Текст книги "The Wrath of Cain"
Автор книги: Kathy Coopmans
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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 15 страниц)
Chapter Nineteen
Cain
I stare out the window, studying the view of the Long Island Sound from Salvatore’s house. It’s been two days since Calla and Manny were taken from the accident and not a word of their whereabouts.
By the time the paramedics got to the scene, they were gone. Both of them. There were no witnesses to the accident to give anyone a description of who took them. Yet Salvatore knows. He knows there would be only one person who would do something like this. One person who was biding his time and waiting to strike. He has my wife. He has my best friend. And he’s a cold-blooded killer. A hitman seeking revenge against his family, who shunned him for his actions and betrayal.
I’ve been left in the dark while Salvatore works with his men to try and find them. No one has heard from him in years, so why now? Why all of a sudden would he come back and take two innocent people? Why wouldn’t he take John or Cecily? It doesn’t add up. I know there has got to be more.
Guilt surges through my veins. I’m the only one who came out of this nightmare unscathed, except for the knot on the side of my head where I must have gotten bumped on impact when the truck flipped and crashed into a building. Cecily has a broken arm, bruises on her face, and burns across her neck and shoulder from the seatbelt. John is banged up all to hell. He’s got stitches in his forehead and some broken ribs. It’s a damn miracle any of us are even alive.
Cecily is going crazy, crying constantly over not knowing where her daughter and her nephew are. John has been bandaged and is gone, looking for a man who is known to do worse things to his victims than even himself. I need to be out there helping instead of here with my hopeless thoughts. I just got her back. I need her. We all need them both.
“Fuck!”
I can’t stay here anymore. They’re out there somewhere, I know they are.
“Cain.”
I turn around to the sound of Salvatore’s voice. He strides in with the same clothes on from yesterday, looking like shit. There isn’t any other way to describe it. He hasn’t slept from his worry, just like the rest of us. His wife, Lola, is going out of her mind. She’s normally so calm and collected just like Cecily, and now she’s just a shell of a woman. She is guilt-stricken, blaming herself for all of this.
“Any news?” I ask Salvatore, veering away from the window.
“Not a damn thing,” he sighs in frustration.
“They’re out there, I know they are. I can feel it in here.” I pound my fist against my chest.
“We’ll find them. Look,” he says, “I know you feel helpless here, but if I let you go out there to help with the search and something happens to you, I will never forgive myself. I need you here. I need you to take care of Lola and Cecily while I’m gone.”
His sudden change of course has me puzzled.
“I thought you said you were staying here in case he calls?”
“I can’t stay here anymore. It’s me he really wants. It’s me who he thinks destroyed him and kicked him out of this family. I need to make myself visible. He wants me and he knows he can’t get to me here. I’m going to make it easy on him.”
“He’ll kill you,” I caution him.
“He won’t kill anybody until he gets what he wants.”
“Salvatore, you need to tell me everything. You need to tell me why in the hell your oldest son would turn on his family.”
“I’ll tell you why.”
Lola stands in the doorway. Her once strikingly beautiful dark hair is unkempt and there are dark rings around her eyes. Her mouth set in a tight line. For a fifty-one year old lady she’s always looked so much younger than her years, but today she looks well past her age. This has got to be hard on her, knowing that one of her children has taken the other and is doing God knows what to him.
“Lola,” Salvatore warns.
“Don’t ‘Lola’ me. Damnit, Sal. Cain has a right to know. That’s his wife out there somewhere with Royal, and he deserves to know why. So either you tell him, or I will. You have no other choice.”
The two of them study each other powerfully. For the first time since I’ve known Salvatore, I see fear mixed with pain in his expression. The way he looks at Lola, telling her with his stare how sorry he is, makes me wonder even more what the hell is happening around here and how it affects Calla.
“Very well. Shower, Cain. Meet me downstairs in the kitchen in half an hour. We will tell you everything.”
With that he puts his arm around Lola, pulls her in tight to him with a kiss on the top of her head, and leaves me standing here with envy. He’s able to hold his wife, while mine is out there somewhere with a man who must have done something beyond my wildest imagination for Salvatore to cast him out of the family. To make Royal want to take his brother and cause him harm, his own flesh and blood. I can only hope that Calla is as strong as we all believe her to be.
I jog quickly down the stairs, through the foyer, and down the long hallway to the back of the house to the kitchen after showering and changing into a pair of jeans, a black Sinners t-shirt, and my boots. Several people I do not recognize at all are standing or sitting in the kitchen, all of them with guns in holsters dangling at their waist or hints of the outline of a gun tucked in the back of their pants. A map is spread out on the table.
