Edmund’s chest rose and fell at an alarming rate, his eyes wide with fear as he
stared up at me from the floor. His blond hair was dirty and disheveled as he
shivered in his worn sweatpants and food-stained t-shirt.
“Look, man, I don’t know what this is about, but you’ve got—”
“Shut the fuck up, Edmund.” I growled. “What? You thought you could just
attack one of my warehouses, and I wouldn’t find out about it?”
“I-I don’t know what you’re t-talking about, man,” he stuttered.
“Oh, I think you do. You see,” I said, pulling out the stupid red bandana that
contained his little gang’s symbol and tossed it at him, “one of your guys was kind
enough to leave this behind. I thought you might want it back.”
Edmund positively went green. His shit brown eyes lingered on the bandana
while sweat dripped down the sides of his stubbly unkempt face.
Finally, he gained some courage to speak. “Look, I never gave them the order to
do that. They must have—”
My fist had collided with his jaw before he had a chance to finish his lie.
“You spit one more lie to me and I’ll cut your fucking tongue out. There are
cameras in all of my warehouses, you little shit, and I have a nice screenshot of your
fucking face smiling while you killed three of my men and stole over half a million
dollars of my drugs.”
Blood seeped from the side of Edmund’s lip where his teeth had cut into them,
and it made me want to keep hitting him so there would be more. Edmund had
slumped over onto the floor, unable to hold himself up, until Calvin grabbed him by
the shirt to lift him back to his knees.
“Now, I’ve just eliminated your little security fleet with only five of my men.
Fucking with me is not wise. So here’s how this is going to go. You’re going to give
me the name of the traitorous fuck who gave you the location of that warehouse,
and in return, I might only chop off one of your thieving hands.”
Edmund’s eyes went wide with fear as he slowly began to hyperventilate.
“Breathe, Edmund. All I want is a name. If it’s a full name, I might just forgive
you altogether.”
“I … I … I don’t,” he started, licking his dry lips as he attempted to think. “I
think …”
“Think carefully before you lie to me, Edmund,” I warned. “We can do this the
easy way or the hard way. It’s up to you.”
“I … I don’t r-remember,” he stuttered again.
I shook my head. “Hard way, it is.”
I nodded at Scott, who knelt down, took Edmund’s loose arm, and snapped it
behind his back in an extremely awkward and painful angle. Edmund screamed and
struggled against Scott. He was such a baby. This was nothing compared to what I
was really going to do.
“Give me a name, Edmund,” I ordered.
“He … he didn’t give me a name. He just called me from a blocked line and gave
me the info. Ah! Said one of his guys would meet me there to grab their cut. I never
saw his face.” Scott twisted his arm further when he went silent. “Ah! No names!
That’s it, I swear!”
I sighed in disappointment and shook my head. My snitch was smarter than I
was hoping.
“Okay, Edmund, I believe you. Now, listen carefully because this next part is
very important.”
He nodded quickly. Taking several deep breaths, he thought he was in the clear.
I almost started to laugh.
“In the next twenty-four hours, you’re going to return everything you stole from
my warehouse, plus the extra one hundred thousand dollars you cost me for the
inconvenience of having to come out here and deal with you myself. And as a
reminder of your newfound loyalty, your clubs will now be turning over twenty
percent of its profits to my company, effective tomorrow morning.”
The little fucker just gaped at me, too fear stricken to reply.
“Questions?” I asked, raising my brows in enthusiasm.
Wide-eyed and shivering, he shook his head.
“Good. Now, if none of which I just told you is accomplished within the specified
time, you and your little gang of toddlers will find yourselves in pieces at the
bottom of the ocean. Understand?”
He nodded.
“Say you understand.” I growled at him.
“I-I understand,” he whimpered.
I relaxed, my smirk returning to my face. We still weren’t done.
“Good. Now to seal the deal.”
Reaching down, I grabbed the little shit by his scrawny neck and dragged him
over to the gas fireplace. Scott turned it on and placed the ash shovel inside while I
pulled out my hunting knife, and pushed Edmund down to the floor. Pressing my
knee into his spine so that he remained flat on his belly, I splayed his right arm out
in front of him so he would have a good view of his hand.
“Oh, God, man, please don’t!” he cried as he struggled
