“I know, cousin. I saw him when he thought no one was looking. He did it to all of us,” Cillian says.
“So you understand why I am doing this. I won’t allow him to belittle the next generation of soldiers.”
“I do. I have your back.”
“Bring him to me.”
“Done,” he says, leaving my office.
This really is my domain now; I better start acting like it. I am going through the bankroller’s notes from last month when the door to the office slams open, hitting the wall of shelves behind it. I resist the urge to pick up my Glock off of my desk and empty the clip into him.
“You wanted to see me?” Colin sneers. This motherfucker isn’t long for this world. I’ve had enough. No wonder all of his wives have left him. There were five, maybe six of them who wised up before he sired any children. I shudder to imagine this man as a father.
“I did.”
“Well?” he asks impatiently.
“I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, Colin, but you make everything so difficult.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Don’t you? You haven’t really warmed up to the idea of me being in charge, have you?”
“I won’t lie, Sean. You have no business running this family. You can’t handle it. You’ll run it into the ground, getting us all killed in the process.”
“I have no intention of doing that, Colin. Just you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re out.” The words can only mean one thing. You are only out of the O’Brien Syndicate by death.
“Wait! I can warm up to the idea.”
“Too late. You never really stood a chance. You must not have thought that one day I would be in charge. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have treated me like you did.”
“I was just trying to toughen you up,” he pleads.
“Well, it worked,” I say, picking up my gun. I take the safety off and cock it. Send my regards to my father and uncle.” My icy demeanor hasn’t failed me yet. I don’t even flinch as I shoot him right between his eyes. The look of surprise in them makes me happy. So happy. I think I might like being the boss. The O’Brien Syndicate is very much run like a business. I don’t have time for people who are out to get me.
“Are you alright, sir?” my secretary, Doris, asks, coming into my office. She steps over Colin’s body like it’s just another day at the office.
“Right as rain. Doris, be a dear and get the cleaners up here.”
“You got it, boss,” she says, leaving the room the way she came.
Things are going to change around here; that’s all there is to it. If anyone else has a problem with it, they’ll end up just like Colin.
Maybe I do need a vacation, instead, I get into my car and head over to hole in the wall coffee shop I found by accident three weeks ago, before my life was upended. In here, I don’t have anything to do anything. I can watch the counter girl as she moves around making coffees and plating pastries. I don’t even know her name, but I’ve been watching her, following her, waiting for the moment I can take her and make her mine. Being the boss has to be good for something besides death.
TWO
LORIELLE
“Next!” I shout from behind the cash register at my ultra-glamorous job at Beans & Breakfast. It’s a little coffee and pastry shop located at the corner of Market and Jefferson. It’s the only place that would hire with no experience. I graduated from high school early two years ago, thinking I was going to go to Harvard, only to find out that I couldn’t afford it. The scholarships I earned only covered tuition. Everything else would have been more money per semester than I could afford. Now that I’m eighteen, it looks like I haven’t done shit since high school. I’ve been working under the table, but I will never earn enough. I can’t ask my parents; they both work dead-end jobs to pay for food and rent in our tiny two-bed, one-bath apartment. I share a room with my little sister, Lacey, but I am afraid I can no longer burden my parents. My parents came to this country from one of the worst neighborhoods in Belgium, twenty years ago. They came with little more than the clothes on their backs and five hundred euros. They’ve worked every day to care for my sister and me and they have nothing to show for it. I wanted to change that. I wanted to become a rich lawyer and take care of them. I don’t want them to worry about a damn thing, but this whole thing has soured me. I gave my parents the little bit I managed to save up. A little over three thousand dollars in two years. At that rate, I’d be here for fifteen years trying to make enough money. I thought that good grades and hard work would be enough. It wasn’t. So now, I’m working here where everything smells like cat pee coffee and burnt sugar. It makes me nauseous.