“Any luck?”
Several of them turn towards me, either shaking their heads ‘no’ or giving me a slight chin lift. Salvatore excuses himself from the table and makes his way toward me. With a squeeze on the back of my neck, he leads me out of the kitchen, down the hall, and into his office where he shuts the door behind him.
“Take a seat,” he tells me, indicating the chair directly across from his desk.
I sit. He shifts around the desk, sitting in his own chair.
“I’m going to get right to it. No bullshit. No lies. Although I will tell you this; what I’m about to tell you is not an easy thing to hear, nor is it easy to tell. I love both of my sons. But Royal, he’s not right. That boy has some demons inside of him.”
He pauses, looking out the window for a moment, his eyes glazing over. Finally, he speaks in a low, trembling voice.
“My oldest son is a killer. And I don’t mean a killer like John. I mean, he gets a thrill out of killing people. He gets off on it.”
“Jesus Christ! You mean to tell me he kills people for the hell of it?”
An unsettling numbness wells up inside of me. Panic instantly hits. Salvatore’s not telling me everything. He places his elbows on the desk, steepling his fingers and resting them on his chin.
“We haven’t heard from him in ten years, not since the day we kicked him out and told him he was no longer a part of this family.”
He closes his eyes. I can tell this is so hard for him to say. To discuss this with me.
“Royal works for Ivan Solokov. My son is now known by the name of... Scarface.”
I stand up abruptly, leaning forward.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me? Jesus Christ! He’s known to cut people up into tiny pieces with knives. He leaves them unrecognizable, and he has my wife!”
“Listen here, goddamnit. I feel your pain. I feel it here, in the pit of my soul. That man is not my son. He may have my blood running through his veins, but he is not my child. He’s the prodigy of the devil himself. And he has my son, too. He’s seeking revenge on Lola and me. The only way he can hurt me is to take away Manny. To leave us with nothing. He knows how strongly I feel about family. That may sound like a contradiction, but that monster… Fuck, he turned on this family, all for greed. All for power. He knew when the time came, I would turn the reins of the family over to Manny and not him. As far as Calla, I don’t know what he wants with her.”
I begin pacing the room, his words crippling me.
“Do you think he will kill them?”
I stop at the window, my hands shoved deep into my pockets. My mind is wandering all over the place. I should be out there looking for them, not stuck in here. I’m no use here. Not to them. The walls in this huge house are suffocating me.
“Do you want the truth?”
Salvatore is behind me now, his hand on my shoulder.
“I already know the answer. You don’t have to say a thing.”
“Ivan’s big into drugs. He always has been.”
Goddamnit, this is going to be worse than I’ve imagined.
“The first time Lola and I suspected he was on drugs, let’s just say that shit didn’t go over very well. He was only fifteen years old. I forced that boy to do a drug test and sure as shit, traces of heroin were found.”
All of a sudden I feel sick. No wonder Manny jumped on board when I wanted that shit away from the club.
“He was regularly in and out of rehab up until he turned eighteen. We did everything we could to try and help him. Lola was a mess. And Manny, he always used to look up to Royal, until one night he came home so high, he beat the shit out of Manny. Broke his arm, busted up his jaw. A few days before that I had told him I’d had enough. If he wasn’t going to straighten himself out and prove to this family and to himself that he was man enough to beat his addiction, then we were done. He would not lead this family, Manny would. That night was the last night I ever saw my son.”
I face him now. His pain pours out of him. To lose a child to drugs and to know the kind of person they have turned into has got to destroy a man.
“Don’t pity me, Cain. I can see it in your eyes. I love Royal; he’s my son. But I will never condone the things he does. I’m no better than he is in certain ways. I’m not a law abiding citizen. Fuck, I’ve killed, too. But one thing I will never do is turn against my blood.” His eyes turn icy and resolute. “We will find them. That I can promise you.”
Standing before me is a man who has more power than anyone I know, but if I had to guess by the look on Salvatore’s face, he’s trying to convince himself more than he’s trying to convince me.
“Come sit. There are a few more things I want to go over with you, which I think will convince you I believe what I’m saying.”
Jesus, it’s like he just read my mind. We each take our seats once more. Salvatore turns on his computer. As we wait for it to boot up, he proceeds to tell me something I should have known the minute he mentioned the word drugs.
