Conall laughed and it was the most wonderful sound in the world. “Yes, sir.”
Chapter Six
The job Sloan had talked about involved a stupid drug dealer who tried to undercut the Killough Company. Right now, he hung by his wrists, his toes barely touching the ground with his ripped expensive shirt lying on the cement next to him. Whip marks crisscrossed his chest. Blood welled at the broken skin and he whimpered, his head hanging between his arms.
“I swear, I didn’t do it, Mr. Killough.”
Sloan ran his fingers over the bloody whip and clicked his tongue in disappointment. He’d dressed in a suit again, and he looked terrifyingly handsome, like a Greek god about to serve punishment. He stepped forward and touched the end of the whip’s handle against one of the cuts.
The drug dealer hissed. “I swear.”
“See, I don’t believe you. We had a deal and you broke it.” Sloan shook his head.
Conall stood in the corner beside Ronan who offered his protection. Sloan had ordered Ronan to stay at Conall’s side at all times, as though a bunch of Italians would pop up and take him again. They were in some kind of basement at the mansion and between the guards protecting the perimeter and the ones in here, no one had a chance of getting near Conall. But then, they thought the same before Conall was actually taken by Toscani.
Conall touched the scar on his chest and winced at the memory of Toscani piercing the knife’s blade into his shoulder.
“I didn’t break—”
“There are some things in this world that I absolutely hate. One of them is being lied to. Another, is being betrayed. You’ve done both.” Sloan swung the whip in circles and the drug dealer cringed away from it. “So this can go two ways. I can kill you and send your body back to your boss, your brother-in-law, who doesn’t give a shit about you. Or I can keep you alive, do some damage, and send you back to him. Both will give the message loud and clear.”
“Please. Alive. Do what you want to me, but I have a family I need to get home to.” The man finally looked at Sloan, but he received a punch to the jaw from Byrnes as consequence. His head whipped to the side and he groaned, blood pouring down his chin from a cut on his bottom lip.
Sloan tutted. “Byrnes, that wasn’t very nice. I wanted him to look me in the eye.”
Byrnes bowed his head and stepped back. “Forgive me, sir, but I don’t want a lowlife to stare at you with disrespect.”
“Do you see that, Morenzo?” Sloan crowded closer to the drug dealer. “That’s what respect is, that’s what you lack by betraying me.”
“Please.”
Sloan sighed. “You keep saying that, but you’ve said nothing to save yourself. Give me something I can use, something that might make me forgive you.”
The man, Morenzo, raised his head to stare at Sloan. His chin was covered in blood and it dripped to the cement floor. Bottom lip quivering, big blobs of tears welled in his eyes before falling down his cheeks, mixing with the blood.
“Give me something.” Sloan crossed his arms. “Anything.”
For a moment, Conall thought Morenzo wouldn’t give Sloan a thing, but then he outright sobbed and he finally opened his mouth to speak again. “It wasn’t my idea. Diego, he said I should do it. He said if we were stealth about it, you wouldn’t realize. I told him it was a bad idea, I swear. I did. I told him that. He said it wouldn’t take much to ask for more money from the buyers.”
“How much more?”
His mouth wobbled and he screwed up his eyes.
“Howmuch more, Morenzo?” Sloan’s voice hardened and the sound of it went straight to Conall’s cock.
“We asked for an extra ten thousand for a kilo.”
Conall blew out a long breath and shook his head.Idiots.How were there so many in criminal organizations? Whoever thought stealing money from Sloan Killough was a good idea was an absolute tool.
Sloan smiled so sinister that Conall swallowed in fear. “Thank you, Morenzo.” He held out his hand to Byrnes and the guard gave him a gun.
“No, no, no, please!”
Sloan raised the gun to Morenzo’s forehead and pulled the trigger. The drug dealer’s head flew backward and his neck cracked, not that it mattered to him with his brains splattered on the wall behind him. Conall made himself stare and not look away, and something pleasant settled inside of him. He liked seeing justice because no one could betray his boss.No one.
Sloan passed the gun to Byrnes and took a wet cloth from him to wipe his hands. As if on cue, the guards got to work cleaning up the mess while Sloan made his way back to Conall and caressed his cheek. He stared down at him with those bright eyes, like the color of the bluest ocean. “What do you think, pet?”
Conall smiled and leaned into his touch. “I think he got what he deserved.”
