The Sorrow

by Azhar Amien

  Chapter 12: Icarus

  My mind was restless. I had settled into my new place; a small, dingy room that didn’t feel homely. I threw my bags down and collapsed onto a chair by the window. I stared out of it. I glanced at my hands. They were steady. But my entire body trembled. I did not know how the mob had found me. They had sent three killers to put an end to me. That meant that they finally viewed me as a real threat. But it also meant they’d go to severe lengths to see me dead. I did not feel as though I would ever be calm again. My pulse raced, my mind was a rush of colour, and my head spun wildly.

  I thought about the voice that had warned me over the phone. I didn’t know what to make of it. Obviously the person had tried to help me. If he knew that three men were after me from the mob, surely it meant the person behind the voice had connections to them. It also meant the person was watching me. I rubbed my temples. I brought back the thought I had had momentarily before the men had arrived. What if the person who had warned me was Sarah’s anonymous source? The one who had supplied the information on Gregory Donovan. Maybe there was someone else out there with a bone to pick with the mob. Whatever it had been, I had to put it out of my mind in the present. I couldn’t bog myself down with details. I had to focus on Jess.

  I rubbed my face. I tried not to think about what I had done to those men. I tried not to think about all the blood. The severed limbs. The slaughter. I had not just killed them. I had tore them to pieces. It had been such an horrific sight. I felt nauseous thinking about it. I would have never believed myself capable of such a level of violence. But it had been my hand on the detonator; my hand signing the death warrant. It was a part of me now, and I knew that I had left a piece of my soul behind to rest in the ashes and the blood.

  But above all, I had learned something. It had all opened my eyes to my mistake. I had bided my time in an attempt to wait for an opening to be presented to me. The killers had taught me a new lesson. I had to be the predator. I had to be the executioner. I had to be the beast. If I wanted them to be afraid, I had to force them to be. I had to hunt them down like animals. But my previous problem still existed. The only difference was that I finally had the beginnings of a way to solve it. Of course there was no way that I would get to Luis Kane while his paranoia kept him a recluse. The probability was close to zero. He was far too scarce and it seemed as though he had a large portion of the mob and its goons convinced that he was the next target. I wanted Kane. With him gone Cornero would be exposed; wide open without any help from crime lords or mob bosses of widespread influence. I could outsmart the grunts. The kings needed a harsher touch. I had not known what to do before. And now I did. The assassins had given me the answer; their deaths had proven useful.

  I had to convince the mob that Cornero was my real target.

  I had to be the one to go on the hunt and make it clear that he was the next object of my wrath. I had to make the mob, Kane and even Cornero himself believe it. Perhaps then the mob’s attention would be drawn away from Luis Kane. Perhaps then I could strike. After all the grunts would flock to where the pay was highest. And I assumed that if Cornero believed he was the target, he’d pay handsomely.

  I glanced at the night sky. It was filled with an ocean of shining stars. On any other night it would have been mesmerising. But now the night was nothing more than darkness. I felt a sudden wave of immense depression. I wished Nicole could have been with me to see it. She would have appreciated a night like this where the stars shone their brightest. My vision became blurry as my eyes glistened. I missed my wife and my daughter so damn much. I could no longer remember what I had used to be like when I had had them at my side. I barely remembered what it had been like to be happy. It was now a feeling that was nothing more than a glimmer in fading light. It was nothing more than a pipe dream. Someone else’s life. I had to find Jess. I knew in my heart that she was alive. I knew it. Somehow she was. There had to be some explanation for that phone call. I knew that I wasn’t crazy. I was still rational. I was still functioning. Jess had to be alive.

  But what if she was not?

  My heart beat abruptly quickened, and my face started to feel hot. Almost immediately I felt excruciatingly uncomfortable in my body. I raked my hands through my hair. I tried to throw the thought out of my mind as quickly as it had come, but I failed. I twisted and turned in my seat. I could no longer find peace. The moment of serenity had passed. The depression was gone. The pit became whole once again.

  I jumped to my feet and paced, fighting the thoughts which invaded my mind. I moved towards the door. I had to get out. I had to act. I had to let the beast take control back. Jack Mercer was weak. Jack Mercer was in pain. Jack Mercer was a shadow. But as the beast I was more. As the beast I only had one certainty. There was only one calling. And I knew that there would be more blood on my hands by dawn. 

  It had become my obligation now to observe Luis Kane’s home. It was the same story. The house was shielded by ten too many mobsters. I had faint threads of an idea in my mind of what I should do. I had given it thought during the lengthy drive here. The logical way to get Cornero’s attention and make him think he was the target would be to go after his men, his possessions and his turf; threaten him directly. I did not know whether Cornero and Kane dealt with each other in any way, or if the mob at Kane’s home were sired to him, but if one thing had been made clear it was that all of these crime lords were connected. They all had a part to play in controlling this city and eating at its heart. They all needed to be operational for this city to be under their control. With three of them dead the entire mob had felt it. I assumed that Cornero and Kane would not want to suffer the same fate, and so if one was threatened the other would send aid. Their connection was what I was relying on. I just did not know what Kane’s part to play in all of this was. Salvatore was knowledge. Donovan was trafficking. Castellano was wealth. My guess for Cornero was power. When you had an entire city afraid of you, maintaining control over it was easy.

  Having only Cornero and Kane left meant that it was one of the two who were behind the weapons shipment, and one of the two who was behind my family’s murder. It could have been both of them. But that did not matter. They both had to die all the same. It did puzzle me why it had not been Donovan that the mob had used to bring in the weapons considering trafficking was his specialty and he was that resourceful. Donovan had been surprised by it, as had the other crime lords, which left me to conclude that either Kane or Cornero had done it in secret. I initially had believed that tension had been rising between the mobs, but I’d seen no evidence of that. They still operated like clockwork. So right now I couldn’t make a whole lot of sense out of it. The answer was most likely simple. I just didn’t know it yet. Someone could have been planning a coup, or someone could have even been planning a mass slaughter for all I knew. I would have to find out about that from either Kane or Cornero.

  Movement at the entrance of Kane’s house snapped me out of my thoughts. I frowned. Something was definitely going on. A car had pulled up and two guards grappled a third man into it, ignoring his pleas and struggles. I watched. Then I saw Luis Kane. Tall, hulking and menacing, he looked livid as he strode towards the vehicle and took the passenger seat. He barked at one of his men to drive. The car started to move. I gripped my steering wheel. I had to follow them. There were only two guards. I could take them. This could be my only chance to get Kane. But I had no idea where they were going. And that meant I was on the back foot. I would have to be extremely careful.

  The drive was long and slow, as I had to maintain a generous distance and advance at a snail’s pace to avoid suspicion. Kane and his boys turned into a dingy-looking place which was secluded. There was a parking bay and hardly anyone around. That seemed to be the usual lately, in what had become a ghost city. I watched from a distance. I’d be unable to follow in my car as I’d easily be spotted with no traffic to hide in. I parked in the first spot I could find, got out and proceeded on foot. I kep
t my head down and adjusted my cap with my hands. It was freezing. But the cold could do nothing to me. Not anymore. I felt flecks of rain on my hands as they descended from the sky. I embraced it. I slipped into the shadows and moved cautiously. I reached into my jacket pocket and gripped the handle of my Glock, preparing myself for the possibility that my cover was already blown and the parking lot was a trap. It seemed Kane and I both shared a sense of paranoia. The only difference was that his made him irrational. It controlled him.

  I attached the suppressor to my Glock and kept it concealed under my jacket as I brushed up against the wall and slowly crept towards the parking bay. I stuck to the shadows as much as I could. I was wearing black and it was a dark night, so my visibility surely had to be quite low. Then the rain began. It was soft enough so that I could still see, but I knew that soon it would become vicious. I heard voices ahead. I saw the car I had been tailing. It was parked in the empty bay ahead. I crouched down low behind a stationary car in the lot. From here I could see, and I was close enough to hear as well. I was looking at the rear of Kane’s car, and the men were already out with their backs to me. Surprise, surprise. The world didn’t revolve around me. I had stumbled on something else. I breathed a small sigh of relief, as I was grateful to dispel the neurotic part of my mind. I watched, intrigued to see where it would be going.

  Kane grabbed the timid man who he had forced into the car earlier and quite literally threw him onto the hard ground. His two lackeys casually leaned against the car and watched, neither moving nor speaking. They were well disciplined. One of them did however look nervous. I noted it. It could mean he was a rookie, which bode well for me. If I could surprise them maybe I could kill the two guards before anyone could react, leaving me alone to face Kane. But the less brash part of my mind decided to wait. I couldn’t assume my aim would be perfect, especially with my visibility reduced from the rain, and neither could I be optimistic enough to hope that they wouldn’t see me before I got too close to do it. I would be outnumbered. I couldn’t afford risks here. I didn’t know what this was about. And after everything I’d been through so far, I wouldn’t act ill-prepared again. I was forced to pay attention when I heard Kane’s booming voice then, which was easy to hear.

  “You little prick...” Kane growled. He was so livid he could hardly get the words out.

