I started to get a very bad feeling in my gut. “Yeah.”
Vinnie nodded toward the twink.
Porca troia.
I glanced back at Jeremy, taking in the whole picture and trying to see him with the mobster. I couldn’t.
I glanced back to Vinnie. “You went after that?”
Vinnie shrugged. “He was easy.”
“Yeah.” I could see that from the way Jeremy had sidled up to the limo driver. He was practically draped over the guy. “But, Vinnie, you need to have some standards, man. Even a mobster deserves something better than that.”
“Allegedmobster,” Vinnie corrected. “Nothing has ever been proven.”
I stared at the man. “Semantics, Vinnie.”
The—alleged—mobster just shrugged.
“Hey!” Jeremy clapped his hands together. “Pay attention to me.”
I slowly panned to look at the man. “Do you mind, little Ms. Drama Queen? I’m trying to have a conversation here.”
Yeah, I really needed to learn to keep my mouth shut, but this guy was pissing me off. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on here, but Jeremy was obviously at the root of it all. He needed to be taken down a peg or two.
“Ohhh!” Jeremy screeched.
Yep, drama queen.
“Get him, Freddie,” Jeremy shouted. “Make him suffer.”
I drew in a fortifying breath when Freddie headed toward me. This was going to hurt, and it was going to hurt a lot. Freddie had pain written in his eyes. Hanging from the hook in the ceiling, I had no way to get away.
“Hey, Freddie,” I said because I could be really stupid sometimes. “How is it fucking your boss’s leftovers?”
The punch Freddie landed in my abdomen took my breath from me. It also pushed me away from Freddie. Before I could lift my legs and get in a good kick like I had delivered to the other guy, Freddie landed another punch, and then another and another.
By the time Jeremy called a halt to the abuse, I could feel every ache and bruised muscle, and there were a lot of them. I was having a very interesting time breathing. I was probably going to be pissing blood for a week.
I still wasn’t going to let them know how badly I was hurting.
“Feel better?” I asked the driver.
Vinnie snickered.
“Kill them, Freddie,” Jeremy snapped. “Kill them now.”
I saw Freddie’s nervousness in the wavering of his eyes.
“What are you getting out of this, Freddie?” I asked, because I was starting to see that Freddie was just following orders. I was also pretty sure who was giving them. I just didn’t understand why.
I raised my eyes to Jeremy.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
Jeremy glanced at Vinnie. I was impressed with the way his eyes filled with tears. That was some pretty damn good acting.
I didn’t buy any of it.
