Page 37 of Curse

“Boss, what—”

He lisps thanks to his missing teeth, which I enjoy, but I don’t let him finish. I close the distance between us, grab him by the collar, and slam him against the wall. His joint drops to the ground, and he raises his hands in surrender, his eyes wide with fear.

“You know why I’m here,” I growl, my voice low and dangerous.

His mouth opens and closes like a fish gasping for air, but no words come out.

I fight the urge to rip this fucker apart right here on the street. “Inside. Now.”

The club falls silent when I usher AJ through the door, the men inside giving us a wide berth as I shove him toward the basement stairs.

Angela, behind the bar, her long steely gray braid glinting in the sunlight, doesn’t look up, her hands steady as she slices lemons. She’s seen this kind of thing too many times over the decades to be fazed.

Behind her, a portrait of Aurelio Demonio hangs above the bar, a reminder to patrons of who they serve. Of who I serve.

Instead of leading AJ down the steps to the concrete basement, I give him an abrupt push when we’re about halfway down the stairs. It has the desired effect: a fall hard enough to piss him off but not enough to kill him.

“What the fuck?” AJ dusts himself off and scrambles to his feet, puffing out his chest as I descend the remaining steps.

“Which is what I should be saying to you right now.” I walk down the last step and hit him square in the jaw, sending him back down to the ground.

Groaning, AJ stays down.

“Do you know why you’re here, AJ?”

AJ holds his cheek and scowls up at me, his upper lip twitching into a sneer. “What, that nobody chick at the law office? That fucking bitch—”

My rage boils over, and I slam my fist into his face once, twice, his head bouncing off the concrete floor and into my fist.

“Wait! Wait!” AJ splutters, holding up his hands and cowering. “It wasn’t my fault.”

I find that hard to believe, but this should be entertaining. I pause, my fist pulled back, ready to sledgehammer into his jaw. “Speak.”

“Franco was the one who knocked her out and tied her up. I didn’t do it! I found her on the floor right before you showed up.” Drool slips out of the corner of AJ’s mouth where I hit him. “The whole thing, it was his idea, his game.”

Could be a lie, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Franco didn’t have the balls to stand up and protect her, but he did rat her out to me and then destroy her house. “You don’t take orders from Franco, AJ.”

AJ shakes his head vehemently, smearing blood and drool across his face with the back of his hand. “I take orders from the Big Boss. Big Boss sent Franco, and Franco said no witnesses. I was following Aurelio’s orders.”

What the fuck? Aurelio is giving orders through Franco? Franco’s barely an associate. He’s a dirty cop. This makes no sense.

It makes no sense, because it’s a lie. AJ is just trying to save his own ass.

Doesn’t matter. Franco is chained up back at the Edge for his part in this, and AJ is going to die today for putting his hands on her.

Grabbing AJ by his shirt, I lift him up and throw him against the wall. When he bounces off of it, he tries to make a run for the door, but I clothesline him in the throat with my forearm and grab him by the hair with my other hand.

I hit him again, harder this time, and he crumples to the ground, groaning.

“Don’t you dare say Aurelio’s name like you know what the fuck is going on,” I hiss. “You know that so-called ‘bitch’ you hurt, the one you were going to rape, that’s my… target. And Franco’s sister. So you really expect me to believe Franco tied her up and told you to rape her and then kill her?”

AJ blinks, spitting blood. One eye is already swollen shut, the other is red and closing. He can barely form words. “Sister? Aurelio told him to kill his sister?”

I bring my balled up fist down hard on his temple again and again. When I’m about to stop, my knuckles bloody, I pound him one more time for good measure. “What Aurelio does is none of your business, fuck face.”

So Aurelio is exploiting Franco’s connection to Siena to get the flash drive back. But how did he find out about that connection in the first place, and how did he know to send Franco down to that law office?

And does that mean he knows where Siena is?

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