Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 38998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
In the past, when Dante had taken in a particular ‘special friend,’ it fell to myself, Kane, Apollo, and Asher to look after her when he was gone; all inclusive. We were responsible for entertaining her, taking her shopping, take her to any events she wanted to attend, and when the night was done, one of us was responsible for servicing her, and be serviced by her. We’d each benefitted from the women Dante kept company with in the past, but I was certain Sadie was not to share. The boss was really into Sadie, and I couldn’t blame him. I would love to take her for a ride.
“Hey.” I looked up and Kane was standing in the doorway. “You good?”
I was so dazed out while bandaging my hand, Kane must have believed it was related to the bite. I held my, now bandaged, hand up. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. That cat is nothing for me.”
“Did you get the call?” Kane asked.
I hunched my brows and grabbed my phone from the nearby table. Damn. In my haze, I’d missed a call from Dante. “What’s up?” I asked.
“Apparently, we gotta take care of Pascal,” Kane replied.
I scoffed. Pascal was a smarmy lech that Dante used as an enforcer for the branch of his business in Vegas. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, which wasn’t far because he was shaped like a weeble wobble. “What’d he do?”
“Cops are hot on his trail, and word on the street is he’s gonna trade some info for a shorter sentence,” Kane explained.
That was a high risk in our business. Everyone swore their allegiance was with Dante and the business until they were staring down the barrel of time in prison, then suddenly we were drowning in snitches. “Dante wants in on this one I assume, then?”
Kane nodded. “Obviously. We’ll get to do the fun stuff, and then Dante will finish him off.”
I didn’t respond to that particular statement. I wasn’t as ‘into’ bloodshed in the business as some others were. Back when I first started, I actually tried to convince myself that I could do this job without it, but Dante quickly relieved me of that belief. He told me that if I wanted to be in this line of work, it would require some dirty work, and it had ten-fold. Now, I just try to do only what is necessary, and of course it helps when it’s junk bait like Pascal.
“What about the girl?” I asked.
Kane’s expression ticked a little at the mention of her, and I could see his thoughts had traveled to her as well. “Apollo’s staying with her.”
“Lucky bastard,” I grumbled. I stood up, grabbed my gloves and phone and headed for the door.
We met Dante outside where he told us that he had called Pascal and set up a typical business meeting under the guise that he didn’t know anything about his run in with the cops. It was evident he was livid, so I decided not to say ‘I told you so.’ Dante could be quick and merciful when he wanted to, but people messing with his business always turned him into someone cold and unforgiving. By the time we’d made it to the warehouse where we were meeting up with Pascal, Dante was so angry he was bound to turn green and grow double his size at any moment.
Pascal was a bowling-pin shaped man, with greasy black hair, and a permanent film of grime on his skin. He was jittery and, whether or not he knew that we knew, his demeanor was a dead giveaway.
“You look a little nervous there, Pas,” Dante started.
Pascal’s eyes shifted in all directions. “Me? Nervous? No.”
Dante looked over at me. “He look nervous to you, Brix?”
I nodded. “Looks mighty nervous to me boss.”
“Kane?” Dante asked.
Kane crossed his arms. “I’m surprised he hasn’t peed in his pants yet.”
A look of fear settled across Pascal’s face as he realized Dante knew everything. He held his hands up in front of his face and started waving them. “N-now, look, boss. I wasn’t gonna give them anything good.”
“‘Them?’” Kane asked, pulling his leather gloves over his hands.
I matched the action, sliding mine on as well. “Oh, that’s not what I heard, Kane. I heard ‘give.’
“I heard nothing but a snitch,” Dante hissed. “And no one likes a snitch, Pascal.”
“No. Please. I’m sorry. I won’t talk anymore. Give me a second chance,” Pascal begged, but Kane and I were already closing in.
“Sorry,” Dante said. “I’m not a second chance kind of guy.”
In a last ditch effort to protect himself, Pascal swung out wildly, making contact with Dante’s eye, just hard enough to break the skin. My blood turned hot in a second. Cheap shots were one thing, but those against the boss were entirely unacceptable. I clocked him and then Kane jumped in and the beating commenced in full. We didn’t let up, even long after Pascal has dropped to the ground and was merely trying to cover his body as best as he could. Blood covered the cement of the warehouse and Pascal’s original screeches of pain were nothing more than grunts and grumbles.