The Kill (11 page)

He bought exactly what he needed and stepped out with the weapon carefully hidden in his new jacket’s pocket.

Wait, when Rosina and I were here earlier, two men chased the bus and banged on the window. Maybe they’re still here?

He spun on his heels, a full circle, looking in every direction. He didn’t see anything untoward. No one watched him longer than normal. No one appeared to be stalking him.

How stupid, how stupid
, he chastised himself.
I walked out in the open. I could’ve been grabbed at any time.

He moved to the wall and stayed close to it as he continued along, watching the faces of all the travelers. He looked for anyone without luggage.

People from every culture ran by, heading in a myriad of directions, intent on making it back to their loved ones.

If only I could make it back to Rosina.

In thirty minutes, he had traversed the entire bottom floor of Termini Station without seeing anyone who resembled a mobster.

What the hell does a mobster look like anyway?

Toward the front, people stood in long lines buying train tickets. The roof was made of some kind of glass. Clouds rolled in, some gray, some darker.

Then he spotted one of the men from earlier, the slimmer of the two men who had chased the bus Rosina and he had taken to the airport. The man sat on the second floor at some kind of coffee shop, a cappuccino in his hand. Right above the ticket area was a railing and behind that were cafés and restaurants. The man sat all the way down at the end, at the last table.

Darwin immediately ducked his head, tightened his grip on his weapon and started for the side. He walked with purpose, but without making his hurried step too obvious. Within twenty seconds, he made it under the railing of the second floor and as far as he could tell, the mobster guy hadn’t seen him.

He skirted around and took the escalator to the second floor.

What am I doing? Greg told me to be cool. I’m supposed to be playing it safe.

Too late. He almost died on that highway and he wanted to send a message to the boss man that he wouldn’t be intimidated.

The motherfucking FBI is on my side and one phone call brought them running
.

The Fuccini family will always remember Darwin Athios Kostas.

He slowed as he neared the corner of the cafeteria-style café. The man still sat there, looking down over the railing, his attention on the lines at the ticket booths.

Darwin edged out and walked briskly up to his table. He made to walk past in case the man looked up, but he didn’t, so Darwin turned and stood for a second directly behind him.

He waited. His hand shook the weapon as he gripped it in a sweaty palm.

What am I doing? This is stupid. These guys are trained killers. How am I going to intimidate him
?

This was the only way. Act insane and be insane. Insanity meant unpredictability.

He lunged forward, placed his weapon against the man’s throat and leaned down next to his ear.

“Move a
fucking
inch, and the next time you move any muscle will be convulsions from the lead poisoning in your neck.”

He surprised himself. His own voice scared him. He had no idea where it came from. On the word
fucking
, spittle flew from his mouth. It felt good, liberating. That kind of madness and control at the same time gave him something of a rush.

To his credit, the man didn’t budge. Darwin felt the guy shudder a little.

“Now, I’m going to sit down behind you and we’re going to talk. You will not turn around. You will not look at me or I will kill you and shove your corpse over the railing. Then I will nonchalantly walk downstairs and catch a train to wherever. Are we clear?”

The man nodded in a rapid flourish, like he was in a mad hurry.

Darwin eased back, pulled his weapon away from the man’s neck, and sat on the chair behind the mobster. The man didn’t budge. He just kept staring straight ahead.

Darwin glanced down at the weapon in his hand and almost laughed. A thick pencil, unsharpened. He couldn’t carry a sharp one. Never could in school, couldn’t now.

Lead poisoning. That’s rich.

A chuckle slipped out after all.

Shit.

He looked up. The man hadn’t moved.

Darwin set his teeth together and spoke through them. “Put your arms up on the railing. Your hands must stay in my view at all times or I will cut them off.”

The man lifted both arms up.

“Good. Now tell your boss that we have to make an arrangement. He cannot hunt me down forever and I will not be hunted like an animal. This has to stop.”

“Can I speak?” the man asked.

“Yes, but first, tell me your name.”

“Paul, my name’s Paul.”

“Okay, Paul …” he almost said
nice to meet you
.

