Page 52 of Blood Ties
“Look at you being a good boy and using your manners." I kick open the door and Mario is naked on the bed with his hands tied and a blind fold over his eyes. His mistress is riding his cock and stops when her gaze lands on us. Her screams have Mario flinching and tugging on the ropes. "What is it?"
"Please don't kill me. I haven't done anything." She raises her hands in the air, her bottom lip trembling.
I inch closer and point the gun to her head. "Get up and get your clothes on. This has nothing to do with you. We are here for Mario."
Tears spring from her eyes. "But who is going to take care of me and my son when he's gone? We have nothing without him."
"Leave here quietly and we will make sure you're taken care of. Mention this to anyone or attempt to help your lover in any way and we'll bury you both in the ground."
She nods frantically, searching for her clothes. "You have my word."
"What the fuck is going on?" Mario demands. Claudia rushes out of the room partially dressed, not looking back. It’s morethan clear how more important her and her son’s lives are to her than the weak, coward lying on the bed.
"You've fucked with the wrong people and now you must pay the consequences." Marcus moves in front of me, pulling a knife from his pocket. "How did you know who stopped the auction?"
"Fuck you. I'm not telling you shit."
Marcus presses the jagged knife into Mario's shin and twists it, earning him a scream. "Stop, please stop."
"Begging isn't a good look on you, Mario. But please do keep going."
Marcus stabs the other leg, but before he can twist it Mario shouts, "Wait. It was an anonymous tip. We tried to track the guy down and came up empty handed."
"Guy? How do you know it was a guy?"
"One of his men kept saying he and him."
"They never said his name? Any chance it could have been Santana?"
He scoffs. "Impossible."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Santana hasn't been seen since last year and from what I hear won’t be resurfacing ever again. This guy contacted me more recently."
"How recent?"
"Two months ago."
He's right. Santana was dead months before that so it couldn't have been her. "Are you sure you don't know anything else?"
"Will you believe me if I say no?"
"Depends. How much more do you want to suffer before you die?"
He folds sooner than I'd expected. Such a fucking embarrassment. "I swear I'm telling the truth. I know nothing else."
"You know if anyone else is coming for us?"
"I don't know all their names, but if they see I've backed down, they may back down too. They were already starting to turn down my calls after Mr. William’s body was discovered hanging from the Old Red Bridge.”
“We will just have to hold onto your phone for a little while and not let anyone know you're dead until your friends decide to contact you. Maybe they already have.” I pick up his jacket from the floor and search his pockets. “I think we have what we need, mi amor. Go ahead and do what you do best. I’ll be here watching with pride.”
Mario tugs at the restraints again. “You said I wouldn't suffer.” Marcus slides the knife along his cock. “I lied.” He makes a few slashes into Mario’s thighs, humming an unrecognizable tune and carves his initials into the skin of his stomach causing him to shriek. “Please.”
Marcus slices a few lines down his chest and another above his navel. “Fucking assholes. I hope they come for you when I’m dead. Someone eventually will. What your sons did will never be forgiven. All the lives they took and money they lost. You’re better off killing them yourself to keep them from suffering too much.”
“You probably should have killed yourself too, but then we wouldn’t have been able to share this moment together.” Marcus’s eyes land on the flickering flames of the candles on the nightstand. “Someone is awfully romantic. I can be romantic too.” He grabs one of the candles and pours the melted wax over the bleeding cuts on Mario’s stomach. More screams and sobs fill the room.
