I know I shouldn’t be here but I need closure and answers.
Nino is escorted into the room by a uniformed guard, still sporting that cocky grin. You’d think after everything, he’d wise up, but I guess that old saying is true, leopards never change their spots.
He sits down across from me and rests his chained hands on the table.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asks, his face still black and blue.
I smile to myself.
“I thought you always won?” I shouldn’t taunt him, but I do. I know better than to poke the snake with a stick, but I just can’t help myself. His smile fades.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“I want to know how you knew Slade.” I get straight to the point.
“Slade?” he asks confused.
“Think I was here for another reason?”
He eyes me cautiously. It then dawns on me why he’s questioning me.Tara.
“How did you know him?” I ask again. We’ll address Tara in a moment.
“I used to run drugs for his father. In the nightclubs. I’ve known Slade since I was fourteen. Never expected him to be mixed up with a pretty boy like you.”
“We served together.”
“Lotta good enlisting did him.” He grunts.
“What do you mean by that?”
“He was running. But it didn’t matter how far or how fast. He always knew who he was. So did I. That’s why it didn’t shock me when he came looking for me a few years back. He had an itch that needed to be scratched. Big time.”
“And you obliged.” I curl my lip, disgusted.
“It was my business.” He shrugs. “Drugs, money, women. You saw,” he says haughtily.
“I did.” I saw way too much. I will never be able to erase the image of Slade torturing Tara for as long as I live. I’m confident her screams will be the star of my darkest nightmares.
“How many women did he torture and kill?”
Nino laughs manically. “You think I know? And even if I did, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to incriminate myself. All I cantell you is the man craved pain the way a junkie craves blow.”
It kills me to hear that, because I knew someone completely different. Someone who had so much good in him. I saw it. It confounds me that he could be two completely different people at the same time.
Sociopath is a term that springs unwanted into my mind.
“Why Tara?” I question.
Nino’s egotistical smirk returns. “Because he wanted her.”
“And you agreed knowing what he was capable of?”
“I agreed because he was willing to pay a hundred grand for her. Bitch always had a golden pussy.”
I slam my fists against the table startling him. “Don’t fucking talk about her like that!”
Nino laughs condescendingly. “She’s got you whipped, too. Huh? Been in your shoes, brother. I wised up though.”
