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“When you find a rat, you kill it.”
“No mercy.”
I step out of the car and head to the run-down barn, painted black and sporting a faded old chewing tobacco advertisement on the side. Long ago, the area was filled with tobacco farms, and all the barns were painted black to help speed the process of drying. The slat-board door is ajar, and I maneuver through it.
The dry, dusty air tickles my nose with the smell of old manure and rotted hay. Sunlight peeks through the cracks in the wooden walls, spreading patches of bright light in some places and dark shadows in others. A few, unused livestock stalls line one side of the barn, and a rusted tractor sits against the back wall. For a long, drawn-out moment, it’s the only sound in the large, open space. The next moment, the building is filled with screams.
“No! No! Please!”
I glance at Pops, but he stays next to the barn door, leaning against the rotting wood wall with his arms crossed in front of him. It’s clear he expects me to do this myself. I need to be the one who ends my brother-in-law, not Antony and not Threes. It has to be me.
I casually walk to the figure tied to a chair in the middle of the open space. Threes stands in front of him with his fist raised. The figure in the chair cringes, but the blows come anyway.
“I thought I told you to take him to the warehouse,” I say to Antony as I approach.
“The barn was closer,” he says with a shrug. “I wasn’t sure how long we’d be here, and the warehouse is getting a shipment later tonight. I didn’t want any interruptions.”
I smile and raise an eyebrow at Antony before pulling him aside and whispering low.
“Next time, you discuss changes with me before you do it, not after. This is your one and only warning, cousin. If it happens again, you’ll be in that chair. Am I clear?”
“Yeah, boss.” Antony swallows hard. “You’re clear.”
“Glorious.”
Threes stops punching and takes a step back. Beside him is a folding table with a variety of nasty-looking metal objects displayed on top. Antony moves around to the back of the chair, and Jack stares at me in panic as I approach the table.
“You’ve kinda fucked thing up here, haven’t you, Jack?”
“I didn’t plan on it,” Jack says, his voice cracking. “They said they wanted me for negotiations—changes to the treaty—and that the family would benefit! I didn’t go in there planning to betray you!”
“But you did, didn’t you?” I reach out and grasp his bloodied face in my hands. “You did betray me. You took their money and gave them information.”
“It was for your sister, Nate. I just wanted to make sure I could give her everything she—”
I rear back and punch him in the temple.
“Don’t you even consider putting this on my sister.” I keep my voice soft and calm as I step back from him, circling the chair. “If she knew what you were doing, she’d rip your balls off herself.”
“Nate! Nate, please!” Jack twists his head around, trying to get a better look at me as I come around the front and click my tongue.
“It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?” Taking a step forward, I grab the top of Jack’s head and dig my fingers into his curly black hair. I yank hard, forcing his head backward and exposing his throat. My voice is slow and calm. “You wouldn’t need to beg for your life if you had just made better choices. It’s not like you didn’t realize what you were doing. No one tricked you. No one blackmailed you. They just played on your own greed, and you gave into it.”
“Against the family.” Antony leans over Jack, looking down at his wide eyes from behind the chair where Jack is bound.
“Against the family that took you in,” Threes says, “the family that accepted you like their own blood.”
I hear a sharp crack just before Jack screams again. Antony smiles as he breaks another finger.
“I sure hope he ain’t a piano player, boss,” Threes says with a snicker.
“He isn’t one anymore, that’s for sure.”
“Please…please stop.” Tears stream down Jack’s face. “I’ll do anything you want, Orso! Anything!”
“You should have thought about that before.”
Another crack. Another scream followed by the sharp, distinct smell of urine.