  “Please, why are you doing this?” the man moaned, shielding himself from the wrath of Kane’s words alone.

  “I trusted you to keep Castellano alive! I needed him! But you, you fucking asshole, you let that lunatic kill him, didn’t you?”

  I was confused. What the hell was going on? The fastest conclusion I could reach was that Kane was far more hysterical than I had thought.

  “Speak!” Kane barked.

  “No! I had nothing to do with it! I swear! Mercer was already in the house before any of us knew what happened. He took us all by surprise! I don’t know how he did it. He was just there, like a ghost...”

  “How awfully convenient for you, isn’t it? Are you playing me? I look at you and I see what you are. I see what’s going on in your head. You want him to kill me as well? Is that it? Are you plotting against me?”

  I almost laughed. His manic paranoia was comical. It seemed that the death of three crime lords had done more than just get him on edge. It had almost driven him to madness. But I did not understand why he had dragged the poor fool all the way out to an abandoned parking lot instead of taking care of him behind the safety of his own walls. I didn’t understand the method to his newfound dementia.

  “I swear to you! I swear on my wife-”

  “Fuck your wife!” Kane roared, “Are you not going to confess your betrayal to me?”

  The man pleaded his innocence some more, but it fell on deaf ears. Kane nodded at one of his lackeys and the man obediently moved over to the victim on the ground. Kane’s man roughly grabbed hold of him, hit him and locked his arms, preventing him from moving. Whatever his fate would be he had no choice but to face it now.

  “You won’t get it out of him like this, boss. He’s a rat,” offered one of the men.

  “Did I tell you that you can speak?” Kane growled, but then he seemed to regain his composure, “They always beg when they get caught...these creatures,” Kane paused to spit on the ground, “But they’ll keep fucking you until then.”

  “I’d never do anything to-” the man on the ground began, but he was interrupted by a ferocious kick from Kane. The man bellowed and clutched his side, writhing. Kane had broken his ribs.

  “Do you take me for a fool, Eric? I trusted you, you son of a bitch! I treated you well, but there is only one way to deal with rats like you.”

  Kane bent down and gripped the Eric’s head with both of his hands. It was not meant to hurt, but to intimidate.

  “After my men kill you they’re going to kill your family.”

  Eric screamed and thrashed and pleaded. But it did nothing. Kane let go of Eric and wordlessly got into his car and started it up. I hastily considered my options. Any number of things could go wrong if I chose to strike now. Yet Kane was unprotected, and I was in the shadows. I reached for my gun. But before I could reach a decision, Kane gunned the engine and drove off in the opposite direction to where I was. I swore. He was taking a completely different route back. Either he wasn’t going back to his house, or his level of paranoia was exceptional. The choice had been made for me. I realised that I had to get involved here. If Kane had trusted Eric with protecting Castellano, then surely that had to have meant that he wasn’t some low-level clown. It implied that Eric had to know things about Kane and the place he lived at, which potentially made him my new friend. I was willing to bet Eric would be more than willing to help me after his recent dealings with Kane.

  I looked over at the two men. They had Eric down on his knees with a gun pointed between his eyes. The two men didn’t even have the decency to blind him. They were going to make him watch and wait; make him suffer through every single second before his life ended. In many ways the fear of the bullet was more devastating than the bullet itself. My hand tightened on my own sidearm. I hesitated. Was I really making the right choice here? I was taking a gamble on Eric knowing anything of value to me. What if I was just trying to rationalise saving someone when I should have known better than to get involved?

  Don’t be a hero.

  The words echoed in my head like an ache I couldn’t be rid of. I waited. One of the men delivered a right hook to Eric’s face and he shouted out in pain; reduced to a snivelling child. They were toying with him now. Mocking him. Humiliating him. I felt anger. Could I let the words of an old bastard get in my head? I was being rational here. Eric had to know something if Kane had trusted him. That was logic. Emotion had nothing to do with it. I stayed put. Eric begged for his family. The men laughed at him and mocked him and his wife. If I waited any longer they’d execute him and I’d lose the only lead that I had. I had already let the man with the envelope slip through my fingers before. I had to act. I rose to my feet and dashed towards the men. The padding on my shoes ensured that my footsteps remained soft. The men were too busy toying with Eric to notice me, and fortunately they had their backs to me. I closed the distance quickly as adrenaline and rage fuelled me. I was close enough. It was time. I raised my Glock.

  “Drop your guns now,” I commanded.

  The two men jumped and whipped around in surprise. Only one was armed, but his weapon was down at Eric. The other mobster had his holstered. Mine was already on them. The fear crept into their expressions when they saw the suppressor. I had the advantage.

  “Back away, and put your guns down on the ground slowly,” I said.

  One of the men spat, “Fuck you.”

  The other one paled as recognition kicked in, “Oh Jesus, don’t you know who he is?”

  “I don’t give a damn who-”

  I fired. A searing crack like a whip tore through the air. The bullet lodged into his skull and rammed
his head back, setting it at an awkward angle. His body crumbled to the ground as blood spouted out of the open wound. I had no patience to deal with a loudmouth and a fool. I turned my gun to the man still standing.

  “Shit, holy shit...you just killed him, man! What the fuck...” the man stammered, quickly throwing his hands into the air. His panic was wonderfully tangible. And it made me not want to pull the trigger so soon.

  “I said put your guns down,” my words were flat.

  I watched as he slowly took out his gun and bent to place it on the ground. He was shaking as he obeyed my instruction.

  “Christ, you’re Jack Mercer...”

  I stopped. I saw it in his eyes. He was terrified of me. Eric cowered, unsure if I was a friend or an enemy. It struck me then. I was starting to enjoy the fear. This man knew who I was. He knew what I had done. And he feared me like he did Luis Kane. I understood then. I finally understood the attraction of power. I basked in it.

  “You know who I am?” I asked.

  “Everyone knows who you are!”

  “Then you know that I can’t let you go.”

  “Oh God don’t kill me man, please! I don’t want to die!”

  I smiled, “You wouldn’t have let Eric here go if he begged until he was blue in the face. Why should I spare you the same courtesy?”

  “I’m not like rest! I didn’t want to do it. I just do what I’m told!”

  “You just watch then. Playing along, but taking no blame. Isn’t that a good excuse?” I deliberately toyed with him.

  “Come on, you know what it’s like! You do what you have to do. Fuck it, you’re a cop, and look at you! What the hell is this?”

  “I’m not a cop anymore,” I said. I lowered my gun, “You’d better start running.”

  He gasped and took off immediately as though the devil himself was after him. Eric finally found his voice again, “You’re just going to let him go? Seriously? He was going to-”

  I lifted my gun and squeezed the trigger, and the man running away jerked and fell to the ground in a heap. Eric cried out.

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to kill him.”

  I briskly walked over to the body and put a bullet through the fallen man’s skull. You couldn’t be too sure of a confirmed kill when a shot was taken at a distance with a pistol. A part of me felt that I had been overly cruel. But I had wanted to intimidate Eric, and by now I was just desensitized to it. My mind and body didn’t react to murder like it used to. At least not towards men who deserved to die. The cynic in me told me that he would have said anything for me to spare his life. But the fact was that moments ago he had been torturing Eric all the same. He would have watched him die all the same. And he would have continued in his line of work all the same, watching others suffer. This place would be better off with men like him gone. I turned to Eric. I grabbed him by the neck and put the gun under his chin.

  “Now you’re going to answer to me!” I growled.

  “Please don’t kill me!”

  “I won’t if you cooperate. But if I don’t like what you have to tell me...let’s just say that I’m not as merciful as Kane.”

  “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know!”

  “Good. Answer me this: why did Kane need Castellano alive?”

  “He wouldn’t tell me the reason. I’m not his pal or anything. He just wanted it done, and so I had to do it. I think it was because of his money. He was afraid that the police would catch onto him like they did Donovan, and so he needed Castellano to move it and secure it in his bank or something. I don’t know why else.”

  “Okay then. Why all the secrecy surrounding his house? Cars in and out and all that security - what’s it all for?”

  “I never got involved in that. I don’t know. I just know that whatever it is, it’s extremely valuable to Kane and he runs the whole operation. Everybody answers to him. It’s some sort of business, that’s all I know.”

  “You’re not giving me a lot to work with here,” I said while jabbing the gun at his jaw.

  He gasped and trembled, but did not speak further.

  “How do I get to Kane?” I hissed; maintaining the fierce edge in my voice. Intimidation was the best card I had to play.

  “You won’t be able to. He’s too worked up and too well protected! You’ve nearly driven him mad, for Christ’s sake. He doesn’t even trust his own men. He’s lost it. He’s become unstable; scared of his own shadow. Did you hear the shit that he was saying to me just now? He knows you’re coming to kill him. He’s scared to death.” 

  That was both good and bad for me. The amount of security he had posed a definite problem, but on the other hand I had his fear which was an invaluable asset to have. It meant I had all the power over him. It was time to fish elsewhere now and find out whatever I could.

  “What do you know about Cornero?”

