Jonas Saul - The Kill

Adrian Kostas, Darwin’s father, crawled on the ground, blood coming from his midsection.

“What did you do to him?” Darwin asked.

“I assumed you wanted him back alive. He’s alive. It’s only one stab wound to the stomach. If you staunch the bleeding, he could live out here in the bushes for a couple of days. The only way to completely walk away, get it, walk away, from an injury like that is to go to the hospital. They could fix him up good. But that won’t happen because no one knows we’re out here and all of your faggotty heroes in leather and chaps are dead, or will be shortly.”

“You bastard.”

“I know. I’ve been told. But it is only fair as you took out my Harvester of Sorrow and my Big John, not to mention many other men. You’ve hurt my organization and cost me a lot of money. The only way to hurt someone like you is take out their family. And I mean everyone.” He turned to his men and pointed at two of them. “Go find that bitch wife of his and kill her. I don’t even want to see her face again. Don’t bring her back to me. No mistakes. Shoot on sight. I don’t have time to play Darwin’s games anymore.”

Two men ran off, one behind the hangar and the other entered a door on the side.

“That wasn’t the deal.”

“No!” Fuccini shouted as he raised a finger high in the air. “A trade. You, for your father. There’s your father. He’s alive. I get you. I already had your wife in my possession, but you took her back. By the way, how did you handle that little feat? The driver told me personally that he had you with him.”

Darwin didn’t answer. His mind raced, but with each scenario he came up with, he couldn’t figure a way out of this.

“Wait, don’t tell me. You had help from these goofs.” Fuccini looked down at the three bikers on the dirt. “That’s what they call you in prison, right? The name that’s disrespectful? A goof? Well, if you aren’t goofs, then you’re fucking stupid to get mixed up with the likes of Darwin Kostas. Deal with him, and a lot of people die.”

Fuccini turned to his man closest to the bikers and said something Darwin couldn’t hear.

The man lowered his weapon, chambered a round, and fired.

The head of the first biker came clean off, the sound of the weapon coming across the fifteen-foot distance like an explosion.

The biker’s headless body stayed upright for a moment, and then slowly teetered forward, finally falling on its chest.

The last two bikers screamed behind their gags. It sounded like a barrage of threats.

Darwin broke out in a sweat. His body shook all over. He’d seen a lot of shit in the past few days, but watching a man’s head disappear in a vapor of blood and brain made him want to throw up.

He leaned forward and held his stomach with both hands. He couldn’t have anyone else die because of this mess. Too many had. His conscience couldn’t handle it. He thought it would be simple. He thought he’d walk away the victor. But all along, he had been lucky while he underestimated the man who did this for a living. A man who made this a way of life. He could never be better at out-thinking someone like Fuccini. That was why he was the boss.

Another shot rang out. But this time it came from the back of the building.

“Good. There goes Rosina. Oh, I’m sorry Darwin. Is the loss of someone you love hurting you? How about the loss of my only son? Do you know what I do to people who even raise their hands to me? Do you even know the kind of man I am?”

He walked over to Darwin and patted him on the back. “Darwin, my worthy opponent. I’ll give you that. Not many men get me. You got me. You hurt my organization. Actually, you’re either really good or really lucky. You even gave me pause. I said to myself, maybe this is a trap. It couldn’t be that easy. I’ll force your hand. I’ll get you to come with Rosina. But you didn’t. You had bikers help you. How the hell you orchestrated that, I’ll never know.”

“A book.”

Fuccini leaned closer and patted him down, feeling for a wire or a weapon.

“A book? Oh, that’s fantastic. That is amazing. You’re going to write a book for them. I saw your profile. Smart thinking on your part. Tell them to rough us up and you’ll do some sort of glamorous part for them in your next best-selling thriller. Smart, I like that.”

They stood and faced each other.

“You know, Darwin, you had me so worried that you’d walk away tonight, that I sent out the order to kill you on sight in the event that I died here. Do you know what that means? Even if I’m killed, you still die. I have hundreds of hit men. I have staff on fourteen different police forces, including the FBI. I have friends in Italy. Until you die, this will never end. That’s how serious I am.”

Darwin nodded. He suspected as much.

“You became, all on your own, Fuccini family enemy number one.”

“That sounds like an honor.” Darwin looked around at the dark night, but it wasn’t working like it used to. He couldn’t locate the violent anger triggers inside. “Pull a knife on me.” That’ll work. It has to.

“Pull a knife? No, I don’t think so. You’re going to be shot in each foot with that gun so there’ll be no more running. Then I’ll toss you in the trunk until we get back to my place where I will treat you to days upon days of a certain kind of painful pleasure-”

The sound of another boom came from behind the hangar.

Fuccini looked over at the corner where his two men had disappeared minutes ago.

“Why would there be two shots if there’s only one girl? Johnny, go find out what’s happening.”

One of the two men covering the bikers ran off.

“Now, where were we?” Fuccini asked.

He walked over to Darwin’s dad, leaned down and checked his pulse.

“Yes, still breathing and bleeding. Not long now though. Another day of this agony and he’ll be dead.”

He whispered to Adrian, loud enough for Darwin to hear, “We’ll be leaving in five minutes. So sorry you can’t join us.”

Darwin ducked as another crack from the huge weapon resounded. The remaining guard raised his and aimed it at the corner of the building where his colleague had just gone.

“Do you know something I should know, Darwin?” Fuccini asked, and then turned to his guard. “Let’s get ready to clear out. Kill these two fucking bikers and then we’re gone. Bring Darwin to the car. Put him in the trunk.”

Fuccini stepped away and then ducked so hard he almost fell over when someone shuffled up close to him.

Darwin’s dad had gotten to his feet and had hobbled to Fuccini with a large stone in his hand.

“Dad, no!”

The guard turned toward him. A shot rang out.

Darwin closed his eyes and fell to his knees. He thought he heard a siren in the distance, but soon realized it wasn’t a siren. His ears were ringing.

When he opened his eyes, his father lay on the ground holding his wounded stomach.

To the right, the guard still stood, but he now had a large hole in his abdomen. He looked down at his wound, then at Fuccini, and then dropped to his knees. He face planted and didn’t move.

“Sorry I’m late for the party,” Richard H said, his weapon trained on Fuccini. “Darwin! Snap out of it. Untie my men. Now!”

Darwin got to his feet and had both of them untied in thirty seconds. They ran for Fuccini, but H kept them back.

“Darwin, you have a beef with this man? If you do, speak now before we tear him apart.”

Darwin thought about it. They had both lost everything. Even when Fuccini was gone and buried, the hit on Darwin’s head was still out there. Nothing would return to normal. It was over and yet, just beginning.

“Fuccini and I are done. Do with him what you will.”