“What do you want from me then?” His eyes flipped to Mags, who stood near the stairs.
“Don’t look at her,” I said, bending over in front of him to look directly in his face. “It’s just me and you.”
Gian returned with water. I took the glass and poured some into Connor’s mouth. He sputtered and spat, then drank a little more.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Now, let’s chat.” I put the glass down. “Who sent you?”
“You know who,” he said.
“I want to hear it from you.”
His expression slacked as he stared down at the floor. “Colm Healy,” he said.
“And how would Colm Healy know about this place?” I asked.
“I’m a soldier,” Connor said. “I do what I’m ordered to do.”
I glanced at Gian, who only stared with his arms crossed.
“Listen, Connor, I’ll play this straight with you. I think your boss got some information from my crew. I think you know something, but you’re not telling me.” I got right in his face, inches away. “This can be easy if you skip all the dramatic parts.”
“I’m a soldier,” Connor said. “I don’t know a goddamn thing.”
I leaned my head back then rammed it into his nose. His skull snapped back and blood spurted out into his face and mouth. He sputtered and coughed, groaning and struggling against his bonds. I straightened and walked away a few paces, sighing as I wiped his blood off my face with my sleeve.
“Try again,” I said, and snapped my fingers. Gian took a large knife from his pocket. I unfolded it and held the blade up in front of Connor’s face.
His eyes went wide. “Please,” he said. “I don’t know.”
I jammed the tip into his thigh then slowly pushed down. He groaned, then screamed when I turned the blade and rotated it around.
“I want to know,” I growled in his face. “How did you know about this place?”
Mags let out a yelp, then walked to the stairs. She ran up and disappeared into the kitchen. I pulled the knife from Connor’s leg and watched her disappear, then caught a look from Gian. I nodded at the stairs, and he left to go check on her.
Connor sobbed. Fucking baby.
I only broke his nose and stabbed him once.
The really sadistic shit hadn’t even started. Normally, I had guys that specialized in getting people to spill their guts, but I needed to keep this operation as small as possible. Right now, my biggest advantage over Roy was the fact that I knew he was a traitor, and he didn’t realize his plan hadn’t worked yet.
I turned on Connor again and he spit blood onto the floor.
“Ready to talk?” I asked.
“Fuck you,” he hissed.
I spent the next twenty minutes cutting him. It wasn’t fun. I didn’t have a great time, making the poor kid scream with pain and blood. But eventually, after I kicked him over onto his side and started slicing up his arm, eventually he told me what I needed to hear.
“A guy showed up,” Connor said, sobbing. “Showed up earlier, god, please, stop. He showed up and told Colm something, I don’t know what, he didn’t tell me what. But the guy definitely wasn’t in the Healy family.”
“What did he look like?” I asked. “Describe him.”
“Big guy. Dark hair, dark eyes, looked real Italian. Had on this like bright blue shirt and baggy jean shorts. Cursed a whole lot.”
I clenched my jaw. “Did he go by the name Big Bruno?”
“Bruno,” Connor said, nodding over and over. “That’s the name, Bruno. I heard Colm say it. Yeah, that’s the guy.”
I sighed and slumped back against the steps. It could still be that Big Bruno was working on his own, but I truly doubted it. More likely, Roy sent him as a messenger.
“Thank you, Connor,” I said. “You’ve been very helpful.” I left him there to cry and headed back upstairs. Mags was back on the couch, knees pulled to her chest, rocking back and forth slightly. Gian sat the table nearby, and looked over as I stepped into the room. I was sweating from the work and I had blood splattered all over my clothes.
“Well?” Gian asked. “The kid finally talk?”
“Big Bruno brought them the address,” I said. “It’s definitely Roy.”
Gian nodded once. “No way he did that on his own.”
I walked to the steps and called for Marco. He came halfway down and nodded at me. “What’s up, boss?”
“Take care of the guy upstairs,” I said. “Kill him, dump the body. Same for the guy in the basement.”
Mags sucked in a breath. Marco headed away, and there was a muffled gunshot a minute later.
“Why are you killing them?” she asked. “You got what you wanted, right?”
“Can’t have them going back to their boss,” I said. “As soon as the word’s out that I’m alive, shit’s going down.”
“What are we going to do then?” Mags asked, looking from me to Gian. “Stay here?”
“We’ll go back to the house,” I said. “And Bea will spread it around that I’m gone and haven’t been home in a while. That we’re both missing.”
“I’ll back it up,” Gian said. “Family might go into chaos for a bit.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “I don’t plan on letting this fake death last long.”
“You can probably get a day,” Gian said and got to his feet.
Marco came down the steps, fiddling with a silencer on his pistol. “Fucking bodies, man,” he said. “Always bleed more than you think.” He grinned at me then headed down into the basement.
Another muffled gunshot.
“Buy me as much time as you can,” I said and walked with Gian to the door. I opened it, but he lingered on the stoop. He looked past me, over to Mags, then met my eyes.
“She gonna be okay?” he asked softly, too quiet for her to hear.
“I hope so,” I said.
He nodded then headed down the block. “I’ll buy you a day,” he said as he left.
I went back inside. Marco and Tony