  “I only know that him and Kane don’t get along. They don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, and more than once it’s got ugly. Ever since you crashed that whole weapons shipment business they’ve been a click away from biting each others’ heads off.”

  Curious. That changed things. It meant that there never had been tension between the entire mob so to speak. It appeared that it had always been between Kane and Cornero. It sounded like a power struggle. Gregory Donovan had played it down as though it were just personality clashes and mutual disagreements, but then again he was past tense. Eric had seen what was happening in the present. It was a parasitic relationship by the sounds of it. Kane and Cornero weren’t exactly friends but they both had a part to play in running the city, which meant neither could kill the other. But if tensions got to breaking point, I didn’t expect Kane to be the rational one. Maybe that was what Cornero was waiting for; waiting for Kane to give him an excuse. With Cornero’s power perhaps he felt Kane could be replaced regardless of the fact that he currently had a major role. I knew that I was drawing conclusions purely from assumption, and without much hard evidence. I didn’t know what went on between the two men. But the only thing I could count on was that they were connected, and that they needed each other to be alive so whatever operations they ran could continue.

  “Who do you know that works for Cornero? He must have friends. Family. Someone he doesn’t want to lose.”

  “I don’t-”

  I was growing impatient. I applied pressure to his throat with my hand. He gasped.

  “Answer me or answer to God!” it was my voice that spoke, but the beast’s words.

  “Wait! I know someone. His cousin! His name is Charles Merino. He and Cornero are close. They grew up together apparently.”

  The name was familiar to me. My interest peaked. That was useful.

  “What can you tell me about him?”

  “He’s bad. He gets off on violence. The stories that get passed to all of us are scary. They say he once cut a man’s hand off for just touching something he shouldn’t have.”

  I dismissed that as exaggeration. It sounded like a case of broken telephone. Probably wasn’t true. But the message was clear in that story. He was just like the rest, and he deserved to die. That was all that was relevant to me. If Merino and Cornero were close that meant he was my next target. Cornero would surely notice his death and take it personally. For that to happen he’d have to know that I was the one who did it. I didn’t want him to mistakenly think that it was Kane. He’d surely kill him, and I needed answers from Kane first. I had to go after Merino.

  “Where can I find him? Write it down.”

  I backed away and handed him a piece of scrap paper and a pen from my pocket. I indicated with my gun. He nervously scribbled down the address. I did a quick check with my GPS on my mobile phone. It wasn’t too far from here. It was about ten minutes away if I drove fast. But could I trust that Eric had given me the right address?

  “Will he be alone?”

  “He’s not married and doesn’t have any kids as far as I know. He does love his scotch
. They say he gets really violent when he drinks. He’ll get home eventually, most likely drunk.”

  I could use that. I’d wait for him to return.

  “How do I know I can trust you?” I asked and lifted the gun between his eyes.

  “Please, Jack...I just want to get home to my wife. I don’t care what you do to him, or to Kane or to any of them. Fuck them all. You saved my life just now. And now I repaid you for that. We’re square, right?”

  The beast screamed at me to kill him too. But I did not listen to it. I subdued it, and allowed the anger to fade.

  “Go then.”

  He looked genuinely surprised, but no less afraid of me.

  “Thank you! Thank you so much.”

  He started to move, but stopped after he had taken a few steps.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “Why are you doing all of this?”

  And right then the pain became real once again as I remembered and took it all in. The veil lifted, the beast disappeared and I resurfaced.

  “To find my daughter.”

  Eric looked alarmed, “The papers said your family was killed...”

  “I know what the damned papers said. I know what happened. I was there. But three weeks after that I got a call from my daughter. I know she’s alive. And I will tear this entire goddamn city down to find her.”

  I waited for his reaction of confusion and uncertainty. I waited for the inevitable response, for him to say that I was crazy. I waited for his unmistakable fear of me being insane.

  “I hope you find her then, Jack.”

  I stared. Eric left me alone to face my thoughts. I watched him go. I held my gun at my side. The cool metal had warmed to my touch, despite the arrival of the icy rain. In seconds the rain came down harder, signifying its desire to flood the world. The blood of the fallen men was washed away. I stood there and took it all in. The only sound in the world was that of the rain pelting the ground. I breathed. And for the first time I felt as though I was not lost.

  It was late when Charles Merino finally returned to his home. I had waited for close to two hours. The night was a vast, black wasteland. The rain was vicious, roaring from above with a cruelty. I was far from done with the animals. I tensed, stretching my neck and arms and getting the feeling back in my muscles. It was too dark for him to see me in my car. He pulled into his garage and got around, stumbling towards his door with the help of a man who held one of his arms over a shoulder. It looked like he was the disappointment in the family. Smallish house, drunk, unmarried and pathetic. I wondered why Cornero was fond of him. Maybe it was just that they grew up together. But I appreciated Merino’s lifestyle. It made him an easy target. I threw open my car door and rushed over to the entrance of his home. I waited for him to get the key into the lock and open the door. It would be easier inside.

  “You know, you’re a good kid. But you never should have beat up your girlfriend though,” Merino slurred to his companion, “That isn’t what a man does to his woman. They should listen without you having to raise your hand. You need to command respect.”

  I felt a bloodlust. A rush. The beast broke free. I drew my knife and plunged it into the back of the neck of the man before he could respond, and he went rigid as the blade lodged into his throat. He choked as blood spewed out like a fountain. Charles Merino cried out, startled, and I grabbed him from behind as his companion dropped. I slammed his head into the doorframe with tremendous force. He dropped his bottle and crashed to the floor clutching his head. It had cut. A little blood ran over his hands. He was in agony. I shut the door behind me and flicked the latch. I saw a gun on his belt. I bent, wrenched it out and threw it across the room. I did not give him time to breathe. I grabbed him by the neck with both hands and rammed his head into the wooden floor. Twice. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so violent. I needed him to talk after all. He was muttering gibberish; dazed out of his mind. A tear went down the side of his face. I took out my suppressed Glock.

  “Do you know who I am, Charles Merino?”

  “I...”

  “Answer me!”

  He blinked rapidly, his eyes widening. I couldn’t tell if he was concussed or just drunk.

  “You fucking asshole. You’re Mercer. You were so stupid to come here. You’re the one he wants...”

  His voice was laboured, and he was out of breath. At least he was responsive. He wouldn’t be putting up any resistance.

  “Tell me where I can find Cornero or I’ll blow your goddamn brains out!”

  “Do you have any idea who you’re fucking with-”

  I pointed my Glock down and pulled the trigger. The crack of sound burst through the house. A hole opened in his thigh and Merino screamed his lungs out as he tried to grip his leg. I allowed myself the seconds to listen to his cries of pain, ugly and ghastly. A melody to my ears. I put the gun against the side of his head.

  “Oh Jesus, you psycho...”

  “You’re a fool! You know who I am! You are not my concern. You are nothing! Now answer me or die right now.”

  “I’m not telling you shit...”

  I lashed out like lightning and struck the open wound on his thigh. Merino yelled so loud I had to shut his mouth with my gun.

  “Just stop! Cornero is hanging out in his club.”

  “Thank you. You finally said something useful.”

  He blurted out the location, and as I recorded it in my memory he said, “Just leave me the fuck alone...”

  I stood.

  He recoiled, “What are you going to do?”

  I looked at him with loathing. His body would get Anthony Cornero’s attention. The beast wanted control now, and I let it.

  “I’m going to kill you, and enjoy it.”

  He didn’t have the time to scream before I put a bullet through his mouth. I heard the thud in the wood. It had gone clean through him. Blood poured out over his lips. His tongue had most likely been torn apart. It was just a red mess. I drew my eyes away. I regained my breath.

  I felt alive.

  The power felt good. I wanted both Kane and Cornero to feel the fear that this man had felt moments before his death. I wanted one of them, whichever it was, to confess to murdering my family and tell me where my daughter was. Then they would die. There was no other alternative now. Their fate was sealed. I returned my eyes to Merino’s body. I felt myself almost smiling at the thought of causing Cornero pain. Perhaps these crime lords were only human after all. I suddenly had an idea. A way to repay the favour from back when I had just been a broken man. I took a piece of paper from a nearby desk. I got my pen.

  And I wrote the words: feeling sorry yet?

  I drew a sad smiley face underneath it. I signed my name. I left.

  The rain had eased. I knew the place Charles Merino had described. A quick search on my phone’s GPS had it tracked down easily enough. If Eric had been right then it was Anthony Cornero’s den. There was no chance I’d be able to get him inside, but it was possible that I could follow him home from there. There was also the chance that I would be able to observe anything that could be useful to me later on. It was worth checking out. I needed information as much as I needed blood.

  By morning Merino’s body would be found. I had left his door wide open with his body in full view, so that the discovery would be as early as possible. Plus there was his companion hugging the ground with a cut throat, and no one would miss that one. If Cornero really was that close to Merino then killing him should have been enough to make the man believe I was coming after him. I knew that I was in control here. I only had to keep on going until Cornero became as paranoid as Kane, and raised his levels of security. The goons would go wherever the money was highest. And I was hoping that a lot of them would flock to Cornero once he raised the stakes for my head. Perhaps Kane himself would even support it in the relief that Cornero was going to be the next to die.

