Chapter 17

Beast

“They’re dropping like flies,” said boss Caronte, with a smirk on his face.

Beast turned to look at Mills, he asked to see them in the morning, so they visited him at his home.

The old man took a sip of his coffee, nodding to himself, then put the cup down on the huge desk in his studio.

He looked fine, his left arm on a sling, everything else perfectly normal.

The boss trusted them enough to have a chat in private. He was in a good mood, or at least, he wasn’t acting like a piece of shit like he always did.

“After we killed that Saliani bastard, instead of looking for me, the family started fighting amongst themselves. We have to make a move.”

“You’re the boss,” Mills said.

“There’s a few targets we can take out, make it harder for them to retaliate.”

Beast had to play it cool, Mills knew that, too. Just let him do the talking. The old man trusted them completely. Especially now that we saved his life.

“I’ve talked to the rest of the family, but you know how they are, all of them soft motherfuckers.”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Beast said.

He wasn’t stupid. The moment you talk shit about any member of the Caronte family you put a target on your head. How can you trust someone who talks shit behind people’s back?

“What if we let them kill each other?” He said.

Mills smiled, he knew what he was talking about.

“What do you mean?”

“We can use the intel we have. Remember the warehouse near the river? We have been looking at it for a while, but never made a move because we didn’t want to start a war.”

“But we already started one,” his boss said, matter of factly, then laughed.

“You know what the bastard said? He wanted peace. He wanted to divide the city.”

Beast didn’t answer. That wasn’t such a bad idea.

“I told him, okay, but you have to pay a tax, we’re more powerful, we can take you out anytime we want.”

The boss started laughing, “you shoulda seen his face!”

Beast caught Mills’ eyes. The boss wanted an excuse to kill him, he was much too confident in their ability to save him. He almost got killed because of it.

But we never fail.

“So, we got the motherfucker,” the boss said, shaking his head, laughing, “I told him we could take him out, he didn’t believe me!”

His laughter filled the room again. The man started a war, he didn’t intend to negotiate, he went in there to kill a rival. Now they had to face the consequences.

“So,” the boss finally said, calming down, “you’re saying we take out the warehouse?”

“Yeah,” Mills replied, “they will blame each other instead of us,” Mills said.

“They have no reason to believe we know about it, they’ll fall for it.”

“I like it, I like it,” Boss Caronte said and an evil smirk adorned his face, “you guys are cold.”

That was supposed to be a compliment. The enemy stored cocaine, heroin and even some weed in that warehouse before they moved it elsewhere or pushed it to Chicago itself.

“If we take the warehouse out, one of their main profit centers is lost. They’ll go crazy.”

“You’ll be king of Chicago by this time next year, sir.”

Boss Caronte laughed, greed filled his eyes. He thinks he’s invincible.

“Good,” he whispered, licking his lips, already savoring the idea.

“We’ll do it tonight,” Mills said, “kick them while they’re still down.”

“Call me when it’s done,” Boss Caronte said, and that was that, the meeting was over.

What started as a peace treaty, was now full on war. At least we have the upper hand.

But still, he and Mills knew that it was a suicide mission.

* * *

They left the Caronte mansion just before noon, heading back to their respective apartments, to get ready for tonight.

Mills grabbed his Kevlar vest and a UMP-45 submachine gun.

“We’re supposed to do this quietly,” Beast said.

Mills just shrugged, “I like being ready.”

“Mills,” Beast replied and the blonde sighed.

“All right, damn it,” he said, putting it back on its briefcase, “we’ll do it quietly.”

Beast picked up his Colt .45, his apartment felt different, somehow, as if it wasn’t his anymore. He didn’t want to be there, he had somewhere else to go.

Mills wasn’t as talkative as always, the tension was palpable. And I’m supposed to be the quiet one. He held the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white.

“Just spit it out, motherfucker.”

Mills turned to him, his eyes full of intensity, but it only lasted half a second, before relaxing and looking at the road ahead again.

“It’s Jena,” he said.

The sound of her name made Beast shiver. He couldn’t fool himself any longer, he couldn’t wait to see her. Yesterday had been amazing.

After what they did in the kitchen, they all gathered themselves, headed downstairs to the basement —where it was warmer and the bed awaited— and talked for hours, until they fell asleep.

Today, they woke up before her and left for work.

She was aware of what they did for a living, of course, but still, she didn’t judge them.

“Have you ever taken someone out?” She asked them directly, “someone that didn’t deserve it?”

Jena avoided using the word “killed,” as if that made it better.

“No,” they replied, and it was the truth.

So far, they hadn’t killed anyone who wasn’t a thug wanting them dead, too, he was grateful for that, it made it easier.

But still, taking a man’s life is no walk in the part.

Most of them die slowly, lying on the street, bleeding out, calling for mom, asking for mercy.

Some faces followed him in his nightmares. And they were there to stay.

“Beast?”

He didn’t realize he’d been quiet for a while.

“Yeah?”

“What are we going to do about her?”

“We protect her.”

“But if something happens to us tonight?”

The thought hadn’t crossed his mind.

“If she’s on her own, she might not make it.”

“They’re not looking for her. She’s out of the equation.”

“Do you want to take that risk so soon?”

“Shit.”

Yes. Shit was the answer to that.

“Then we better make it out alive and in one piece, don’t we?”

Mills grunted, “easier said than done.”