“You don’t have another narc in your club. It’s always been Emerald.”
“How can that be?” I question.
“Every bit of information she found out, she told that dirt bag Kryder, who then went back and told Royal.”
“What the fuck? How do we know this to be true? I mean, how the hell did you find all this out?”
“I have my ways. It may take time, time we don’t have right now.”
I walk around to the other side of his desk and I stare him down.
“Don’t hide shit from me, Salvatore. You’re like a father to me. How did you find out?”
“I’ve been on the phone with many people, asking if anyone has spotted Royal. He’s been hanging out the past few nights at The Rose Garden. It’s a nightclub in Times Square. I have video surveillance from the club.”
He leans forward in his chair and opens some files on his laptop, then turns it around and slides it over to me.
There they are, cozying up to each other at the bar. Another shot shows them kissing. Her back is to me in this one. It’s her though, I know it’s her. I continue to click. There are several shots of them on the dance floor, then back at the bar. The video comes to an end as they exit.
“Where is she now?”
I’m going to burn her alive. Listen to her scream.
“I’m going to assume she’s with him.”
My heart stops beating. Whatever type of revenge Royal wants on his family, she knows absolutely nothing about anything. They’ll kill her. I can’t even think straight. My wife is a strong woman. But to withstand being drugged, or even worse, beaten and tortured? She won’t be able to handle it.
“John’s due back anytime,” continues Salvatore. “I have resources everywhere, including quite a few cops who tend to turn their cheeks the other way when it comes to my business affairs. He’s here in New York, I know he is. He won’t do anything quietly; he wants my attention. He wants me to feel fear. He had my fear the moment I found out he took those two. We just need to find them before he sends me his message.”
“What message might that be?”
I swallow down the answer I already know in the back of my throat.
“He’ll torture one of them while the other one watches. He’ll video the whole thing. I know how his sick mind works.”
Chapter Twenty
Calla
“You monster!” I scream.
“Who are you?”
His ferocious, intimidating laugh would normally scare me. I see Manny looking at me through one eye. The other is badly bruised and swollen shut. He’s been brutalized. Blood is everywhere. How he can even be alive at this point is beyond me, but that one eye, the one that is barely open, is pleading with me to keep my mouth shut. There is no way in hell I am going to lie here and watch him be tortured. Or worse, killed. My head starts spinning, my stomach rolling from the sight in front of me.
I’m thrown back down by this animal. I kick and scream at him to let me go with all of my might, hurting myself even more as I struggle to get free.
“Come over here and help me tie her down!” He roars.
“Fuck you, you bastard!”
Somehow I’m able to get one arm free. I bring it up and claw at his face with my nails. Blood instantly pours out, dripping everywhere.
“Leave her alone, Royal. Or would you prefer me to call you Scarface.
It’s Manny, his voice small and barely recognizable.
“Fuck off, little brother.”
My eyes go wide. I stop trying to get away. All I can hear is ‘little brother.’ I look closely at the beast towering over me. The resemblance is there; that single eye is identical to Manny’s. I’m going to be sick. These two are brothers. I don’t understand.
“So, now you know who I am,” he sneers, glancing down at me.
I recognize it in his tone, too. They sound so much alike. I’m in such a daze that I don’t even see or hear the other man come around to the opposite side of the bed until I feel a prick in my arm.
“No, Royal! Fuck you! It’s me you want, not her. Fucking leave her alone, God damn you!”
“Manny.”
Is that me talking? Whatever it is they just shot me up with has my head foggy. A euphoric feeling travels through my veins. My skin is burning up, itching everywhere, but I can’t scratch it. I can’t move. At least my body doesn’t hurt anymore. Are they tying my hands down? My legs? I can still hear someone thrashing about, screaming and hollering. I don’t know how long this lasts. Maybe seconds, minutes, hours? I’m alert. At least I think I am.
“Wake up, princess.”
A series of sharp slaps is delivered to my face. I become more aware of the stinging the more I come back to consciousness.
“You had quite a little nap. Now, up you go.”
I start to gag the minute he lifts me up.
“She’s gonna lose it! Toss me that bucket,” he says.
I start to heave. Some of it lands on the floor before the bucket is shoved under my face. I throw up until there is nothing left, and then I dry heave until I feel rawness in my throat. I swipe my mouth with the back of my hand. The acidy bitterness I taste makes me want to puke again. He shoves a glass of what looks like water in my face.
“Drink.”
