Page 24 of The Don's Prisoner

“You promise?” he asked and I nodded.

“I promise,” I said in my sweetest, most reasonable voice.

He seemed to think it over a minute and then looked back at Lucky. The psychotic bull of a man took a knife out of his pocket, rolled the blade in the blood on his shirt, and licked the edge of the blade. The kid in the chair shuttered, terrified.

“The-there’s an old warehouse, kind of like this one out in Quincy, just outside of Boston. It’s the biggest one in the area and is completely legal, so my guess is they’ll take everything there. And the ship… they will probably dock it in the southern portion of the harbor.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, crouching down in front of him so he didn’t have to look up at an angle to see me. Sometimes the closer and more familiar you get with someone, the more they trust you. “Seems like a risky place being that's where all the hotels and touristy stuff is.”

“Yes, I’m sure. My da, he owns a bar in the older part of the city, you know, where the cobblestones are and it’s all old-worldly? He’s had me along with him a few times, so I’ve seen them do it. They figure no one would be dumb enough to smuggle weapons around the civies. It’s a risky move, but it pays off.”

“Perfect. Well…” I paused, waiting to fill in his name. He did, quite happily.

“Daniel.”

“Ah! Well, Daniel, give me a moment to talk to my guys in Boston and tell them where to look. Once that is settled, you can be on your way out the door,” I promised. He nodded enthusiastically. His hope was obnoxious.

I got up, walked over to Lucky, and whispered, facing away from Daniel.

“That whole knife-licking thing you did…” I said, neither of us looking at one another. He was watching Daniel, and I was looking at the guarded door behind us. “…that’s how you end up with things like HIV, man.”

“Oh please. You think I not a professional?” he asked in a very heavy Italian accent. “I stab my own leg to get da blood on it. I not even touch da shirt. It’s all a…oh… an illusion.”

“Well, it’s a creepy fucking illusion, you psycho,” I told him and took out my cell. Quickly, I dialed my guy who was closest to the dock Daniel was talking about.

Not even twenty minutes later, my guy had had the ship rerouted back to the dock it had been supposed to end up at in the first place. Everything was intact. They hadn’t gotten anything off the boat yet. It was like it had never happened—the shipment was only a little delayed.

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

I texted my dad to let him know it had arrived and turned back to Daniel.

“Did you get it back?” Daniel asked from the chair. “Was I right? I was right, wasn’t I?”

“You were right,” I told him and held out my hand to Lucky, asking for the knife he had in his hand. He gave it to me, still looking at Daniel. Lucky was definitely a creepy guy, but I liked him.

Slowly, I walked over to the chair, crouched behind it, and slid the blade between the metal of the chair and the plastic of the tie. The plastic snapped and let his left foot free. Then, I did the same to the right. Finally, I cut the ties from his wrists. and he brought his hands around so he could scratch them and move his fingers. He rubbed his wrists too, and he looked relieved.

“There you are, Daniel, I have kept my word,” I told him. “You are free to go as you please.”

“You mean it?” he asked, looking from Lucky to me and then back again. “I can really go?”

“You can go,” I nodded, and Daniel got up.

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I promise, nothing like this will ever happen again. I’m done with the Irish mob.”

“I know you are, kid,” I said, and as he walked away from me towards the open door, I drew the gun from my underarm holster. He didn’t even notice when I cocked the hammer back and lined it up with his head. I held my aim there until he stepped through the doorway to the other side. Then I squeezed the trigger. The bullet punched a hole into the back of his skull and exited out the front with ease.

Lucky raised an eyebrow at me.

“Hey, I didn’t lie. I told him he could walk out of here. I just never specified that I would only let him go a few steps.”

Lucky shook his head at me.

Just then my phone rang, and I answered it right away, expecting it to be my guys on the ship.

“Hello?”

“Gio?” It was a female voice, and not just any female. It was Victoria. But the way she said my name told me something was going on. My whole body tensed, waiting for the bad news that I expected was coming.

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