Love And War - Mallory Monroe Page 0,18

brothers tried to stand up and help him, as they were as agonized by their kid brother’s pain as their kid brother was, but Sal’s men, including Robby, put guns to their heads. “Don’t even,” Robby warned.

“Who ordered that hit on me and my family?” Sal asked the distressed young man again.

The young man was bent over in pain. “My brudder,” he cried through the pain. “I told you my brudder!”

Sal released the young man and he fell to the floor, still screaming in pain. But if he and his siblings thought that Sal had accepted what he said and that was the end of it, they were sadly mistaken.

Sal took his expensive shoe and slammed down on the very arm he had just broken, causing the young man to shriek in unbearable horror. His brothers were horrified too. “Who ordered that hit, motherfucker?” Sal yelled as he continued to slam his shoe down on that broken arm. “Who ordered that hit?”

“Our old man!”

Everybody looked. It wasn’t the youngest Bonaduce who yelled it out, but the oldest one there. He was in tears. “Our old man ordered it.”

Sal was inwardly pleased. Now he was getting somewhere. He left the young Bonaduce’s side and walked over to his older brother. “Stand up,” he ordered him.

The older Bonaduce, unlike his younger brother, didn’t hesitate. Now that he saw Sal Gabrini in action for himself, he knew who they were dealing with.

“Where is he?” Sal asked.

The older Bonaduce felt like crap, ratting out his old man like that, but he couldn’t bear to see his kid brother in any more pain. “L.A.,” he said.

“Where in L.A., motherfucker. That town is bigger than a state!”

“On Monico Drive. He’s holed up at the Monico Arms apartments. You’ll find him there.”

Sal stared at the older brother. And he believed him. But if the older brother thought that would give them a reprieve, at least until they found his old man, he was mistaken. Sal looked at Robby, and gave him a nod.

Robby took his gun and handed it to Horseface Hines. He started this shit, he knew Sal was thinking. “Finish it,” he said to Horse.

Horse didn’t hesitate. Finishing messy jobs was what he did. And he didn’t hesitate either. One by one he shot two of the three brothers between the eyes. The kid brother first, to take him out of his misery, and then the other one. But with the oldest brother, the one who ratted out his old man, he shot him in the mouth. But the result was the same. All three Bonaduce brothers were dead. Everybody who came after Sal and his family, except for the mastermind, were gone. Sal wouldn’t stop until he found the mastermind. But at least he took care of the muscle.

When the smoke cleared, and all three were declared dead by one of the guards, Sal walked over to Horseface. “You’re a good soldier,” he said to Horse. Then he took Robby’s gun away from him. “Which makes it a shame to do what I have to do here today.”

Horse began shaking his head. “What did I do, Boss? What did I do?!”

Robby, terrified by what Sal was looking to do, jumped to Horse’s defense. “He made a mistake, Boss,” he said.

Sal looked at Robby. “A mistake?”

“It was just a stupid mistake.”

“That stupid mistake almost cost my wife and my child their lives. When a mistake becomes that deadly, that’s when the shit starts rolling downhill. That’s why you don’t start shit! That’s why,” Sal said, aiming the gun at Horse, “you don’t start shit that affects me. That’s why you don’t even think about starting shit that affects my family. You did both.”

And Sal didn’t hesitate a moment longer. He fired successive shots. Horse fell to his knees. “Motherfucker,” Sal added bitterly, as Horse dropped dead.

Robby was distraught that it had turned so sideways. But he knew he had to keep it together. He took the gun from Sal, and ordered the guards to clean up the mess. The big three: Sal, Fat Frank, and Vinnie Vazzano, left the safe house. They left feeling as if it was a job that had to be done. Robby was thinking that this was some fucked up business.

When the door closed, the two guards were still staring at Horse, instead of getting to work. They thought Sal would punish Horse, but they never thought to this extent. But they also knew it was a message Sal wanted them