Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
LEO
“When life hands you a beautiful woman, tell your dick to take a backseat and use your brain or you might be in trouble.”
T he ringing of my phone wakes me from a dead slumber. Clicking on my bedside, I find the phone and swipe to accept the call.
“Your particular services are needed today, son,” my father states. Fuck. I guess it has been a little bit since my last assignment.
“When can I get the details?” I question, using my other hand to wipe the sleep from my eyes. It has to be early since the sun isn't even up. I guess today will be an extra caffeine kind of day.
“They should be in the mailbox at the guardhouse when you are ready. The sooner you handle this situation the less messy this will be for everyone.” It’s spoken so matter of factly for it being the middle of the night. I wonder why the rush.
“Thank you,” is all I respond before the line goes dead. He has always been a man of few words and no affection. At least since Claire’s mom was forcefully plucked from the land of the living. I sit up, take a sip of the sealed water from my end table and pull on my sweats from the chair next to my bed. The irony is not lost on me that my Butterfly also has a chair next to her bed.
I hurry downstairs and out to the guard tower to find an envelope thick with paper. On top of the file is a picture of my mark and I recognize him. This should be fun. My Butterfly will not need her guard anymore. He’s a guard for Fabbri and someone I cannot wait to end. From the subtle hints of what I could see from our date, he is too interested in the woman I am going to marry. Scanning the information, it all starts to click. He goes to a local gym every morning at 5. Checking the clock on the wall, I can see that it’s 3 a.m. and I only have a couple of hours.
While I prefer to have more time to get to know my targets, the old man was very specific that this be handled quickly. Given how open the gym is, I will have to dose him and take him to the warehouse before I can end him. There are very few rules that I have been given when I have a job to complete, but not leaving witnesses or getting caught is one of them. I know that I only have minutes before Rome should be here to help with the technical side of this assignment. As if on queue, he pulls up to the gate where I buzz him in.
He also has a file, and we work quietly while I make us some coffee. No one needs to kill without at least some caffeine in their system. I may be a killer but I am not a monster; at least not everyone’s boogieman.
Rome is in the system and gives me the go ahead to leave in the same car I hunted my Butterfly in. Oh the irony that now I am on a different kind of hunt for a different reason. Today I will get some answers, not only about Fiorella but about the men that are being wooed by Fabbri.
It is a short drive to the location and I park, waiting for my prey. I quickly locate the syringe in the center console with a smile on my face. While I may not always enjoy my assignments, this man has too much interest in my Butterfly for me to care about his minuscule life. When the door of his car starts to open I quickly follow suit. Doing everything in my power to limit the sounds of my footsteps, I slink up behind him and plunge the needle into his ass cheek without hesitation. I am sure that Rome will make jokes about it later. While I catch Anton under the shoulders I close his door before we move toward my vehicle. We are still shrouded in darkness when I slide him into the back seat of my car. The man is not small, but I roll him onto his side and cover him with a blanket. There should be at least an hour before he wakes up from that dose, even if he is a wall of muscle.
Starting the car, I drive on autopilot to the warehouse. While I am more than enthusiastic to get this over with, I wonder if it will change the way that my Butterfly sees me. Rome meets me at the car when I pull in knowing what comes next. We search his pockets, mouth and every surface he could have hidden a weapon before agreeing that he is unarmed. We work together to get Anton secured to the chair. I am going to need some answers before he expires and I am not concerned with how violent I will need to get.
“Rome, can you set up a camera out of his line of sight? I have a feeling I am going to want a record of what is said in here,” I ask my oldest friend. He has every reason to question this request. In all of the years that he has helped me with my assignments, this is the first time I have ever made such a request. I don’t usually enjoy evidence of what I have done, but I have a feeling there is a lot more going on with Anton and Fabbri than we are aware of and I may need a record of it.
By the time that Rome has set up the camera and is back in the office ensuring that all records of me on the streets this morning are wiped from the metaverse. I am sitting to the side of my prey waiting for the drugs to wear off. I made sure that there was very limited visibility in this room to help further disorient him when he wakes up. My patience is legendary when it comes to needing answers. While I may want the job done, I cannot imagine ending him before I am able to get the information that I need. Sitting on a chair across from my prey, I settle in waiting on the drugs to clear his system. Playing with my butterfly knife, ironically my weapon of choice, I see the rhythm of his breathing change.
“Good morning, Anton,” I announce so he cannot further pretend to be asleep. He moves his feet trying the holds that we have him tied to. There is no point in fighting. He is tied to the chair and at the mercy of the Angel of Death . If he gives me the answers that I seek, I will end him quickly. If not, this gets messier, hence the concrete floors and drain. The smirk on his face tells me that he is cocky and he thinks that his position as my Butterfly’s guard will save him.
He thinks his disrespect for my authority at this moment will cause me to lose control, but he clearly does not understand how long I have been killing for my family. These exercises in restraint have not been lost on me. No matter what personal stake I have had in a death, I have never lost control because if I lose control I won’t get the answers that I need. He will answer my questions or I will flay the skin from his body while pumping adrenaline into his body to keep him alive.
“You may want to start responding to me like the man of power I am before I lose my patience,” I instruct. I would prefer not to get excess blood on these clothes. I have been up for hours and I am bored of this game with him.
“I thought Ella was keeping you busy. I know she keeps me coming back for more.” He quips at me. I see red but not a single muscle moves. If this fucker thinks he can use her to get under my skin then he has more skin in the game than I originally thought.
“I thought men of your stature understood their place in front of a woman like that. You are nothing more than a bodyguard and you hold no power here,” I answer without emotion. He cannot know that he is getting under my skin or I will lose this game of tug-o-war and if I lose now, I lose everything.
“While I understand the formal rules, I also know what she prefers in bed, can you say the same thing?” He questions. I don’t usually make death unnecessarily painful but when this motherfucker dies I want all of his nerves on high alert so he can truly feel it.
“I know how to treat a lady, which is why I have had more pussy in the last year than you have dreamt of in your lifetime. Now I have some questions for you about your master and if you answer them honestly, I can make sure you go home tonight. If you decide not to answer I can make things very painful to pull the answers from your pea-sized brain. Do you understand?” I inquire, hoping that this idiot really thinks he is going home. He hangs his head indicating he made a decision.
“What do you want to know?” He whispers, understanding that I have the upper hand. I have to force down the smile that comes with an onslaught of good-boy jokes that come to mind. This might actually work out in my favor. I can do what was asked of me by my father and learn more information about my bride.