Page 5 of Ashes

“Please,” he cries, his dark eyes pleading with me. “Please stop!”

I don’t know what his name is. I never bothered to ask. It doesn’t even matter.

My father’s men have caught him spying, and I volunteered to interrogate him to find out who he works for.

I regard him with disinterest. “Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll let you go.”

I’m getting bored.

He hasn’t said anything useful, and he has to be in a lot of pain. His begging and crying grates on my nerves.

I suspect he has no idea who hired him. Someone must’ve approached him and offered him money, and the dumb guy accepted without even knowing anything about my family.

“I swear I don’t know,” he chokes out. “It was some guy. Tall. Dark eyes. He was wearing a green hoodie.”

I cock my head at him. “Was that so hard?”

I think I know who he’s talking about. The hoodie guy is a member of the Ruffino gang that operates very close to our territory.

They’re going to pay for this little failed attempt at doing who knows what. It’s not like some pathetic gang can do something against us.

“Will you let me go now?” he asks.

“Yes. Yes, I will.” I pull out my gun and put a bullet between his eyes.

Free like a bird.

Or a ghost.

“Sir!”

I turn toward the man in a black suit who’s spoken.

“Your father requests your immediate presence,” he says.

“All right. Take care of the body. Have someone place a bomb in the Ruffino gang’s hideout. That bar they love to frequent.”

That should be enough to get rid of them and their silly plans. They won’t try to mess with us again.

“Yes, sir. But—”

I raise an eyebrow at him.

The guy presses his lips together and inclines his head.

That’s better.

I head to my car. If my father wants to see me so urgently, then it has to be because he wants to talk about something important.

Maybe something interesting finally happens.

***

“YOU WANTED TO SEE ME,” I say to my father as I enter his office.

“Yes,” my father says, lifting his dark eyes to me, as he runs his hand through his graying brown hair. “I found you a wife.”

He slides a photo across his desk as I take a seat in the chair opposite him.