Shit. Stupid Canadian kindness. I’m talking to a guy who wants me dead. It’d do me well to remember that.

“Go ahead. Fucking talk.”

“I don’t think the boss will walk away from this.”

“Why’s that?” Darwin asked, his teeth still clenched tight.

“Two of his best men are dead. They’ve got tags on their toes after what you did to them out on the highway.”

Darwin was shocked.
They already know about that
?

“Go on,” he said, mostly because he had no idea what else to say.

“My partner and I were leaving after we missed you on the bus.”

Darwin leaned forward and smacked the back of the guy’s head. “That’s for scaring my wife.” He needed to stay in a position of power. These kind of men responded to that. Even though he was shitting on the inside.

He snuck a glance left and right. No one walked toward them. Their little meeting hadn’t gotten anyone’s attention.

“Sorry about that, man. I was just doing my job. Anyway, my partner and I were leaving. He got on a train and left, that’s why he’s not here. I take a bus, but thought I’d get something to eat and hang out. Well, I got the call to stay here and watch for you after what you did. I couldn’t believe it.”

“What do you mean,
I did
?”

“No one ever lays Big John down. Never. But I was told you chewed the driver’s ear off and snapped Big John’s neck, flipped the van and walked away. All that with handcuffs on? Man, you one crazy dude. Everybody’s fucked up about it. The word on the street is Big John is dead and some crazy Canadian white boy has gone insane.”

Suddenly everything came clear. The men were brought back in to watch the train station in case he returned. They figured him for being a crazy rabid fuck, so Paul took a position upstairs to watch the ticket line in case he saw Darwin.

They were afraid of him. Paul wasn’t challenging him at all. The shudder Darwin felt earlier was Paul quaking in fear.

He had them. Now he had to keep them there. It was the only way.

“That’s right, I am insane and I’m pissed off. Killing Vincenzo was an accident. Maybe Fuccini wanted me to apologize in person.” He leaned forward and made the rest of his words as intense as he could. “But then the asshole threw me down and put handcuffs on me. I couldn’t believe it. The van pulled onto the highway and Big John pulled a knife out of his ankle. That was it. I went mad. I chewed the driver’s ear off and started in on Big John’s neck. I broke his neck with my fucking teeth. Did you hear that part? Big John’s neck was so severely broken that the skin was split right up the side?”

Paul nodded violently. Darwin could almost feel fear coming off the guy. At least he hoped he had him.

“Now I’m coming for Fuccini and anyone else who gets in my way because I’m a man with nothing to lose. You take away everything from a man and what does he have left? Nothing, that’s right. Now I’ve got nothing. So, until Fuccini backs off, I’m unstoppable.”

He stopped talking and reconsidered the last part.

Shit, that sounded so amateur.

“I’m sure if you go in and talk to him, he’ll consider letting Rosina go,” Paul said.

Now it was his turn to be stunned.
Rosina?
They had his wife? No way. He couldn’t believe it. He left her on that plane. He waited and watched. She hadn’t come out. No way. Impossible.

“Repeat what you just said, but don’t use her name.”

“They have your wife. Maybe you can set up some kind of exchange, maybe a deal?”

“I don’t believe you. I saw her get on that plane.”

The guy shook his head. He still looked out across the open expanse above the heads of ticket purchasers.

“No. They picked her up in a limousine and took her ten blocks from here to the boss’s office tower after she checked back into Hotel Luigi.”

“So you know where they’re holding my wife?”

Darwin thought he had this under control. Greg was coming tomorrow to help him sort it out. Rosina was supposed to be in Greece. He’d join her in a few days when everything was over. But now tomorrow would be too late. Greg wouldn’t make it in time.

Rosina needs me. It’s time to step this up. Time to be a man.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Okay, okay, take it easy.”

Paul reached inside his jacket.

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

“Easy does it,” Darwin whispered.

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

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

“Now, get up.”

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

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

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

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

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

“Move,” he instructed.

Paul started away from him, Darwin close behind.

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

Paul nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“May I help you?” the clerk asked.

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

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

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