Page 44 of The Holy Ghost
“And what doyou think of the girl?” Luca questioned. We both knew handing herthe keys to thetruck andgiving her the freedom that he did was a test. He wanted to seewhat she was going to do. Even if she went to the police, theevidence and plans were already in motion to blame her for Randy’sdeath should she choose that route.
“I honestlydon’t know,” I told him. “Iwas too worried about Frankie.”
“Ciro?”
“She got mysister kidnapped,” he spat. “She obviously doesn’t have any of thegood sense God gave her. How in the hell do you just advertise thatkind of information about your best friend?”
Lucacock his head. “You’ve neverpillow-talked?”
“He’d havetofuck them in a bed in orderfor a pillow to be available, Luca,” I snorted. “Ciro’s more of anagainst-the-dirty-wall-behind-a-nightclub kind of guy.”
Ciro flipped meoff.
Then he lookedat Luca. “Haveyou?”
Itwas known to both of us that Luca hada steady piece of ass. They weren’t in a relationship, by anymeans, but she was the only one he slept with. He might get hisdick sucked randomly from time to time, but he only stuck his dickin Beverly. He met her around the time Frankie had taken off, andhe always met up with her when he needed to take the edgeoff.
She was aboutten years older than he was,and she was very fit and beautiful. The best thing about herthough, was the fact that she couldn’t have kids. Luca never fellprey to a pretty face or hot body. He was too controlled anddisciplined for that. He also knew the wretched things most womenwould resort to in order to become a Benetti, so he stayed awayfrom the masses.
There wasno way some woman was going totrap Luca Benetti.
Beverly was aprofessor at Morgan City Community, and she taughtchemistry.She lived a quiet,unassuming life and knew exactly who Luca Benetti was. Knowing onewrong move could end her life, she kept her mouth shut and her legopened for Luca, and she never pushed for anything more.
“I don’t do muchtalking when I’m in bed, Ciro,” he joked. The rare side to Lucaonly Ciro, Frankie, and I got to see.
Ciro rolledhis eyes and got back to the topic at hand. “I don’t trust her.”
“Me either,” Lucareplied. “I have Estevan on her, and we’ll see what she does.”
“Frankie’s going toinsist on helping her,” Ciro pointed out.
“Frankie’s gotbigger problems,” I countered.
All talkceased when we hearda moanvibrate through the room.
“Ah, look who’s wakingup,” Ciro declared, cheerfully, “our good buddy Randolph.” Luca letout a soft chuckle as I just shook my head. Ciro was always full oftheatrics.
We stood back,Luca leaning against the wall, his hands in his pockets, Ciro smiling like a loon next tothe tools of his trade, and me standing off to the side of Randy’sdangling body. I wasn’t going to deny Ciro or Luca their payback,but Randy’s last breaths belonged to me.
We waitedpatiently as Randy’s eyesfluttered open. It’d be a few seconds before he was fully coherent.I knocked him out pretty hard to begin with, but Luca had given himanother thump to the head before I carried him from the SUV toCiro’s most favorite place in the world. We had chained him upwhile we had waited for Ciro to drop off Frankie’s car and stuff toher. Randy’s been out for about half hour or so.
The second the hazecleared, his eyes bulged, and he started screaming behind the ragstuffed in his mouth.
Cirogrinned.“Glad you could joinus.”
“RandolphMasterson,” Luca began. “Son to Rachel and Darren Masterson, nosiblings.” The panic on Randy’s face was real, but then he was inthe presence of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost. He knew hewas fucked. “Graduated high school-barely. No real job to speak of,mostly odd jobs here and there. Used to live at 185 Marion Lane inCedar Creek until you started mooching off your latest girlfriend,letting yourself get evicted and crashing at her place.” Randy waseither agreeing or disagreeing, but his words were muffled, so Icouldn’t be sure. “You have a few worthless friends…well, two shortnow with Tony and Eddie gone.” He looked over at me. “Am I missinganything else?” he asked, reciting the information Sal got for uson good, old Randolph.
“You left out the bestthing about Randolph,” I added. “His parents are both deceased.Drugs, I do believe.” I turned to face Randy. “Am I right? Drugs,correct?”
“And that means noone will miss you,” Ciro finished.
Randy wasscreaming again, but thatwaseasy to ignore. We were used to the background noise of begging andpleading. It no longer fazed us.
“So, here’swhat’s going to happen, Randy,” I informed him. “We’re going tospend time with you in order of importance. Since Luca is Frankie’sbest friend, he’ll get to gofirst. And, then, Ciro being Frankie’s brother, he gets to gosecond, and that’ll be a real treat. Luca knows he has to leaveenough of you for us to get our chance, but Ciro, here…well, hetends to get overexcited sometimes.” Randy started thrashingaround, but the great thing about our suspension chains? They weresurrounded by insulation. The rattling was great for instillingfear in our victims, but they got to be annoying as fuck after awhile. So, Randy was welcome to thrash about all hewanted.
“I’ll do my best to leaveyou something to work with, Ghost,” Ciro chimed in and I smiled.Ciro’s enthusiasm really was contagious. It was probably why womenloved him so much. If he fucked like he tortured and killed, nodoubt his women were satisfied.
Iturned back towards Randy.“And, then, I get you, Randolph,” I continued. “I get you lastbecause you dared to put your hands onmy wife.Francesca Mancini Fiore ismine. She ismine and you fucked up when you presumed to put hands on the onlything that matters to me.” I walked forward and jammed my fingerinside the bullet hole in thigh. His screams almost escaped the ragstuffed in his mouth but cutting his tongue out would fix that ifit came down to it. “We’re going to avenge her, Randy,” I told himas I dug my finger deeper into his flesh. “We’re going to avengeher, and then we’re going to use you as an example of what happenswhen a person dares to go after Francesca Fiore. You are going tobe a warning to everyone, and what’s left of you will be fed to thepigs, Randy.”
