The man just grins.“Bring it on, Boudreaux.You don’t have the balls to do anything I haven’t experienced before.This isn’t one of your little gambling dens.”
This guy.
“So skipping right over the nice part, then?”I ask, forcing myself to be polite and polished.I can’t say I’m surprised at his statement.People around here tend to think I’m more of a gentleman than I am.Someone who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.Maybe it’s the way I dress, or the fact that I make my money at card games and roulette tables.Could be the fact that I don’t run in any of the street gangs, like so many of the mafia kids do these days.
Or maybe it’s the cane.
Without another thought, I toss my cane up in the air, catch it, pull the blade out of it, and swipe it through the air, the metal whistling as it flies.My aim is perfect, and by the time I stop the swing, James’ left hand is laying on the floor.
He doesn’t even realize what’s happened until he looks down and sees it there.
Then he starts screaming.
“I think you’ll find, James,” I say, pushing my rapier back into the cane, “that I’m capable of a lot more than people realize.And I’m willing to use every single skill in my repertoire to get the answers I want.Now tell me what kind of ring this is and how many girls are involved.”
It’s not the question I want to ask.I want to ask where the fuck Brooks is and how I can get her out.But if I jump right into that, he’ll know how valuable she is, and at this point I’m praying they don’t realize she’s related to Dom Landry.The moment they do, she becomes worth more, and that means she’ll be in even bigger danger.
I have to play it cool, no matter how much it kills me.
“Fuck you,” James hisses.“I’m not telling you anything.”
Well, this is interesting.I thought this guy was a manager, not a soldier.Not someone who’d keep his mouth shut in the face of torture.How much was Dom paying him to inspire such loyalty?
“Is that so?”I ask, letting my surprise show on my face.“In that case, I guess we need to keep going.”
I pull a butterfly knife from my pocket and whip it open, then press it to his cheek.“What do you think, Daniel, the mark of the devil, or the mark of Boudreaux?”
“Boudreaux,” Daniel growls.“This family will last a whole lot longer than the devil.”
“Good call,” I say thoughtfully.“And I wouldn’t want to accidentally summon Satan himself by drawing his mark in blood.”I place the tip of my knife into Daniel’s cheek, press it in deep enough to draw blood, and start carving our family crest into his flesh as he screams.
And I think of Brooks as I do it with her favorite type of knife.And I wonder where the fuck the girl is and how I’m going to get her.Because every minute in that ring is a minute too long.I don’t even have time to stand around torturing James.
But I don’t know how else to get the information I need.
***
An hour later, James is dead, having given us very little to work on.When I mentioned Brooks, too jittery to keep her a secret any longer, he’d laughed at me.
“Brooks Landry?That red-haired bitch?Oh, we know her.We took her on purpose.With that last name, she’ll bring even more than the rest.”
“And you don’t care that she’s your boss’ daughter?”I asked, shocked at his sudden candor.
“Care?Why would I care?”he sneered.“Dominicktoldus to take her.”
I’d stabbed him then.Again and again.And then I slit his throat and let him fall gurgling to the floor as his life drained out of him.I was furious.So angry I could hardly see straight.My girl was in there fighting for her life–or at least risking it–and the man not only wouldn’t tell me where she was, but laughed when I demanded to know.
And then he said her own fucking father had recommended her as a mark.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.What father wanted that for his own daughter?What father knew what he was sending her into, and then did it anyhow?
True, Dom and Brooks have never had a good relationship.I don’t know all the facts, but I know he hit her more than once–tried to kill her when she found out too much about him, if the rumors are true–and that she started carrying her first knife just to protect herself from him.I know Beau tried to protect her for a long time, until he realized he was too small to take on his dad.
And if Camille told me the truth when I asked, Dominick was the reason Brooks left New Orleans entirely.
From the sounds of it, Dominick is still abusing Brooks.He’s just found a new way to do it.
I growl and punch the wall, frustrated at the fact that I still don’t have anything to go on.Brooks is in danger, we’re only two to three days from the ship date, and I don’t have any way to reach her.I don’t even know where to start looking.
