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“Hook. Why we cleaning when we still got a mess to make?” Tony presents the shivering woman in the corner.
Ah yes. Alessia. I drink her in. She reminds me of Marissa, honestly. That hurts to admit, because no one can truly compare to that angel. Nonetheless, there’s an innocence about this woman that echoes through time, all the way back to her. A pure soul corrupted by the devil, dragged into a hell against nature.
“I’ll take care of her,” I say.
“Oh, I see. Heh. You’re not done with your revenge yet. ’Atta boy, Hook.” Tony nervously tries to make light of the situation, thinking I’m as rotten as Joey, or the late Don Gio. Fuck these fools.
I glare at Tony for a long minute, wondering if he’ll be under my boot one day too. Seems rotten enough. Making light of tracking down an innocent girl? There’s a twinkle in his evil eye. Maybe I should just clip him now and do the world a favor.
“Take the body to the river. Cinderblocks are in my trunk. Get to it,” I order.
“Where we meeting up?” Lenny asks, still limping from the slice in his leg.
“Nowhere. We’re done.”
“Fuck that, we’re done.” Lenny loses his cool, limping around the island toward Sia. “Stallion wants these two dead. We ain’t leaving ’til she’s dead. I’m not getting on the Don’s bad side again, Hook. Not for you. Not for nobody.” He pulls out his pistol.
Alessia curls up in the fetal position, sobbing muffled over her arm.
“You might be mad at me, but what’s done is done.” Lenny extends his arm.
This prick didn’t get the memo.
I take a cast-iron grate off the stovetop and whack Lenny over the side of his head. He jerks away from the hard hit, and my hand around his wrist stops him from falling, then with a crack, he’s disarmed. I point two pistols at Tony, daring him to make a move.
“I warned you two.”
“Hey. Hey. I didn’t do nothing, Hook. Calm down.” Tony doesn’t reach for his gun. Maybe he’s not as dumb as he looks.
I turn to Lenny.
“Motherf—Do you know who I am?” Lenny holds his eye, cradling his other arm to his chest, and I can’t help but laugh at the three-pronged imprint of the grate across the side of his face.
“You should be more concerned with who I am,” I say evenly.
“Lenny. Down, boy,” Tony says. “C’mon. Same team.”
“Same team? This piece of shit just turned on me.”
“You didn’t follow my directions, so I had to shock you,” I say. “Training a dog is a long process. I’ll shock you again if I have to.” I toss the grate leisurely back on the stove. “And sometimes, if the training doesn’t stick, we just have to put the dog down.”
Lenny’s nostrils flare, but he’s a broken mess, and he knows it. His size over mine means nothing. I’m a killer straight through to my heart. He’s just the uncoordinated muscle. He’d never stand a chance.
We stare hard at each other. I’m daring him to make another move.
“Donny’s going to hear about this, Hook.”
“That’s fine,” I say. “Just make sure you tell him you disobeyed a direct order. This is my job. You two shitheads better remember that.”
“We got the lead!” Lenny barks.
“And now another Lucrazi paid his debt.” I motion to Joey’s corpse. “Clean him the fuck up, and get out of my sight.”
Tony rushes over to Lenny, who’s now rubbing at his wrist, testing his fingers as he’s guided to the corpse. They begrudgingly wrap the body in plastic while carefully wiping the blood. They’re clean, despite their goofiness.
I can feel my boot vibrating from the woman shaking like a leaf behind me. She’s been whimpering for thirty minutes straight. You’d think her nervous system would’ve just shut down at this point.
In some sick alternate universe, I’m standing over Marissa, guarding her, from anyone and anything that tries to harm her. You’re my catharsis, Alessia, just like all the other wives. I peer over my shoulder to take in her features. Something about you, though. Thin face, big green eyes, caramel hair. She’d be beautiful if she wasn’t so distraught… like Marissa was.