  I had the club in my view. If Cornero owned
it I had no doubt that there probably wasn’t a better and more ‘tasteful’ place like it around. There were two large bouncers by the door. There was obviously no way that I’d even be able to get inside - the badge alone would ensure I walked away with more than just a dismissive wave of the hand. I ran the risk of being recognised immediately as well. I surveyed the scene. A few suggestively dressed women were chatting up some men. People were entering and exiting the club itself. My eyes fell on the parking lot.

  I caught sight of someone I recognised. Emilio Rojas. The aggressive pig who had previously worked for Victor Salvatore. Dozens of assault charges had been laid against him, he was a known wife beater and a man who once had a homicide case completely dropped against him. What was he doing here? He was standing beside a fancy car. I didn’t exactly know my cars, but it certainly looked like a rich man’s ride, and it had to be way out of his price range. If I had to venture a guess I would have said that it was vintage. So it wasn’t his then. He was the only one around, apparently guarding it. Could it belong to Cornero?

  It was an attention-grabbing bright red colour. None of the other cars in the parking lot were guarded, and Emilio’s profile made me suspicious enough. Emilio looked sour, as though standing watch duty to a stationary vehicle wasn’t what he had had in mind for the evening. It had to be Cornero’s car. I wished that I had paid more attention to the man. I didn’t even know what vehicle he drove. But I was sure of one thing: I knew that it did not belong to Emilio. That much was obvious. But even if it didn’t belong to Cornero it had to be the property of someone else of importance. I smiled. That was fortunate. Emilio was alone. The only problem was that he was fairly near to the entrance so there were witnesses around. But my last encounter, and Kane’s paranoia, had convinced me that the mob truly was afraid of me. And that gave me the edge going forward. Emilio might have been a man of violence, but he was just a henchman all the same.

  I climbed out of my car. I readied my Glock. I could take him. I approached him quickly. I needed to act fast and surprise him before he had a chance to call for backup. He was shuffling around looking bored. I was almost on him. He turned. He saw me. I moved faster. He seemed to stare at me as if trying to recognise me. He reached for his hip. But it was too late for him. I was already there, and my gun was in my hands. I couldn’t have said the same for him. I stepped up to him and held my Glock out at my hip, aiming for his stomach. He saw it, tensed and froze, his hand still on his holster. A moment later he finally recognised me. His eyes went wide, and he did not react any further. He stared at me as though I was a ghost. His hand fell limp at his side, and his weapon ceased to be a threat to me. I had his fear.

  “Emilio Rojas. I take it that you know who I am?”

  He nodded wordlessly.

  “Come with me.”

  He didn’t move.

  “If you don’t, I’ll kill you right here just like I did those mob bosses you suck up to.”

  I knew then that I had his obedience. He began to move quickly, and I got out of the way so that he could get ahead of me. I could walk him from behind. I truly enjoyed it; the ability to turn a violent man like Emilio into nothing more than a scared child with little more than the power of fear. I stifled a smile. The bastards could all feel what it was like for the people of the city everyday of their lives. I was prepared for him to break out into a run. I had my gun aimed at his spine. But fear kept him locked in place. He did not try anything. He at least had that much sense. He just moved as though all hope was lost. I directed him to an empty alleyway. No one would bother us there.

  I reached forward and took his gun. It was a SIG Pro semi-automatic pistol. I frowned. It was high-end for a henchman. It was the kind of weapon you’d find the police or military using. There was no reason a lackey like Emilio should have been carrying one. Perhaps Cornero preferred it that his armed guards were well-equipped. It had to have come from him. I pocketed the gun. I was sure that I could find use for it if I ever got into a fire fight. It was a good weapon. Twelve rounds in a clip. Powerful, lightweight, accurate and reliable.

  “Now you’re going to answer my questions. Say or do anything that I don’t like and you’ll be dead before you can scream, and I’ll be gone. No one will hear the shot. No one is coming to save you. It’s just you and me. Do you understand?”

  “Just don’t kill me. Relax, alright?”

  “Was that Cornero’s car you were guarding?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. How long will Cornero be in that club for?”

  “Once he’s in there he doesn’t come out.”

  “Has Cornero ever mentioned me?”

  “No. Cornero is a pro. He would never say a word to us about anything he didn’t feel we needed to know. He keeps his secrets. I don’t know shit. But I can tell you worry him. He hasn’t been the same since Salvatore, Donovan and Castellano died. That’s what I hear.”

  “His turn is coming.”

  Emilio didn’t say anything. He shivered.

  “How can I get to Cornero? When is he vulnerable?”

  “You won’t get to him, man. We hardly even see the guy. This club is like his one place, you know? But whenever he’s here he comes packing major heat.”

  “He must have someone close to him whom he trusts.”

  “He has a cousin. Charles Merino.”

  “He’s dead. Next?”

  Emilio gasped, “Oh fuck, you’re crazy! You don’t know what you’ve done, man, Cornero is going to freak out...”

  “I suppose he will. Now give me another name.”

  Emilio appeared to be deep in thought about it. I could hear him muttering through what sounded like names. I waited for a few seconds. Then I jabbed him with my gun to hurry him up.

  “The only other person I know is someone much higher up than me. He’s almost always by Cornero’s side. Have you heard of Joe Lonardo?”

  “No, and I don’t care who he is. Where can I find him?”

  “He was in the car behind us when we were driving here, but then he went off on his own.”

  “Why didn’t he go into the club? Isn’t he part of Cornero’s guard?”

  “They don’t go in there together. Ever. Not from what I’ve seen. Lonardo always goes off and does something he’s ordered to do. Cornero is careful like that. I don’t think he wants anyone to know that Lonardo is his guy.”

  “But you know him?”

  “I have to take my orders from Lonardo too. He’s always hanging around Cornero and doing what he wants done. He’s a right-hand.”

  “Tell me where he is.”

  “I don’t know where he is.”

  “Then you’re useless to me.”

  He jumped, “Wait! There’s this spot just around the corner. Where that closed -down bowling place is? There have been a lot of meets there before. I sat in on one or two. It’s Lonardo and some other guys. I don’t know what goes on down there man. But if he’s not there then I don’t know where you’ll find him. But I saw them going in that direction just before we got here. It has to be there, man.”

  “How will I recognise him?”

  “That’s easy. He’s short, bald and wears this big, ugly gold ring.”

  It seemed Joe Lonardo was my next target then. I had got everything I could from Emilio. I didn’t need him further. The next move was obvious. He was just another dog that needed to be put down.

  “We’re done.”

  I slipped my Glock into my pocket. There would be no point wasting the bullet, or taking the risk of being heard.

  “I’ve told you what you want to know. Now will you let me go?”

  I drew my pocket knife.

  “No.”

  I plunged the blade into his neck, dragging it across his throat and making sure it went deep. He let out a horrifying sound and struggled. But he was already dead. I covered his mouth, preventing any screams, as I waited for him to succumb to the wound. It took a while. Some of his blood sprayed onto my
jacket sleeve. He eventually started to go limp. I tossed his body into the heap of trash laying nearby. A quick glance from anyone outside the alley would lead to the assumption that it was a homeless man or a drunk. It was, after all, within walking distance to a nightclub. It would be discovered only by the morning once the smell attracted attention and the sunlight revealed the blood. I pocketed the knife and inhaled deeply. I tried not to think about how easily I killed. Thoughts like that would only prevent me from acting; would weaken me. And all that I could do was let the beast give me strength.

  I exited the alleyway and kept my head down. I made my way to Cornero’s car. I felt a smile form on my lips. If I was going to target the man I might as well make him twist and turn a bit while I was at it. I casually strolled around the car being mindful if anyone was watching me. But no one gave me a second glance. It was a parking lot after all. I sunk into my thoughts. Ideally I’d steal his ride, but hotwiring wasn’t such a simple science. There was a major risk of electrical shock when hotwiring a car, and in many cases it was not even guaranteed to work. I hadn’t done it before, so I wasn’t exactly going to take the risk with no experience. Furthermore newer vehicles, and no doubt a fancy one such as his, had the components required to hotwire the car purposefully hidden, so that they were unreachable. Other models had kill switches as well, which shut down the engine so that it couldn’t be started even with the key in the ignition. If stealing his ride wasn’t an option, I knew that I would have to do it in a far less elegant way.

  I’d blow his prized car to hell.

  I felt my pockets. My lighter was with me. I carried it around as it was more convenient than matches. I didn’t have anything to act as a fuse. I jogged back to my car. I shuffled around and came up with a few sheets of A4 paper. It would have to do. I rolled a few up and trudged back to Cornero’s car. I once again eyed my surroundings, but I was still in the dark. I faced my back to the car as I watched for any onlookers, and reached behind my back to take off the fuel cap. Once I was sure it was cleanly off, I turned around and shoved the rolled-up A4 paper into the hole. I inserted it with care. The only problem was that the darkness would make the orange glow of the flame more noticeable. I would have to rely on the chance that by the time someone did notice it, the flame would be too close to the tank. I brought the flame to life and held it at the base of the paper, letting it all catch alight. Then I took off back across the street towards my car, and watched from afar. It might have been cold, but it was not windy. The rain had also calmed, and it was nothing more than a minor drizzle. The flame would breathe and get there in time. I estimated that it would take a little over a minute.

