Page 13 of The Holy Ghost
I almostsnorted. Cirorarely called meGhost. He was doing it now to emphasize for poor Robert Miller justwho exactly had him in their clutches. And it worked because RobertMiller started thrashing about. Too bad for him, that chair wassolidly bolted to the floor.
I stoodup, smoothing out my slacksand adjusting my cuff links, as I strolled over to Ciro. Casual wasonly permitted at home. We always wore suits or dressclothing.
Always.
“Let meguess,” I replied. “Michael, overhearing this conversation, wantedto protect hissister andsnagging that gun at the last minute was a desperatedecision?”
“Ding, ding,ding,” Ciro sing-songed. “Give the man a prize.” Ciro went back tohis tray of goodies. “Robert was scheduled to go by and collecthis…purchase tonight, and Michael wanted to be ready and waiting for him.” Ciro smiled at me.“Guess what Robert found instead?”
I smirked.“You?”
His grin widened.“Me,” he confirmed.
I picked up ascalpel. “What happened withthe mother?”
The revulsionon his face turned his otherwise good looks wicked. “She’s been dealt with. And Michaeland his sister are now staying with their mother’s cousin, wherethey will be safe.”
I put thescalpel down and picked up the mallet. “That’s good,” Isaid conversationally. Iglanced over at the asshole tied to the chair. “And I take itRobert, here, swore it was a misunderstanding.”
Ciro laughed.“Yeah, but only after I kicked his ass and secured him to thechair. Before that, he was telling me shit wasnone of my business.”
I tsk’ed. “Notgood.”
“Oh,well, then you’ll love this,”Ciro added cheerfully. “He also told me I could suck his dick andto go fuck myself.”
I laughed.
I couldn’t helpit.
See, Ciro’sclaim to fame was a bit unconventional. When someone was unfortunate enough to cross his path,he didn’t order a group of guys to beat his latest toy intosubmission. He didn’t knock the guy out and then tie him up. Nope.Ciro abducted his prey and then gave the poor soul a chance to savehimself. Ciro meets with the guy, one-on-one, and if the guy canbeat Ciro, he lets them go. If he can’t, well…they end up in thechair poor Richard Miller is currently sitting in. Ciro had his owncode of honor and it didn’t involve kicking a man when he was down.No. Ciro was a man’s man, and he took down his prey fairly, butruthlessly. In the entire six years that we’ve been doing this,Ciro has never lost a fight. It could be because he was trained inmore than one fighting discipline or because he was simply crazy,but whatever it was, Ciro was unbeatable. Unfortunately for thewomen who’ve crossed his path, they didn’t get that same chance toescape. Ciro wasn’t fond of beating women, so he usually just gotdown to business and killed them if the job was a female. However,Luca was good at leaving the women to the Benetti members who wereable to stomach that shit.
“Was thatbefore or after he knew who you were?” I asked. “I mean,did the urine stain come before orafter you told him The Son had found him?”
“Before,” Ciroconfirmed. “Once he knew who I was, well…I’mjust grateful he didn’t shit himself.”
I put themallet down and examined ice pick. “That’ll come later,” Ipredictedbecause it alwaysdid. I looked at Ciro. “No screaming?”
He shook hishead. “Nah, not this time. I got a bitch of a headache what withFrankie coming back.” And hereI thought I was the only one on pins and needles. “She’s waited sixyears to cuss us out. I can’t imagine it’ll be pretty.”
I didn’t wantto talk about Frankie just yet. It was the whole reason I crashedCiro’s party for two. Iwantedto get my mind off the unknown. I jerked my chin towards RichardMiller. “What are you going to do first?”
Ciro turned to faceRichard, and we stood side by side studying the piece of shit, whowas still pleading for his life behind the handkerchief. Cirococked his head and those amber eyes of his, the ones that havehaunted me for six years because they were the same ones thatdecorated Frankie’s face, narrowed a bit. “Well, since I’m nottrying to get information out of him and I’m crunched for timebecause of Frankie, I’m thinking I might just start at the top andwork my way down.”
“Eyes first?”
Ciro lookedover at me. “You think?”Again, this was all for show. Ciro didn’t need me to tell himthe quickest and most efficient way to kill someone. Ciro was theprofessional torturer here, not me. I was just helping him mentallytorture Robert Miller.
I shrugged ashoulder. “If you’re pressed for time, blinding him will heightenhis fear as he won’t be able to see what’s coming next.”
“Too true,” hecommented as if he was in deepthought.
Imade a show of glancing at mywatch. “You have good two hours before you have to shower andchange,” I told him.
“Just me?”Ciro knew there was a reason I crashed his party, and he knew the reason was Frankie. He alsoknew I needed to work out my anxiousness before meeting up withher.
“Okay.Us,” I clarified.
Ciro droppedon his haunches, so he wasface-to-face with Robert Miller. “Look at you, being all special,”he taunted. “You got meandThe HolyGhost, bud. And that doesn’t happen often.”
