“Sorry, can’t do that, devil boy. However, I promise to leave once I have completed my assignment, and again, it is none of your concern.”
“But it is my concern when you’re running around my city unrestrained. Let’s not forget, I know things about your kind,” barked the high priest.
I picked up on the growing irritation in his voice. “Did your so-called daddy the devil tell you about me? Did he read you stories at night when he tucked you into bed?”
“You will show my master the respect he is due, for on that day it will be you and your God who will bow down to him for all to see. It will be Lucifer who will be victorious at the end of the age, and my followers and I will be right next to him when he is. I can’t wait to see the look on your smug face when he humbles you and your God before the world.”
“I guess we will just have to wait and see about that.”
“Yes, we will, and my master did tell me plenty about your kind. The mighty Wrath Walkers, God’s wrath incarnate, walking around on the earth killing those who displeased the ultra-sensitive prima donna Most High. Your red suit, albeit modern, is a dead giveaway to who you guys really are, since your Most High makes you wear that color everywhere you go.”
“Who said I was trying to conceal who I really am? I am not hidden under a cloak like you all are. I happen to like the color red. It suits me.” I straightened the arms of my sleeves.
A loud crash reverberated through the area as part of the roof collapsed in on the warehouse.
The high priest didn’t miss a beat. “Very funny, Wrath Walker, but if you don’t start taking me and my friends seriously, you’re in for a world of hurt. Do you understand? We are not weak and powerless, and we will do whatever is necessary to rid the world of your kind and help our master remake it in his image.”
“Duly noted, and might I say, best of luck to you on your future endeavor. I can most assuredly say that it started in failure and it will end in failure.”
“We’ll see about that when the day gets here. Now tell me, are you here by yourself or are your brothers walking around here as well?”
The prayers for his followers had become louder as confusion tried to creep into my mind. That confusion would leave me open to an attack. They were attempting to pray a curse over me, and I had to stop them before they proceeded any further. If they were successful in derailing me at that point, the entire city would be immediately destroyed, and I wasn’t about to let them get one over on me.
“Silence!” I launched a wave of my power from my being into his followers that prohibited them from talking and brought them to their knees. They reached for their mouths to get them to open, but I had sealed them shut. “See? You’re not all that powerful, high priest. We can talk now without the distraction of your followers’ mindless chanting. If you and your men try to attack me again, I vow that after I have completed my assignment, I will track you all down and end you myself!”
“Let us hope it won’t come to that, but that was a little dramatic, don’t you think? Anyway, are your brothers here or not? Yes or no?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” My tone returned to its normal cadence.
“Come now, nobody wants a war, Wrath Walker.”
“War is exactly why I am here. It was your boss who started this, and I was created to not only make war with my enemy, but to destroy Satan’s kingdom on the earth, which I gladly do brick by brick until the day comes when there is nothing left.”
“So, I take it your mission goes beyond just a few individual killings then. I will extend you the olive branch this one final time. Cease and desist all of your activities at once and leave my city and never return to it again.”
“I’ll pass. Your kind isn’t known for making peace, and you wouldn’t honor any deal anyway. You all are famous for going back on your word. Your master is the father of all lies and has been a liar from the beginning.”
An invisible wave of power flew from the high priest and crushed the metal air ducts around me like paper. “Apologize for your blasphemous words. You know not of what you speak.
“Wow. Good thing this warehouse is abandoned because you would need to pay for that. I will not apologize, and I absolutely know of what I speak.”
“Then you leave me no choice. I will be forced to take care of you myself, and in that day, you will wish you had taken me up on my offer. Do you understand me?”
“I promise you this, high priest, you saw how I silenced your followers by merely speaking a word. You are not all that you think you are, so I am going to find you and kill you before I leave this city. Ooops. I guess part of my mission just slipped out. Now, do you understand me?” I pulled a knife from my jacket as I marched toward him in hopes he would attack me so I could kill him right then and there.
“I eagerly look forward to our battle, Wrath Walker. You will regret this night, and all the words you have spoken here today. Have a good evening and enjoy what little time you have left before I send you to the fieriest pit of Hell for your insolence. Just thinking about how pleased Lucifer will be when he gets to torture you for all eternity brings a satisfied smile to my face. Goodbye for now, and please try not to burn any more of my city.”
As quickly as they appeared, the high priest and his warlocks were gone.
They possessed more power than I originally thought, and I would need to be a little more careful on the day of our inevitable confrontation. They must have done something truly great for Satan to have gifted mere mortals that kind of power.
But in the end, they would all suffer a fate worse than death if they died in their trespasses to God while in service to Satan. I sensed those individuals wouldn’t turn from their dark master, and I sensed that I would deal with all of them as soon as my business with Brandon had concluded.
I turned to face the warehouse fire that was close to being fully contained by the firefighters. It wouldn’t be long after they got in there that Frankie’s body would be discovered, but he had chosen his lot in life. The Amaras would be out for Brandon’s blood now, so I had to watch over him carefully.
He would undoubtedly bring the next person on my list to me like a moth to a flame.