  There wasn’t going to be some building-sized explosion and the car wouldn’t blow into smithereens either. There were a few variables at play mostly to do with the gas tank itself. When the gas tank was almost full it would virtually never explode, and only catch fire. When the gas tank was empty, however, it could go off like a stick of dynamite under the right conditions. In most cases though, if it was rigged correctly, the car would explode. The glass windows would blow out - possibly the boot lid and backdoors as well - and all the upholstery and tires would burn. That was more than good enough to total it. I wanted Cornero to see his prized possession in a ball of flame. A man who bought such a car certainly had a passion for it. He would most definitely feel the loss.

  I could see the fire more clearly now. It had a bright orange glow and it was getting closer to the tank. Someone noticed. A young guy with his girlfriend. They pointed and shouted. I swore. I hoped no one would play the hero. My plan had never been to get any innocent people hurt. I doubted as well that Cornero had parked next to civilians, and most likely had his lackeys on either sides of his ride, which meant any harm that came to them as a result of the explosion would be more than welcome. One of the bouncers saw it then as well. He ran over. It would be any second now. I tensed. The bouncer quickly realised that it was too late to stop it, and the nearby people ran shouting and screaming.

  And then it happened. Instantly a tremor swept the ground as the blast went off. It was staggeringly loud. A ball of flame erupted into the sky. The windows shattered all at once, and the lid of the boot blew off and clattered onto the ground. Flames licked the rear half of the car. It had been over in a matter of seconds. The car wouldn’t be going anywhere. It was destroyed. I wished only that I could have seen Cornero’s reaction. But it was satisfaction enough. I smiled to myself, climbed into my car and drove away, leaving behind a sea of spectators.

  I did not have long left until first light. The noise in the club must have been ridiculously loud if Cornero had not heard what had become of his car. But someone would surely have let him know soon enough. I couldn’t risk being around that place. Not when the police, fire department and mob started crawling around it. I still wished that I could have seen his reaction. It would surely have been an embarrassment that was hard to take for the most powerful man in the city. He would be angered by the disrespect shown to him - angry enough to possibly bring out his irrational side.

  I was on my way to the bowling rink Emilio had described. It had been easy to find. It was broken down, grey and all the lettering had faded. I couldn’t tell what it was called from my position. I saw some cars parked around, but I couldn’t say for sure that they were there for the rink. It made sense as a meeting place, as their tea parties could be conducted in private, while Cornero did whatever it was that he did in his club. No one would be wiser to it. And no one would be aware of any major personal connection between employee and boss. It was smart. But the implication was that Cornero trusted Lonardo quite well if he was confident enough to enjoy his club and leave the man in charge of business. That gave me all the reason I needed to make him my focus. I knew that the best I could do was wait until someone came out. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be sitting idly. I kept myself low in my seat. I was just a parked car opposite the bowling rink. No one had any reason to be suspicious. The moment I saw Joe Lonardo I’d follow him until he was alone. I knew I wasn’t very experienced at tailing, and Lonardo was most likely skilled if he was Cornero’s go-to man. But I had the darkness of the night on my side.

  The inactivity allowed me to reflect. My mind and body were racing. It barely registered with me, emotionally or mentally, that I had violently killed two more men hours ago, and I was preparing to murder a third. I did not feel anything about it other than the simple notion that it had to be done. I was grateful for that. It gave me the strength to do what was necessary. I wasn’t held back. I had real power now. And the mob were afraid of me. They had enough sense to be. I forced myself to consider the opposite end of the spectrum. It wasn’t entirely an advantage. Their fear also meant that they were on the alert for me, and as a result paranoid men like Luis Kane became impossible to reach.

  I sighed and waved off my thoughts. I only had to concentrate on doing what I had to do to get Jess back. I was getting close. I could feel it. Two men stood between me and my daughter. They were just flesh and blood. They weren’t Gods. They’d die just like everyone else. They’d come to know fear. I just had to be smart, and have patience. But I was running out of the latter. Time passed slowly. I was zoning out more frequently. It was almost four in the morning. Had I really been waiting for hours? My limbs were stiff. I stretched. I suddenly saw movement up ahead. I shook myself awake and rose slightly in my seat. About six men poured out of the bowling rink, chatting in low voices. Four of them climbed into a nearby SUV. Damn it! What if one of them had been Lonardo? It had been impossible to see. Two men were walking towards a small convertible a few meters away.

  I saw a glint of gold.

  There he was. The ring was on his hand was visible even in the darkness, although with the added help of the SUV’s headlights as well. He was just like Emilio had described. Joe Lonardo climbed into the driver’s seat, while his associate got in on the other side. It was a minor complication that he wasn’t alone, but it w
as nothing that I could not handle. I started my car and immediately killed the headlights. I didn’t need them, and having them off would reduce my visibility from a distance. Joe Lonardo started to drive, but I waited tensely. I hoped the SUV would not follow. I couldn’t take all six of them. The SUV drove behind the convertible, and I didn’t know what to do then. Minutes passed. Fortunately the SUV then took a right turn and was on its way. I nodded to myself. It made sense for them all to part ways. Whatever they had been doing in that bowling rink most likely was Cornero’s work, and if the vehicles parted ways it minimised all suspicion.

  I took off at a measured pace staying far behind Lonardo, and following as slowly as I could. There weren’t any other cars driving around. It was four in the morning after all. But it was a bit of a double-edged sword, as on the one hand it made following easy, but on the other it meant remaining undetected was more difficult. I knew that it was dangerous, because if I was seen it would immediately raise suspicion. I sighed. I shook my head. Always over-thinking. Perhaps I was merely giving credit to men who probably didn’t care one way or the other.

  I relaxed in my seat, hoping that they weren’t driving off to some faraway place. I kept up. I was patient. I took turns a good few moments after they did. Sometimes I waited until they had turned the next corner before I followed. I didn’t know which part of town I was in. But I could always count on my phone’s GPS to get out. I began to get frustrated. How much longer was it going to take?

  It was another eight minutes later that Lonardo finally stopped at an apartment complex of sorts. It wasn’t his house. Maybe it was for his accomplice in the passenger seat. Or maybe it was more work he had to run for Cornero. Did the guy ever take a break? Either way I wasn’t going to wait around to find out what it was. The place was dead, and I had Lonardo and his friend right where I wanted them. I also had the advantage that out in the open it would be more difficult to trace the source of a suppressed gunshot noise. I got out of my car and checked my Glock to make sure it was ready and that the safety was off. Lonardo and his friend were walking towards the building. I stuck to the dark until I could move up behind them. It was time to act.

  “Joe Lonardo.”

  He stopped. My gun was raised before they could even turn around. I took in the looks of surprise on their faces.

  “Don’t move or I’ll kill both of you.”

  “How do you know who I am?” Lonardo asked. His voice was calm.

  I stepped forward.

  “Fuck me! Joe, that’s Jack Mercer!” the other man shouted.

  Then the idiot began reaching for his gun.

  “You know how they say it’s always funny until someone gets hurt?” I said.

  The man hesitated, his hand frozen on the handle of his firearm. I fired. The sound was vicious. The bullet tore into his chest. He clutched himself, his eyes wide with shock. Lonardo recoiled.

  “Then it’s just hilarious.”

  I fired again, and this time the bullet hit him underneath his eye. He went rigid and dropped. It had been an almost perfect double tap.

  Joe Lonardo stared at the body of his fallen comrade with a distinct nervousness.

  “Stay where you are,” I growled.

  Lonardo’s breathing intensified, but his voice remained composed, “You’re stupid to go up against Cornero. I’m not going to tell you a damn thing, Mercer.”

  I advanced towards him and stopped just a foot away. I knew he wouldn’t speak, as he was one of Cornero’s right-hand men after all. I could probably spend the next few hours torturing it out of him, but that was a waste of time and it was unnecessary. I didn’t need anything from him. It had been so easy to get him. We’d all overestimated these bastards; thought of them as more than ordinary men. But they were just like the rest of us. All it took was power. And now I had someone else who was valuable to Cornero right in front of me. It was almost too easy. In moments, I would have dealt Cornero another blow.

  “That’s alright. It’s not your words I want.”

  “Then what?”

  “Just your life.”

  He reached for his gun, but I knew that there was nothing that he could do. I pulled the trigger the moment he moved, and he collapsed. The bullet had struck him clean in the centre of his forehead. There was little need to verify the kill. I was done. Another animal had fallen, and the beast had its blood. I retreated to my car. It would only be hours from now that I’d see the effect of my work. I had to have done more than enough to convince Anthony Cornero that he was my target. Surely the mob would be convinced too. I could only wait and observe the outcome. With the hours that I still had before morning came, I needed to rest and recover my energy. Kane’s turn was coming.

