Page 130 of Mafia Angel

“Long enough to die without telling you shit.”

“What school does your daughter go to again?”

His eyes widen, and his nostrils flair.

“You wouldn’t go after her.”

I pretend to frown.

“You went after my girl. Why wouldn’t I go after yours?”

“She’s only a kid.”

“Exactly. If you don’t want anything to happen to your defenseless child, tell me what I want to know.”

I step up so close that I have to make sure I don’t step in his piss.

“You think you know so much. If you did, you’d know I’m my family’s enforcer. I have no limits. I have no boundaries. You fucked up going after me. You guaranteed I’ll wipe out your entire family by going after my woman. You have one last chance to save them. Who gave you the information?”

I step back. I adopt the most menacing stare I can, and he believes me. He pisses himself again. I wait, knowing what will come next. The anxiety he feels increases the serotonin in his belly. It’ll cause his colon to spasm.

“Did you just shit your own thumb out of your ass?”

Uncontrollable bowel movements. This isn’t the first time I’ve made someone shit themselves out of fear. I doubt it’ll be the last. Carmine and Matteo laugh as they each take a swing with their pipes. With synchronicity that comes with practice, the pipes land across his kidneys. This time he shits and pisses himself. What the fuck does he have left in there?

“Philip Morris. He did it.”

Confirmation.

“Who’s he working for?”

“I don’t know. Maybe no one. He hates your entire family. He’s been passed over for promotion twice because of your uncle’s ties to the police commissioner. He hates Sinead because she’s humiliated him on the stand before. The chance to get back at both of you at the same time was too much for him to pass up.”

Someone else knew that. Morris wouldn’t do this without incentive and assurance that his ass is covered. Duffy couldn’t offer either of those. Who? There are the obvious big players in this game, but we can’t rule out the Polish Mob yet. We know they were involved in the car bomb and Cohenour’s death. The only ones we can rule out are the Kutsenkos. They wouldn’t target Sinead.

“You bugged her place, but whose idea was that?”

“Morris.”

“Him or whoever’s paying him.”

“Definitely his. He threatened me if I told anyone. Whoever he’s working for didn’t tell him to do it. He wanted anything on Sinead that he could use to blackmail her.”

“What did he want from her?”

When Duffy just looks at me, I know exactly what he means. Now I’m going to do even worse to Morris than I am Duffy. That fuck face was going to blackmail mypiccolinainto sleeping with him. I don’t want to imagine what he’d do to her when she refused. Because she isn’t someone who would ever succumb to that. He’d have to force her. And that idea only pisses me off even more.

I won’t get anything else from Duffy, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to kill him yet. Nah. He can suffer a few more days. I never liked him, and getting Sinead involved guaranteed I hate him.

It’s getting late, and I know Carmine and Matteo want to go home to their wives. I tell them to take off. I’m going to crash here. I’ll set my alarm clock to wake me a few times, so I can torment Duffy some more. Marco and Luca will bring Morris in tomorrow. I want Duffy as close to death without being dead as I can get, so Morris knows what’s coming. Seeing a dead body won’t do shit to him. He’s seen plenty. I want him to see the agony.

* * *

“Gabe!”

I look out the office window as I scrub my hands and arms. Duffy’s unconscious partly from the beating I just gave his abdomen and partly because I sent him twirling and spinning. He’s on the chain connected to the hook on the garage door belt.

“In here!”

---