Page 112 of Mob Star

Ewan doesn’t speak fluent Gaelic, but I’m certain he knows that phrase. Dillan and I keep creeping forward, not taking for granted the possible arrival of more men from any of the three syndicates. When we’re as close as I want to get for now, I stop. I flip up my goggles.

“What the feck, Pablo?”

He laughs. I didn’t expect much more from him. We use feck around the other syndicates on purpose. Let them think we’re a bunch of twats clinging to the motherland. We prefer to be underestimated.

I twist to my right and put a line of bullets from the front fender to bumper of his Maybach. The top end of Mercedes luxury cars. I know the rounds didn’t pierce the metal since it’s reinforced like all our cars, but it’ll be a bitch to fix.

“You didn’t answer my question. I’ll ask it only one more time. What the feck, Pablo?”

He crosses his arms and stares. I shoot off his driver’s side-view mirror and make a perfect circle around the hub caps on each tire I can see.

“I know you’re pissed now that I’ve fecked around with your favorite toy. That’s just payback for you breaking my fecking remote-control car when we were nine, you stupid feck. Do you really want me to keep going?”

I aim for him now. He knows I won’t kill him, but I will fecking shoot him. I’ve done it before.

“What do you want, Finn?”

“Well, Santa, I’ve been on the nice list this year. I want Corey. My future father-in-law gets to kill him. I want Cormac and Seamus to beat the shite out of Ewan. My brothers can have your Albanian playdate. You and I are going to talk about you being such a little bitch that you used my fiancée to get to us.”

I haven’t proposed yet, but she will be.

“You’re not engaged yet.”

“How would you know? I flushed the last bug you tried to put outside my door. I know you’ve gone nowhere near my place since you killed the last guy working security at my building. I’ve watched all the footage. Since Thea’s always with me at my place, you didn’t get shite from hers. I’m certain you weren’t in bed with us because I’ve never been good at sharing with you. You and I are gonna chat.”

I signal my brothers and cousins to move forward. The rest of our guys fan out to guard the perimeter. I hear Dillan whisper into his earpiece. As he and I inch forward and the others pass us to get to Ewan, Corey, and the Albanian kyre, three truck engines roar to life. By the time my family’s dragging the three men back toward the unlit area, the three trucks are pulling up. More of our men pour out and load the full contents of the warehouse. It’s an Albanian one, so it’s not that big. But there’s plenty for us to take. Yup, the hosts of the party were fashionably late. Did them no good.

Dillan and I go up opposite sets of steps to get onto the loading dock. Our rifles still point at Pablo. I come around in front of him and put the barrel to his forehead while Dillan strips him of all his weapons. We know where to look. When Dillan’s tossed everything far enough away that Pablo has no chance to get them, I shove the barrel forward, pushing Pablo back three steps. I swing it around and ram the butt into his chest. He stumbles back, but Dillan pushes him forward.

“Why, Pablo? We cut you some fecking slack because of your mother. You use her being in the hospital to go after a woman. Does your mamasita know how big a shitbag she raised?”

“Don’t talk about my mother, hijueputa.”

“Considering you have a gun at your chest and one at your back, I wouldn’t call me a son of a bitch. I think I’m in a better position to talk about your mother than you are mine. Why Althea?”

“Since you’re sniffing after her like you’re the dog in heat, I decided you could chase your own tail.”

I pull my knife from my pocket and flick it open. I hold it up for Pablo to see. It’s the same one that gave him a scar from his right collar bone to his sternum. Dillan sees me lower my gun, so he grabs Pablo’s arms and pulls them behind Pablo’s back. He wraps his right calf around Pablo’s legs and pushes him to the ground. He gets zips ties around Pablo’s wrists faster than a cowboy can lasso a bronco. I grab Pablo’s shoulder and pull him back while Dillan moves to Pablo’s legs. He puts his boot on Pablo’s kneecaps and starts increasing the weight. Before Pablo can try to wrestle away from us, I rip his shirt open and slice from his left collar bone to his sternum.

“Stay away from my woman. Maybe your dad shouldn’t have taken so many field trips to Colombian jails. Maybe he wouldn’t have raised two pedazos de mierda malparido.” Despicable pieces of shite.

Malparido means badly born, but it translates to despicable. It’s more insulting in Spanish than it sounds when I use it in that context. I put my blade to his cheek and nick the skin.

“Do you want a scar to match Luca’s?”

Luca has one that runs from his cheekbone to below the collar of his shirt courtesy of his former best friend.

“If you won’t give me an answer to why you targeted Thea, then tell us what you hoped to gain by getting involved in this shitshow between the Albanians and the Boston Irish. How’d you get the feckers from Jersey involved? You know we’re going to crow like fecking roosters to Maks about this.”

“He already knows.”

That gives me pause. I glance in the direction where my brothers dragged the kyre. “He can’t kill him, so he’s letting you. What’re you getting out of that deal? The chance to feck us over? Sounds like Maks is getting twice the deal you are since you have no product left. We’ll make sure the Kurti family knows their leader died doing a deal with you. They’ll go after you, which does the bratva and us a favor. All the while, you’re still everyone’s little bitch.”

I slam my fist into his nose, barely jerking back in time to avoid the blood splatter. I kick him in the ribs as Dillan transfers more of his weight to Pablo’s kneecaps.

“This all ends with just this if you tell me why you went after Althea instead of just me or any man in my family?”

“I told you. You’re sniffing after her like you’re the one with a cunt. She was easy bait.”

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