  I hadn’t had a great deal of rest after the adrenaline from the previous night had faded. I waited nearby Kane’s home for most of the day. I kept the news running on the radio. I doubted it would provide me with anything useful, but it didn’t hurt. And I got to enjoy a private smile when word of Cornero’s car came up. The body of Emilio Rojas had been found in the alley, as had the corpse of Charles Merino in his home. There had been no mention in the news about the note I had left, which meant that either the police or mob had got to it first. I suspected it was the mob. It was Cornero’s cousin after all, and he wouldn’t let a bunch of cops touch the crime scene before he had his look. Either way the news was on fire, and I sat back and listened.

  I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to see at Kane’s house. I had no guarantees that anything would happen. I had my sunglasses and cap on to conceal myself. It was nearly sunset. I had noticed that activity at Kane’s house had significantly decreased during the day. Only a few cars had come in during the course of the entire day. Was it related at all to what I had done last night? I couldn’t know for sure. The place was still too crowded. I hoped that I had not missed my one opportunity to get to Kane when he had been interrogating Eric. Had I not done enough to show them that Cornero was the target? Or had Kane simply not fell for my attempt to convince him? Surely he wasn’t that perceptive. Then again I wasn’t about to make the mistake of underestimating my enemies. That had cost me everything once before.

  I stretched. My body was stiff from sitting in the car for most of the day. I didn’t know what my next move was. Although I had made it this far already. I’d figure something out. I started to doze off. I tried to fight it, but my past actions coupled together with a lack of sleep caught up with me. Soon enough I nodded off. But I was rudely awakened seemingly moments later by the sound of car engines. I stared around in surprise. It was completely dark. I had been out for a good hour or two. Up ahead I could see about four cars screeching to life and driving away from Kane’s house. What was going on? It was as though a party had come to an end. I kept low as the cars drove off, all in the same direction. That was curious. It meant it couldn’t be nothing. I grabbed my phone and opened up the navigation. I plugged in Cornero’s address. I drove forward slightly to see them all turn in the same direction as well. It was safe to assume they were all heading in the same direction, but my navigation told me that they had taken the first two turns required to get to Cornero. Perhaps I was adding one to one and getting three, but something was definitely up. I looked back at Kane’s house. Maybe some emergency meeting had been called? There were just two cars left in front of his house.

  I observed the house. One of the cars was parked in front of the gate and the other was about six meters from it, on the pavement. Two cars could mean anything. It could mean there were two people inside Kane’s house or even as many as eight. Surely all of it had something to do with what I had been up to the previous night. It could not have simply been coincidence that the one night Kane didn’t have a full house was the night after I had killed Cornero’s men. But how could I verify the number of people in Kane’s house? I had to get them outside somehow. I was afraid that if I waited until they left, I’d use up another inviting opportunity that was presented to me, and t
he other four cars would return. I at last had a window. I had to use it. The only issue was not knowing how to lure them out.

  The answer came then. It was risky and close to being crazy, but a lot of other things I’d done as of late had shared those traits. I thought back to Cornero’s car. I could give the car on the pavement the same treatment. If the men inside heard the explosion and saw the fire they’d come running out. The only flaw in my plan was that the police could arrive before I finished with Kane. But it was the best plan I had. I only needed a few minutes with Kane. I glanced over at the gate. It was not completely electronic, that much was clear. That meant that it could be manually closed of course. If I lured them out of the house I could get in and shut the gate behind me, locking them out. But then how would I get out? I considered my strategy. Maybe I would be able to use Kane as a hostage if worst came to worst. There had to be another way out of his house. The walls weren’t too high. I could climb them. I had options here. But the only thing I did not have was time. I couldn’t lose the one opportunity that I had. There would be no better time to strike.

  I grabbed what I needed and climbed out of my car. I hesitated for a second. I knew I was being overly meticulous, but it had kept me alive. I put my wallet and car keys onto the passenger seat, and placed my ski mask over them to hide them from outside viewers. I left my car unlocked. If I had to make a quick getaway I had bought myself an few extra seconds. I ran over to the car parked on the pavement and ripped open the fuel cap. Any kind of fire would do. As long as it got their attention. For the second time I inserted rolled-up A4 paper into a petrol tank and lit it. I smiled as I considered my newfound skills at vandalism - or was I an arsonist? I made sure the flame was alive before I doubled back and ran over to the left side of the gate. There was enough cover and it was dark enough that I could remain hidden. The flames were burning closer. My body tensed. I looked around the block a second time. I didn’t see anyone. After everything that had happened the past few weeks it made sense that people would be locking themselves in their homes through the night. No one would want to get caught up in mob activity. And that served me well. I watched the fire burn.

  I could feel it. I was getting close to Jess. In moments, I would have Kane. Tonight I’d find out who murdered my family. If it wasn’t Luis Kane then it had to be Anthony Cornero. Then all that I would have left to do would be to confront him. And it would all finally be over. I cracked my neck. I loosened my shoulders. I checked my gun. Without warning the back of the car erupted, and I jumped. A door blew clean off, and the glass at the back shattered into a thousand pieces. The ball of fire leapt above the walls. Someone had to have heard it, or seen it. I waited. I watched the flames lick at the car; engulf it. And then I heard the shouts. I pushed myself up against the wall and made myself small. I heard the gate being buzzed open. And only then did I hear rapidly approaching footsteps. The buzzing dropping in before the footsteps told me that the gate had been opened via a switch on the inside of the house. Which meant once I locked it, whoever ran out would be left out. Maybe they’d think to climb over the walls if they could. I’d make sure the house door was locked too. But I was getting ahead of myself.

  The gate opened. Four men poured out, shouting and running towards the fire. It was more reinforcements than I had hoped for. But I couldn’t dwell on it. It was time to move. I darted out from my cover while the goons were occupied with the burning vehicle. I slipped through the gate and shut it as quietly as I could. I checked to ensure that it was locked. I pressed the red button to open it. Nothing happened. Kane’s paranoia served me well. The gate had been double-locked, which meant that it had to be opened from inside the house or with an actual key. I doubted a man like Kane, in his current state, would have given any of his lackeys a key to his place. I was in the clear so far.

  I took out my Glock and kept low as I ran towards the house. I held my gun at the ready and slipped inside. I shut the door behind me, and turned the key. I was in. I double checked that it was locked as well. I took the key out and pocketed it. My breathing intensified. I was on full alert. Just because four men had run out of the house did not mean that there weren’t any more inside. But I didn’t see or hear anyone. Most of the lights were off in the house. I saw stairs. The balance of probability told me that Kane’s personal space, his bedroom, would be up there. I decided to go there first. I ascended the stairs once I was sure that there was no one lurking on ground level. I reached the top. I saw light emitting from a door at the end of a hallway to the right. It had to be Kane’s room. I crept up to it. My footsteps made no noise on the carpet laid out on the ground, thanks to the extra padding I had equipped my boots with. The door was closed. Had Kane barricaded himself in once he had heard the explosion? I couldn’t help but smile. He was like a frightened child. I hesitated then. I had to assume that it was locked. If I tried to open it and failed he’d see or hear the door handle moving on the other side and know that something was wrong. His men wouldn’t simply try to open his door without a word. I reached over and wrapped the door twice with my knuckles. Then I heard his voice.

  “Who’s there? What happened?”

  It was unmistakably him. I would have recognised his booming voice anywhere. I didn’t respond.

  “Lenny is that you?”

  I muffled a response. Then I heard a key turn in the lock. I raised my gun. The door opened.

  And I was looking at Luis Kane.

  His jaw fell. His beer bottle tumbled out of his hand. I spotted a gun on the desk behind him. He backed away. He could not get a word out. I already had my gun locked between his eyes.

  “Luis Kane. You weren’t that easy to reach,” I said with a smile, savouring every word.

  One would have found it impossible to believe that such a physically intimidating, hulking brute of a man - a man of his reputation - could be so afraid. I pushed the door closed with my hand, not letting my eyes or gun leave him. I hurriedly turned the lock in the door. It was just him and me now. I had him. I was moments away. His gun was too far away for him to reach it. He had been negligent to leave it on the table.

  “You...” he breathed. He was actually shaking before me.

  “What?” I responded while my smile grew wider.

  “You really are the devil...”

  Under different circumstances I would have laughed.

  “Not quite. Now you’re going to answer my questions, Kane. Or you’re going to die horribly just like all the rest of your friends. The choice is yours.”

  He sank onto the edge of his bed looking like a defeated man.

  “Good. First question then.”

  He looked down at the floor; shell-shocked.

  “Did you murder my wife, Nicole?”

  He frowned. And I could genuinely see his disbelief.

  “No, I had nothing to do with that.”

  I was in a tough position. Was he lying to me out of fear of what I’d do if he was guilty, or was fear making him tell me the truth? I had to test it.

  “If you lie to me I’ll kill your pregnant daughter, Kane.”