Chapter Seventeen
Skeeter Amara
Secured Meeting Room
“ARE YOU SURE THAT’S exactly what they found?” I yelled into the receiver of my burner phone. The voice on the other end confirmed the findings before I slammed the flip-phone down and then snapped it in two and threw it as hard as I could into the wall across from me. I stormed into my highly secured meeting room and over to the bar to grab the bottle of my favorite whiskey. I poured myself a double shot and threw it back as fast as I could. I gulped down another with ease as Enzo entered the room and cautiously shut the door behind him as he observed my enraged state.
“Hey, Skeeter, I got here as soon as I could. What’s the matter? I saw a busted-up cell phone out there on the floor. Did someone try to bring a phone in here or something?”
I charged over and grabbed Enzo by his jacket. “Where have you been? I called you over an hour ago, or have you forgotten I’m the one who gives the orders around here?”
“Get your hands off me,” Enzo’s stern tone came back at me.
“Or what? What are you going to do about it? Are you going to raise your hand to the boss?”
“I would never do a thing like that, but still, get your hands off me.”
“So now you’re a big man giving me the orders.” I growled in his face. “You make me wait over an hour like I’m some kind of jerk and all you have to say to me is get your hands off me! Tell me where you were before I do to you what I did to that phone.”
“I was at my favorite girl’s place, Skeeter. She didn’t want me to leave after you called, so let’s just say she made a very convincing argument for me to stay if you catch my drift. But please know I meant no disrespect to you.”
“That’s the reason you made me wait, and all you have
to say to me is you mean no disrespect.” I pushed Enzo into the wall behind him. “I don’t care if you’re spending time with your own mother. The next time I tell you to be someplace, you better be there. If you’re ever even a minute late again because of her, I’ll see to it personally that she’s never seen again. You got me?”
I was fully prepared for Enzo to spring off that wall at me with everything he had, and a part of me wanted him to after the news I’d just received. God knew I wanted to hurt someone at that moment, but he did something I wasn’t prepared for him to do. Enzo raised his hands in a non-aggressive way which told me he wasn’t looking to fight. I figured I was the only one in the world who could have talked and pushed him around like that and get away with it without getting filleted for my troubles.
“You’re right, I’m sorry, Skeeter. I disrespected you, and it won’t happen again.”
“It better not,” I said as I returned to the bar and downed another shot. I motioned for Enzo to come over and poured him and myself a drink. That was my unofficial way of apologizing to Enzo for being a little over the top, but I had made an example so he or anyone else wouldn’t make a habit of it.
“Let’s sit at the table.” I grabbed my glass and the bottle and took a seat at the head of the table. Enzo carried his glass over and took his seat to my right.
“Thank you for the drink, boss.”
“You’re welcome.” I gulped down another shot of the smooth-tasting alcohol.
“Skeeter, I’m sorry again. You know I’ve always been loyal to you, tell me what’s got you so upset.”
“I know, you said that. Quit apologizing already.”
“You got it. I know you called me here for a reason, so what can I do for you?”
“Frankie.” I looked over at his open seat at the table.
“What about him? Where is he anyway? Has he dealt with our mutual problem yet? Or is he still trying to figure out how he’s going to remedy the situation?”
“He hasn’t taken care of that problem yet.”
“Why not? He was so hard up about going after Brandon that I thought he would have the thing taken care of by now. I bet you anything he’s going to call me now to help him do the job.”
“Frankie is not going to call you because he’s dead, Enzo. It was just confirmed to me on what’s left of that phone out there.”
Enzo’s eyes widened some, and he gave a quick frown and shook his head. He never did show much emotion since death was pretty much all the guy knew. He dealt it out so much over the years that I was sure he had become jaded to it all. He had killed a lot of people during his life, and many of them were friends at one time or another. But friends were a rare commodity in that business because it was usually your friends who would rat you out or stab you in the back to save themselves from jail time. The only real friends a person had in our line of work were a wad of bills in their pocket. But Enzo was a rare breed who never once tried to turn on me, and literally slit the throats of those who had before they had a snowball’s chance in Hell of doing anything to me.
“I’m sorry, Skeeter. Frankie was a good friend of ours, and a great earner too.”
“Yes, he was.” I rubbed my face and took a deep breath, and then poured us another drink. We raised our glasses to Frankie’s empty chair, and then downed the intoxicating liquid inside of them as we both sat in silence for a moment.
“I’m sorry about back there when you came in, Enzo, I shouldn’t have done that to you.”
“It’s okay, Skeeter, I shouldn’t have acted so disrespectful. Besides, it’s understandable since you had just received some extremely upsetting news, so your reaction to me is more than a little justified.”
“Thank you, Enzo.”
“May I ask how our friend came to be no longer with us?” Enzo asked as he placed his hands on the table and patiently waited for my response.
I was quiet for a moment as I turned over the story in my mind trying to find where to begin. I had lost two of my top guys in a week from a nut job who claimed a man in a red suit was doing it all. I had seen that sort of thing before, and it had all the signs of a man with an axe to grind but was too scared to take on the consequences for his actions.
