Jonas Saul - The Kill

“Yes, I do, but I can’t take you to see her. They’ll kill me.”

Darwin pulled the pencil out and leaned forward, placing the tip against the guy’s neck.

“You’ll die right now if you don’t take me to her.”

“Okay, okay, easy, easy. I’ll take you to the building. I’ll show it to you. You do the rest.”

He eased the pencil away and placed it back in his pocket.

“Reach in slowly and remove your cell phone. Give it to me. Then I want you to slowly remove your gun. Then hand that over. Any movement I don’t like, you’ll be dead before you hit the ground, one floor below.”

Paul, with exaggerated slowness, reached into his breast pocket and produced a small cell phone. He reached behind him, palm up, arm twisted, and handed the phone to Darwin.

“You really want me to give you my piece, out here in the open?”

“Do that, or maybe I’ll chew on you too.”

Damn, do I ever sound corny. I gotta get this tough-guy act under control.

“Okay, okay, take it easy.”

Paul reached inside his jacket.

Darwin moved closer. He put a hand on Paul’s shoulder and squeezed the jacket’s material.

“Easy does it,” Darwin whispered.

Paul brought the weapon out with two fingers on the butt of the gun. Darwin knew nothing about guns. All he could tell was that the one being handed to him looked lethal.

He took it with his free hand and dropped it in the jacket pocket that didn’t have the pencil.

“Now, get up.”

“We’re going to the office tower?” Paul asked.

“Not right away. I need to find out if you lied to me first. You better hope you didn’t.”

Darwin rose from his chair and stepped back. Paul got up and half turned toward him.

Darwin locked his jaw and started letting one eye twitch. Then he tilted his head a little. He knew if he looked in the mirror at that moment he would appear to be quite fucked. He wanted to portray an insane man. Someone who had gone over the edge and wasn’t coming back. In a way, that was Darwin.

They had Rosina. The line had been crossed. He didn’t have to act crazy. He was on his way there with a first class ticket, courtesy of the Fuccini family.

“Move,” he instructed.

Paul started away from him, Darwin close behind.

“Do one stupid thing, it ends. You should know how this works.”

Paul nodded.

Darwin followed him to the escalator and stayed two steps away on the way down. At the bottom, he told Paul to go to the right.

On the way out of Termini Station, a few people got close, but nothing happened. No one attacked them or tried to stop them.

At the street, Darwin directed Paul down the side to where they would turn left.

In less than two minutes, they stood in front of Hotel Luigi.

“We are going to go upstairs to the lobby. I need to see if my wife checked in as you said she did. Are we clear?”

Paul nodded and stepped into the building. He took the stairs with Darwin a few steps back. Then they entered the brightly lit lobby.

“May I help you?” the clerk asked.

Paul moved off to the side a little. Darwin stepped closer.

“Do you remember me? I stayed here for four nights with my wife, Rosina?”

“Ah, yes, of course. She already checked in. You’re in room twenty-seven. I don’t think she’s in her room right now. Would you like your key?”

Shit. It was true.

“No, it’s okay. We’ll come back later.”

He turned away and motioned for Paul to join him, the whole time his hand in his jacket pocket, fingers wrapped around the butt of Paul’s gun.

They got back outside without incident, and Darwin looked for a taxi. At first, he was surprised the guy hadn’t tried anything yet. But then he thought of Big John and how he’d looked after the car accident. This kind of man understood what it took to take down someone like Big John. For him to do it in handcuffs would intimidate them to no end.

He hailed a cab with all the confidence of a man in complete control. He knew Paul wouldn’t run. Bullets were faster and, as far as Paul knew, Darwin had two guns on him.

When the taxi pulled up, Darwin stood on one side and ordered Paul in first. Then he bent down to watch as Paul shut his door.

“Lock it,” Darwin said.

Paul did.

Then Darwin slid in beside him.

“Where to?” the cab driver asked.

Out of the driver’s line of sight, Darwin withdrew Paul’s gun and rested it on his lap, pointed at Paul.

“Tell him where to go.”

Paul looked down at the gun and then up at the driver.

“Take us to Via Roma in the Eur Zone.”

The driver nodded and they started off.

Rome’s allure tempted Darwin to look out the window and take it all in, but he couldn’t. The afternoon was waning, the sun dropping and his wife was a prisoner because of him. The man sitting next to him was supposed to deliver Darwin to the Fuccini boss, but Darwin was coming to surprise them instead.

The man beside him was dangerous.

But Paul thought Darwin was the dangerous one.

I’d do good to remember that and act the part, he thought.

He tilted his head a little and stared at Paul like he was angry again.

This is crazy. I’m not a mobster. I can’t do this. How am I supposed to scare these guys?

Paul stared out the window. He kept his hands on his lap and waited until the cab ride was over.

The driver eased up a building at least five stories high. It appeared pretty modern for Rome, with glass windows and an art deco front.

“That’s thirty-eight euros,” the driver said.

Darwin pulled two twenty euro bills out of his inner jacket pocket and handed them forward.

“Get out,” he told Paul.

They exited in unison. The cab drove away from the curb and Darwin got off the street before he got hit. Cars raced up and down Via Roma without any regard for safety. A horn blared and then another. He almost turned to see what was happening, but refrained so he could keep his eyes on Paul.

“Okay, we made it this far. Now, where is the boss?”

Paul turned to the glass building. “Up there. Top floor.”

“What office or room number will I find my wife?”

“First off, I have no idea where, exactly, your wife is. I’ve been at Termini all day watching for you. Second, there is no room number. The Fuccini family own the building and the boss’s office takes up the whole floor. But it won’t be easy getting in.”

Darwin cocked his head to the side. “Why’s that?”

The sun had dropped behind the buildings in its final descent. Tension in Darwin’s stomach caused him to consider abandoning this until tomorrow. He couldn’t operate out at night, in the dark. Paul’s face was cast in the golden light, making him look like he was smiling.

“Because, whenever the boss is up there, extra security detail is called in and the elevators are put on service. That means no one can get up there without using the stairs, which are guarded.”

Darwin stood on the cement sidewalk and listened to Paul tell him that they’d come all this way for nothing. Paul had acted scared and compliant. Now he looked smug, and he talked with attitude. What had happened? How had his attitude shifted?

“What do you propose I do?”

Paul laughed. “You didn’t think I was going up with you, did you?”

“Actually, you are.”

“Yeah right. Fuccini would kill me if I went up there and let you walk right in.”

“I’ll kill you if you don’t.”

Darwin’s stomach dropped further as the sun did. It would be dark soon. He couldn’t be out in the dark. He knew his fear was irrational, but it wasn’t a choice. It was just that way.

Paul wasn’t making sense either. Back at Termini Station, he’d been intimidated. Now he talked like he had it all going on.