  That shocked his system.

  “Don’t you fucking touch her! I didn’t kill your wife for fuck’s sake!”

  That confirmed it. I finally knew. It was Anthony Cornero. It had to be now. I felt my anger renewed with my liberation. But I couldn’t stop now. I still had more questions.

  “What do you know about the weapons shipment?” I asked.

  Kane closed his eyes and exhaled loudly as though I’d struck a nerve.

  “Fuck you for that, Mercer.”

  I raised my eyebrows. Had I heard him correctly?

  “It was you?”

  “Cornero has too much control over this city. No matter how big we all get, he’s still bigger. Him and me? We don’t get along. I don’t trust him. The second he has no more use for us, he’ll get rid of us. I know it. So I wanted to be ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

>   Kane looked at me like I was stupid, “War. If it came to that I wanted the firepower.”

  “You were going to overthrow Cornero.”

  “If it came to that.”

  I had to admit I had thought that the weapons shipment had been Cornero’s doing. But I had been mistaken many times already. I had always previously thought of the mob as one entity. That had always been because of my lack of understanding of what they truly were. And it had always just seemed that way, based on how they had collectively tortured me, and how little I had actually known about them. But it appeared that they had a lot more politics going on than I had originally thought. They were just men. And men could be beaten. I refocused. At least I could put the mystery behind the weapons to bed. I had to press on.

  “Why not try again? I only put a stop to one boat.”

  “It’s not that easy. Why do you think things are so on edge between me and Cornero? Once it went to the papers, he knew as much. There wasn’t going to be a next time.”

  “Why’d he let you live then?”

  “I told you. For now he needs what we do.”

  “And what is it that you do, Kane?”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  I decided to change the subject.

  “So you hate Cornero then? You want to see him dead.”

  Kane said nothing.

  “Tell me how to get to him.”

  “You won’t. He’s too smart for you, Mercer. He understands power and how to use it.”

  “Every man has a weakness.”

  Silence.

  “You can tell me, or you can speak to the big guy in hell.”

  Kane tapped his leg nervously. He was on the verge of telling me something. I could see it. He was going to tell me something important. And whatever it was, it would change the game. I waited.

  “He has a kid.”

  I stared. Shock hit my system; winded me.

  “What?”

  “A boy. He has a son.”

  I could not fathom what I’d heard. My mind could not process it.

  “Don’t look so surprised. I told you he was smarter than you. You didn’t know about the kid, because he didn’t want you and the people out there to know.”

  “If that’s true then how could you possibly know?”

  “I heard him talking to his wife about the boy on his phone once. He didn’t know I’d heard.”

  “Seriously? As easy as that?”

  “As easy as that. Nothing ever fazes Cornero or at least that’s the impression he likes to give off. But I don’t think he realised how edgy he got over his son that day. Whatever it was he’s a father alright.”

  That little bit of knowledge was invaluable. I almost broke into a fierce grin. I finally had a way to get to Cornero. I had at last found what made him human. I couldn’t waste anymore time. I had to hurry.

  “Tell me one more thing.”

  “What?”

  “Where’s my daughter?”

  He stared at me. I got irritated. I was sick of the reaction.

  “Don’t tell me she’s dead, Kane. I was there. I know what it looked like. But weeks later I got a phone call from her. She’s alive. And either you, or Cornero, has her.”

  “I sure as shit don’t.”

  I steadied my aim, “You know what will happen if you lie to me.”

  “Fuck you, Mercer. Your girl is dead.”

  I knew now. Kane was not lying. He had been honest about the weapons shipment. He had told me about Cornero’s son. And I could plainly see that he would have wanted nothing with my daughter. It didn’t make sense to be his doing. That meant Cornero was behind it. It was the only explanation that fit. I was almost there.

  “I guess we’re done here,” I said.

  Kane gripped the duvet cover of his bed; veins throbbed in his neck.

  “How did you do all of this, Mercer? How the fuck did you do it?” he spat at me with a madness in his eyes.

  I looked at him. His was the face of a man who could not understand what he saw. A long time ago, ages past, I would have buckled against giants like Kane. But that time was gone. The man I used to be was no more. And so I picked my words. I picked the truth that I finally knew. I let it fill me up, and it gave me strength.

  “I stopped being afraid of men like you.”

  I pulled the trigger multiple times. The gunshots were harsh and loud. The bullets tore into Luis Kane as though he was made of paper. His face and chest were blown open. He fell back onto the bed and limply slid off it as his legs gave in. Blood splattered the white sheets and the wall behind him. It was done. Kane was gone.

  I had already spent far too long in his home. I needed to get out. I listened for noise on the other side of the door, but there was nothing. The men were still trapped outside of the gate. I unlocked the door and jogged out with my gun at the ready. I swapped out the ammunition clip for a fully loaded one. I wasn’t taking any chances. There was still no one in sight. I climbed back down the stairs. It was still almost fully dark inside. But I was accustomed to it. More than my enemies would be. I had to find a way to escape. I glanced in every direction. I spotted the living room. It was all open plan. Perhaps the kitchen had a back door? I hurried into the living room area.

  My eyes caught sight of a bunch of packets and wrapped parcels littering the floor. What was all of it supposed to be? Was it all gifts for Kane’s pregnant daughter? For a brief moment my eyes surveyed the scene. I saw a flash of red on the table in the centre of the room. Then I saw white. I froze. I recognised the object. I could not believe my eyes. I reached for the wall and turned the light on. The room instantly became bright. I could see it clearly now. It was right in front of me, in a purple basket with pink hearts around it. It was a white teddy bear. And it had a red heart in its hands. Exactly like the one Jess had. I could not feel the ground beneath my feet. I approached it, my eyes glued to it. It was as though I was afraid that it would disappear if I looked away. In seconds I was standing in front of it. My mind could not comprehend a logical explanation. I reached towards it. My hand felt it. It was real. I picked it up. My body went weak. The fur on its right ear was stringy and damaged. As though it had been chewed on. All reason told me that it was impossible, yet there was no mistaking it.

  It was Jess’ teddy bear.

  I dropped my gun. I stared at the teddy bear, my mind and body ceasing to function. I just stared at it. And the seconds faded, as I became detached from time. I heard a crash as the front door burst open. I jumped. The bear fell from my hand. My mind jolted to life. I tried to reach my gun. I was too slow. I was wrestled to the ground. There were screams and shouts in the room. I got hit in the face, and I tumbled to the ground, landing hard on my back. Immediately my side exploded with pain as a kick came in, and I rolled onto my front to shield my face. My body rattled as a boot hit the back of my head, and my chin knocked into the hard floor. My teeth had scraped my tongue. I tasted blood. I saw silver stars. I couldn’t fight back. Four men dragged me out into the open, and shoved me into the back seat of a car. My vision dimmed. And I gave in to the darkness, wishing that I would cease to be awake.

  I did not know where I was. I had been conscious the entire journey, but I had a bag over my head, and guns trained on me. My body was in pain. I hoped that nothing was broken. It didn’t hurt to wriggle my arms and legs or move my body, so that was a good sign. The car abruptly stopped. I was roughly grabbed and thrown out of it. I took in my surroundings. I recognised the place. It was the docks. Two men escorted me across a bridge. They did not speak a word to me. The water was harsh. It was cold. There was a slight drizzle; constant and tranquil. The men dragged me to the edge of the bridge and held me down onto my knees. They tied my hands together with a cord. I looked down. There was an army of bodies buried underneath these waters. Innocents and criminals alike all reaching out to welcome me as one of their own. I had failed. I had lost all of the control that I had believed I had. I was now at th
e mercy of fate; a fate that was going to be decided by men who wanted me dead. Why were they waiting? Why had they brought me here? I didn’t understand. My breath formed in clouds in front of me; visible for only seconds. I stared at the overcast sky and revelled in the relief the light rain brought to my wounds. I heard footsteps ahead of me. I turned my eyes away from the sky.

  Anthony Cornero approached me with the confidence of a man who knew that he had won. He looked to be in his mid-forties. A lot younger than anyone would have expected. His hair was black and short, and he was clean shaven and neat. His eyes were icy and light grey in colour; they gave nothing away. He was dressed in a smart black suit with a dark grey, open shirt underneath. There was something about him that was hard to place. He had a subtle air of menace. He was intimidating without doing or saying anything at all. I shivered. He drew closer. There was a hint of a smile on his face. And in that moment I knew. I did not understand a man like Anthony Cornero. He was not like the others. I felt my blood burn. The beast fought to broke free, but my body was too weak to allow it. Cornero spread his hands and smiled.

  “Jack Mercer. We finally meet.”

  He was completely relaxed. As though everything I had done to him had not even phased him. As though it were nothing more than a minor inconvenience, barely even worth the thought.

  “I’ll tell you something. I’m a man who can admit when he’s wrong. And I admit to you that you got me. I truly believed that you were bold enough to come after me. But that was all just to lure me away from Kane, your real target, wasn’t it? That’s smart. You got a mind for deception. I’d shake your hand if they weren’t tied. Then again I know what you can do, so if you don’t mind I’ll remain right here.”

