“Why? What woman?”
“I don’t know!”
“Wrong answer, Tony.” I press down on the trigger and I know the little shit feels the change in weight of the gun because he starts babbling.
“I don’t know who she was! Just that she paid me ten grand to do it. She gave me two grand up front and then another eight when I finished the job.” He stops speaking when I pull the gun back slightly. I feel him relax slightly, fucking idiot. I let his shirt go and bring my free hand down, backhanding him. He howls when I hit the spot I’d pistol-whipped him and falls back against the couch, clutching his face.
“What was the job, Tony? I need details,” I say, my voice calm and even. I hear Addie whimpering but she doesn’t move from her spot by the wall. Good. I don’t need to try and field her interfering when I am finally getting somewhere with Tony.
“Addie’s computer. She wanted me to get on it. Addie knows that!”
“You fucking liar! I wouldn’teverchoose you over Law.” I can hear the sincerity in her voice. She hadn’t known what her trash brother was up to. “I hate you!” she screams. “I wish he was my family, not you!”
“Fuck you, you bitch!”
I sigh and hit him. I don’t have time for this fuckwad to mouth off to Addie. I backhand him just like he’d planned to do to Addie. I feel the cartilage of his nose give under my hand with a satisfying crunch.
“Oh my god. My nose! He’s going to kill me, Addie! Stop him!”
“Shut your fucking mouth. You want the building to hear?” I growl, leaning in close to him and bringing the gun up to his temple. “Working families live in this building. They don’t need to hear you die today. You make one more fucking sound and I’ll end it right here.” I press the silencer barrel to his face. “Nobody’s gonna hear the shot. Even if your screaming brings someone, you’ll be gone before anyone comes. And she’s going to say what I tell her to say, isn’t that right Addie?”
Her answer comes immediately. “Yes.”
Good girl.
Tony swears, eyes rolling in the back of his head when I give him a shake. “The way I see it, you came back here to beat on your sister and I just happened to come in the middle of it and put you down like the dog you are. The police will buy it. They’ll be glad to be rid of a bottom feeder like you. Now, answer my question or you’re going to be the top news story for the afternoon.”
“Now. What. Was. The. Job?” I ask, punctuating each word with a jab of the gun barrel to his busted mouth.
“That bitch you were fucking-”
I hit him in the throat. “Language.”
Tony falls forward, wheezing. Only my hand twisted in the collar of his shirt keeps him up. “Your girlfriend,” he manages to get out in a choking gasp.
“Better. Keep going.”
“The job was t-to change a reservation. A-and I had to do some fucking order of goddamn dresses.”
There. This is paying off.
“Who put you up to it?”
“I told you! I don’t know who it was.”
I hit him with the barrel again, this time to his nose. There is anotherthwackas it hits his flesh and blood gushes from the wound.
“What’d she look like, Tony?”
He whimpers, knees coming up to his chest. “Dark hair, dark eyes,” he manages to get out on a gasp. “MILF looking bitch with big tits.”
Honey’s mother. That was the only person it could be. I saw her when shit went south with Honey and Zeus. That has to be who he is talking about.
I stop hitting him and nod. “Sounds about right. She tell you why she wanted the job done?”
“N-no,” he stammers. “Swear I’ve never seen her before b-but she knew A-addie worked for ya and wanted me to get on her computer. I told her i-it was gonna cost her.”
“That ten grand really worth it now?” I ask him and grab his chin, forcing his head back so that he is looking up at me. His face looks like hamburger meat. Blood is still coming out of his nose and mouth. He looks like shit.
