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My grip tightens and I give him a taste of a corkscrew twist.
“You brought about a hundred and ten men, all of them packing. You begrudge me a little hacksaw blade?”
I stand, quickly. I keep a solid hold on his balls. My head hardly clears his chest. His face stays calm, but beads of sweat, a shining arc of needle sized drops stand out around his hairline.
He asks me, “Where’s the blade?”
I smile. “Did I say that was all I was carrying? You came with a small army. A girl needs to be prepared.” I look hard into his eyes. Hie eyelids tremble.
“Now,” I ask him, reasonably. “Do you want a thick and heavy gush of blood all the way down the legs of your nice silk pants, or can we quickly reach a more civilized conclusion?”
“You won’t get away with this.”
“And you should freshen up your game. You’ve been watching clunky old movies. But when people say ‘You’ll never get away with this,’ don’t you ever notice that the other person pretty much always does end up getting away with it, whatever it is?”
“I’m telling you, Ms. Fortuna…”
“Do not disrespect me, Jerry. Do not do that again.”
I grip his balls harder
“You come here, to my town, where I run one of the top families. You go behind my back and start talking with my lieutenant. You don’t even contact me but you start some kind of negotiations about me, and without me.”
I pull down on his balls until his knees begin to bend.
“I grew up in the life, Jerry. I know how it works. We learned one thing above all and that is honor. Honor means respect.”
My fist closes tighter. “If you come to my town again, make it a point to show some to me.”
I sniff his French designer cologne. “A lot of great scents are made in Florence. you should try some.” After all his nonsense about tradition. “I will think about what you’ve said.”
I do have a hacksaw blade, it’s true, but if I have to use it, this will all go to shit faster than an all-in bet on an inside straight.
Two Ruger LCP Max automatics. I seriously hope that I don’t have to show them, much less fire. My guess is there’s at least one more man in here than I have rounds in the magazines. Even if I got out of this room intact, I wouldn’t have much more than a couple of blades to get past the battalions outside.
Daddy used to say, If you go ready for war, go ready enough to win.
My teeth clench.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Ineed your answer today,”
I want to smile and tell him that he can have it now, then give it to him in short and very plain words. Something memorable.
All my life I’ve tried to get control of my temper and it’s always been a fight.
My teacher, Mrs. Charbonne used to tell me that it was a power. An energy. That I could learn to channel it.
I never quite mastered that, but most of the time I can hold it back. Sometimes I can keep a lid on it for hours. Daddy said my temper was stronger than I was. “If you don’t get a hold of it, it will destroy you.”
Now would be a great moment to keep it down.
Keeping my breathing and my voice under control is about as much as I can manage right at this moment. I tell him, “I’ll give careful thought to all that you’ve said.”
He snarls. “I’m not accustomed to waiting.”
But I still have your balls in my hand. And I still have the blade. Damnit.
