4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I lya, the Russian,

“Last chance to back out.” My brother pulled on a black stocking cap but left it on top of his head as he watched me from across the back of the catering van we were using for this.

“You don’t have to do this. I am more than capable of handling it myself.” It was almost time, and if he had any doubts that would derail me, then I’d pull rank and sit his ass right here. Brother or not, I didn’t need a naysayer. Failure wasn’t an option.

“What are you going to do if he swings on you? You know he will, and you don’t know what kind of mental state the bride is in,” Adrik said, checking his gun before he stuck it in the back of his pants.

“I doubt she’s coherent.” Irini had been crying for most of the day, but as the night had worn on, and the comments became louder about the bedding, she’d retreated within herself. If she didn’t recognize that we were there to save her, she could cause more problems.

“That’s why I am going with you. This is a clusterfuck, and you know it.” He pointed at me, shoving his finger into my chest .

“How? Tell me how this isn’t a good plan.” I shoved his finger off my chest and twisted it until he yielded. “One measly long hallway with no windows won’t protect a bridal suite that’s on the ground level. We can easily go around the building and enter the suite through the French doors, for fuck’s sake.”

Adrik said nothing as he pulled the black cap over his blonde hair. If he said anything else, I’d have to take retribution from him as his boss, but as my brother, he was probably right. This was ludacris.

We were sitting in the back of one of our all-white catering vans. I’d called two of my most trusted soldiers to bring one and to make sure there was black clothing in the back. They sat in front of the van, watching us but not saying a word. Their place was to make sure that no one from the hotel would become suspicious. It was a catering van, and there was a wedding tonight.

“We’ve survived when others haven’t, and you’re going to lose your life over a seventeen-year-old girl.”

“Are you done bitching at me? It’s time,” I said, yanking down my mask and double-checking that the gun was snug against my back, tucked securely in my waistband.

Adrik flicked me off and opened the doors of the van. Creeping out the back, we made a run to the nearest outside wall. Plastering our backs to it, we slowly crept along the outside. I had to give it to the Italians. I’d never seen such a lack of security, and I would have fired whomever had thought this was safe.

I signaled to Adrik that we were approaching the camera. Ducking, we hid underneath its range of motion as the French doors came into view. A smirk formed on my lips underneath the mask. The layout mirrored the one I’d found Toula earlier. Pulling a lock set from my pocket, I made a hand gesture for Adrik to stop and then jumped the railing .

Screams came from inside, and I could see the shadows on the bed bouncing off the walls. I doubted we had been in time to save Irini, but she’d never live in fear after tonight. Picking the lock, I felt it give way underneath my touch, but I didn’t force the door open. Signaling to Adrik that we were in, I watched as he jumped and duck-waddled towards me.

Three.

Two.

One.

I slid the French door open, allowing Adrik to go in first. It wouldn’t have mattered. Junior was so far gone into his sexual perversion that he didn’t even realize that we were in the room until it was too late. He came swinging at us. I ducked the first punch, while Adrik got behind him and put him in a sleeper hold.

“Go to sleep, you sick son of a bitch.” It didn’t take long for Adrik to knock out Junior. I was letdown Junior didn’t put up more of a fight. Once he was subdued, we made sure that his feet and hands were bound with rope. Putting a hood over his head, Adrik carried him out the French doors and headed for the van.

I went to leave behind him, but Irini’s screams hadn’t stopped. She was lying on the bed, her wrists bound to the headboard. Junior had sliced her wedding dress down the middle, including the undergarments. The dress gathered on either side of her, but she was completely bare down the middle.

“Hello, Irini,” I said to her, not bothering to remove my cap. I didn’t know if there were cameras in this room, and I wasn’t taking the risk. She continued to scream, but her eyes were blank. It was a strange combination.

I removed my knife from my boot, planning on cutting the cords around her wrists, but when I got close enough, she tried to scratch and claw. I wasn’t sure if she actually knew what was going on or if this was just a fight-or-flight response.

