They have safe rooms that the Masons use as prison cells. They have their own law enforcement at the Airport. Like the Kings, they don’t put up with shit. They even hung four guys once for trying to steal from them. Made them an example. I can appreciate a man who takes action. Words are meaningless in our businesses.
We make our way down through the brightly lit tunnels and take a right at the end. Turner stands there dressed in a three-piece suit in front of a black metal door. “Kings.”
“You have something for us?” Bones asks, getting to the point. He hates them but understands they can be useful at times. Now is one of them.
“The Masons always deliver,” he states before unlocking the door and pushing it open. The joints creak so loud it makes my teeth hurt.
We step inside, where cages line either side of a single aisle. It smells like rotten eggs and sour milk. The first two jail cells are empty on either side but the third on the right has a man in it. He’s lying on the concrete floor, naked and shivering in the fetal position with his back to us.
We pass a few more empty ones and come to another door at the end. Turner pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks the padlock, pushing it open.
We step inside a large room. It’s not lit up like the cell block was. It’s darker with a musty smell. Inside the room is a much bigger cell than the others we passed to get here.
Solitude! Some just don’t play well with others, even while in a cage.
A man is standing in the middle of it with his back to us.
At the sound of us entering, he turns around. “The Kings.” He gives an evil smile, making his face look like the Grinch. If he grew a full beard and hadn’t washed in a month.
We say nothing.
He walks over to the door to his cage and sticks his hands through the bars so he can grip them. “What do I owe this pleasure?”
“Kale, it’s been a while,” Bones states.
He snorts. “Last time I saw you, you were still sucking on your mother’s tit. Can’t say I blame you; she had a nice rack.”
Grave goes to step forward, but Bones stops him with a hand on his chest.
Kale laughs. “Grave, still so sensitive.”
His chest heaves with deep breaths. It’s taking everything he has not to kill him right here, right now.
“Cross.” His dark eyes turn to me. “I never thought you’d have the balls to kill that son of a bitch father of yours. But good for you. That paid me five grand, ya know?”
Kale Freeman was a friend of our father’s. He wanted to be a Wisemen, but there was no place for a fourth. Our fathers pissed him off, so he went out on his own. Diamonds were his niche. Rare, expensive diamonds. I have to give it to him; he’s made himself known in Sin City and is worth billions of dollars. Too bad he fucked over the wrong people.
“And Titan—”
“I don’t need to go down memory lane,” Titan interrupts him. “I’m very well aware what I’ve done in my life.”
“I bet you enjoy fucking that wife of yours.” He licks his lips, ignoring him.
Titan fists his hands, taking in a deep breath.
“Let’s talk about you.” I smile, knowing that going to the Mason brothers was the best thing to do. I knew they’d bring him to us. He’s been hiding. Knowing the connection we have with our client. But running will get you nowhere. “You’ve been fucking over some very important clients.”
He snorts. “I haven’t fucked over anyone. It was a misunderstanding.”
“Ten million dollars is more than a misunderstanding,” Bones adds.
“What are you going to do, Bones?” He arches a brow. “Make me apologize?” Throwing his head back, he laughs at himself. I think he’s forgetting he’s the one in the cage.
“The only thing our client wants to hear is you choking on your own blood as it spills from your throat,” I state.
His eyes narrow on me as he straightens in his cell. For a man with limited mobility, he seems to think he’s God. “He could never touch me!” he hisses. “I have men who would destroy him.”
“You don’t own an army, Kale,” Grave tells him. “You have puppets that do as you tell them. Anyone can take control of those strings at any time.”
“Is that why you’re here?” He starts yanking on the bars. “Huh? To take what’s mine?” He bares his teeth like a rabid dog.
He knows he’s fucked.
“My men will destroy you and everyone you fucking love if anything happens to me,” Kale warns. “Fucking bury you with all those other bodies you hide out in the desert.”
“That’s a chance we’re willing to take,” Bones informs him. “Turner.”
He pulls a new set of keys from his pocket and walks over to the cell. He unlocks it, pulling the door open wide.
Kale steps farther into his cell until his back is hitting the concrete wall. “I had a deal … I’ll get him the diamonds. If he goes back on it …”
“We made a better one,” I say, stepping into the cell. “We get half the shipment just for killing you.”
“No …”
“We already gutted one of your men. He had six.” We returned those to the client. We won’t be keeping the other half—our payment. That’s what we owe the Mason brothers. They held up their end, so we’ll hold up ours. That’s how business works. We don’t need the rest of the shipment promised to us by our client. We’ll kill this sick bastard for free.
“That’s not how this works!” he snaps.
“The game can change at any time,” Bones tells him, coming to stand beside me. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out his knife and flips it open. “I have a feeling you’ve swallowed something you shouldn’t have.”
He goes to run past us, but I grab the back of his shirt and yank him off his feet, slamming him down to the concrete floor. Bending down, I press my knee into his neck while Grave holds his hands above his head. Titan straddles his legs, and just like the last guy, Bones rips his shirt open.
“Open up,” I say.
He screams, trying to fight us, and Bones places the blade into his mouth just as Kale closes it. The blade cutting him. Blood instantly fills his mouth, and he starts to choke on it.
“Boy, Bianchi would love to see this.” Bones sighs, as if he’s sad our client isn’t here to see what he paid us to do.
“Oh, he is,” Turner adds, and we look up at him. He casually leans up against the inside of the cell. This is a typical day for him. He points at a black dome in the middle of the room.
Mr. Bianchi—Luca’s dad—made a deal with this sorry son of a bitch. It would have been a great partnership if Kale hadn’t fucked him over. Now we’ll own it. Just one more way for us to own this city.
Bones pulls the knife out, and the rest of us let Kale go. He rolls onto his stomach getting up onto his hands and knees, blood pouring from his mouth.
“Cough ’em up.” Grave kicks his back.
We don’t really think he swallowed them. No, he sold them. He really thought John Bianchi, who is a Don—the ringleader of the Italian-American Mafia—wouldn’t give two shits that he fucked him over. Kale deserves to die a slow death just for that thought alone. Titan was right when he told Turner he’s seen men killed for less. Why he thought he was untouchable is beyond me.