Chapter 18 #2
“No, stop! I’m useful. I know things.”
I pull the knife away and gesture for him to go on.
“Uh, um, they are bringing in meth and fentanyl in the hopes they can distribute here. They have a deal with the Mexican cartel. The cartel provided the drugs in exchange for warm bodies they can sell.”
I assume an exaggerated pout. “Boo, we already knew all of that. You will have to do better,” I tell him.
His eyes roll around in their sockets in his panic to give me some kind of useful information.
Sage yawns and stretches. “I know you’ve been dying to do some cutting, but do you think we can get a move on? I’m getting hungry.”
I gape at him in wonder. “But you had a huge breakfast.”
He pats his flat stomach. “But I’m a growing boy, and I need my energy for fun times.” He winks at me, and I shake my head at him.
“Whore.” I guess Anthony gave up on trying to recall some useful information for me. I suppose he wasn’t as important as he thought he was.
“Sticks and stones, Anthony. Sticks and stones. Shaming someone for their sexual proclivities is low class. It smacks of jealousy. I bet if I was bending over for you, you wouldn’t be calling me a whore.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Sage mutters.
“Okay, well, I guess you’re in luck, Anthony.
I’m feeling pretty fucking generous today.
I’ve had a pretty outstanding start to my morning, so I’m going to take it easy on you.
” I see him sag a little in his chair as some of the tension bleeds out of him and frown.
“Oh no, that was not a cue for you to relax.” I reach forward and yank the forceps out of his leg.
His screams fill the warehouse like a symphony caressing my ears. I straddle his legs and lean over to whisper in his ear.
“Wait, wait, please. I know where they are keeping the people for the shipment. I can show you,” he pleads, snot and tears streaming down his face. I pause and tilt my head to the side.
“How do you know?” I ask curiously.
“I dropped the last shipment of drugs off there. It’s not far from here.
” He rattles off the same address that was on the note left on my car, and another rush of adrenaline runs through my body.
We are finally getting somewhere. I’ll still check it out tonight, but hopefully I can call Agent Garcia tomorrow and put all of that drama behind us, but first, I need to deal with this disgusting worm.
“You played fast and hard and lost, Anthony. You betrayed someone I care about very much, and that makes me mad. For that, you will lose your tongue.” He clamps his mouth shut, but I stick my knife between his lips, and he has no choice but to open them wide.
I slide the bloody forceps into his mouth and clasp them around his tongue, yanking it out.
He gags and flails his body, but I just pin him down with my weight and use the knife to sever the flesh.
I wrinkle my nose at the bloody chunk of meat when it’s been detached and toss the forceps onto the ground as blood pools in Anthony’s mouth.
He starts to choke on his own blood, and the grunts and groans coming from him sound wet and kind of gross.
I climb off his lap and look down at myself. Unfortunately, severing someone’s tongue is a little messy, and blood is splattered all over me. Thankfully I’m wearing all black, so I won’t be walking around like a Jackson Pollock painting.
“Okay, he’ll be dead by the time the cleanup crew arrives,” I tell Sage, wiping my knife on Anthony’s shirt in a spot where there is no blood. I depress the hinge and fold the blade over. I’ll clean it later tonight.
“Huh, I’ve never seen you do that before.” Sage looks a little pale as he watches Anthony’s eyes flutter, and he starts to lose consciousness. He’ll either bleed out or choke on his own blood, so my work here is done.
“To be honest, I don’t do it very often, because as you can see, they die pretty quickly after their tongue is severed.
Usually, I like to drag it out, but we have things to do today.
I want to drive past that address and get an idea of what we are walking into tonight, and we probably shouldn’t do it from the limo. We need something inconspicuous.”
“Hang on, I have an idea.” Sage wrinkles his nose but shoves his hand into Anthony’s pocket and pulls out a set of keys.
“He has a POS he drives here so no one sees his flashy car and gets tempted to boost it. No one will recognize us, and it won’t matter that you’re covered in blood splatter. Afterwards, we can go to the hotel, and you can change in our apartment there.” He swings the keys around his finger.
“Good thinking.” I give him a kiss on the cheek before washing my hands and the outside of my knife. Pulling some paper towels off the roll, I dry both before tucking the knife back into my cleavage. I pat the blood splatter with more damp towel, but it doesn’t do anything.
“Ugh, it’s going to have to do. I don’t think I’ll get any on the car.”
“If you do, we’ll ask the cleanup crew to make it look like he was in a car accident. They can make it appear like he severed his tongue in the crash. Maybe push it down a ravine somewhere.”
“Good thinking. Let’s get out of here.”
“Hang on, let me just make sure he isn’t in the middle of a batch. I don’t want this warehouse to go up in a ball of flames, and I want to inventory how much product we have. I might need to speak to our suppliers to get more if he’s been skimming them for the Maricusos.”
Sage has a little crease of worry between his brows as he looks at the storage area. I know he’s feeling guilty about Anthony, since he was the one who recommended him, but he isn’t to blame. He had well and truly been played.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. I’m sure we can find ourselves another chemist.” I try to reassure him, but I don’t think it helps.
“Maybe I should just go back to it full time,” he suggests, and I start to vibrate with anger again. Fucking Gio. If he was pulling his weight, Sage wouldn’t be split in two, helping manage all the slack.
“Don’t stress about it. You stay here and set things right, and I’ll come back once I’ve done my reconnaissance. We don’t need two of us for surveillance,” I tell him before grabbing the keys out of his hands. “I’ll see you soon.” I wave goodbye and hurry out before he can argue.
There are only two cars in the parking lot, and one of them is the one we saw arrive, so I logically assume the other is Anthony’s.
It’s such an old clunker, I need to use the key to actually open the door, but before long, I’m using google maps to direct me where to go, excited at being that much closer to dealing with Lorenzo.
If the victims are at the warehouse, I just have to figure out how to get him there when it’s raided, but that’s a problem for future Tori.