“Irini, you’re safe.” I attempted to calm her down. I kept repeating that she was safe, that she never had to worry about Junior again, but nothing was getting through to her as she thrashed on the bed, the binds digging into her already reddened skin.

Finally, I crouched by the bed, out of her reach. I took a chance, whispering to her, “Toula sent me. You’re safe.” I said it three or four times before she seemed to understand. Her lips trembled, but even when she turned her head towards me, she wasn’t lucid. “You know nothing,” I said to her, slicing the binds at her wrists.

“I know nothing,” she whispered as I went out the French doors to the patio.

***

“ W ake him.”

My enforcer threw a bucket of cold water at Junior’s face. He sputtered, trying to shake the droplets from his face. I waited for him to get his balance before I did anything else.

Raising his head, he looked at my men surrounding him. “Russians,” he spat. “Do you know who I am?”

Adrik had loaded him into the back of the catering van, and he’d slept peacefully through traffic. We’d brought him to one of our warehouses in the shipping yards.

“I’m not sure why your mother didn’t swallow you. You’re the fourth son, and it would take an act of God for you to be in charge. Lorenzo has worked for this his whole life. Frankie’s a quick study. Why do you think they buy him as many freezers as he needs? ”

“You can kill me, but my father will avenge me,” Junior sneered at me.

“Your father doesn’t give a fuck about you. If he did, he would have split the land evenly. You don’t even have a small territory to control.” It was all true, but I was goading him on the off chance he’d tell us something useful.

Junior tried to pull himself off of the wall that we’d shackled him to. The harder he pulled at the bindings, the deeper the grooves cut into his skin. I laughed, pointing at his wrists. “I thought that was a nice touch, considering you did the same thing to Irini. Her wrists were bright red when I cut her from the bed.” My men were loyal, but if they needed any motivation, I’d just given it to them. There was a dull roar floating around the room at their disapproval.

Marriage was a complicated web. A man could do as he saw fit with his wife. She was his, and no one questioned if he mistreated her. However, it didn’t mean any of the men in the room had to like it. Most of us had escaped broken homes, and abuse wasn’t something we tolerated, but there wasn’t a way to interfere. It was a barbaric system that no one bothered to question.

“So, what’s this about?” Junior sneered. He narrowed his eyes, and he stared down his nose at the men in the room. “I have somewhere to be, and my father doesn’t have beef with the Russians.”

“No, but I have a beef with you. You neglected the prize you were given.”

His eyes lit up with realization. “She’s my wife, and you don’t get to tell me how to treat her.”

Junior’s reputation had proceeded him, and now he was paying the price for his crimes. When he hadn’t even tried to talk his way out of this, it just reaffirmed everyone’s suspicions. He deserved to die, and I knew he would have gone farther than what we’d initially walked in on.

“Light him up, but make sure he’s still breathing when you’re done.” That was all my enforcer needed to beat the fuck out of Junior. He started with hits to the midsection, and when Junior was having a hard time breathing, my enforcer wailed on his upper body. Hits to his arms, his head, and his chest. The only reprieve Junior received was when he passed out from the pain. It wouldn’t last long as we poured cold water over his head immediately. The only place that wasn’t affected was Junior’s nose. That was a weak man’s hit.

His body was turning a gray color when I called off my enforcer. “Cut him down, and we’ll get him ready to swim.”

Throwing him in the catering van, we drove down to our section of waterfront. No one would question why we were there so late at night, and Junior would float down the river towards the Italian section, so even if they had any inclination it was us, they wouldn’t be able to prove it.

Pulling Junior out of the van, we carried him to the very end of the dock. The kill would be mine. I wouldn’t let any of my men go down for something that I had decided. When we poured bleach over the top of Junior’s head, his screams echoed off the surrounding buildings. I wanted him to feel the burn as the liquid filled his open wounds, but it would also degrade any DNA we’d left. It wasn’t foolproof, but we were running out of time.

“Your screams were louder,” I said, standing behind him. “You didn’t break her.” I slit his throat and shoved him into the river, keeping my promise.