Page 38 of Mafia Scars

A cold laugh sounded on the other end of the phone. The sound. That sound, I knew it. Quickly, I moved the phone from my ear and looked at the number.

It showed up as unrecognized.

“Who is this?” I asked when I brought the phone back to my ear.

“Hello, old friend. I hear you’ve been looking for me,” Victor taunted.

My blood turned to ice, my pulse raced, and my throat went dry.

“I have. You’re a difficult man to find. Why don’t you come out and join me? Would be great to catch up.” I tried to keep the angst out of my voice.

“That would be great, but I’m nowhere near where you are. Left the warehouse yesterday.”

“Oh right, well, that’s not a problem. How about you tell me where you are? I’ll come to you.” I was pissing with him. Of course, he would never say where he was.

“How about you drink yak piss? Game’s over. Just letting you know. I’m not allowing you people to take my bounty back to Chicago. Boss wants her now. It’s funny how by attempting to move her you accelerated things.” He laughed while I cracked my knuckles. “Although I think I would have taken her by about Saturday. I still haven’t quite figured out whatunharmedmeans.”

“You fucking piece of shit, don’t you dare touch her.”

“Luc, Luc, you know me more than most. So, you know that kind of talk isn’t going to work. Now, tell me what you thinkunharmedmeans. The Oxford Dictionary says that meansundamaged, unbroken or in good condition.Now, I’ve been trying to figure out all the loopholes around that. Something can beundamaged, unbroken or in good conditionand still be functional. We’d still class that asunharmed. Like my lawnmower has a slight scratch on it, I would say that wasundamaged, unbroken or in good condition.”

“Fucking shut up about that!”

My heart was racing, blood pounding now in my ears as I moved, taking the steps three at a time to get down to my bike.

“At least I’m asking your opinion. Damn. Oh, look, I can see her, walking past the lingerie shop. Got a pair of nice tits on her. Maybe I’ll cut those off along with her face and make an ornament out of them. Nah. I’ll keep the tits until worms get them. My last pair just expired.”

I hung up. Bile rose in my throat, but I had to ignore it.

I called Maurice, but the phone went to voicemail. So, I quickly fired him a message. Claudius too.

I knew where Victor was.

Fuck. Why didn’t we leave on Wednesday?

I should have dragged Amelia kicking and screaming if I’d had to.

Now she was so far away from me.

At the mall, getting what she deemed last-minute supplies.

* * *

Amelia

* * *

I understood full well how people killed others over nothing in particular.

Over the last few days, I’d gone over all the ways I could get rid of Maurice, and the only answer I came up with was to kill him.

Oh my God. I’d turned into a mobster. Like father, like daughter.

That thought made me sick, but I’d take it over having Maurice cling to me like a rash.

The only time he gave me a break was when Gigi was around. She of course had to take a liking to him.

The most annoying guy I’d ever met in my life. And he was always eating and talking about shit.