“Sure I will. You’ve met Aurora, Dante. She treats our hookers like sisters. You think she’d let me dump your familyinto our stables if you’ve given us the answers I want?” I tsked. “By the sounds of what I saw in that hellhole we took you from, your family would be better looked after in our whorehouses anyway?—”
“Fuck you!”
I smirked. “Nah, your mom will do that.”
Dante ceased wriggling. “You’d fuck her?”
“Gladly,” I lied. “I’d fuck her every day and every night, and each time, I’d tell her how you sold her cunt to me. How you let her deal withyourdebts. How you let your sisters work off those debts on their backs too.
“I’d make sure she knew that her only son, her pride and joy, was the reason she had to suck my?—”
“SHUT UP!” Dante roared, gaining energy from somewhere. “SHUT THE FUCK UP. LET ME THINK! PLEASE!”
The roar faded into sobbing. And because I knew when to back off, I stopped taunting him, got to my feet, and stepped away from the living corpse.
Chad, that tray still in hand, followed me. “You wouldn’t, would you, Stan?”
“Turn your stomach, Chad?”
His jaw clenched. “What’s with the meds?”
“Meds? Nah.” I reached for the syringe. “Rory ever tell you about C-L-O?”
“What is it?”
I snagged the ampoule, snapped it, and then loaded the syringe up. “A hallucinogen.”
Chad’s brow furrowed. “Why do you want him to hallucinate?”
“Because seeing is believing, Chad. If he won’t give me answers, I’ll let him see for himself what I’m telling him.”
“You cansuggestthe things you were saying?”
“Power of the mind and all that.” I studied the ampoule with pursed lips. “Only reason I haven’t started manufacturing this is it’s too powerful.”
I was grateful I hadn’t now.
Fuck, Red was enough of a Frankenstein’s monster for my liking.
Getting Kitty to forgive me for the monster’s bride would happen in my next lifetime.
Chad whistled. “Jesus.”
“Perfect for torture. Secret weapon.” I eyed him. “You turning soft on me, Chad?”
“No,Capo.”
“Good to hear. Now, call in myStidda. It’s time for them to see what punishment betraying me,my family, earns a man.”
I watched him swallow and turned back to Dante, who was weeping like a pussy. Or a cock, I guessed. Kitty had already proven she had biggercojonesthan him.
“So, Dante, you know what we were just talking about?” I explained the power of C-L-O. The drug that could take you to heaven… or hell. When his sobs morphed into wails, I chuckled. “You’re acting like it’s a fait accompli,porcu. You can stop this before it gets too far.”
“I can’t. You think my family won’t be hurt if I turn them into you?”
“Is that a philosophical question?” I reasoned. “Who would hurt them worse than we could, Dante?”
Which was the crux of the matter.
