After leaving the conference room, Chloe stepped into Matthew’s office to take a few minutes for herself before she joined David and the others for the next leg of their journey. Her eyes scanned the office and hovered on the chair in the corner, remembering all of the times as a child she would sit and pretend not to listen to Matthew conduct business as if she were invisible. But now that chair was hers, along with everything else in the office.
She gently ran her fingers along the edge of the desk, staring at his plush leather chair, wondering if she should, or even wanted to, sit in it. She decided she didn’t. The desk was neatly organized with everything in its place the way he always liked it—his brandy glass empty and clean next to his telephone and his humidor in the top left corner, full of his favorite cigars. She stared at the humidor with uncontrollable resentment and felt a fire beginning to burn in her gut. She slowly lifted the lid and removed a cigar, running it under her nose, inhaling the sweet scent that reminded her of her childhood, and wondered if she truly was ready for this awesome responsibility she had inherited. She put the cigar in her bag and turned off the lights before she left. She would soon find out.
***
The vacant warehouse her father used to store products upon import and preparation for export was located six blocks from the crematorium. The warehouse was remote enough and, for all intents and purposes, more convenient than the Red Room.
Chloe’s senses were heightened and she was keenly aware of her surroundings. Every sensation she could possibly feel was driving through her body and she found she was no longer numb—she was now determined. Chloe waited until David, Denver, Mr. Parsons from Las Vegas, and Miami entered the warehouse, stopping and exchanging silent greetings with the four associates standing guard, then silently observing what was being guarded. Staring back with pleading in their eyes, both Garafola brothers and Madeline Frost sat before them, tied to their chairs, and each of them with terror in their eyes. It wasn’t until a few heartbeats later that Madeline gasped at the sound of heels clicking slowly toward them on the cement floor.
The three guests watched as Chloe crossed the room with complete indifference and approached the large metal table against the wall that held various weapons. Chloe carefully considered which would suit her immediate needs until she spotted exactly what she wanted. She smiled as she picked up the Louisville Slugger and took her place in front of the confused and nervous guests.
After taking a minute to assess her victims, Chloe moved to stand in front of Lawrence Garafola, the man she knew to be the one who put two bullets in her biological father’s head and liked it. She wasn’t sure if either brother knew why they were brought here, but they remained quiet and still as their eyes pleaded with their boss for some kind of reprieve from their punishment. Mr. Parsons hadn’t been told why his two best captains were being held tonight, but it was no secret there was nothing he could say or do to help them. If David Lundy brought them there to be on the wrong side of punishment, they more than likely deserved it.
Chloe spun the bat in her hand and cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at Lawrence. “I know you and your brother are usually on this side of the room during these situations, and just like the people in your current position, I’m sure you’ll want to get this over with as quickly as possible.”
She turned to James and asked if he knew who she was and why he was brought here. When James shook his head, she turned to Lawrence and asked him. While Lawrence emphatically shook his head in answer, Madeline let out a whimper of fear, then a muffled scream of pain when Chloe swung the bat as hard as she could, connecting with her right tibia.
Chloe leaned into Madeline and hissed, “You will suffer in silence. I don’t want to hear another sound out of you. Am I understood?”
Wide-eyed and breathing heavily through her nose, Madeline nodded vigorously, tears streaming down her face as she desperately tried not to make a sound.
From behind her, David said, “One of the reasons women are feared by men is because they are unpredictable, especially when they are pissed.”
The others gave muffled laughs at David’s accurate explanation.
Chloe internally smiled as she turned her deadly stare from Madeline to the brothers. “Twenty-eight years ago, Matthew Parnell hired you to do a job, a job you had no right to accept or carry out without the explicit consent from your boss. I know you were paid well to ignore protocol. By deciding to take this job, you irreparably affected many, but none more so than Mr. Lundy. You have no idea the pain, anguish, and sickness you not only brought down on yourselves, but the entire Family. Your actions broke a chain in this Family. Now, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t know this at the time, but Mr. Parnell knew and asked you to do it anyway. I can see from the look on your faces that you know exactly what I’m talking about. At this time, I will ask if you have anything to say in your defense.”
“Mr. Parsons, Mr. Lundy, please,” James pleaded. “We were young and stupid. He was offering a lot of money and we were greedy.”
