Kairus Navarro
(Ky-rus Na-var-row)
I nodded for one of my men to remove the sack from the guy’s head and crossed my arms over my chest.
Excitement rushed through my veins and one corner of my mouth ticked upward. The moment the sack was snatched off, the man’s head moved wildly from side to side. His eyes were frantic and bulging. He attempted to move, but he was strapped to a chair in the middle of the warehouse. When his eyes finally landed on me, the blood drained from his face and his body went rigid. He attempted to speak but the duct tape over his mouth had his words coming out as muffled sounds.
“The tape,” I demanded.
The tape was snatched off his mouth and he flinched.
“Mr. Navarro!” he called out with a tremble in his voice.
“Roger. Roger. Roger,” I repeated with a smile on my face, but nothing about the situation was humorous. “You’ve been a hard man to find.” My eyes cut into slits.
Moments like this made my pulse race. The smell of fear always lifted my spirits.
“I was gonna come see you today,” he rushed out.
I tilted my head and my frown deepened. “Is that right?” Uncrossing my arms I scratched the side of my face. His head bobbed up and down quickly.
“If that’s the case then why did my men find you with your car packed up like you were leaving town?” He looked like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His body trembled.
“It wasn’t even like that,” he blurted.
My jaw clenched. One day people would learn lying to me was almost as worse as not repaying your debt.
My eyes connected with Rock, one of the men next to him, and I nodded.
Rock knew what that meant without me having to say anything. He stepped in front of Roger, balled his fist, and sent it across his face. I was sure I heard something crack, which made me grin.
“You know, when you came to me asking for a loan, my rules were clear. Pay back the money loaned with interest or I come collect in more rigorous ways.” I reached back for my gun and tapped it against my side.
Roger’s head lulled. He lifted it and blinked a couple times. Blood now dripped from his nose and swollen lip. When his eyes finally focused again and landed on the gun, they grew. He withered in the chair and his body shook. He struggled, trying to free himself but it was useless.
“For two weeks I’ve been on the hunt for you. That means for two weeks my time was wasted. I’m not a patient man, Roger.”
“I was gonna pay you, man. I just need a little more time to get all the money.”
This time I looked to the left of him at Crusher. He bobbed his head then turned and walked a short distance, grabbing the duffle bag. Making his way back to us, he tossed it between me and Roger.
“So you mean the money we found in your car was my payment.” He visibly swallowed hard and eyed the bag. It was more than what he was due to pay back. Which led me to believe he planned on running off on me without repaying his debt.
“Ye-yeah, man. I was on my way to pay you.”
I felt my patience dwindling as the lies continued to file out of his mouth.
“Since that was meant for me, I guess everything in the bag is mine, right?” I asked.
Hesitantly, he nodded. “Yeah, yeah, man. Take it all. Just, just let me go.” Again his voice shook.
I cracked my neck side to side and stepped forward, kicking the bag out of the way. When I got close enough, I slammed the butt of my gun across his face, making him grunt. “You think you’re in the place to make demands?”
“Kairus.” He called out my first name. I hit him again. “You fucked up when you missed your deadline then tried to run off on me like I wouldn’t find you. You must have forgotten who the fuck I was.” Again, I hit him.
Trying to get over on a Navarro was a death wish. Anyone who crossed us knew that. Disrespect wasn’t going to be tolerated. When you tried to skip out on a debt to us, you committed the ultimate disrespect.
I stepped back, repositioning the gun in my hand and gripping the handle tightly.
“Since it seems like you forgot who you were dealing with, it’s up to me to remind you.”
Roger struggled to lift his head that now had three large gashes across it, blood dripped down his face. His breathing was staggered.
“Pl-please,” he struggled.
“You know the worst thing about you? You were gonna run off and leave your debt to fall on your parents. Good thing I caught you before it came to that. I’ll make sure I send them flowers.” Lifting my head, I pulled the trigger, sending a bullet between his eyes. His body slumped and his head dropped.
“I thought you were never gonna shut his whining ass up,” Rock complained.
I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders back. “Incinerate his body,” I demanded and bent down to grab the duffle bag. “Cut off two fingers first and send them to his parents.”
I turned to leave. My men were capable of cleaning this up and taking care of business. Roger knew how things would turn out which was why I was shocked it had taken him so long to try to run when he didn’t repay me right away. I never loaned money to someone who didn’t have things to lose. Roger was a selfish bastard. If he would have left, I would have gone after his parents. He knew that but didn’t care.
The amount he owed didn’t even put a dent in what I normally loaned out. Many people, from failing businesses to underground crime leaders, borrowed money from me. They knew borrowing money from me meant I owned them until I was repaid. When it came time to collect my money, I didn’t take excuses or like to have to hunt you down. Most people knew not to try me, but there was always one like Roger who liked to tempt fate. Those were the ones I loved to make examples out of. What everyone failed to realize was I had eyes everywhere. Even if I didn’t react right away, I was coming.