My throat burns. It hurts worse than anything.
“I don’t want it.”
“It’s water. Believe me, I know you want it. Your throat is so tight, you can hardly breathe. So unless you want more of what Raymond gave you, you will drink this.”
I take a small sip and he forcefully pulls it away. It does nothing to help the burning sensation in my throat.
“Better?” asks the man I know as Scarface.
No, I’m not better, but I’m not about to tell him I want more water. Fuck him.
Then it all comes back. I heard someone say ‘brother.’ I can’t remember who, but I know someone did.
“Manny is your brother?” I ask.
My throat is so dry, it hurts to even talk. His intense orbs glare into mine.
“By blood, yes.”
“I don’t understand. If he’s your brother, then why are you doing this? Why hurt him?”
He chuckles that evil laugh again, his eyes turning cold as ice.
“I’m an outcast to them. The evil one. The fuck up. And he’s about to get what is rightfully mine. I can’t let that happen. He will die first, princess.”
Why he’s calling me princess has me perplexed. My mom is a princess, not me. I know very little about this life; only what I’ve been told. And no one has told me about him. I can see why. He’s an enemy who has obviously been waiting to strike.
“You look a little mixed up there, Calla.”
The sudden use of my given name shocks me; however, I will not show my fear. I’m the daughter of John Greer. No way will I let my fear be known to this man. I trust my family. Whatever reasons they had for banishing him from the family, I stand by them.
“You’re sick! That’s your brother! He’s my family. You won’t get away with this. Whatever vendetta you have, you may as well give it up now. My dad will find you, you son of a bitch, and when he does, you’re going to wish he hadn’t.”
“You mentioned family. I’m your blood, princess. You know, it really is too bad you and I are on opposite sides. A beautiful woman with a sharp mind can be very dangerous. I could see myself actually liking you.”
“Screw you. You’re not my family. If you mean nothing to them, then you mean even less to me.”
Malice is what I feel for this man, although he’s not really a man at all. I’m now within an inch of his face. His undamaged eye scans me meticulously, observing my strength. All of it comes from being the daughter of John and Priscilla Greer. I may not have known the true lives they have lead, but one thing they taught me was to never show your fear.
“You’re a snake. A cowardly one, at that. I promise you, cousin, you’re going to die from your own venom.”
“Snakes strike when you least expect, Calla. I want you gone just as much as I want my brother gone. And as far as John goes, I want him to come. It’s just too bad that by the time he does find us, my dear little brother will be dead and so will you. I have plans for you. You’ll be gone before they get here and if we’re not, I’ll take care of him. It’s about time he retires, anyway.”
“Fuck off. He’ll destroy you,” I spit at him.
“I’m going to let that slide, just this once. John’s good. Very good. But don’t think for one second that I’m not better. Now, you have a show to watch. Unless you want me to shoot you up with more of this?”
He pulls a syringe out of his back pocket.
“I’m not watching shit. And you can take that and shove it straight up your ass.”
He quirks his brows and shoves the syringe into his pocket again.
“Is my heroin not good enough for you? Do you want something better? Cocaine, perhaps? Crack? You name it, I’ve got it.”
I’m momentarily shocked speechless.
“No cocaine, either? That’s too bad. Did you know cocaine can heighten your sexual arousal? It delays your orgasm but it increases your sex drive. Raymond over there would like nothing more than to show you just how much it improves his sexual performance. Would you like me to let him show you?”
He grips my chin and jerks my head towards this man named Raymond.
“Go to hell, both of you!”
“You know, I’ve had it with your mouth. Raymond, bring me some tape and put that chair over there right next to my brother. She’s going to watch.”
I struggle against him when he lifts me up and carries me over to the chair. Manny’s head is now slumped down, the blood on his face now dried up. I squeeze my eyes shut as tightly as I can. I fight to get away. My hands are pulled severely behind my back. This time, I feel my shoulder pop. Pain shoots down my arm and I cry out. Neither of these unhinged men pay any attention as they tie my hands behind my back and tape my mouth shut.
“Secure her good, Raymond,” Royal firmly commands.
The minute he leaves the room, Raymond takes advantage of my situation.
“Very pretty,” he chuckles, running his dirty hands up my leg. Once he has his nasty hands on the inside of my thighs, he pushes them open. Tears form in the back of my eyes. My voice is muffled, incoherent behind the tape. He continues his exploration, sliding his hands up my sides, brushing the underside of my breasts. He stills, leaving one hand around my neck, the other one reaching for the tape on the floor. I continue to watch him, horror stricken, as he tapes my body to the chair.
