Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“You were beneath my notice by then. Don’t be so full of yourself.”
“How many, Fontana? I want to know. How many like me did you kill?”
“Plenty. Dozens. Hundreds. I don’t know and does it matter?” He leans forward, the covers slumping off his body. His hairy chest peeks out from under an old white tank top. One gnarled finger points at me. “You have just as much blood on your hands as I do, you fucking hypocrite.”
I curse under my breath. It takes a lot of effort not to shoot him right here and now. “Not fucking kids.”
“Kids, women, who give a god damn shit if they’re in the way? We’re the same, Prime, we always have been, only I’m better than you. I survived worse than you over the years, you know that? You think you can come in here and end me? Fucking me?”
“Here’s what you don’t understand.” I move at him, kneeling on the edge of the bed, shoving him down with one hand on his flabby chest, jamming the muzzle of the gun into his mouth. He whimpers, all his bravado gone.
Best way to shut a man up is to shove a warm barrel between his teeth.
I lean close so he can hear. The fire’s getting loud downstairs. Smoke seeps in through the open door. Not too much longer now before the whole house is a bonfire.
“It was never about being the best. It was about taking care of my people. You never did get that, did you? Your whole outfit only existed because you paid your men, but you never made them give a fuck about you. That’s why they all fled the second the tap turned off. That’s why all your guards are gone and I could walk right in here and kill you like the scum you are. You deserved worse than this, Fontana, and you deserved it a lot sooner. Shawn deserved better. All those other dead boys deserved better.” I shove the gun harder, scraping his teeth. He moans and tries to thrash at me, eyes wild and wide, tears streaming down his face. Everyone’s a coward when they’re staring down their end.
“I want you to know, I got something waiting for me at home. I’ll go on, I might even be happy, and sometimes I’ll remember this moment fondly. But mostly I’ll forget about you like the rest of the world will, and we’ll all be better off for it.”
Please, he tries to say, but it comes out muffled.
I pull the trigger. His skull explodes in blood and brain, his tongue tearing in half, jaw missing. His arms give one last twitch before flopping down lifeless, worthless, dead and bloody.
I step back, looming over the body of the man I hated for so long, waiting to feel something, waiting for the revenge I’ve dreamed about to hit me.
Except there’s nothing.
Only the smell of smoke, of shit and death, his ruined face a smear across his pillow.
I turn away and shove my gun back into my belt.
He never mattered. I should’ve seen it sooner, but I’ve been so lost in my grief that I’ve never been able to process it. Fontana’s worthless. He’s nothing but a bloated corpse and has been for years. His outfit crumbled with the tiniest bit of pressure because they’ve been on the edge of failure for a very long time.
There’s nothing for me here anymore.
I stride over to the windows and push them open. I climb out onto the back porch, slip once, nearly slide down the roof. I catch myself and clamber onto a drainpipe, an old cast iron thing bolted into the side, and lower down.
Flames lick the back door. I watch them for a few minutes, wondering if his wife got out. I’m sure she did. I doubt there was ever real love in this place.
I turn my back to the inferno and walk away, my shadow cast long across the grass, a big smile on my face.
I’m looking forward to getting home.
CHAPTER 38
PRIME
Two Weeks Later
“You know I don’t want to do this.” Stellan flicks a lighter open and closed. “But there have to be consequences.”
“I know.” I cross my legs and take a long drink from a glass of bourbon. The good stuff. I love coming here. Stellan’s a lot of things, but he’s not cheap and he never reaches for the bottom-shelf bottles when I’m around, God bless his soul for that. “I can take it.”
“I’m taking half your parking properties and spreading them around to other Capos. You’ll retain control over your westernmost area. You’ll owe me higher tribute for the next three years, and once that’s paid, you can start to expand again. Until then, consider yourself under tight scrutiny. Anything you do, I want to hear about it first. Understand me, Prime?”