Pop!
Blood sprayed across the hardwood floors.
The chick collapsed on her side, her eyes open wide, as blood spread out from under her head in a slowly growing puddle.
Luciano looked like he might puke…
But he didn’t say shit.
“I thought she might not be enough to make you talk,” I said. “So I had a backup plan.”
Romeo stepped forward with a tablet computer.
He held it out so Luciano could see, then tapped the screen to unmute it.
The bedroom filled with the sound of children’s screams.
Luciano’s face twisted with horror.
I knew exactly what he was seeing on the screen:
His wife… his teenage son… and his two little daughters, nine and six.
That had beenanotherwhole operation. A year of planning.
Lucrezia had flipped a servant girl by threatening to kill her parents. Earlier this evening, the servant girl had turned off all the alarms and told us where the guards would be. A dozen of my men had taken them all out.
But getting into Luciano’s house would be a piece of cake compared to getting inside Don Amato’s compound…
Unless we had somebodyelseto help us.
“NO!” Luciano screamed as he stared at his family on the screen.
“Calm the fuck down,” I said. “Nobody hurt ‘em… and nobody’s going to. Not if you help me get into your father’s mansion.”
The woman on the tablet shrieked,“Luciano – Luciano, do whatever they say!”
The kids were screaming,“Daddy, Daddy!”
Luciano started to cry.
Romeo looked like he was going to be sick, too.
I liked Romeo, and he was a good soldier, usually – but sometimes he could be a real pussy.
“If youdon’ttell me,” I said in a calm voice, “I’m going to have a dozen of my guys fuck your wife in front of your kids. And after they’re finished with her, they’re going to shoot everybody in the head while you watch. So if I were you, I would doexactlywhat I want.”
Luciano looked up at me, tears streaming down his face. “Please… I’ll give you money…”
“That’s not what I want.”
“Please…”
I sighed, then said loudly so they could hear me over the tablet, “Hey, Cicciobello?”
Cicciobellomeant ‘fat boy’ and was the nickname for one of my guys at Luciano’s house.
“Yeah, boss?”he said over the tablet.