Do not show fear!
He drops the tape back on the floor and spreads my legs again. That’s when I notice this dumb fuck hasn’t taped my legs. I could easily kick him with the heel of my shoe. I’ve never loved my six-inch Louboutins more than I do right now. These things are weapons, and somehow I’m going to use them. How they’ve managed to stay on through everything, I will never know. One thing I do know is, if I ever have a son, his name will be Christian.
Raymond slides his body backward a few inches. Lifting my leg, I kick him square in his balls, digging the point of my shoe in as far as I can until he crumples to the floor screaming.
“I will get my chance to fuck you, bitch!” Raymond screeches with hunger raging out of him.
I lose it, and aim my foot straight for this bastard’s dick again when the door opens. I’ll be damned. My eyes go wide as saucers as I see Royal’s arm is draped around Emerald, of all people. This slut really gets around.
“Raymond, what the fuck are you doing, man? Get your ass up.”
“This cunt kicked me in the balls before I had a chance to tie her feet!” he complains, stumbling when he tries to stand. He leans forward, still cupping his balls.
Anger is such a cruel bitch. She arises inside of me even more at the sight of that fucked up bitch stalking her way towards me.
“Remember what I said, baby. Do not touch her. You say what you have to say and then leave and wait for me.”
Royal’s eyes are glazed over with fury and something else. Oh, God. They’re both high. I can see it all over her face when she stands directly in front of me. One would think a professional killer would want to be lucid enough to complete his job. No wonder this family is so dead set against drugs. He’s a user.
“Come on, Royal. You know I want to slice this bitch’s throat.”
“She’s hurting enough as it is. Get over it. Say what you need to say. When the time comes to kill her, I told you she’s all yours.”
Holy shit. These people are fucking crazy!
“Did you hear him, you fucking bitch? I’m going to have so much fun with you. And here’s the kicker; your husband is going to watch. He is going to watch me rip every piece of hair out of your head. He’s going to watch me do so many things to you. I’m going to end you. You have no idea how much I wish I could do it right now. That I could pick up Raymond’s knife over there and slice you open from here to here,” she signals from my chin to my crotch.
I do my best to hide my fear from her, too. I’m not giving up on the fact that my dad is out there. They will stop at nothing to find Manny and me.
“Enough! Come here!” Royal commands, and she goes to him. He puts his hands all over her. On her ass. In her hair. I’m gagging behind this tape, sickened by the sight in front of me. This woman has no limits. She’s a traitor and a whore. For the first time in my life, I want to kill someone, and my target is standing less than a few feet away from me. I’m going to beg my dad to let me be the one to pull the fucking trigger to place this bitch right next to her father in hell.
Finally they pull away from each other and he watches her walk away. Once the door is shut, he turns his disgusting gaze back to me. Sick asshole. I know he reads my expression. He smirks and paces lethally towards Manny. My heart plummets.
“Make sure she watches,” he orders, pointing at me.
Raymond comes up behind me, forcefully gripping the sides of my head and jerking it to the disturbing picture in front of me. He compels my eyes to stay open.
“Wake up, little brother. It’s time to party.”
He slaps Manny on the face several times. Manny mumbles something I can’t understand, his head wobbling from side to side. I watch in grief stricken horror when he grabs Manny’s hair and yanks it back.
“We have unfinished business. I need you awake. Come on, brother.”
Manny says nothing. His eyes are almost dead. I fear for his life now, this man who is my husband’s best friend. My cousin. He has kept me safe for years and now I have no way of helping him.
I don’t know where Manny gets the strength, but all of a sudden he rears his head forward even with the tight grip on his hair and slams his forehead into Royal’s nose. Blood pours out and Royal stumbles back, stunned.
“Fuck you, Royal. You can do whatever the hell you want to me, but you will never control Dad’s empire. You will die right along with me.”
Royal straightens up, wiping the blood from his nose.
“So, you’re not such a little pussy after all. Let’s see how much you got left in you after I do this?”
He punches Manny swiftly in the gut, causing him to jerk forward as if he is trying to catch his breath. I scream behind the tape as Royal picks up that long knife, studying it for a bit. He looks his brother dead in the eye.
“I think I need to send a message to Mom and Dad, don’t you?”
Oh, no. Please, no. I can’t bear to watch this. Manny’s hands are tied to the arms of the chair. With one swift and heavy swing of the knife, Royal chops one of Manny’s fingers off.
