Bound By Love by L.D. Black
Prologue
Castien
asked as he came up to the side of me, matching my pace. “You have that look on your face.”
“I don’t have the look.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t.” I reiterated as I picked up my stride. The small warehouse was in the middle of nowhere, sitting on a few acres, and thankfully, no people were out here. To the average eye, it looked rundown and beat up if you were to come across it. The building looked as if we hadn’t used it for many years, but that was the way my brother and I liked it. Kept out unwanted people and intruders.
I made it to the entrance and gave myself a second. “You sure we got the right one?”
“I’m fucking sure,” my brother said with confidence, nodding his head. “This motherfucker was asking way too many questions, and you know me. I will cut a tongue quick, but he mentioned a few names I thought you would find interesting. So, I had him tailed and now here we are.”
“Here we are.” A slight breeze cut across the way, blowing strands of stray hair into my face. I ran a hand through it, pushing the strays back, making a muss of my hair, but not caring. My brother had a point. Most times he was quick to violence, but he held off on unaliving this guy. If this person had some names to drop, then I needed to hear them. “Alright, let’s do this.”
My brother slapped me on the back. “That’s what I’m talking about.” He wore a malicious grin on his face and if I was anyone else, I probably would have stepped back and got out of his way. Instead, I slowly grinned back. One of these days, these assholes were going to learn to not fuck with us.
I reached out, opened the steel door, and stepped inside the warehouse. The interior was a techie’s dream. Top of the line lighting systems, hidden motion detection cameras everywhere, high-tech keypads to get into any locked doors. And the best part was that the entire building was completely soundproof. A person could scream their last words and not a sound would be heard from outside of these walls.
Immediately inside was a security station where two of our men waited. They acknowledged us as we strolled in and then went back to their posts. We continued down the futuristic-looking hall until we reached a tinted glass door at the end. It opened on its own, allowing us entry. I hurried inside with my brother following tight on my heels.
I let everything that was weighing on my mind dissolve as the cold, hard mask of indifference came down over my face. To do what needed to be done, I had to be in the right frame of mind. Which sometimes was harder to get into than not. Especially when I had too much going on. Being able to switch between my business and personal personas was tiring of late. It wasn’t like me at all.
We both knew soon enough I would have to make a decision. One I wasn’t ready to make. Not yet. What people saw when it came to me was that I had everything. If they only knew what it took to get here to be in this moment. None of it was easy.
I didn’t have it all…
All the sacrifices and bloodshed I had to deal with. The pain. Soul deep darkness I couldn’t ever seem to get out of. It covered me like a heavy blanket and every day I sunk further into its cold embrace, while plastering a different face for various situations in my life. People always wanted to test me and my brother. They would never learn. No one ever wanted to cross me. Or my brother. We earned our scars and reputation the hard way and with reason.
Inside, behind the glass door, the room was dark with only one light. The solitary, flickering spotlight shone down on the man tied to the chair. Two more of my men stood on each side of our captive. The size of them, made the prisoner look extremely small. In no hurry, I took my time and observed the man while making my way to the center of the room where he was being held.
The prisoner was unconscious but not for long. His head hung low with his chin resting on his chest. He still had breath but for how long, I had yet to figure out. The man’s clothes were rumpled and disoriented. His arms were tattooed, and I recognized the syndicate affiliation marked all over his skin. Blood stained his shirt and pants.
“How long has he been out?”
“Not too long, boss,” Big Jon said from behind the prisoner. Big Jon was exactly what his name implied. A tall man with a bald head, hard brown eyes, and broad shoulders. A long scar marred his jawline on the left side of his face.
“Well, wake him up,” I ordered. Big Jon snapped his finger at someone else who was waiting in the darkness. The person brought a bucket of ice water and threw it on the prisoner’s face. He jumped hard in his seat, shouting as he awoke. His chair tittered side to side, making a creaking noise before settling. He shook his head, then slowly glanced around the room before his wandering gaze landed on me and my brother. Based on the sharp intake of breath he took, he recognized who I was at first glance.
Good. No introductions were needed.
I shoved my hands in my pocket and watched him as his eyes darted between me and my brother. I let the silence linger, and I knew it made the man even more nervous.
“From the way you looked at me, then him, I can accurately assume you know who we are.”
His head bobbed up and down. I let out a frustrated breath. “Use your words. I don’t have all evening for this shit. Right now, I have some hot pussy waiting for me in my bed and instead I’m here having to deal with your B.S. So, I am going to ask again, and you’re going to give me an answer. Using your words, of course.”
“Okay,” the man croaked out. “I know who you are.”
“Good. Now we can begin. What’s your name?”
“Marcellus.”
“Marcellus… what?”
The captive’s eyes darted to everyone in the room before he realized he had no other choice. I saw the moment the resolve left his fight. “Jacobson. Marcellus Jacobson.”
“Thank you. Wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
He shook his head. His knee bouncing hard. A nervous tick. “No.”
