knives he had lodged in his legs. “The power, the money… the girl.” He said, nodding towards Francesca.
I inhaled deeply, trying to suck in patience together with oxygen as his craving for my wife reached my bones like acid. My nose was flared while I clenched my jaw so tight that my teeth hurt.
“Well… that’s because this is not a fucking democracy, Gio.” I slapped his face, trying to tone down his arrogance. “Equality is just a dream in the real world. Why the hell would it be a reality here? What have you ever done to deserve any of those things?” I let those questions hang in the air for a minute before beckoning him further with my index, calling him in for a secret. When he was close enough, I grabbed the hair on the nape of his neck, banging his forehead against mine with enough force to hurt both of us. I didn’t care. I deserve the damn punishment, too, for putting my wife in danger with this fucking asshole. “And there is NOTHING in this fucking world you could ever do to deserve my wife! Do I make myself clear?” I barked in his face through gritted teeth.