A chilling cry echoes through the room. I’m nearly suffocating from my tears. Manny is rocking the chair back and forth violently as he tries to get a grip on the pain. I swear I can feel it. I observe the blood trickling onto the floor, trying to count every drop. There’s just way too many. It won’t stop bleeding.
“Bandage him up. Leave her there and then come outside.”
Royal is holding his brother’s severed finger in his hand. He’s abhorrent, immoral. How could he do such a thing to his own brother? I scrutinize the knife when he drops it on the floor. How I wish I could pick it up and carve his darkened heart out of his chest.
“Do not touch her. You hear me?”
I almost wish Raymond would get close enough to touch me. I would do my damnedest to kill him, and then go after Royal and Emerald.
I will not show my fear.
I will not show my fear.
I will not show my fear.
Stone-cold eyes give me one last ‘I told you so’ look.
“You should have stayed in Canada, princess.”
I watch him with baited breath, struggling to hold back my tears. All I can see in my mind is Cain’s handsome face. The way he holds me and touches me. He and my parents have tried to protect me from this for all these years. This is exactly what they had been afraid of. The despicable, unhuman people in this world. People who have no conscience and no morals. People who turn on their family. I will never give up on them.
Royal grabs a laptop and slams the lid closed, then strides out and slams the door behind himself, leaving me alone with Raymond and a crying, screaming Manny.
“I bet you’re one hell of a fuck. I’m itching to touch you, but instead, I will give you more of this.”
A syringe appears in my vision. I shake my head back and forth. Then I feel it. The slow, burning feeling in my veins. Like a warm hug from a loved one. The tape is ripped off of my face. My eyelids become heavy.
“Don’t sleep too long, princess.”
I don’t know how or when I fall asleep after that, but I do. It’s a restless sleep filled with nightmares of the torture I’ve witnessed. All I do know for sure is that Manny and I are alone now. It’s dark in this cold, dreary room. I think Manny is calling my name. Or is it another dream?
“Calla.” I hear it again. “Son of a bitch. Calla!”
I know I’m making sounds. I can hear them. They may be muffled, and more like grunts, but I’m trying. My head is heavy. My body feels warm and tingly, like an ocean wave is flowing over my skin. It leaves and comes right back again. I shouldn’t feel this good. Am I high? No, I can’t be.
I’m right here, Manny. Over here, I keep saying.
Why can’t he hear me? Where is he and why does he sound so strange? He sounds like he’s hurting. He’s in pain.
“Calla.”
I jolt up. I’m shivering with cold. My stomach rolls once again and all I can do is dry heave, gagging and coughing until I feel like I’m crushing my ribs.
“Manny.”
“Oh, thank Christ. You’re alive.”
The agony in his voice mixed with the pain in my shoulder has me bawling. I cannot control it anymore.
“Shh. Calla, listen to me. Please stop crying. I need… I need you to be strong. You have to listen to me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I sniffle.
“Calla. You cannot show weakness. You have to be strong if you want to get out of here alive.” His tone has now turned to misery. “No matter what they say or what they do to you. You do not say a thing. Do you hear me?”
“Yes. Are you okay?” I manage to get out.
“I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”
“I’m fine. They keep drugging me with heroin, though. I hate it.”
“That’s his drug of choice, always has been, even when we were younger. I’m surprised he hasn’t overdosed on that shit yet.”
I hear him let out a heavy sigh. Oh, how I wish I could see him and make sure he really is all right.
“Listen, they’ll be back here soon. I know they will. He knows Dad won’t give up until he finds him. Royal has crossed the line this time. He’s broken a contract.”
All of a sudden Manny stops talking. All I can hear are his sharp, shallow breaths. I’m worried for him. The excruciating pain he must be in triples the pain I am beginning to feel now that the heroin is wearing off.
“Manny, talk to me. I… I’m so sorry. I can’t do anything to help.”
I wait for what feels like an eternity for him to answer, and when he does, his voice is strained. He’s fighting to try and get out every word he can.
“Royal works for the Russians,” he winces. My heart is breaking for him. “My dad and the Russians have an agreement. You stay out of my way and I stay out of yours. The Russians deal with drugs, prostitution. You name it and they do it.”
Another deep breath escapes him.
“I’m going to tell you the truth. All of it. Unless they find us, he’ll be back to kill me, Calla. You need to prepare yourself. Fuck!” he screams.
