Page 43 of Long Live the King
Her questions spill out of her mouth in rapid succession, the same way the questions swirl around in my head.
“Where the fuck is Tommy?” I ask, glaring down at her.
She looks confused, as if I just asked a question in Chinese, and it pisses me off. I don’t have time for games, and she needs to know how serious things are. So, I take two quick steps, pulling out my nine millimeter as I jam my other hand into her throat and slam the back of her head down, pinning her to the floor.
“Where the fuck is Tommy?” I ask again, this time with my gun pressed firmly against the side of her cheek.
“I . . . I don’t know. I don’t know, Dominic, please,” she stammers as tears fill her eyes. Her first tear escapes, and I think about how Alannah probably cried for me to protect her as Tommy did what he did to her. Laura’s tears only make me madder.
“Don’t lie to me, Laura!” I snap, screaming in her face. “Did you know about Raphy? Huh? Did you know?”
Laura is sobbing now, her chest heaving up and down as she struggles to breathe through the fear.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dominic,” she pleads. “I swear I don’t know. Please don’t do this. I thought we were friends.”
“Shut the fuck up!” I yell. “You think any of this matters to me? You think I care about hurting you? You don’t fucking matter to me. Onlyshematters to me, and your snake of a fiancé took her.”
“What? What are you talking . . .”
“Tommy killed Raphy, and he took Alannah. He has her somewhere, so that means everyone is expendable now. He broke the ultimate rule when he touched her, and now nothing else matters. Not even you.”
I chamber a round in my gun and raise the weapon to her temple. My skin screams for me to pull the trigger and aches when I pause.
“Where is he? I will not fucking ask again,” I tell her, making sure to never break eye contact.
“I swear, Dominic, I haven’t seen Tommy since he went to dinner with you. I swear I haven’t. Please don’t do this. I didn’t know about any of it. Please don’t,” she begs, but I don’t believe her. Even as she starts to pee on herself out of fear, I don’t fucking believe her.
“Tommy schemed against me, and he took the one thing I’ve ever really cared about,” I say as the need to pull the trigger becomes too much to fight back. “When it comes to Alannah, all the rules change, and now everyone is gonna fucking suffer until I find out where she is. Starting with you.”
My muscles tighten in my hand and I begin to squeeze, waiting for the sudden jerk of the kickback. But before it happens, my phone starts ringing.
Maybe it’s Alannah. Maybe it’s Tommy. Maybe it’s Frankie.
There’s too many maybes to ignore, so once again, I pause, letting my hand relax while I pull the phone from my pocket. Still aiming at Laura’s head, I see who the caller is, and it’s neither of the people I expected. It’s worse.
“Victor,” I answer with a growl that surprises me.
“It’s been a while since I heard from you, Dominic,” Victor says in his raspy voice. “We have a lot to discuss.”
“Yeah, we do,” I snap back. “Because you fucked up, Victor.”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh you heard me, you fucking cock sucker. I think it was you who turned Tommy against me. I think it was you who had him playing games for you, turning his back on his family, disgracing himself in some half-assed attempt to remove me from power. I think it was you, and now I’m gonna come down on all of you like lightning from the fingers of God himself.”
Victor is silent on the other end for a moment. After his pause, I hear him exhale and speak up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dominic,” he says. “But it’s obvious to me that your family is falling apart. You’re breaking at the seams, and from the sound of it, you’re in complete shambles. I think I can help you with this. Why don’t we meet up? I think maybe if me and you could sit down and talk about this, we can figure out a way to get things back on track. You can pay your debts, and I’ll help you figure out how to fix your broken family. We don’t need to involve anybody else, either. Let’s just meet up, alone, somewhere we can talk in private. Just the two of us. Two bosses, working out their problems. What do you say?”
I let Victor’s words run through my mind a few times as I continue to press my gun against Laura’s face. I know what this means, and it hits me hard. As if I haven’t been through enough already, it sounds like Victor has gotten approval to make a move on me. I’ve been in this game long enough to know what a setup looks like, and Victor’s invitation to meet alone tells me he plans to have me killed. If I took him up on his offer, I’d wait for him to show up, and he never would. The only thing I’d meet is my demise, delivered to me through the barrel of a gun. I’d never fall for that.
However, something else Victor said does resonate with me. He wants to meet up, alone. For one reason or another, those words stick in my mind while all the rest go in one ear and out the other. Meet up,alone.Somewhere we can talk in private.Just the two of us.
A light bulb goes off in my head.
“So, how about it, Dominic?” Victor continues to prod.
“Oh, I’ll be coming to see you soon, Victor,” I say. “And when I do, there will be no talking. But I’m gonna take care of Tommy first.” Just as Victor starts to protest, I end the call and push the phone back into my pocket.
