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It's noon, and I am in an abandoned warehouse on the docks. This is a building I own to conduct the kind of business that requires a lot of clean-up and easy access to my boat. It’s also close enough to the highway so we can get rid of any… problems. I have cops in my pocket and on my payroll, but I try to only utilize them when the time calls.
It was just days ago that I was here watching Emelia take control of her life. It aroused me, and I know it aroused her too. I thought I would come home and we would chase that high together, but she turned it into something… something that left me feeling confused and messed up over.
DoI care about Emelia?
CouldI learn to feel for her in the ways she wants?
Fuck. I need to focus. I have to shake her. She is all I think about. Day and fucking night. But business is calling.
“You betrayed me, Levetti. You made a big mistake with that one.” I look at my once most-trusted man. He oversaw the dock shipments, and this entire time, he was double-crossing me. His eyes are already bruised and swollen, and his lip has a deep cut that blood seeps from. I am standing over him, his body tied to a chair, and my rolled-up sleeves are stained red, my dress shirt covered in what I have done to him, and it's only just begun.
“Why don’t you tell me who you’re working for, and maybe we can just make this quick.”
He looks up at me with disgust.“I’m dead if I tell you and dead if I don’t. I want you to get what you deserve and everything ripped away from you, Valiente.”
This is news to me. I treat my men very well, pay them more than most bosses, and give them protection and loyalty—until they fuck it up. He secretly came into my outfit as an enemy and played his cards right, until he didn’t.
I grab the chair behind me, flip it around, and straddle it. Placing my arms on the high back and intertwining my hands, I shake my head.
“Is that right? Why don’t you tell me what I deserve then, Levetti. Because you’re right. You are dead either way. So, get it out. Let’s hear all your woes, since you’re so torn up inside about them.” I belittle him, lessen his worth, and it shows on his face. He can tell what I’m doing.
“You killed my brother! You didn’t think I would turn on you? Thought I would stay loyal?”
“Giulio,” I call to my right-hand man, and he approaches. I’m about to dig this dagger deeper.
“Yes, sir?”
“Who is his brother again? I don’t recall.”
“Fuck you, you son of a bitch.” He spits, and it doesn’t reach me, but it’s enough to have my knee-jerk reaction kicking in, and I punch him so hard his neck cracks, and he groans in pain.
“Sorry, Giulio, I won’t be needing the name. Not worth worrying about.” I nod at him, signaling for my knives. Giulio steps over, grabs my kit, and places it on the table behind me, setting my tools up the way I like.
“Who do you work for, Levetti?”
He spots the knives, his eyes widening. Maybe he will crack. But where is the fun in that before I can have mine?
I stand and pick up my filet knife. I like to start with the fingers, then work up to hands and arms. This knife is my sharpest and cuts the skin smoothly.
“Fuck man, listen. Please.”
“Don’t beg, Levetti. It only makes this game more fun for me.” I look over at him, tilting my head.“I will ask you one more time, and if you don’t give me the right answer, this knife—” I hold it up, the light from the high windows bouncing off the sharp instrument and reflecting against the opposite wall. “—will be doing the rest of the work for me.”
“Fuck you! I will die for my family. Do your worst.”
I laugh and look at Giulio. “What a way to start the day.”
I advance on the traitor, doing what I do best. Retribution and revenge.
We make it to the club a few hours later, where I plan to shower. Most times, I go from one job to the other, and having a place to clean up that doesn’t require going home is ideal. I have a meeting right after, and this one, I'm looking forward to. If there’s one enemy in the group, more aren’t far behind. I will not let my outfit be run like it has no leader.
This is not the little leagues. And for some reason, some of these men may have tripped and bumped their fucking heads to think I wouldn’t catch on or would just let this go.
I am about to undress and shower, when I look myself over. I'm covered in the blood of a man I just ended for crossing me, and I'm about to sit at the head of my table and weed out more, if there are any.
I decide against showering. Let them see one of their fallen soldiers' blood all over me. I want them to know I'm not only keeping an even stricter eye on outside enemies, but I'm also looking inside my own army.
“Giulio!” I holler, and he comes to the door and knocks.
