Page 21 of Blood Money

I cocked a brow. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah. Really,” he sneered, and I wanted to run my fist through his face. After the day I’d had yesterday, I was in the mood to fuck something up.

“How old are you?” I calmly asked as I uncrossed my arms. With my head tilted, I waited for his reply.

“Twenty-two,” he spat as he pulled against the chains. They clinked on the heavy eyebolts when he leaned closer to me. “You gotta problem with dat?”

An evil grin lifted the corners of my mouth as I removed my jacket and handed it to Dario. “On the contrary,” I replied before I punched him in the face. He fell back and bounced off the painted cinderblock wall. My ring had sliced open his lip, and blood gushed down his chin.

“You fucking piece of shit!” he screamed, his voice rising an octave as his blood dripped onto the plastic under his feet.

“La Cosa Nostra owns this entire fucking city. Weletyou have the West Chicago area out of the goodness of our hearts. The agreement we had with your boss was that you stayed in your area, and everything was good. You stray anywhere else, and all bets are off.” There was no goodness in our hearts. That agreement was strictly business, and it was an attempt to keep the gangs corralled in a controlled area while we got a small cut of their profits.

“We don’t answer to you anymore,” the dude muttered with his swelling lip.

“Is that so?” I punched him in the eye, and he screamed again.

“Oh, that’s gonna leave a mark,” I told him with mock concern as his eye began to swell shut and blood seeped from the cut on his cheek. Three more blows to his face and a few to his body had him crumpled and hanging from the chains.

I grabbed his hair and lifted his head. A groan told me he was conscious, and then one eye blinked open, confirming it.

“I want you to take a message to your boss. The next time we pick you or one of your buddies up in our area, we’ll be dropping your body off on his doorstep. Then we’ll be gunning for him.Capisci?” My tone was light and almost playful—a clear indicator that the twisted and dark creature within me was enjoying this interaction.

“O-O-Okay,” he stuttered as he gasped for breath. I was pretty sure I broke a rib.

Or two.

“Good boy.” I patted his swollen cheek, getting his blood on the palm of my hand. I wiped it on a towel Dario handed me. I’d wash up before I left.

“Please clean this up,” I told the soldiers who stood stoically nearby as I gestured toward the gang member chained to the wall. One of them nodded, and I started up the stairs with Dario on my heels. Yes, I could’ve had one of the capos or their soldiers take care of this, but sometimes one had to handle things oneself to get a clearer point across.

I didn’t hide behind my desk and let others do my dirty work.

“Got a call while you were occupied. The bakery didn’t pay. Money wasn’t in the cake box. Guido went by to give them a nudge,” Dario quietly informed me as we stepped out into the kitchen of the run-down house.

“Goddamn it. Mrs. Romano is in the hospital. We could’ve given her some time.” I spun to glare at Dario.

He held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m just the messenger. Thought you’d also like to know that the family refused to pay when Guido made his second stop to collect.”

“The family?” I asked through gritted teeth. “He shook downthe family? Who, exactly?”

“Not sure. He said it was a female. That’s all I got.” Dario gave me a leery glance.

I saw red. If Guido had laid a finger on who I thought it was, I’d cut the fucking thing off. He’d be lucky if I didn’t cut them all off. He didn’t have permission to shake down the fucking families of our “customers.”

When we left, I intended to swing by the bakery, but I ended up having to go to the warehouse in Iowa with Gabriel. That turned out to be a shitshow of epic proportions.

We were hauling ass away from the warehouse outside of Davenport, Iowa. Gabriel had instructed me to get cleanup arranged, so I made the call to Venom and the RBMC boys we worked with. The Royal Bastards MC had a legitimate biological cleanup business—though not all the jobs were aboveboard.

“We’re on our way,” Venom replied the moment I told him we needed their services ASAP. He also assured me they would gather any and all evidence and get us the results. I relayed Gabriel’s instructions for handling the warehouse.

“I appreciate it,” I told him.

“Anytime. You and The Family have been loyal customers for a long time.”

“I also need Facet to look into a few things for me.” I could’ve had our guy do it, but I didn’t want this going through The Family.

“Sure thing. What do you need?” Venom asked.

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