Page 73 of The Viper

“Where are you?” I find myself sneering when I hear Adrian’s voice.

“The chapel,” I reply knowing Adrian knows exactly where I am.

“Good. I’m on my way.” He hangs up and I stay still for a moment before turning to Marco and handing him my phone.

“Everything okay?” Marco glances over at Johnny, then back to me.

“Adrian’s on his way.”

Marco takes a deep breath and nods. “What do you want me to do with...” He juts his head toward Johnny.

“Cut him loose, he doesn’t know anything.”

I pace back and forth, waiting for Adrian to show up. Johnny slinks away and returns to his job. I head outside and take out my cigarettes, lighting one up as I lean against the building. I know something is off, I just have to figure out whose fingers are sticky and chop the head of the snake off before it wreaks any more havoc.

Problem is, there a lot of people in the organization. But they can be trusted, or they’d be dead. Two cars approach as I puff on my smoke and watch them. The first pulls up in front of me, the second closely behind the first. Tony gets out of the car and opens the back door while looking around.

Adrian exits and straightens his suit jacket. He advances toward me and glances at my bloody shirt. His nose has white powder on the tip. I lift my hand and wipe at mine before I take out my cigarettes and offer him one. “A hundred and twenty pounds,” he says referring to the missing cocaine. He takes my lighter and sparks up the smoke.

“I know.”

“What are you doing about it?”

“Trying to figure it out.”

He looks me up and down and shakes his head. “You’re fucking soft, Dominic.” I know he’s talking about Eliza and Rosa, not the missing drugs. I grit my teeth, holding onto my own anger. “Have you heard from that cunt?”

The muscles in my arms strain as I stop myself from smashing my fists into his smug face. “Who?”

“Eliza, or her fucking sister.”

“No.” I shake my head, stomp out my smoke, and start inside.

“I didn’t even get to fuck her sister before they took off.”

I turn and shove him up against the wall. “Don’t talk about my Rosa like that.” He straightens as a smug sneer covers his fucking ugly face.

“If I had her, she’d be on her knees all the time.”

I step back and adjust my shirt sleeves before pointing to him and saying, “Shut the fuck up.”

“What are you gonna do? Kill your own brother?” His laugh is condescending as he shakes his head and walks away.

Marco places a hand on my shoulder, prompting me to turn and look at him. “Don’t do it, man,” he urges.

I shrug out of Marco’s grip and head toward Adrian. “Johnny,” Adrian booms.

“Mr. Sacco,” Johnny says as he lowers his head.

“Leave, Johnny,” I say because I know what’s about to happen.

Adrian whips his gun out and shoots Johnny in the head. Adrian turns and arches a brow. “Every single person who’s put their hands on those shipments will end the same way Johnny did.”

“Adrian, what the fuck are you doing? He had nothing to do with it.”

“Then he wasn’t good at his job.”

I walk away from Adrian before I do something drastic and have Ruben breathing down my neck. I head upstairs to find the ledger and look through it. As I search the office, I hear several more gun shots. Adrian is indeed getting rid of everyone who works here. Once I find the ledger, I shove it into the back of my pants and head back downstairs to retrieve my suit jacket. Adrian’s angry, and in his wrath, he’s willing to kill everyone. This means Ruben will need to step in soon. And the only way I’ll be able to calm Adrian down is if I find out who’s been stealing from our businesses and take care of it before Ruben deals with Adrian.

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