Page 18 of Dreadful

“Yeah, because they’re going to chatter out of my head if we don’t leave this locker soon. Let’s get on with it. You promised if I snagged him early this morning, we’d be done with him before he pisses and shit everywhere.”

“Don’t worry. You know I keep my promises.” I study the unconscious man lying on the polished concrete floor. “And this one will be a pleasure to follow through with.”

My uncle doesn’t think he needs an official advisor. He was my father’s underboss, and I suspect his downfall, so I can see why Claudio would be wary. His capo, Vinnie Flores, is the closest thing he has to a second-in-command…and he’s now chained up in my basement.

Once Claudio finds out, I’ll have officially started a war. But I’m ready, and the information thisbastardohas inside his thick skull will help me win it by swaying the Family to my side.

“Ilfiglio di puttanahas been out for a few hours already. When he wakes, he should sing like a canary.” Raze smirks. “I gave him the samemerdaClaudio has him sell around here. Found it in his pockets like you suspected.”

Anger surges through me. The Family isn’t above pushing drugs, but we don’t do it in our own backyard. My father had his flaws, but using the Family’s position to poison our neighborhood wasn’t one of them.

“Let’s wake him up then, shall we? Ready?”

He wiggles his phone at me. “Hell yeah. Let’s make a movie.”

Scene 5

IL PORCO SQUEALS

Sever

Vinnie’s oily combover sticks to the damp ground, his cheeks are pale, and he’s in his signature tracksuit. Chains encircle his waist, binding his hands behind him, while his feet are tethered to the meat hook line that extends from the ceiling. The only reason the meat hook is secured on the chain links and not embedded in his back is because I still need the man alive for answers. One of his palms has an infected wound from an incident a few weeks ago, and his nose is recently bloodied.

“I see you started without me. Was he hard to take down?”

“Nah.” Raze shrugs. “He was half-high when I found him. I just ran out of shit to scroll through and got bored.”

I chuckle with approval and use the tip of my cane to press the button that controls the meat hooks hanging from the ceiling. The loud, clanging sound rattles Vinnie awake. By the time he figures out what’s happening, though, the pulley system has already yanked him upside down.

“Wait, no! No! Stop!”

“Shout all you want. I like it,” I taunt.

Raze’s barber shop isn’t open yet, and even if it was, no one could hear him beyond the insulated walls of the aging room.

“Severino, please. Let me down. I’m your cousin, for Chrissake, and your uncle’s capo! Show some fucking resp—”

I swing my oak cane like a baseball bat straight into his stomach, making him shriek in pain.

“You’re myuncle’scousin. Not mine. I don’t know what the fuck that makes us on our family tree, but after the way you behaved in front of the Vegas families, you’re no relation of mine.”

Claudio sent Vinnie and me to Vegas a few weeks ago to “check out the competition.” My uncle’s been trying for years to expand the Vincelli influence beyond Boston. He even opened up one of his restaurants on the Vegas Strip. But Vegas works differently than we do. They respect the heads of true families, not just the Mafia boss. Since my father was the only son and I’m the last Luciano in his line, Claudio sent me under the guise that Vinnie ismycapo.

The whole thing was one of Claudio’s mind tricks to get under my skin. Vinnie was my father’s capo before he became Claudio’s. Going to Vegas might have been for recon, but the fact that Claudio sent me with the man I suspect had a hand in my father’s death was solely meant to taunt me.

“Is that what this is about? Me cheating at cards? Who cares? Claudio would tell those families tovaffanculoif he could. He just wants their money.”

“You think I care whatClaudiothinks? You tried to steal from the family we were reconning, youidiota. We were at that casino inmyname, not Vincelli’s. You respect no one, especially not the Lucianos.”

“Why the hell would I respectyou? You’re just a soldier and the son of a dead boss. No power. No influence. Your uncle should’ve killed you when he went after your—”

He slams his mouth shut, and my lips twitch.

Gotchaporco.

“Went after my…what, Vinnie?”

“Went after your nothing,” Vinnie sneers. “Let me go,bastardo. Claudio will be looking for me once he gets back from evaluating his restaurant in Vegas, and you know what he’ll do when he finds out about this.”