CHAPTER 37

LUCIAN

Lucian rang the bell. This was the last stop of the evening. A restaurant on the edge of Brooklyn. Hip enough to bring the attention of both tourists and locals.

“Something’s up,” Kitchen, the manager, whispered to them, “the Kingsmen came, asking for fifty percent of the profit. They started selling coke and other shit in here. They said they’d kill me if I don’t comply.”

“The what?”

“The Kingsmen,” he said, rolling his eyes, “I thought the same thing.”

Lucian shook his head, “never heard of them.”

“Me neither, until the fuckers arrived with guns and bats and you know… that kind of stuff. They weren’t kidding around.”

“When?”

“Two weeks ago.”

“Fuck, man. What did you do?”

Kitchen shrugged.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Lucian.

“I wanted to deal with it myself—”

He looked sideways at the men’s room, “one of them is here, he sets up shop an hour before opening.”

Crow nodded and walked over to the bathroom.

“Tell me why the fuck do we have to learn this two weeks after the fact?”

“I told you! I made someone follow the guy, but I haven’t found the fucker who threatened me.”

“Did you tell him about the organization?”

“Of course I did!”

“What did he say?”

“He didn’t give a rat’s ass about—”

A big, bald, Hispanic guy flew out of the bathroom, screaming in pain, breaking the door in his path.

He hit the ground with a thud, he turned around to see Lucian and Kitchen, his nose a red ruin. Crow walked out of the bathroom, the drug dealer raised his hands, muttering something that sounded like a plead.

Good thing this place is empty. We’d have people screaming in fear if it wasn’t.

Crow looked so calm you would’ve thought he was playing golf, thinking about what club to use next.

The guy looked up at him, then turned to Kitchen, spitting blood and teeth, then turned around to face his attacker.

“Please! No!”

Crow grabbed him by the collar and crashed his fist like a hammer right on his nose. The cracking sound like made Kitchen shudder.

“No, what?” Crow said, cocking his arm again, ready to destroy this poor guy’s face.

“Wait,” said Lucian, and met Crow’s blue eyes. They looked like the fire of a welding torch.

“I know you’re just doing your job,” Lucian said, his voice soft and calm, “but you messed up, my friend.”

“I’m so—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Crow interrupted him. The way he eyed him let him know who was in charge here.

“You need to answer a few questions. If you tell the truth, you might be able walk out of here in once piece.”

The guy thought about it for a second. He’s gonna tell us everything.

“Your name.”

“Conrad.”

“Fucking ugly name,” Lucian said, “you threatened my friend here?”

“No sir. I just sell—”

“Who the fuck are the Kingsmen, anyway?”

He shook his head, not wanting to say anything, but his mouth betrayed him.

“We’re new… we—”

“Have you heard of the Soldiers of Satan?” Lucian asked, taking out his phone and tapping on the screen.

He looked at Lucian with almost pleading eyes. The man began to weep.

“Answer the question,” Crow said in his cold, detached voice.

He nodded.

“This is their territory, you know that?”

“I… I…”

“Mad Dog Markus, the president, is a close friend of ours. He won’t be pleased.”

“Lloyd Brennan,” the guy blurted.

“What?”

“That’s our leader, the head of the—”

“Fucking hell,” Lucian said, “his name is Lloyd? Shit. This is worse than I thought.”

Kitchen snorted, holding back laughter. Crow’s look was enough to quiet him.

“I thought you’d be harder to crack,” Crow said, taking his wallet and ID.

“I… I…”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Lucian said, “the Soldiers might pay your bosses a visit. I recommend going away for a while, maybe a year or two, let things cool off. Unless you want to go away for good.”

“Yes, sir.”

Crow let him go. He ran away faster than Usain Bolt on a bout of diarrhea.

“That was easy.”

“Dude!” Kitchen said, “they’re gonna kill me!”

“Relax,” Lucian replied, “Butcher is coming here, I’m sure the Soldiers will deal with this problem by tomorrow morning, or the following day.”

“But man, without you here—”

“He said relax,” Crow said.

Kitchen went stiff, then nodded.

“Are we done here?” Crow said.

Lucian looked around, trying to remember if there was anything else he needed to do before leaving. Nothing comes to mind.

“Sure, all right.”

Business was good, as usual. Some hiccups here and there —like this— but nothing they couldn’t handle.

Now it was time to go back to their princess. He felt butterflies in his stomach the moment she came into his mind.

He laughed. I’m going soft, I guess.

If someone was going to do that to him, it was her.

And he didn’t care.

He didn’t care at all.