“My informant in the police department told me a body, a very badly burned one at that, was found in an abandoned warehouse that had caught fire last night. When the fire was finally put out, they found a toasted corpse right in the middle of the place. Apparently, they were able to identify that it was Frankie by the ring he wore, and some other pieces of jewelry. He was murdered last night in that warehouse, and it’s partially my fault for sending him after that piece of trash by himself.”
“How do they know he was murdered? Frankie liked to conduct business in that sort of way. Is it possible he botched something while trying to set up the place? I’ve warned him on more than one occasion not to be so careless when handling combustible materials. He took way too many risks with that stuff.”
“Our friend in the police department said they found his charred-up body handcuffed to a pipe. They’re saying at first glance the fire appears to have started at the site where the body was located. So, you tell me if he was murdered or not.”
“Yeah. I’d say it sounds like it to me.”
“My apologies again, my temper gets the best of me sometimes.”
“Boss, please, it’s my turn to tell you to stop apologizing. Trust me, I get it,” Enzo said calmly as he poured us another drink.
“It’s just that we lost two great men in the same week, and now there’s going to be nothing but confusion in the streets. All their people that kicked money up to them for protection and everything else are going to do everything to not pay a thing because of how weak we look now. It’s going to take weeks to sort out all the turmoil, and many more people are probably going to end up dead from the show of strength that we are going to have to display. All the while this was perpetrated by a guy who was too stupid to see that he was being played by his partner the entire time they worked together. Now, all of a sudden, he turns into a hard-core highly skilled killing machine. It’s almost too crazy to believe, but here we are.”
“Do we know if Brandon was there?”
“I just told you Frankie was handcuffed to a pipe for crying out loud,” I said as my anger started to rise again.
“I only ask because we cannot take this man lightly. You saw how fired up Frankie got about going after Brandon, and now he’s dead.”
“What’s your point, Enzo?”
“My point is people tend to make mistakes when they’re emotional, and I know this because I have witnessed it firsthand in those I had to deal with in the past. Now, my pension for thoroughness has served me well for years and has kept me from becoming emotional and making mistakes that had lethal consequences.”
“Maybe I’ve had a little too much to drink, and I’m a little emotional myself, so what are you saying? Enough of this talking in this code crap. This is a highly secured listening-device-free room, so just talk freely already. We have a lot of work to do now.”
“I’m saying we can’t write off that there might really be a guy in a red suit helping Brandon commit these killings.”
I rolled my eyes at the mere thought that Brandon somehow became a tough guy. “What are you talking about? He snapped, okay? The guy has clearly lost his mind and has developed a death wish.”
“I don’t think so, Skeeter. I have seen men who have gone off the deep end before, and they are not this calculating. Their actions are sloppy and not well thought out. Sure, they may be able to kill one or two wise guys out of pure luck, but the murders we’ve seen this week have all the trappings of a man of an intelligent and meticulous nature.”
“Speak English, Enzo. Didn’t I just say cut the code crap?”
“What I’m saying is, Brandon really does have someone in a red suit helping him pull off these killings. Think about it for a moment, Skeeter, he was there when Ron was killed, right?
”
“Yeah and...” My patience thinned more and more by the second.
“Just give me a minute and let me explain. The police couldn’t get anything to stick to him, and they had to let him go. He was also there the day Joey died, supposedly warning him about what was coming. The police question him again, and at the end of the day, they still had nothing and had to let him go. Now Frankie is dead, and Brandon is still out there roaming the streets a free man. I don’t care how smart a guy is, no one is that good to kill three different people in a week, and still be out on the streets when we know the police have an eye on him.”
“Brandon used to be a detective. A very good one.”
“I haven’t forgotten that important piece of information, and you know that. Your informant in the police department told you they are keeping an eye on him, so he has to be getting help from someone in order to pull off these murders and stay out of jail.”
“Okay.” I sat back in my chair. “On that we agree. Who do you think is dumb enough to go against us and help him then?”
“I have a strong feeling it’s someone left over from the Riccis that we missed.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it? You said yourself Brandon used to be a really good detective, and who else would be able to track down any leftover Riccis to team up with to get back at us? We have given Brandon and every Ricci that might be left alive out there plenty of reasons to come after us. I figured Brandon is so desperate for revenge, he doesn’t care who he works with. I’ve been doing some research on Brandon, and the guy has lost all his friends over what we did to him. It was only a matter of time before he came at us like this, and to be honest, we should have killed him years ago.”
I laughed to myself at Enzo’s conspiracy theory. “That’s impossible. You, me, and the others who used to sit at this table were very thorough when we went after the Riccis.” I scoffed as I pulled a cigar from my inner jacket pocket. Enzo slid the ash tray over to me and cut the end of the cigar for me. I lit it and took three long puffs as my mind carefully reviewed all the ones in the Ricci family we killed in order to take control of the criminal underworld of the city. The Riccis had already been weakened over the years through bad deals they made, infighting in the family, and assassinations of their key people.
The Wrath Walker (The Wrath Series Book 1) Page 16
