Page 28 of Princess's Revenge

Jimmy had been a loyal soldier for three years. The heroin habit was four months old. We were aware of it. We told him to stop.

Today he was stupid enough to get high on the job and when he told one of the boys how he’d been talking casually about what’s going in our home, they came to me. I confronted him.

We talked. Getting his next fix was his priority, not keeping our secrets. When he realized he wasn’t leaving here alive, he tried to run. I was subduing him when Andrea caught us in the foyer.

That’s what doing drugs will do to you. You’ll tell anybody anything. You’ll suck dick for a hit if things get bad enough. If the feds had caught him, they’d hold the drug charge over his head and make him flip—They’d make an informant out of him.

If that’d happened, we’d have been fucked.

That’s why we have the rule—No drugs!

Right now, I have to know whether this fucking dealer of his is high enough in the food chain to care about whoAndrea Lupertazziis.

If the Cassaduchis find out she’s alive, that could make things go from zero-to-fucked in no time at all.

Thankfully, everyone else is out of the house. I’m going to try and keep this quiet because if everyone else knows what happened with Jimmy, they’re going to think I can’t run my crew.

I’ve got a little bungalow on the east side of the property, separate from the main house. It’s nothing special—A bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom.It’s like a little apartment. That’s my first stop. I use an ATV to get there.

Once I’m in the shower, I scald myself to wash all the blood off.

My hands are still in good condition.

Normally, beating someone that bad will fracture bones and split knuckles, but I’ve been doing it so long it doesn’t even hurt anymore.

Using my hands with Jimmy was also a sign of respect. Hitting him with a tool would have been impersonal. He deserved that much after three years.

It’s a shame…what happened. Thankfully, Jimmy has no dependents. He’s a solider, not a captain, so we wouldn’t have had to support them, I’d still have felt bad though.

And—if was a captain, I’d have had a sit-down with my dad and asked permission to have him clipped. Our organization has rules like any other.

When I’m done with the shower, I dress in jeans, a t-shirt, boots and a jacket, then take the ATV back to the main house.

I find Carlo in the kitchen and ask if Andrea’s had dinner yet—She hasn’t.I have him make a thin-base pizza, Sicilian style with anchovies, capers and olives, box it and head to Andrea’s room.

It’s unfortunate she saw what she saw. I’d have preferred it if she didn’t, but sometimes getting thrown in the deep end is the best way to learn.

She handled herself well enough. I know plenty of civilians who’d have plainfreaked outat what was happening.

I knock twice on the door and hear her call out, “It’s open!”

I let myself in and find Andrea standing there in a new outfit. “Was that easy for you to do?”

“No.” I offer her the box, “Pizza?”

She gives me a blank stare.

“Carlo made it. Anchovies.”

She comes to me and takes the box, “Why’d you have to torture him like that.”

“Several reasons,” I follow her on to the patio in the light of dusk, “actions have consequences. That’s why I took the eye. The others will talk about it and word spreads. It keeps people in line.”

“That’s the eye,” she sits, “what about beating him to within an inch of his life?”

I sit too, “I could only know if he was telling me the whole truth once he knew he had nothing to lose.”

“Did he?”

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