  His voice was suave, yet calculated. Every word he uttered revealed how in control he was.

  “Coward,” I spat.

  He grinned and in doing so revealed perfect teeth, “That fire in you...I admire it.”

  I said nothing.

  “You know I don’t quite have you figured out, Mercer. I always thought I had a good read on people. I just get them. But you? You’re something else, aren’t you? A lesser man would have been dead before Salvatore hit the ground.”

  Cornero studied me, and I could not tell if his look carried admiration or hate. It was unreadable. He was unreadable. All that I could tell was that he was enjoying himself.

  “You did all this for what? Because you lost your family? You know on some level I can understand your position. I can even commend you on coming this far. But vengeance is a fool’s choice, Mercer. Life isn’t all poetry. You rode your luck hard enough, but when faced with a man who required something more to beat you fell like a wild animal giving in to its wound. Because after all this, no matter what it is you do, you’re just a cop, a man, a weakling. But I am, by no exaggeration, what you may call a king. What I have is real power. You got a few guys to be scared of you and I applaud that. But that’s not real. Me? I don’t know fear. I don’t feel it. I know power. This city lives and breathes because I make it so. That’s power. Those men you killed? I owned them.”

  The man was a narcissist. Power-crazed. Obsessive. Manic. Yet I was small in light of his great shadow.

  “You think because you killed a couple of leaders around here that everything - everything I built - would just collapse at your feet? Alright, I’ll level with you. I’m an honest man. I’ll give you your deserved credit. You’ve certainly spread your venom, and undeniably destroyed a great many things for us which took years to build. There’s no doubt about it; it will take a long, long time for me to recover what I’ve lost.

  “But you see that’s time that I have. You don’t. We’ll come back stronger, Jack Mercer. You won’t bury us because of a few bodies. There’s always men out there who are eager to step up and make something more of themselves. I’ll learn from these mistakes, and there have been many of those. But you won’t be alive to see it all happen. And that is how your story of revenge comes to an end.”

  He spoke intelligently. He spoke with complete confidence; as though he was a level above everyone else. He nodded at one of his men, and I felt a rope being tied to my ankle. I knew what it was. I wasn’t going to give Cornero what he wanted. He was mocking me, eager to watch me suffer and to end my life. I was in pain from the beating I’d endured, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of showing it. The pain made me feel alive, as though I still had something within me left to feel. I held onto it. I remained awake. The cold wind numbed my face and body, giving me just the slightest bit of reprieve, but I looked to the rain. The earth itself was mourning for me; for my sorrow. I glanced behind me and took in the violent waters below. The torrent lapped at the legs of the bridge, and the blackness revealed a bottomless hunger. I wondered then how it would feel to drown. I decided that it would be agony. That the weight attached to my foot, anchoring me down, would only drive me to madness before the relief of death came. Moments before the end, death would seem a kindness.

  “Are you not going to share words with me, Mercer, after everything we’ve been through?” Cornero asked, looking at me as though he was waiting for me to answer him.

  I glared at him as the beast continued to fight.

  “Do you confess to murdering my wife?” I asked. My voice was dead.

  He shrugged.

  “Maybe, maybe not. You’re not going to know. People die - it’s what they do. And so many of them die around this place, so how do you expect me to remember one single woman?”

  “Don’t fuck with me!” I growled.

  He smiled, “After you murdered my men? It’s the least I can do.”

  “It doesn’t look like you care too much.”

  His expression became cruel in an instant, and his voice like fire.

  “Don’t mistake my demeanour for apathy. The difference between you and me, Mercer, is that I don’t break. I feel my losses, but they do not control me. You did what you did, as did I. And here we are.”

  In the seconds of silence, while Cornero watched me, enjoying his victory, I chose not to lie to myself. I was afraid to die. Not of death itself, but of simply not existing anymore. I was afraid of leaving the world without reaching my conclusion in it, without avenging my family; without finding Jess. My mind began to understand what I faced. It began to understand that I was going to die. I started to feel sick. I couldn’t breathe anymore. I no longer had a grip on reality. I was now trying to escape my fate with the sheer power of my will. My mind went to dark places. I became numb. I was already dead.

  There was only one thing still eating away at the back of my mind. It was as though there was a ghost behind me carefully sticking a sharp needle into my brain, torturing me enough to remember my humanity. It was my daughter. It was Jess. That one phone call. I couldn’t possibly get it out of my mind. I couldn’t accept that I was done - that in moments I was going to die. It felt surreal. Like I was just going to wake up tomorrow and still be in pain. I was so close. But now Jess would never know what I had done to find her. She’d never know that I had fought every single day to look for her. She’d grow up without her parents. I wanted to weep. But the beast refused to let me show weakness to Cornero. It only called out for his blood.

  “Jack.”

  I looked up. Cornero stepped closer towards me.

  “Do you know the story of Icarus?”

  “Vaguely,” I lied. If I could keep him talking I still had a chance.

  “I thought you would. It’s from Greek mythology. The story goes that Icarus was the son of the remarkably talented craftsman Daedalus. The two of them, father and son, wanted to escape from the grand city of Crete and the evils that laid within. Daedalus used his skills to build two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers. One for himself, and one for his son. Together they were going to fly over the sea and leave that awful place behind forever.”

  Cornero took another step forward. He was still too far to reach. And my hands were ti
ed. But I wasn’t useless. I just needed him to get closer.

  “Now before they departed Daedalus gave his son just one instruction to follow. He warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun nor too close to the sea, but to follow his path of flight. All Icarus had to do was follow behind his father, and he’d be free. But he never listened to his father. After Daedalus took off Icarus was so overcome by the joy of flight that he went too far. He got in over his head. He soared through the sky; a heavenly calling. Now at first he was succeeding. No one could touch him up there in the clouds. His father had told him clearly, but he did not heed those warnings. He thought that he was in control. He thought he had what it took. He thought that he could overcome powers far greater than his own.

  “But as we know Icarus foolishly ascended too close to the sun, which caused the wax on his wings to begin melting. Moment by moment control started to slip away from him. Icarus kept on flapping his wings, caught up in his mission and how far he’d come. He didn’t even realise it, when all that wax was already gone, that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so Icarus plummeted down into the harsh waters below, where he drowned.”

  Cornero next’s step brought him within arm’s reach. I tensed. I readied myself. He gave me a once over. Then he nodded at his men. They both grabbed my shoulders and held me in place. My heart raced. I had to fight back. I wasn’t finished yet.

  “Would you like to venture a guess as to who you are in that story?”

  The beast writhed inside me pleading to take over. I couldn’t move.

  “You know, Mercer, others like the violence and the blood and the thrill of broken bones. But not me. It doesn’t give me pleasure to watch a man become pitiful and pathetic because of pain. There’s no satisfaction in that. We’re all men come nightfall. Put us through enough torture of our bodies and we all cry for our mothers, or some God. There’s no power in that. But what I do? It’s something more. I take the mind away. It requires no pain or blood, but it’s far more effective than both. When you’re down in those waters I’ll take everything from you, and I won’t even have to raise a hand. That’s because true despair, Jack Mercer, is in the mind’s struggle before death.”

  Cornero placed a hand onto my shoulder.

  “You had a good run, I’ll give you that. You got further than I ever thought you could. But it’s over now. You didn’t listen to the warnings. You got in over your head. You thought you were a greater force than us. And now you’ll pay for it.”

  My heartbeat was wild. My body failed. Darkness began to seep in.

  “You, my friend, flew too close to the sun.”

  Something within me, at my very core, snapped to pieces. The realisation that I was going to die before I found Jess manifested into something ugly. It was not rage, regret, guilt or sorrow that raced through my veins in the dying light. The beast was still dormant. It was something else entirely. It was something that I could not understand; something beyond me.

  I started laughing.

  Cornero stared. His men exchanged glances. Without cause or reason, I laughed and laughed and laughed. The men began to look afraid and uncertain. Cornero didn’t move. I was no longer Jack Mercer. I was no longer controlled by the beast.

  Something else took over.

  I stopped laughing. I smiled at Cornero.

  “I know about your boy.”

  I could see it in his eyes then. The fear of a father. I saw him, beneath all his power. I saw his weakness. There was a moment then where all was still, and only the rain could be heard. Then Cornero growled and lashed out with his leg, catching me in the chest. The men let go.

  I went over the edge of the bridge.

  I fell down into the black waters with blinding speed; the weight attached to my leg pulled me down faster. I crashed into the surface, went under and let out a wild torrent of air bubbles. I screamed into the darkness; suffocating and drowning. I fought for air. I could see the surface of the water just above me. I tried to reach it. The weight pulled me down. I didn’t have the strength. I went mad. I thrashed. I grabbed at the rope and tried to pull it off of my leg. It went tighter. Each second felt like a year in the great darkness. My chest burned. My body gave in. My struggle soon ended. The black abyss of the ocean was silent. For a moment there was a beauty in the stillness. Then the pain rose up to claim me. And all was empty, dark and cold.