Page 53 of Blood & Heartache

The now bleeding sack of flesh bellowed in pain as he doubled over, clutching his leg. He fell from his chair and rolled from side to side like that would make any difference in the agony he was in. I believed I’d managed to gain his attention, so I began my count again.

“One.”

Crying out like I’d shot him again, he rolled to face me, reaching out a bloody hand to stop me. “Astin, please, tell me what’s going on. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know but tell me what it is you think I’ve done.”

“Two.”

“Look, I’m not the one you need to be doing this to,” he blurted. “Athos is the one who’s turned his back on the Family, not me.”

“Three.”

His screams this time were louder and slightly more hysterical as the pain his brain was processing became too much.

The mind is a funny thing—when something is too much, it finds other ways to relieve the stress it’s under. It could turn it into laughing, crying, screaming, or creating an entire alter ego that craved the very pain your mind was trying to escape.

The bag of bones wasn’t strong enough to do anything more than cry and slam his fists against the floor.

I stepped beside him and peered down, wondering how long he’d make me wait for what I wanted to know. The fool thought I was going to ask him what I needed to know so he’d give me whatever answer I wanted. However, doing this left him stabbing blindly in the dark, trying to guess what I wanted to know. In the end, he’d tell me things, and it would be the darkest of secrets.

“Astin, please, I beg of you to tell me what you think I know.” He wailed like a stuck pig, snot and tears covering his face. “I knew nothing about his plans. Athos kept them to himself. There’s no way I’d have ever guessed he’s turned against your father or me. We were brothers, and we looked out for each other no matter what. Flora is the mastermind. She’s the one who got in Athos’s head, promising him the world. All he had to do was remove everyone who would keep him from taking over as Boss.”

Cocking my head, I let out a sigh since none of this was what I wanted to hear from him. None of this would make him suffer or cause him to doubt everything. I wanted this lying sack of shit to know pain, real pain, the likes of which created me.

“One.”

That single word sent him into hysterics as he cried, hollered for help, and rolled over on his stomach like he was going to get away from me.

“Two.”

As he realized the chances of getting away with two broken kneecaps became a reality, he flopped to the floor. “I’m the one who ordered them to slip drugs into Gunner’s food. He knew too much, and you’d locked him away down here. I needed to find a way for you not to trust him so I tried to make him seem crazy. Is that what you wanted to know? I admit it. I chose to help my brother instead of coming clean about what was going on.”

That had my attention. “What did you give him?”

“Bath salts. I had them slip a high dose of bath salts into his water, knowing it would make him paranoid and most likely have delusions. That shit will fuck with your brain in the worst ways,” he answered.

I knew the drug he was talking about. It was relatively new on the market and not one we sold. This meant if he got his hands on it, there were more secrets for him to share with me.

“One.”

“No,” he bellowed. “No, Astin, I told you what you wanted to know. There is nothing else. I didn’t do anything more than try to help cover for Athos.”

“Two.”

“Just fucking kill me, you bitch,” he hollered at me, rolling onto his back. “Do what you came here to do and send me to my maker for betraying the Family.”

This time I decided to change things up, and I aimed for his ankle then fired off a shot.

“Three.”

“You fucking goddamn cunt, I don’t know what you want from me.” He howled. “There is nothing left to tell. Please, just kill me.”

“Three,” I said as I shot his other ankle.

“I was in love with your mother. She never wanted anything to do with me, though. The only man she ever wanted was Colmazio, and it’s his fault she died. If he’d been home that night like he was supposed to be, then they would have killed him instead.” This declaration had him dissolving into tears as he lay there bleeding on the floor. “Natalina was everything pure and beautiful in the world. How could he do that to her? Natalina should have been his only woman, the only person he devoted himself to, but no, he couldn’t give up on his childhood love and fucking married them both.”

“Two.”

“Why should I even bother saying anything? This is what they trained you to do,” he said with a harsh laugh. “Frediano wanted you to be a ruthless killer, strong enough to rule both families, and it seems he succeeded. Your father was so fucking mad when he discovered what they’d done to his precious little princess. No one wants a cold-blooded killer for a child, not even the mafia.”