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“Here we go again,” Hayden adds.
Whoever is targeting us made one mistake: not remaining in the shadows. Their lack of patience and an unhealthy dose of arrogance will be their downfall. Let them come. I enjoy crushing the cockroaches.
Cato leaves to meet with his underboss and consigliere about the New York problem. Hayden and two of our men track every trace of their transactions. Kieran’s on the hunt for leads while the rest of the team in the compound works to find more information about who’s fucking with us.
I go through the Syndicate’s encrypted files, but my search leads to more questions than answers. It’s time to round up our associates. Someone betrayed us, and they will end up dead.
When you lead a syndicate that is equally feared and respected, the organization must be impeccable and uncompromising, just like the punishments.
***
It’s always extra work planning my senate campaign, keeping up with my responsibilities as Boston’s mayor, and leading a syndicate. Add in the new threat, and all I do is work. I thrive on solving problems. Nothing gives me more satisfaction.
Our men have infiltrated every crime organization worldwide. And they prove to be meticulous and proficient in their work.
When our men inform us that two of our associates are being too jittery and hush-hush, that raises an alarm. So, we put all our focus on Gabriel and Nathaniel. Gabriel is a warlord, and Nathaniel’s family has a network to procure illicit goods. And that’s how we found the four suspects behind the attacks on us. These four pawns aren’t calling the shots, but making an example of them will lead us to the men behind their actions.
One week later, we have the four men tied up in the compound’s basement.
We have four armchairs lined up while the heads of the other criminal organizations and our associates watch the spectacle from their screens. It’s an encrypted transmission and how we usually meet to discuss business.
We’re quite an eclectic group. We’re a closed circuit made up of the most powerful criminal organizations.
The micro-expressions of the two associates watching the video stream confirm what we already know: they fucked up.
Kieran stands and says, “Haven’t we collaborated better in peace? Haven’t you all expanded? Haven’t we made you richer than you could have imagined? Despite that, you bring chaos to our doors.”
With a glint in his eye and a muscle ticking in his jaw, Kieran just shit on the diplomatic approach.
He picks up a knife and approaches the first man, plunging the blade into his esophagus and dragging it down his torso. Maybe our associates thought we’d become soft. A hiss and a grunt later, the traitor gurgles on his last breath, his insides spilling on the floor.
Blood soaks Kieran’s shirt as he sits down, offering me the knife. I cock my head, tapping the knife on the armchair’s rest, and look at the second man pissing himself. Standing up, I approach him, the metal chains clanking with his shivers.
When I open his mouth and grab his tongue, my thoughts rush to my little freak. If she saw this, she would probably faint. And that’s the best-case scenario. I smirk, and the bastard shivers even more.
With a swipe of my hand, I cut his tongue out. I see the two associates shifting in their seats on the screen from the corner of my eye. Good. Fear is such a great tool to lead with.
I cut his ears next; rivulets of scarlet flow down his neck, and pieces of skin barely keep them attached to his head.
Then I move to his lips, cutting them off. Letting out all my pent-up frustration into creating a perfect image of death.
Cato taps his foot, his patience wavering. Handing him the knife, I take my seat with sounds of blood gurgling and the last moments of a traitor’s life hitting my ears.
The Syndicate lives by a code: You break it, we break you and all you hold dear.
And that infuriates me the most: men gambling away their family’s well-being. For what? We’re fair. Fuck, we’re so fair that, at times, I wonder if our business is more honorable than the legal organizations.
Cato gets up on his feet. He strikes the third man so fast that you would’ve missed the perfect hit if you blinked. He digs the knife into his torso, carving out the liver, kidney, spleen, and heart. I sweep my eyes from the scene to the screen on the wall. The two associates pale, looking stealthily at each other.
We’ll replace them with people who won’t dare cross us. It will shift the balance of power to us even more. In the criminal underworld, greed remains the most potent driving force.
Cato offers the knife to Hayden, who rolls his sleeves up to his elbows before taking it and twirling the blade through his fingers.
“Afraid Alessandra will see the blood?”
He chuckles. “She’ll be just angry that we didn’t donate all this spilled blood.”
Hayden circles the fourth man, another pawn in the game of power, drawing out his attack and prolonging his misery. Letting your enemy play all sorts of pain scenarios is a fantastic torture tool.
