“Tell me who hired you,” I demand.
He simply stares at me angrily.
“If you don’t want to speak, maybe we can just cut your fucking tongue out!” Tommy hisses from behind me.
I turn around and slam my hand against my brother’s chest. “Shut the fuck up, Tommaso,” I demand. “I’m talking to him.”
The man in the chair laughs. “You can’t even control yourselves—you’re pathetic.”
I whip around in frustration. “Maybe he’s right,” I say and reach into my pocket for my switchblade. “Maybe you’d be more accommodating if you were missing some limbs.”
“Yeah right, you keep talking all this big talk but doing nothing—” before the man can finish his sentence, I slam my knife down into his fingers and push hard, cutting his ring and pinky fingers halfway off. Blood gushes from the wounds.
“Fuck!” the man cries out in pain. He looks behind me toward Carmine as if he expects him to stop me.
“He won’t save you. He’ll let me kill you even,” I say as I lean in closer and closer until my nose is practically touching his.
I push down on the blade harder with the full weight of my body until it slices through his fingers completely and they slip onto the floor. Blood is pouring out of his stumps.
He groans in pain and tears start to pour down his hallow cheeks.
“Motherfucker!” he hisses between his breathless tears.
“Tell me who hired you, or you’ll lose even more,” I snarl.
He doesn’t listen. He just cries and starts to beg me not to.
“They’ll kill me.”
“I will kill you if you don’t,” I tell him.
“He will,” Carmine replies. “There’s no one here to save you.”
“Just fuckin’ do it!” Tommy huffs from behind. Clearly irritated that we’re letting this guy live for as long as we are.
“Okay, okay!” the guy sobs. “T-The Tulos.”
I back up from him and click my knife closed. “The Tulos hired you to kill me and Rosalie?” I ask him.
He doesn’t answer, just sobbing like a little baby.
“Answer him!” Tommaso pushes past me and slams his hands down on the arms of the chair. “What do the Tulos have to do with this?”
I shove Tommy out of the way and glare at him, but then turn back to the man in the chair.
“They hired me to kill Rosalie,” he admits.
I blink. “Not me? Just Rosalie?”
He sucks in a breath. “Yes, just Rosalie.”
“Why?” Carmine asks, stepping closer. “Why just Rosalie?”
The man shakes his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t,” he insists. “Just…don’t. Let me go, I’ll run away, I’ll never bother you again.”
“Damn right you won’t, you’ll be dead!” Tommy says in a huff, moving side to side in his agitation.
The guards in the room step closer, just in case.
