Chapter 19
Four of my guys dragged the dead bodyguard inside the apartment.
Toro stayed in the hall with Carmela to keep her quiet.
I took point and crept down the hallway with Romeo and Ciro right behind me.
My other guys fanned out through the kitchen and living room to make sure there weren’t any surprises.
I glanced around as I walked.
Nice fuckin’ place.
Luciano hadn’t spared any expenses on his little whore.
I knew where to go – not because I’d seen inside the apartment, but because I could hear the noise.
A woman’s voice was going, “Unh – unh – unh – unh!” down a hallway.
As I got closer, I could hear the wet slap slap slap of their bodies every time she cried out.
I reached the bedroom door, which was closed, and gently turned the doorknob.
It wasn’t locked.
Okay, maybe that was Luciano Amato’s last mistake.
I flung open the door and walked in, my gun ready.
The room was lit by a single lamp on a bedside table.
Luciano was on the bed fucking his girl doggie style.
He was a tall guy – in pretty good shape for 40-something – but he still had a bit of a gut.
The chick was pretty hot, with big tits that swung back and forth beneath her as Luciano railed her.
As soon as I burst into the room, Luciano froze mid-thrust –
And then freaked out.
He pulled out of the chick and scrambled across the mattress.
He was heading for the bedside table where his gun was.
I fired.
Pop!
The wooden tabletop splintered.
Luciano jerked back his hand like a snake had tried to bite him.
The girl screamed bloody murder –
But Ciro grabbed her by the hair and flung her onto the floor.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” he yelled at her, and she stopped screaming.
Romeo darted in, picked up the gun from the bedside table, then backed away.
Luciano knelt there on the bed, his boner wilting, as he stared down the barrel of my gun.
“…you’re Cesare Caproni, aren’t you,” he said, realizing he was well and truly fucked.
“Yup,” I said.
He stared at me for a second, then yelled angrily, “Well?! Go ahead and get it over with!”
“First you’re gonna help us get into your daddy’s mansion.”
Luciano stared at me –
And burst out laughing.
Then he stopped suddenly.
“Vanculo, motherfucker,” he sneered. “You can torture me all you like, but I’m not gonna tell you shit.”
“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe we’ll just shoot her, then.”
I pointed my gun at the woman’s head where she crouched on the floor.
She screamed in terror. “LUCIANO – TELL THEM! TELL THEM WHATEVER THEY WANT!”
Luciano got a sick look on his face, but he didn’t say anything.
“You don’t give a shit about her, do you?” I said with a smirk.
The look of horror on the girl’s face was priceless. “LUCIANO – TELL THEM!”
Luciano still didn’t say anything.
“I figured,” I said matter-of-factly, then pulled the trigger.
Pop!
Blood sprayed across the hardwood floors.
The chick collapsed on her side, her eyes open wide, as blood spread out from under her head in a slowly growing puddle.
Luciano looked like he might puke…
But he didn’t say shit.
“I thought she might not be enough to make you talk,” I said. “So I had a backup plan.”
Romeo stepped forward with a tablet computer.
He held it out so Luciano could see, then tapped the screen to unmute it.
The bedroom filled with the sound of children’s screams.
Luciano’s face twisted with horror.
I knew exactly what he was seeing on the screen:
His wife… his teenage son… and his two little daughters, nine and six.
That had been another whole operation. A year of planning.
Lucrezia had flipped a servant girl by threatening to kill her parents. Earlier this evening, the servant girl had turned off all the alarms and told us where the guards would be. A dozen of my men had taken them all out.
But getting into Luciano’s house would be a piece of cake compared to getting inside Don Amato’s compound…
Unless we had somebody else to help us.
“NO!” Luciano screamed as he stared at his family on the screen.
“Calm the fuck down,” I said. “Nobody hurt ‘em… and nobody’s going to. Not if you help me get into your father’s mansion.”
The woman on the tablet shrieked, “Luciano – Luciano, do whatever they say!”
The kids were screaming, “Daddy, Daddy!”
Luciano started to cry.
Romeo looked like he was going to be sick, too.
I liked Romeo, and he was a good soldier, usually – but sometimes he could be a real pussy.
“If you don’t tell me,” I said in a calm voice, “I’m going to have a dozen of my guys fuck your wife in front of your kids. And after they’re finished with her, they’re going to shoot everybody in the head while you watch. So if I were you, I would do exactly what I want.”
Luciano looked up at me, tears streaming down his face. “Please… I’ll give you money…”
“That’s not what I want.”
“Please…”
I sighed, then said loudly so they could hear me over the tablet, “Hey, Cicciobello?”
Cicciobello meant ‘fat boy’ and was the nickname for one of my guys at Luciano’s house.
“Yeah, boss?” he said over the tablet.
“Shoot one of the kids.”
Romeo looked like he might puke.
“WAIT!” Luciano screamed. “I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING – JUST DON’T HURT THEM!”
“Hey, Cicciobello?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Don’t do anything until I tell you.”
“You got it, boss.”
I turned to Romeo. “Turn that shit down. I can’t hear myself think straight.”
Romeo muted the screen again.
Then I turned to Luciano. “Alright. Start talkin’.”
“You promise you won’t hurt them if I tell you everything?” Luciano asked in a trembling voice.
I smiled. “I swear to God.”