“Business looks good,” Nolan, my business partner, noted. Lifting my eyes from the papers on my desk, I leaned back and stared at him. At thirty-two I had already doubled my original wealth I inherited when I turned eighteen.
“Did you have any doubts?” Nolan had just gotten back into town. He was typically the one who gathered those who thought they didn’t have to repay, but with him gone and Roger trying to skip town, I took it personally. It had been a while since I’d gotten my hands dirty anyway.
He smirked. “Nah. You’re always the happiest when you’re able to cause havoc.” I chuckled and lifted my hand to my cheek, brushing my thumb across the scars.
“Can’t get rusty out here. That’s when people think you’ve gone weak.” I looked down at the papers. “Looks like Barnet isn’t gonna make his deadline this time,” I mentioned, referring to a business owner who took a loan out to cover some gambling debt he had incurred.
Nolan grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Good, he’s been pushing his luck too damn long anyway. I’ve been itching to put a bullet in him.” Barnet had borrowed from us a few times. He was an arrogant asshole who snorted and gambled all his money away. He always managed to pay back what he borrowed, however, this time he had an hour left and I hadn’t heard from him.
“He was last seen at Benson’s underground ring,” I said, referring to a gambling club that ran off the books.
“Fucking idiot. He should’ve learned after that time I broke his leg. I guess it’s time to make shit more permanent.” He cracked his knuckles. While seeing the fear people got when they realized they fucked up humored me, Nolan got joy from the killing and violence itself. He was raised from a young age for this life, we both were. Our fathers made sure we were groomed to take over when the time came.
Just as I was about to reply, the phone on my desk rang.
I hit the blinking light.
“What?” I barked.
“Uhm, Mr. Navarro. Sorry to bother you, sir,” my secretary stuttered. “I have a Mr. Jeremy Marks on line one.”
My brows furrowed and I looked toward Nolan. “What does he want?”
“He-he, uh, didn’t say, sir.” I turned to my computer and hit a couple of buttons. Of course I knew exactly who Jeremy was. I had a special interest in him. My only confusion was why he was calling my work line.
I ran a financial firm during the day. Most of my customers needed help washing their dirty money to stay off the radar. I did have a few legit ones, but Jeremy wasn’t one of them.
Entering the name, I waited for the information to load before scanning it quickly.
I grunted. “Put it through.”
“Yes, sir.”
I picked the phone up and waited. Normally clients called me directly for two reasons, to either pay back their debt early or to piss me off because they couldn’t afford to hold up their end of the bargain.
I sat in my blacked-out Range Rover. My tint was dark enough that even if someone saw me sitting outside the house they couldn’t see who was inside, not that I was worried. I observed my prey as she staggered out of her car and up the walkway that led to her door. This was unlike her, getting sloppy drunk. It made me wonder just what was going on inside her pretty little head. She was my good girl, pure but jaded at the same time.
I clenched my jaw at how irresponsible she was, not being sober enough to watch her surroundings. Anyone could have taken advantage of her and she wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it. She was dressed in a skirt so short I was sure one wrong move would have her pussy out. The shirt she wore stopped just under her breasts.
She fumbled with her keys and giggled to herself. My brows furrowed seeing the driver’s side of her car open and a man stepped out, the same man I watched her leave the bar with. He walked to the door and towered over her. His hand covered hers and he grabbed the keys, unlocking the door.
My hand brushed over my five o clock shadow, rubbing against the rough texture. The vein in my neck throbbed as my hand rolled back and forth over my steering wheel. Heat flooded my body watching the two disappear inside the house.
I waited a couple of seconds before making my move. Rolling my neck between my shoulders, I grabbed the door handle of my truck. Just as I was about to step out, I paused, seeing the man had stepped back outside and made his way to the car. His phone was to his ear and he opened the door, peeking inside as if he was looking for something.
Making sure my gun was tucked in the back of my pants, I slid my black leather gloves on and looked left and right, checking out the clear street once I was out of the car. The ground was wet from the rain earlier and it was humid out.
I stalked across the street. The closer I got to the man, the more my blood boiled and my taste for blood increased. I could hear his laughs and bragging on how he was about to fuck her, but what he didn’t know was leaving the bar with someone who didn’t belong to him was going to a deadly mistake .
“Yeah, it’s starting to take effect. When I get in the house she should be passed out and I’ll send y’all a text to slide through.” He laughed. “Hell yeah. I know that bitch gotta have some good pussy. Did you see how fine she was? Bet.” He hung up and stood straight.
Before he was able to turn around, I grabbed him from behind and wrapped my arm around his neck, placing him in a sleeper hold. He struggled and hit my arm a couple of times before his movements became sluggish. Eventually his body went slack and sagged against me.
Turning him, I tossed his body over my shoulder, making sure to pocket his phone, and walked back to my truck. I would make sure his friends who thought they would get a sample of my pie were taken care of too. No one touched what was mine, even if she didn’t know it yet.