Page 27 of The Gambler
They rattled off the crews that had been dispersed; everyone pretty much knew that Bonata senior was his. He’d missed out on Petridis but he wasn’t gonna miss this one. He still had no idea where her father was. Hopefully he’d be with her godfather and he could kill two birds with one stone. Literally.
He went to the kitchen next, to order Sue back upstairs to sit with her after he left. Next he told Vito to make sure the mother didn’t leave the room where he’d had her sequestered. Gramps was in charge while he was gone, so he had no worries that his orders would be carried out. He made sure Sue took a shit load of chocolate upstairs with her before he left.
He headed back upstairs where she was still asleep. Standing over her he smoothed her hair away from her beautiful face. His heart felt lighter now, not as constricted as before. He accepted the love that he felt for what itwas. Fate, destiny, redemption! Bending low, he kissed her lips softly, before kissing her forehead. With one last look of longing, he turned and left the room.
Chapter 15
“The plane ready?”
“Yeah, the boys got back a little while ago.”
“Who we got on the ground?”
“Sal and Lou got the place covered in case there’s any movement.”
He gave himself a minute to think about the girl he’d left in his bed, as he sat back in the car. A girl he’d only met a few short days ago, but who’d been a part of his life for much longer; if only as a specter. Her mother’s words played over in his head.
She’d known him from a picture, but how? Alice? Whatever, however, she was his; he got a strong sense of peace with the realization. A peace he’d never felt before, along with a certain joy that he suddenly had something to look forward to. Could it possibly be that life had finally decided to cut him some fucking slack after dicking with him for so long?
His heart ached at what she might’ve faced before he found her. How often had they used his little flower? And what the fuck else did they make her do? To take such advantage of an innocent such as she was the lowest thing he could think of. It took a black-hearted asshole to do a thing like that. That’s why he was going to cut the heart out of the fuck that’d been responsible, right after he dispatched him to hell.
He had the mother in his house and he still wasn’t sure what he was going to do with her. He knew he wasn’t of a mind to let her anywhere near her daughter ever again, but would that be best for Jenna? Maybe he’d let them spend some time together, under his careful watch of course; and see how they interacted with each other. Any sign that she was anything but fucking motherly and he’d send the bitch to meet her bastard of a son.
“We’re here boss.” He looked out at the tarmac where the plane sat waiting. Hopefully this shit would be over by the end of the night. He wanted it out of the way so he could concentrate on just her. He had so much to learn about her; what she liked besides chocolate. He started to smile at her obsession and then he remembered her mother telling him how they’d paid her with chocolate. Maybe he should just gut the bitch and be done with it after all.
He put home and hearth out of his head as he took his seat on the plane. Everything about him changed in that instant. His two shadows saw the change and said nothing, just a shared look passed between them. They knew what that look meant, this shit was gonna be up-close and personal.
Which meant they had to be on their toes, because when Andros got like this, there wasn’t a leash strong enough to hold him. This was the kind of job that made sure they earned their pay. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was a fucking nightmare on their end. Hopefully the fact that he had the girl back home waiting for him would calm him down a bit, but there was no guarantee of that.
Andros meanwhile, was organizing his play in his head. As soon as he hit the ground he had to move fast. He didn’t want word getting out that he was in The City. He didn’t want his enemy getting even a whiff of his presence until he was standing over the fuck. Shit, he couldn’t remember if he had a change of clothes on the plane. He couldn’t go back to Jenna with blood all over his shit. And he had no doubt it was gonna get bloody. He intended it to.
No one spoke as the jet touched down on the helipad atop the hotel casino. Their target was in the penthouse suite. The Intel said he had four inside with him. They were using some kind of thermal gadget to find where each body was located inside the room.
Another one of gramps’ deals that he’d somehow hoodwinked from his buddy in the pentagon. If the government ever knew just how much of their high tech shit fell into the old man’s hands, it would turn into a national security event. Whatever!
“Call the others, let them know we’re in place. Radios off.” He wanted the father and son to meet in hell at the same hour. They made their way down the stairs that led from the roof. He wasn’t going in blind, but there was no telling what these fucks were prepared for.
He couldn’t very well shoot down the door; the other patrons might get antsy and fuck up shit. Instead he was going to release something under the door into the room, and hope it worked in time for them to make entry, before the security cameras picked them up loitering outside in the hallway.
He had avery narrow window of time in which to get in and out, someone had been paid off to tamper with the cameras for that short space of time. Still, he didn’t want to risk anyone catching a glimpse of him there. He wanted to be able to live out his golden years with his flower, not rotting in the cell of some stinking hellhole on account of this piece a shit.
He stopped Garrett with a hand on the shoulder. “Only enough to daze him I want him awake and aware when I do him.” The other man nodded once before opening the door and walking through. The hallway was empty at this time of night. Most people were downstairs at the tables. Too bad the noise from downstairs didn’t carry all the way up here, but there was a good chance the place was sound proof anyway.
He watched as Garrett walked past the door looking casually around, around the corner and then back again. He took what looked like a rolled up note from his pocket and slipped it under the door before walking back to where the others were waiting. Andros checked his watch. He’d been told it would take less than two minutes to do what he wanted. It was a long fucking two minutes standing there, twiddling his thumbs.
It was an easy thing to pick the lock and slip into the room. He had the lower half of his face covered, as did his men. There was no smoke or anything unnatural looking in the room, yet the five occupants seemed disoriented, good, the shit had worked.
“Take care of them.” He walked past the first guard who tried to reach for his piece, but whose arms seemed weighed down. Alphonso Bonata was sitting in a high backed chair at the table, about to have his dinner it looked like. His eyes widened when he saw the younger man and he tried to call out but all that came out was a croaking sound as he flopped back in his chair.
He thought for sure he would be cool, but nah. He shot out one kneecap first just for the hell of it. “That one’s for being a fucktard and sucking up my airspace.”
He’d intended to question the other man, but it was obvious he couldn’t speak and he didn’t have time to fuck around and wait for that happy occurrence. He’d have to get what he needed some other way.
“And this is for my wife and the hell I’m sure you put her through, you fuck.” He shoved the blade into the pigs’ wide girth starting at the navel and pulled up until he’d opened him down the middle.
Alphonso’s eyes and mouth widened in terror as the shock and pain hit him. By the time Andros reached his hand inside his chest and pulled out his still beating heart, he was dead.
Too fucking easy, he should’ve busted down the door after all. At least then the fuck would’ve been able to put up a fight, which is what Andros craved. This way seemed too fucking easy and was over way too fast. He squeezed the beating mass in his hand before dropping it on the floor and stepping on it. “Asshole.”