Chapter 9 #4
There’s a man tied to a chair in the middle of the room with dried blood on his shirt and a very exhausted and irritated expression on his face. He looks to be mid-thirties, maybe. Light olive-toned skin, jet black hair, and a nose that looks like it’s been broken a few times.
“I’m not tellin’ you nothing,” he spits out as he squirms in the chair.
“We’ll see about you,” Tommaso snaps at him. “You like both of your arms intact?”
“Tommy,” Carmine scolds him, and then looks to me. “Go ahead. He’s all yours.”
I step closer to the guy and get a better look of him. He looks small. Scrawny, really. Nothing to write home about.
“You were the driver,” I say, taking an educated guess.
“I didn’t say nothing,” he sneers.
“You’re too skinny to shoot the gun that was used,” I comment. “Especially as many times and from a moving vehicle. You had to be the driver.”
“I could shoot any one of you!” he claims in several loud breathless huffs. “I’ll fucking kill you right now.”
I step closer to him and lean down. “Go ahead and try again, but you’re not making it out this time.”
“Tell me who hired you,” I demand.
He simply stares at me angrily.
“If you don’t want to speak, maybe we can just cut your fucking tongue out!” Tommy hisses from behind me.
I turn around and slam my hand against my brother’s chest. “Shut the fuck up, Tommaso,” I demand. “I’m talking to him.”
The man in the chair laughs. “You can’t even control yourselves—you’re pathetic.”
I whip around in frustration. “Maybe he’s right,” I say and reach into my pocket for my switchblade. “Maybe you’d be more accommodating if you were missing some limbs.”
“Yeah right, you keep talking all this big talk but doing nothing—” before the man can finish his sentence, I slam my knife down into his fingers and push hard, cutting his ring and pinky fingers halfway off. Blood gushes from the wounds.
“Fuck!” the man cries out in pain. He looks behind me toward Carmine as if he expects him to stop me.
“He won’t save you. He’ll let me kill you even,” I say as I lean in closer and closer until my nose is practically touching his.
I push down on the blade harder with the full weight of my body until it slices through his fingers completely and they slip onto the floor. Blood is pouring out of his stumps.
He groans in pain and tears start to pour down his hallow cheeks.
“Motherfucker!” he hisses between his breathless tears.
“Tell me who hired you, or you’ll lose even more,” I snarl.
He doesn’t listen. He just cries and starts to beg me not to.
“They’ll kill me.”
“I will kill you if you don’t,” I tell him.
“He will,” Carmine replies. “There’s no one here to save you.”
“Just fuckin’ do it!” Tommy huffs from behind. Clearly irritated that we’re letting this guy live for as long as we are.
“Okay, okay!” the guy sobs. “T-The Tulos.”
I back up from him and click my knife closed. “The Tulos hired you to kill me and Rosalie?” I ask him.
He doesn’t answer, just sobbing like a little baby.
“Answer him!” Tommaso pushes past me and slams his hands down on the arms of the chair. “What do the Tulos have to do with this?”
I shove Tommy out of the way and glare at him, but then turn back to the man in the chair.
“They hired me to kill Rosalie,” he admits.
I blink. “Not me? Just Rosalie?”
He sucks in a breath. “Yes, just Rosalie.”
“Why?” Carmine asks, stepping closer. “Why just Rosalie?”
The man shakes his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t,” he insists. “Just…don’t. Let me go, I’ll run away, I’ll never bother you again.”
“Damn right you won’t, you’ll be dead!” Tommy says in a huff, moving side to side in his agitation.
The guards in the room step closer, just in case.
“Who shot the gun?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
“You were the driver, who aimed at Rosalie?” I ask once more.
He sighs heavily. “Marco Tulo,” he replies. “I was just hired as the driver. I’ve done it before… They offered me a shit ton of money.”
“Was it worth your fingers?” I ask him.
He just cries.
“I think we have enough,” Carmine says. “We know we need to look into the Tulo family more now.”
“No, I want to know why,” I say. “He has to know more.”
“I don’t, I don’t know anything else. Just that I was hired to be the driver. The gunner only aimed for the girl! That’s it!”
I growl under my breath. “Why? Why would they only want to kill Rosalie?”
Carmine puts a hand on my back. “Maybe it’s the Fiorellis they have a problem with, not us.”
I shake my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Doesn’t it?” Tommy asks. “They put a bomb at their door, right?”
I shove my switchblade back into my pocket, blood and all, and sigh.
“We need to tell Eivor,” I say reluctantly. “He’s not going to like this.”
“First we need to take care of him,” Carmine reminds me.
The guy in the chair looks at us wide eyed.
“No, no please,” he begs.
I grind my teeth and look at Tommaso, who looks all too eager to end the life of the man who almost killed me and Rosalie.
“You do it, Tommy. I have a honeymoon to get to.”