“Do you have any idea who it was you murdered for Mr. Parnell?” Chloe asked.
James and Lawrence exchanged uncertain looks and it was obvious they had no idea who their victim had been.
James looked back at Chloe, begging for forgiveness. “You gotta understand, we didn’t—”
A sudden and explosive report echoed through the room as David fired one round into the center of James’s forehead. Lawrence let out his first panicked cry as he watched his brother’s head go limp, and Madeline couldn’t keep herself from screaming. Chloe threw the Slugger on the ground, walked over to the table, and picked up the first knife she could lay a hand on. She looked Madeline dead in the eye as she drove the knife into the top of her thigh.
“I said not another sound,” Chloe spat through clenched teeth, and turned from Madeline, this time letting her wail and cry in pain.
David approached Lawrence, resting the barrel of his gun against the side of his head, and Chloe continued. “Mr. Lundy fits into this story twofold. One, you and your brother executed a job from somebody other than your boss. Two, the man you so willingly killed for Mr. Parnell, apparently enjoying every minute of it, was Mr. Lundy’s son, Wyatt.”
Mr. Parsons, Denver, and Miami were shocked by this revelation. This had to have been the last thing any of them were expecting to hear, especially Mr. Parsons, who had given everything he could to David for years, trying to find the person responsible for his son’s death.
Lawrence desperately tried to save his own life. “I swear! We didn’t know who it was! He never told us! You’ve gotta believe—”
“Two in the head,” David said as he pulled the trigger twice, the force of the blow knocking Lawrence to the floor, the blood quickly pooling underneath him.
Chloe turned to a terrified, hysterical, and pain riddled Madeline as David stepped back. This one belonged to Chloe, and Chloe alone.
“You and I need to talk, and I won’t tolerate crying or screaming.”
Somehow, Madeline was able to calm her hysteria somewhat, but squeezed her eyes tightly at the immense pain and terror running through her body.
“Renee, please!”
“Madeline, you know very well that isn’t my name anymore. In fact, you know more than anybody could have imagined. Then you thought about what you could get from my father when you decided to turn my life upside down and destroy it again in a matter of weeks.”
“Renee…” Madeline’s words were replaced with a cry of pain as Chloe pulled the blade from Madeline’s thigh and forced it into her arm.
“You told him who I was, you told him where I was, you told him who I was dating, and you told him where to find me. I lost a love, the closest friend I ever had, and a six-year-old child died because of you.”
“I’m so sorry. I had no idea—”
“You knew exactly what you were doing.”
Chloe could see Madeline was desperately trying to think of the right thing to say, while simultaneously trying to fight the pain and stay alive. Chloe turned to look at her colleagues, who each silently told her if she was going to do something, she had to make sure she was doing it for the right reasons. Being partly responsible for the death of a six-year-old child was reason enough for all of them. Chloe reached a hand out to David and he gently set his gun in her hand.
Chloe turned back to Madeline, whose hysteria had grown from fear to certainty. “As of an hour ago, the casino is no longer yours. Your people are gone and management is back in our hands.”
“Please!” Madeline screamed. “Let me work for you! Let me help you like I helped him!”
Chloe raised the gun and looked at Madeline with incredulity, but couldn’t blame her for trying. “A lot of people who know me used to say that I’m a lot like my father, but I’m not. My father was weak and a coward. I am neither.”
“Renee, please!”
“He was six years old!”
Madeline tried to cry out to save herself one last time, but Chloe was faster at squeezing the trigger, putting one bullet in Madeline’s chest and another in her head, her body instantly going limp in the chair. Chloe stared at the lifeless bodies, knowing she had made the choice to accept her succession in the Family and had unquestionably proven to three of her equals that she was more than willing to follow through with that job. More importantly, all of her friends, and six-year-old Samuel Morris, could finally rest in peace.
After a few heartbeats she removed the cigar from her bag and turned it in her fingers, feeling neither remorse nor pride for what had happened today. She felt relief despite the sacrifices she had to make in her own life once more. She broke the cigar in half and threw it at Madeline’s corpse, then faced all of the men in the room with a stoic look that asked if they would be willing to accept her into the Family.
Their smiles welcomed her home.