The Diamond Syndicate

“It’s some old bitch!” he yelled back over his shoulder.

“Well, bring her in here,” Diamond said with a smirk on her face, already knowing who the “old bitch” was.

Trey snatched Estelle by the arm, yanking her fragile bones into the office. “Get your old ass in here!”

“Well, well, well, lookie here, fellas. Hello, Estelle. What were you doing out there?” Diamond asked.

Estelle didn’t say a word. She just looked into Dr. Ricci’s eyes with sympathy.

“Estelle, why did you come?” Dr. Ricci wished she wasn’t there.

“I-I-I left my keys and I-I came back to get them,” she said in a nervous voice.

“Well, you shoulda got your keys and left. But, no, you had to be nosy. Well, now I’m gonna give you something to be nosy about. You’re just in time.” Diamond smiled a wicked smile.

Dr. Ricci stood. “Let her go, Diamond,” he demanded.

“Shut the fuck up!”

Trey lunged forward and punched the doctor square in the nose. Dr. Ricci fell back into his chair, blood running from his busted up nose. He began to see small specks of light in front of his eyes and moaned and blinked repeatedly, trying to focus.

“You leave him alone!” Estelle yelled.

Dante stopped Estelle from lunging at Trey, stepping in front of her with pleading eyes. He’d always thought Estelle was a nice woman and was trying to save her life. She had no idea what type of person Trey was.

Diamond removed a butcher knife from the big Louis Vuitton bag she carried. “Here.” She handed it to Dante.

Dr. Ricci held his nose as blood seeped through his fingers.

“Take care of him, because I don’t trust him now,” she told Dante.

“Why you got him using a knife? I got my nine,” Trey said, revealing the butt end of the gun in his waistband.

“Because that nine of yours is gonna make too much noise,” she told him.

Dante took the knife reluctantly and looked at it.

Dr. Ricci tried to stand, but he became light-headed and fell back into the chair.

Dante didn’t want to kill the doctor, but then he heard his mother’s voice in his head. “I gave up my life for you! I raised you by myself! You owe me!”

“You fucked up a good thing, Michael,” Diamond said. “What are you doing?” She realized Dante hadn’t moved from the spot he stood in. “I told you to kill him!”

Dante stood there staring at the knife. He couldn’t move. It wasn’t in his heart to be that way.

Diamond turned and stood directly in front of Dante. “You better do what the fuck I tell you to do, or I’ll kill you myself,” she growled.

Tired of standing by, with a gloved hand Trey snatched the knife out of Dante’s hand and then quickly plunged it into the doctor’s neck.

It seemed as if time stood still.

Trey pulled the blood-soaked knife out of the doctor’s neck, and blood immediately began to pour from the open wound. Dr. Ricci jerked around in his chair, holding his neck where he had been stabbed.

“Again!” Diamond barked.

Trey went into action like an attack dog reacting to a command from his master. He mechanically raised the knife high above his head and plunged it down into the flesh of the doctor. This time the razor-sharp knife dug deep into the doctor’s esophagus.

Gurgling sounds echoed in the office as the doctor began to choke on his own blood.