Free The Killer (Bad Boys) by Jordan Silver Page B

noticed her state of undress.
    She wore silk pajama shorts, a camisole and fluffy house slippers. She looked about twelve, with her wild hair and scared eyes. “Upstairs, first door on the right. Go Natalie, and don’t make me have to repeat myself again.”
    She walked away slowly, her legs a little shaky. The shock was settling in and I knew she was in for a long f ucking day. Too bad, so was I. If her fuck of an old man hadn’t been such a fucking crook, my family wouldn’t be in fucking pieces. I had no give in me right now and that little girl was in the line of fire.

I closed myself off in my dad’s study. There was a lot of shit that needed to be done in the next few days. With grandpa gone, dad and my brothers in hiding, there was going to be a shake up. So along with taking out the fuckers who’d done this, I have to make sure that there’s no mutiny in the works.
    My dad had given me a rough account of what was up the day before the shit hit the fan. I had a list of who might need to be brought to heel, and who had been under the old man’s radar for one infraction or the other.
    With an operation this big, there was a shitload of things to take care of, and not enough time. I started w ith the family holdings in AC. There was the casino and the hotel there. Then there were the places in Vegas, New York. We had homes and businesses on two continents that would need a careful eye.
    I knew from growing up in the life, that when something like this happened, it was the prime time for the vultures to swoop in and try to take over. I wasn’t about to give them the chance.
    I opened the safe and went through the papers I found there. Grandpa had a coded journal that not many people could read; I was one of only two people still alive, who would be able to, the other was my dad.

I was back out on the street a half hour later. The old man wasn’t as blind as they ’d thought, and now it seemed I knew why they’d taken him out. It hurt that someone so close had murdered him and tried to wipe out my family for something so fucking evil. There was only one more ‘boss’ that needed taking care of and I’m on my way to him now.
    Luigi Scarpelli was a relatively young head. He’d taken over just a few months ago from his own dad , who’d died of a heart attack. According to grandpa’s notes, the death was suspicious. The old man thinks the son killed his dad to take over on the orders of Arturo Villanova. All so they could move in drugs. Something grandpa would’ve never agreed to.
    He was one of the only holdouts when it came to the drug trade. The other had been Scarpelli’s dad. Grandpa had wanted no part of it, and had made us swear that we’d never get involved in anyway. His own mother had died of an overdose when he was a young boy, and he’d never wanted any dealings with the stuff, not the buying, selling or trafficking.
    His son in law and his grandsons had promised him that they’d always respect his wishes. There was a note, about the day my own dad had been approached by the scum. Their offer was probably pretty much what Luigi’s had been.
    Take out the old man and he can take over. The fact that he wasn’t next in line, was nothing in their eyes, they cold make it happen. Too bad for them, my dad isn’t a greedy fuck, so he’d told grandpa what was going on. Two days later they were hit.

 
    Luigi still lived in Brooklyn in a brownstone walkup. He had a wife and two little kids in the house with him; that won’t stop me. We had to circle one block over a couple times, because there was a lot of his men milling around outside. No doubt the word had spread that his two cohorts had been taken out, and he wasn’t taking any chances.
    “Let me out here. Go to the corner and wait.” I pulled my skullcap down to just above my eyes and threw the specialty backpack over my shoulder. I’m sure Uncle Sam didn’t intend for his training would be used for this, but what the fuck.
    I kept my