Page 126 of Unwritten Rules

“Wrong answer,” I growled, stabbing my knife into his left thigh. “The truth will set you free, my dear Mario. How many times did you look the other way?”

“Ah! I, uh-” He was breathing heavy, the pain of the knife distracting him from a formal train of thought. I pushed it a little, for fun. He cried out, “Ah! I haven’t-I mean, I’ve been looking away for...” he clenched his teeth, gritting through the pain “...somewhere like two years.”

“Why?” I ripped out the knife, relishing in the sweetly sick sound it made.

Another scream mixed in with an adrenaline-fueled giggle escaped him. “Nothin’ was going wrong. I figured...”

“You could go lax on us? Wrong answer.” I swiftly reached over to break a finger–or two. Not my fault he clenched his fingers together. “Where’s Nicky?”

“I don’t know! Ow!”

My patience was wearing thin. “Wrong answer,” I said with a wicked laugh, stabbing his other thigh.

“Boss?”

I turned to see Dave entering ahead of the other two, giving me a hint of curiosity. They all held their cleaning supplies and would most definitely be using them.

Motioning to the man in the chair with the knife sticking out of his leg, I gave a smile. “Oh hey, Davey. I was just asking our friend, Mario, where we could find Nicky. It’s important we find him tonight.”

Through his panting and bleeding, Mario looked to the three men that strolled into our little interrogation with pleading eyes. “Please, please! I’ll tell you everything you want to know!” He shook his tied-up hands, shifting the chair around a bit.

Kicking him in the shin, I asked, “Then why were you making it so difficult?”

“Boss, just use his phone,” Jon piped up.

I nodded to them to search his belongings. Reaper pulled out his own toys to play with after rolling out a plastic sheet, standing over Mario waiting to play with him.

Mario shook even more, making me wonder if he would go into shock soon. “Nicholas has been dealing with some bad people, okay? Bad! They’ll kill me!”

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed him by the hair, forcing him to look at me. “I’ll kill you, shitface.”

“Heh, yeah. Shitface,” Reaper taunted.

“Look. These guys are fucking scary, and Nicholas started letting them skim a little from drop locations for extra money.” His breathing was jagged and rough. I needed to staunch the bleeding to keep him awake longer.

Stupid motherfucker couldn’t have just answered my questions?

“I have his messages, boss.” Dave held up the phone. “Looks like Nicky boy split and he’s heading out of the country.”

Open palmed, I smacked Mario in the face as hard as I could. “You are so fucking lucky I need you alive right now.”

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