Chapter Three
Myron slowly shook his head at Leon. “But we were just supposed to cause a distraction, not kill anyone. Orlan and Walter made us go to the Sinners compound.”
Leon took a step back and he nodded. “You had one thing to do and that was to plan an attack to make it possible for someone else to do what they had to do. You came after two innocent women.” He turned and glared at Julius now.
“You carried my granddaughter out of the clubhouse. You followed them to the cave and you were going to return them so someone else could harm them, maybe even kill them.” Then he turned to Henry.
“And you should never have gone with the other two in that jailbreak. That makes you complicit. Plus, lying to me. I do not abide lies.”
“What are you going to do with us?” Myron finally asked.
Leon shrugged. He stepped back and allowed John to step up and take photos of them.
Henry blinked and asked him, “Why did he just take our pictures?”
Leon smiled. “Oh, these will be the before pictures.”
“Before pictures?” Julius gasped. “What do you need those for?”
“If we find that you and Myron lied to me like ole Henry here. These will be so we can identify the remains, silly man,” Leon assured them.
“We need examples for the future perhaps. No one will recognize you when I’m done with you as I’ll enjoy every moment of this activity.
I haven’t done this in a very long time.
” He rubbed his hands together as if he were about to partake in a favorite hobby.
“But sometimes someone does something that is so egregious that you have to shrug off a layer or two of civility and get right down to the nitty gritty of things.”
John looked over at him and asked, “What do you want to start with?”
Leon turned to him and replied, “The X.” He turned back to his captive audience, leaned closer and his voice lowered to a whisper, “Grabbing my family members was your last mistake. You think even for a moment that I’ll let you go free and unpunished?
No senors, I will not let you go without repentance. ”
“B-but I thought repentance was us working it off or something?” Julius asked in a raspy, fear filled voice.
Leon slowly shook his head. “The price. Remember I said that everything has a price. And painting my garage or mowing the lawn will not cut it. Now you will feel what the Familia usually does to those who betray us.”
Not one of the men said a word. They all had paled by at least two shades, however.
Leon shrugged then he turned to John and nodded.
John went to the next room and rolled out a large wooden x into the cell area.
Four men of John’s men came in through the doorway.
John knew Leon well, he knew his boss. So he had texted them to come and help to arrange this very setting.
The four other men brought Henry out from inside his cell. They stripped off his clothing and secured him to the x.
They then did the same with Myron and Julius.
Julius struggled but John’s men managed to secure him.
Julius and Myron began shouting about how they had been forced to do it. No one seemed to listen to their pleas.
John walked over to a cabinet, unlocked it and carefully lifted out a leather roll. He went to a table, laid the roll down and untied it. He rolled the leather out.
The captive men’s eyes widened when they saw what was inside that roll. A collection of razor-sharp knives of all sizes.
Leon stepped forward to tap then raise one knife after another.
Julius frowned. “They look like hunting knives.”
Leon turned his head and smiled. “That’s exactly what they are. Skinning knives to be exact. But not to worry, they are so sharp you won’t even feel them until after I strip the skin off your bodies.”
Julius swallowed hard and asked, “Y-you’re gonna skin us?”
Leon shrugged. “You refuse to tell me anything valuable. So yeah, I’m gonna strip the skin from your bones.
Bene, don’t worry, I’ll leave enough of your skin for the after pictures.
” He looked over at John and took off his jacket.
He handed it to John and said, “Put this somewhere. I have a dozen of these shirts but that is my favorite suit jacket. I do not wish for it to be covered in blood. I have a feeling it’s going to get disordinato in here. ”
John cocked his head at him and asked, “Do you want headphones to block out the noise?”
Leon shook his head. “No, I want to hear their screams. It will soothe me. Perhaps I will no longer feel such rage when I am done. You know what they say... that is bad for the blood pressure.” He chuckled as he chose a blade and walked around the backs of the men. Then he made his first cut on Henry.
The man began screaming as Leon tore a strip of skin from his back. The strip was perhaps three inches long and two inches wide.
“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Henry sobbed.
Leon leaned into his ear to whisper, “Jesus had nothing to do with this. The devil takes its own.” He leaned back and looked at the section bleeding freely. “Damn, I cut too deep.”
John just shrugged. “Like you said, it’s been a long time since you did this yourself.”
“Si, but by the time I’m done, it will be like I never stopped.” Leon shrugged. Then he paused and studied the strip of skin he’d just taken and shook his head. “You’d better heat the blade. We wouldn’t want them to bleed out too quickly.”
John grumbled, “Damn, I hate the scent of burnt skin.”
All three heads turned as they watched him go to the cabinet and haul out a large, wide knife. He also picked up a blow torch then ran the blaze over and over the blade. Soon, the blade turned bright red and they could smell the blade being heated.
John walked over to stand behind Henry. He screamed as the blade touched his skin. He kept trying to escape the heat of the blade but John wouldn’t stop. The hot blade sealed the skin shut and the horrific stench permeated the area.
Henry fell unconscious as the pain was too much for him to bear.
Leon just snorted. Then he moved to stand behind Myron.
Myron sweated as he felt the knife Leon held touch his back.
Then he closed his eyes almost as if he were praying and he whispered, “In my pocket...One of the men we met dropped a letter as he was leaving. No one else saw it but me. I picked it up after they left.” His whisper was raw and low.
“I didn’t read it until later.” His voice faded into the silence.
Leon leaned near to his ear to ask quietly, “And why should I care about a letter?”
“I don’t know but you might want to read it.” Myron choked on his own spit. “It might give you a clue to who is behind this.”
Leon nodded at John.
John walked over to the pile of clothing. He sorted through the clothing and shoved his hand into the pockets then he drew out the letter. With a raise of his eyebrow, he handed the letter to Leon.
Leon opened the letter and began to read.
The letter was written in Italian. He paused at this.
Reading the words on the paper, his eyes went dark with rage.
After a long tense moment, he carefully folded the letter and handed the knife back to John.
Then he looked at his son in law and said, “Leave them where they are for now. I’ll be back to deal with them after I make a few calls. ”
John nodded then dared to ask, “What did it say?”
Leon shook his head at him and said, “This betrayal goes deeper than we realized. I must speak to someone in Italy before they can set something up.” He turned and walked out the door.
John just shook his head and looked at Myron. “Why didn’t you say something before about that letter?”
Myron swallowed hard. “I heard the two men who busted us out tell Orlan and Walter about the disruption but as they walked away I heard them say something about setting up an assassination. I didn’t tell anyone about the letter because I didn’t know what it said.
I couldn’t read it but I did hear them say something about a Mr. G.
I had no idea what they were talking about so I didn’t say anything. ”
Henry had his head slumped but he muttered, “You are a turncoat, that’s what you are. Whining and trying to make a deal because you can’t stand a little pain. You deserve to die for being a fucking coward.”
“Excuse me,” John quipped. “But didn’t I just hear you begging and pleading for a deal while Leon was skinning you?” He made a fist and slugged the other man in the mouth which in turn broke his jaw.
Myron paled and stared at Henry then he looked at John.
John just shrugged and said, “I was tired of him running his mouth. All smoke and mirrors. At least you had something to trade.”