Page 20 of KAI Tortured

I cut the call and dial Uncle Colletti. Thank fuck we exchanged the numbers of our firsts-in-line when we were planning the war with the Slavs. “It’s Kai Delgado. There’re twenty bodies in Orion’s house. Maybe more. You need a cleanup crew.”

“And Orion?” he asks gravely.

“We’re waiting for an ambulance. He and Logan have been shot.”

“Who did it?”

“The Slavs, most likely.”

“Thanks for letting me know.” Uncle Colletti rules by vengeance, and is seeing the impact of the Slavs for the first time: twenty bodies, all on his turf. I’m sure the cops will show up soon.

Not even ten minutes have passed when I hear voices coming up the stairs.

“Fucking assholes, the Slavs are asking for it,” Uncle Jon swears as he enters Maisy’s room. There is another man with him, plus four others dressed in white, doctors, I presume, carrying medical bags on their shoulders and two stretchers. “Quickly, get to them,” Jon orders.

My nerves are shot as they hurry to Orion and Logan. They immediately divide into two pairs and start resuscitating them, checking their vitals and whatever else doctors do. If Marina was alive, she’d save them for sure. But she too was killed by the Slavs. Fucking Slavs.

“I got a heartbeat. A weak one, but it’s there!” one doctor exclaims, and adds supplemental oxygen through a mask on Orion. “We need to get him to a hospital!”

“Thank fuck!” I exclaim, and exhale the breath I was holding.

“This one needs to be in a hospital in the next fifteen minutes,” the doctor working on Logan reports.

“This one??” I grab him by the lapels of his coat. “This one is the Logan Vitali, one of the most ruthless mob bosses in New York! And if he heard you–”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. Please, let me take him,” he begs. “He really needs the hospital, or he won’t make it.”

I let go of him, and now Uncle Jon screams at them. “You’re still here? Get on with it, come on! Hurry! Get ‘em to the hospital!”

Zeena places her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kai. They’ll come back, angrier and more brutal than ever.”

“Yeah, they will. I’ve had enough of the Slavs now. It’s time to end this,” I mutter, more to myself than to her. I let the doctors carry out Logan and Orion. Trying not to look at the pool of blood where they lay, I jump over it and follow them downstairs.

Uncle Colletti’s there already with the cleanup crew, ordering them around.

He looks at Orion as he’s brought through and threatens the two doctors carrying his stretcher. “He better survive this, ‘cause if he doesn’t, I’m gonna find you, and your families, and I’m gonna cut your throats. You hear me?”

I pat Uncle Colletti on the shoulder and follow the stretchers to the front door.

“I’ll meet you at the hospital,” I tell Uncle Jon, although I’m not sure if I’m gonna go there at all. Logan and Orion are like my family and facing them would mean facing up to what I’ve done.

Uncle Jon just nods and watches from the door as they are taken into the ambulance waiting outside. He enters too, and they head off with the sirens blaring.

I go back inside the house and walk straight into the kitchen. There’ll be whiskey in there. Right now, that’s what I need.

I know I look like shit. I’m disheveled, with blood on my hands, my jeans, and my t-shirt. I was enraged when I got here. I was going to take Maisy back, and teach them a lesson, but now I’m realizing too late that I was in the wrong.

This was done by the Slavs. And they have taken Maisy with them.

I pour myself a full glass of whiskey and knock it back, downing the entire glass in one swift gulp. I slam it on the kitchen counter, and right then, my eyes land on a letter. The package from Marina is next to it, opened. The headed paper of the letter has the same logo as the package. It’s from Marina. Fuck this!

I scrunch up the paper and throw it in the trash before I leave Orion’s house.

“I’m out of here!” I yell, loud enough for Uncle Colletti to hear me.

CHAPTER 6

KAI

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