saw your safe.” I laughed, wishing I had strangled this asshole when we were kids. Things would have worked out so differently. “You took her from me once. I promise you, that won’t happen again.”
He rocked in the chair, trying to head-butt me. “That’s my fucking money.”
Money made him buck. It made him moan. It made him show real emotion for the first time since I’d stepped in this room.
He was one greedy motherfucker who didn’t give a shit about anything else.
“The money will be of no use to you when you’re dead.”
Looking back at my phone, I found the button to record a voice message and pressed it. I couldn’t take a video; I didn’t want Kyle to see what we had done to him. I didn’t want her to have to see his face ever again. I held the phone out toward him, so it could catch everything that was about to be said.
“You ruined so many fucking lives, Anthony. But there’s one person who had to put up with your abuse the longest. You destroyed everything she wanted, and you owe her an apology.”
“Who? My whore of a sister?”
I nodded toward one of the guys standing on the far wall. He took the signal and walked over to Anthony, whipping the back of Anthony’s head with the butt of his gun. Anthony grunted, a clot of blood shooting out of his mouth.
“Let’s try this again,” I said. “Apologize. Now.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Mean it, asshole.”
He slowly looked up. “I’m fucking sorry, all right? I wasn’t a good brother to you, and I know that. But you finally got Garin. I hope he’s everything you wanted, you cunt.”
This motherfucker.
After everything he did to Kyle, and this was the best he had. I should have expected that from a guy who killed his own best friend.
I turned the recording off and slid the phone in my pocket. Then, I reached behind my back as one of the guys handed me a blade. It was nine inches, just long and sharp enough to do what I needed. I let Anthony watch as I folded my fingers around the base. I wanted him to know what was going to happen. I wanted him to see how much it was going to hurt.
“Do you have anything else you want to say?” I asked.
A string of drool hung from his lip, and he licked it away. He had no teeth to show me, but it didn’t stop him from trying to smile. “I should have killed you when I still had the chance, you worthless—”
Before he could say another word, I jerked my arm forward and stabbed the blade into the middle of his throat. A rush of blood squirted out from the wound. It filled his mouth and gurgled on his tongue as he tried to choke in air. His chest pumped, and his shoulders twitched until his head slumped forward. Then, all his movements stopped.
One of the guys went over and checked his pulse. “He’s dead, Garin.”
He reached for the blade, and I handed it to him. He would clean my prints off the weapon, and then he’d destroy it.
“Grind that fucker up and bring him to the beach,” I ordered to all the guys in the room. “I want to lie on his goddamn bones the next time I’m there.”
As I walked out, Mario joined me, and we went outside to his car.
“You did good, kid.” He patted me on the back. “I thought you were going to tell him how much you’ve been fucking his sister. You know, more salt on the wound.”
“I won’t talk about her like that, even to a dead man.”
“Oh, fuck,” he said, stopping several feet from his car. “This is more serious than I thought. Does that mean you’re not going to tell me anything about your trip to Florida?”
I laughed. “That’s exactly what it means.”
He pulled a cigar out of his pocket and lit it. “Are you going to tell her?”
“That I saved her life? Nah. She doesn’t need to know that.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”
I put my arm around his shoulders and shook his meaty muscles. “Let’s go get something to eat. I know you get hungry after you watch someone die.”
He took a puff and blew the smoke behind me. “That’s my boy.”
Thirty-Nine
Kyle
I dropped my phone on my lap, unable to listen to my mother’s sobs anymore, and continued to stare at the front of my house.
Anthony’s house.
He wouldn’t be calling