Shit…..Shit….Double shit.
Reaching out, he clasped his hand around the free-standing lamp by the door and flung it against the wall then punched a hole into the plaster.
Footsteps sounded from upstairs.
Marco came up to him then and lay a controlling hand on the Bruno’s shoulder. “It won’t do any good, Bruno. Fuck, we really dodged a smoking gun tonight. Nobody’s hurt. That’s what’s important.”
“This place is ours.” Bruno stared at the playing card, formulating a plan. “We’ll go now. We’ll kill every last one of them and take back what’s ours.” He stepped forward.
Marco stopped him. “No, Bruno. Our men need to regroup. And you need time to calm down. After this blows over, they’ll think they are safe, lower their guard….that’s when we’ll go for our money. Until then, we must be patient.”
Bruno locked eyes with his cousin. For once, he did not have an answer. He hesitated a moment, fighting his instincts before finally turning to go.
Back upstairs, Bruno marched over to the bar and poured himself a double whiskey. He cupped his fingers around the glass and felt the simmering blood beneath his skin cooling against the glass then closed his eyes for a moment. Tossing it down the hatch, he let out a slow breath as the alcohol burned the back of his throat. As his eyes flicked open, he slammed his glass down on the bar and shook his head wondering...had he been too merciful by sparing those men’s lives? Had he failed in his duty to his former boss? In the eyes of the Castillo crime family, they deserved death. Death... and no mercy. If he had killed them he’d have felt no remorse. Never did. When a man broke the rules of the streets he would have to accept the punishment that would come of it. Bruno always did what he felt he had to do for the greater good of his mob brothers and yet at that moment, he had to ask himself whether he was becoming weak.
He kept his eyes on everyone in sight. The Castillo family had lost the fear they could invoke in others. Inwardly, he vowed to get it back at any cost now. Bruno stood with his back to the wall and watched everyone. Shaking his head, he felt ashamed. Castillo’s men had been so stupid he could hardly believe it. They were pathetic. A lead weight dropped into his stomach. He’d never had this feeling before and wasn’t sure he wanted it now. This was all his fault. He’d been selfish, taken his eye off the ball for far too long and in doing so, made a big mistake.
Thinking about it some more, the big man took out a comb from his suit pocket and raked back his hair. The atmosphere was in a state of constant tension. Thankfully, only two men from their side had died tonight. He’d gotten at least six of theirs, did that make it even? Fuck no!
Bruno began to pace.
Damn them. Damn them to hell.
He knew he would have to hunt them down when the time was right.
He stomped forward and shouted, “Who was supposed to be on lookout?”
The room remained tense and silent.
“I asked you a question,” he growled. “Who. Was. On. Lookout?” he repeated, the rage inside him overpowering everything else.
The men’s shoulders deflated and two guys stepped forward.
“It was me,” one guy blurted sincerely.
Frowning, Bruno tipped his head to the side as if to confirm who it was. Immediately, he had to reel in the urge to let off steam. “You’ve made a fatal mistake, brother. Not one I can overlook. You got lazy. Cocky. In this line of work, you can’t do that without paying the price, kid.”
The man’s skin paled as the blood drained from his face.
“It was my fault too,” another man confessed.
Bruno stared at the men for a long moment then frowned. He hated cowards and he’d met too many of them to count in his line of work. “I’m assuming because they made it inside here, Mitch and Bull are dead?” The two men had been patrolling the grounds today.
The two men nodded.
One of them spoke, “They’d been killed…killed before we had a chance to stop it. We’re sorry.”
They both bowed their heads.
Bruno threw back his head and laughed at them….really fucking cute.“What? Are we in the eighth grade over here?” he asked, looking around. Apparently, they needed a lesson and they would get one. They had a beating coming. “Listen up, little girls. I don’t know what idiocy caused you to leave your posts but this right here shows me all I need to know. It shows me you aren’t the men I once knew.” He stopped mid-speech to glare into the eyes of every man in the room. “I’ll live, and die for this family. I expect you guys to do the same,” he declared. “We’ve gotta keep our heads above water, you hear?” He bellowed, screaming by the time he finished his rant.
“We know,” one of the pair muttered, still looking down.
Bruno’s lips tightened into a straight line, burning, seething with rage. “You’re lucky I’m not going to hurt you, not yet…” Looking disgusted as he spoke, “No one else needs to die here today. If Castillo were here, your time on this planet would have just run out. I should shoot you down and leave you where you drop. But for the good of this crime family, I’m not going to do that. So, you’ll live.” Then he paused. “I’ll keep you alive...but you’ll get the shit jobs from now on and you’d better not leave either. You’ll have to live with yourselves the rest of your lives knowing you could have stopped this from happening. Bull and Mitch’s blood is on your hands. It may not have been your bullet that killed them, but your mistakes caused their demise.” He had no intention of killing his own men, but put the fear in them he would.
Marco took a step forward. “Do you know how much they’ve stolen from us?”
“About three million dollars,” Bruno told him.