I chuckled. He learned quickly. “You’ve been seen hanging around places you shouldn’t have been hanging around, Marcellus. Why?”
“I swear… I didn’t know they were your places.”
“Mmm. Sure, you didn’t. Yet, the ink on your arms says otherwise, Marcellus.” I stepped closer to him so he could get a clearer view of me. “Tell you what. I’ll make a deal with you.”
“Anything,” he said way too fast.
“Hold on. You don’t even know what I’m going to say or offer.”
“Ss--sorry,” he stuttered.
“Don’t be sorry. You are anxious and I totally get it. A young man like you is bound to know a lot. Seen a lot. Probably got some pretty young things at home waiting on you. More than likely, they are probably wondering where you are right about now. So, excuse me if I am wrong, but I think you would say anything to get free. But you wouldn’t do that to us now, would you?”
“No, sir.”
I shook my head. “Don’t call me sir. That’s only allowed if you’re one of my special lady friends. And although you are tied up, you are not a lady.”
The chuckles from my men, including my brother, had the young man sweating hard.
“How long have you been with the Marconi Family?” Marcellus gulped. I knew I had him. He was a dead man, no matter what. If he talked, the Marconi’s would kill him. I was going to kill him if he didn’t talk. If he did talk, well, we’d see how good the information was. I may let him live. Wasn’t quite sure yet. Either way, he really didn’t have a choice.
“Five years,” he answered.
I watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed again. He was nervous and had every right to be.
I softened my voice. “Marcellus, if you tell us everything I want to know, then I’ll let you live.”
His eyes brightened at my words, and I could tell the wheels were turning in his head. He was trying to figure out if it was worth it. If he could possibly get out of here and get ghost because he knew his life was forfeit if he left here alive. The Marconi’s would search high and low for him.
“Okay. I’ll answer whatever you need to know.”
Proven wrong. I glanced at my brother, and he laughed to himself. Poor Marcellus really didn’t have any self-preservation instincts. He really didn’t think about what would happen if he left here. See, I knew for a fact that the Marconi’s had their grunts travel in groups. Marcellus was a high level grunt. There were others out there who probably saw him get picked up by my men. I was pretty damn sure the Marconi’s knew all about Mr. Jacobson. That was just the way they worked.
“Excellent. I hear you have got some news for us. Care to inform us about what you have to say?”
Marcellus sung like a bird. It turned out that he knew more than what he initially claimed and for that I was going to be nice. After he expunged everything he knew, someone handed me a blade. I checked the knife, then inched closer to him with it held up. His eyes bugged out of his head.
“Hey man… I told you everything you asked and wanted to know. You promised you were going to let me live.”
“Lift his shirt,” I ordered my men. They yanked his shirt up, exposing his chest to me. It was tattooed as well, but not as heavily as his arms. Didn’t matter, anyway. I got as close as I could to him and held the knife in my hand to the center of his chest. He continued to beg, but I was used to hearing others beg. I wasn’t one to easily be swayed. The tip of my blade touched his skin and I carved the letter E onto his chest. My knife went deep and parted his flesh like warm butter. His screams filled the warehouse and echoed back to us, but it didn’t faze me. I had a point to make. Blood oozed from where I cut and ran down his chest, adding color to his black and grey ink.
After I was done, I stood there and admired my work, then passed the blade off to whoever stood on my left. Marcellus cried like a newborn. He was a weakling.
“I said I was going to let you live, true, but I didn’t say how long I was going to let you live after I got what I needed.” My brother placed the loaded gun in my hand when I reached out to my right. I removed the safety and placed the barrel onto Marcellus’s temple. “And I always get what I need.”
The man pursued a last attempt to save himself, but it would do no good. I pulled the trigger. Marcellus Jacobson slumped and fell forward. I handed the gun back to my brother. “You all know what needs to be done. Take the trash out. Leave him on the doorsteps of the Marconi’s McMansion. Stay in the shadows. Handle this quietly.”
I turned back to my brother, and he looked at me with pride. “You did good, little brother. I almost forgot that underneath that three-piece business suit lives a cold-hearted, ruthless motherfucker.”
I laughed. “I learn from the best, brother.”
“That you did.”
“Hey, I’m going to head out. I do have a hot piece tied up at the penthouse.”
My brother shook his head with a knowing glint in his eyes. “I should have known you weren’t lying about a bitch being tied up.”
“I would never lie about hot pussy. Of all people, you should know that.”
“Another one of your subs?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way. They know what they’re getting into. No feelings involved and we both get pleasure.” He laughed as we embraced in a hug. “Call me tomorrow. Let me know the moment the Marconi’s get the message.”
“You know I will.”
I left the warehouse and got into my Aston Martin and burnt out of there. I knew a war was coming, but it wasn’t anything I or my brother couldn’t handle. The Marconi’s were going to pay for what they did to our family.