The F King (Still a Bad Boy #3) - Ada Scott Page 0,124
me. If they made the mistake of ever letting me out of these handcuffs…
Somehow, Ross stayed conscious for a few more seconds, but it wasn’t long before the person I’d known the longest was just a corpse in a chair next to me. Over the pounding in my ears I could hear the heavy breathing of the chain gang responsible for my friend’s death, and I started to form a strategy for what I’d do if I could just get my hands free.
“What is the matter, tough guy? What’s the matter, Killer?” asked Gavino.
I didn’t answer. He’d have a heart attack if he knew what was going through my mind right now, and that would be too easy for a cunt like him.
“Cat got your tongue? Or are you finally listening to your motherfucking instructions and you want to wait until the end of the presentation for your burning fucking questions? Ken? Turn on the TV and press play on that fuckin’ thing there, then give me the remote.”
After a hesitation, Ken circled around me. Out of reach, even if my hands hadn’t been secured I fuckin’ noticed.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him press a button on the TV and then pick up the remote, studying it for a second and then jabbing it in the direction of the DVD player. The screen flickered a couple different colors as Ken handed the remote to Gavino, and then I heard a voice that poured liquid nitrogen down my spine.
“A-Austin… please-”
“Only what’s on the script, bitch,” came Enrico’s voice.
With my jaw clamped shut so tight that I thought my teeth were going to shatter, I turned to face the TV and saw Skylar front and center, sitting in a chair just like the one I was in, with her hands also behind her back. In front of her was one of those stands that people put sheet music on, with some paper on it.
To the right of the screen, I could see part of some guy with a shotgun pointed right at Skylar’s head. Worst of all, I could see the terror on her face, the tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to focus on the writing in front of her.
If they hurt her…
“Austin, th-the Bertolini’s have me. Th-they have a new deal for y-you t-to c-c-”
The shotgun wavered a bit. “Speak up, you worthless cunt!”
Skylar cringed away from the deadly weapon only a foot from her head. “They h-have a new deal for you to c-consider. If you say no they’ll… they’ll kill me. If you t-talk to the police… they’ll kill me. If you can’t do what they say, they’ll k-kill m-me… Austin! Help m-”
“Shut the-”
Gavino paused playback as somebody else entered the frame from the left, knife in hand. Skylar’s eyes were wide with fright, frozen there to haunt me as Gavino sat back in his heavily-burdened chair.
“Austin, I didn’t know…” said Ken.
“What the fuck?” said Gavino. “Get your ass the fuck outta here. Fuckin’ apologizin’.”
Ken looked from Gavino, to me, and then left the room with his head hung low. A disgusted expression flickered across the face of the mafia boss for a moment, aimed in the general direction of the door.
“If you fucking hurt-”
“Shut the fuck up and listen to your orders. I hear you don’t wanna throw the fight tomorrow, so I got good news for you. Now you don’t have to throw the fight, I want you to win.”
My mind was whirling at a million miles a minute, trying to cope with the extremes of anger, desperation and fear that surpassed even my first ten years of life. What the fuck was he saying? After all this shit, they were going to let me fight the way I fucking wanted to?
“That’s right,” Gavino continued. “But here’s the thing, I wanna make it interesting. I want you to win in the first minute of the first round. If you don’t do that, then Renato is going to cut that bitch’s face off, and then blow her brains out all over the wall for your disrespect. Sound like fun? We’ll record the whole thing and make sure to get a bigger screen for you to watch it. Movie night, motherfucker.”
“How do I even know if she’s still alive now?” I asked, feeling my hate for this fat fuck rising up in my throat like poisonous black bile and dribbling out the corners of my mouth.