Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
SLOANE
"I know I've said this before, but crime pays too well." I shook my head. It sucked that people like the Astors made billions off the suffering of others.
"It does," Anita confirmed. "That's why I don't care when Hawk drains their bank accounts after we kill them. That money is better used elsewhere."
And by elsewhere, she meant charities and to the families of victims. Hawk was great about showing us where the money went after it was siphoned off.
"I really hope these two put up a fight. I have some extra energy to burn off." I cracked my neck as we slipped around the back and into the courtyard. This place wasn't as secluded as the mansion, so we had to be a little more careful.
"You'll get the chance. I'll make sure of it."
Anita was locked in. She wanted this almost as badly as I did.
The Astors didn't have any guards in Paris but the building had a state-of-the-art alarm system.
Thankfully, breaking and entering happened to be one of my specialties.
I had the system disarmed and the door unlocked in under a minute.
With trained precision, we moved as one to the second floor of the building where the Astors took up residence.
The door to their apartment didn't give me trouble. It was amazing how careless people were when they thought the building they lived in was secure enough that it didn't require extra protection for their own living space.
Their oversight was good news for us.
From the city plans I was able to pull before we got to Paris, the master bedroom was off the dining room.
The door was conveniently open. Didn't these people know it was safer to sleep behind a closed door? If the place caught on fire, a closed door could be the difference between life or death.
Though it didn't matter anymore. The Astors wouldn't live to see the morning.
"Separate beds?" I whispered to Anita as soon as we crossed the threshold.
My teammate shrugged. Obviously their sleeping arrangements didn't interest her the way they did me.
I went left while Anita went right. I don't know which one I wanted more, the asshole or the bitch.
It would seem fate brought me to the bitch who was supposed to love my son like her own.
Anita and I moved at the same time. I wrapped my hand around Mrs. Astor's neck and squeezed until her fight-or-flight response kicked in. She was no match for me though. This woman spent time pampering herself while I spent it in the gym perfecting my technique.
We weren't the same.
"Time to have a little fun." With a firm grip on her throat, I dragged her out of bed and to the dining room. Anita was one step behind me with an unconscious Mr. Astor thrown over her shoulder. It was a good thing we didn't have to go far because he looked heavy.
Anita unceremoniously dropped him on the floor and helped me secure the missus to a chair.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she screamed. "Don't you know who I am? I'll ruin you for this."
I grabbed a decorative napkin from the table and shoved it in her mouth. I didn't need her waking up the neighbors before we had the chance to question them.
Once she was secure, we did the same with Mr. Astor. He started to come to just as we finished the last knot.
"What the hell?" he groaned.
Grabbing a second napkin, I shoved it in Mr. Astor's mouth just in case. It didn't hurt to think ahead.
"Now that you're both comfy, we're going to have a little chat."
Both of them rocked in their chairs in an attempt to get free, but it was no use. Anita and I were like Boy Scouts. Our knots were top-notch.
"Here's how this is going to work. We will ask a question, and you will provide the answer. Each time you refuse to answer, we cut off a finger. How does that sound?"
The terror started to settle in. I could see it in both of their eyes.
"I'm going to start with an easy one. True or false. Are you one of the five families known as The Givers?"
I pulled the napkin out of the woman's mouth, and the first thing she did was lie.
"No." She shook her head violently. "I have no idea what you're talking about.
" It would be one thing if she sounded scared because of my line of questioning, but the second I mentioned The Givers, fire flashed in her eyes.
I sighed and motioned for Anita to help. Shoving the napkin back in her mouth, I used my one hand to cover the napkin and the other to hold her hand in place.
Anita was swift, and she cut the pinky off right at the second knuckle. The discarded appendage rolled across the floor as Mrs. Astor screamed bloody murder behind my hand.
"Well, now that we have your attention, let's try this again.
This time with you." I pointed to her husband.
I pulled the silk napkin out of his mouth and waved it like a white flag.
Only I wasn't calling a truce. There was nothing diplomatic about what I had in store for these two.
"True or false. Are you one of the five families known as The Givers? "
The husband was smart enough not to lie. "Yes," he spat. "And we're going to destroy you for this."
I sucked in a disappointed breath. "See, considering your current predicament, I'm not inclined to believe you. But I appreciate you answering my question. If only your wife had done the same, she wouldn't be missing her pinky."
"Fuck you," he hissed and then followed it up with a wince after Anita punched him in the stomach.
"No, thank you. I do have another question for you though. What was your plan for Benjamin?"
I would never give them the satisfaction of calling him their son. They weren't his parents. They weren't even good to him. He was merely a means to an end. But it didn't matter anymore. They would never see Benny again.
"Our boy?"
I wiggled my finger in front of his face. "No, no. My son." I pointed to myself. "You might've adopted him, but he was always mine."
The wife sniffled next to us. Snot ran down her face, and blood dripped from her hand onto the floor. She no longer looked like the polished woman who ran a criminal organization.
"He stopped being yours the day you signed the papers."
I backhanded him and watched with satisfaction as his head whipped to the side. "And you were supposed to love him enough for me, but that didn't happen, so spare me the party line and tell me what you planned for him."
Mr. Astor no longer tried to hide the evil behind a pretty mask.
He let it all shine when he explained in detail how he planned to use Benjamin to continue his succession.
I had to hold back the bile threatening to work its way up my throat as he described the initiation into the family.
The people he would learn to kill so he could fully understand every aspect of the job.
These people were sick with their beliefs about pure bloodlines and breeding amongst each other to keep the families strong.
The life I’d willingly handed my son at birth made me sick. I had wanted something better for him, but instead, I turned him over to a bunch of monsters.
"Who are the other four families?"
"You might as well kill me because I'll never tell you."
Anita grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. "We'll see about that."
For an hour, we worked him and his wife over. There were no fingers left for us to cut off either of them. They each wore matching stab wounds throughout their abdomen, and still they refused to tell us.
"Are we losing our touch?" Anita finally asked when both the husband and wife were hanging on to their last breaths with a fishing wire. So damn thin and yet strong as hell.
It would be fascinating if it wasn't so damn irritating.
"I don't think so. Clearly they want to take this secret with them to the grave."
Anita looked at me and then back at the couple. With enough force to take his head clear off his shoulder, Anita slit the husband's throat.
"Last chance," she told the wife.
Stubbornly, the wife held her head up high as if she was offering her throat as payment. Anita didn't hesitate. Mrs. Astor quickly joined her husband in hell.
Wiping the knife off on her cargos, Anita sighed. "That wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be."
I knew what she meant.
"That's because we won this battle but not the war. Without the identities of the other four families, we can't put a stop to the organ trafficking ring."
"Call Hawk and get a cleanup crew here. We need to get back to the States, and you have a family to see to."
A family.
I liked the sound of that.