Entrapment (Morelli Family 7.5)

Shaking with fear and pain, sweat oozes from his pores. I’m glad Adrian put down plastic before we threw this guy in the back. I was going to sit back here with him myself to make sure we made it to the warehouse without trouble, but the longer I’m around this guy, the less I want to be.

I wake up Alec instead. He jolts awake, a little disoriented.

“Go sit in the back with our cargo,” I tell him.

“What? Huh?” Scrubbing his hands down his face, he mutters, “Shit. What happened?”

“You’re drunk. It doesn’t matter. We could’ve taken down this asshole completely drunk and half asleep. Go sit with him.”

Alec does as I say and Adrian heads to the driver’s seat, smirking at me in the rearview mirror as he slides into the driver’s seat. “You sound almost disappointed.”

“Guy’s a fucking sad sack. There’s no sport in it.”

“We’re not supposed to be killing for sport,” Adrian reminds me. “We’re getting some justice for Mia since we can’t kill you.”

“I know, but he still could’ve made it more fun.”

Adrian rolls his eyes and shakes his head at me, firing up the engine.

A short time later, we arrive at the warehouse. Adrian walks ahead of us and lets Alec wrestle the big asshole into the warehouse. I could help, but I just watch. It’s kind of funny to watch Alec get pissed off at the guy.

We considered going traditional and sentencing this guy to Adrian’s chair, but I had more brutal ideas for his execution. Past Adrian’s office, for lack of better word, there’s a dank room with a cold, cement floor. It’s an empty room, by all appearances. There are a couple of chairs folded up and stacked in the corner. In the center of the room is a beam with columns reinforcing the structure. On that beam there are three meat hooks.

“Middle hook,” I say.

Adrian nods, grabbing more rope as Alec brings him over.

I’m pretty sure Leroy tries to say “no, no, please!” but I don’t speak muffled asshole, so I can’t be sure.

“Someone get the tape off this asshole so he can talk,” I direct.

Adrian nods toward the chairs. “Go get the step ladder.”

Alec goes to fetch that while Adrian grabs a box cutter and starts hacking the duct tape off Leroy’s face. The man yelps as Adrian misses and slices skin.

“Keep moving and I’m gonna keep missing,” Adrian states, simply.

Leroy goes still while Adrian cuts the rest of the tape off. Even though he’s wearing the leather gloves, my lips curls up in disgust as Adrian takes the sock out of his mouth.

Immediately, the man starts whining at me. His voice is like a fucking mosquito buzzing in my ear.

“Please. Please. I didn’t do nothing. Please.”

I nod slowly, taking a few leisurely steps back and forth in front of him. “If that were true, we wouldn’t be here, now would we?”

“What’d I do? What’d I do? I didn’t… I didn’t do nothing that should… I didn’t mess with any of your shit.”

I raise an eyebrow and glance at the little maggot. “So you do know who I am?”

He freezes, seeming to realize maybe that might be a bad thing to admit.

“I shouldn’t know who you are,” I tell him, continuing my slow pace. “You’re insignificant. You’re not worth my time. Hell, you’re not worth any of our time,” I add, indicating Alec and Adrian. “But you see, while I do a lot of heinous shit myself, there is one thing that bothers me on a personal level.” I stop pacing and squat down, feigning a sympathetic expression. “Just so happens, you pushed that button. And I have to tell you, if I’m judging you, you’ve really fucked up.”

Low and scared, his voice shaking, he asks, “What’d I do?”

“Do you remember Shelly Mitchell? You dated her a few years back.”

Frowning in confusion, he nods jerkily. “Yeah, I remember Shelly. I didn’t do nothing to Shelly.”

I nod slowly, as if considering this. “You have any kids, Leroy?”

He latches onto this with the desperation unique to a dying man. “Yes. I have a little girl. We’re very close—it’ll kill her to lose me.”

Hearing this man say he and his little girl are “very close” only serves to further sour my stomach. “Do you touch your daughter, Leroy?”

Beady eyes bulge and his bloated face quickly loses all its color.

I don’t wait for the answer. I don’t particularly care to hear it. He’s dead either way. “Because, strangest thing, you’re a grown man and Mia was 12 when you started dating her mom, but you know what I’ve heard, Leroy? I’ve heard you touched her.”

“M—Mia? This is about Mia?”

Loudly plopping the step ladder down beneath the meat hook, Alec smiles coldly. Leroy’s gaze jumps to Alec at the sound. Taking advantage of his attention, Alec tells him, “Mia’s dating our cousin. We’re all pretty close now. I guess you could say little Mia Mitchell… well, she’s basically part of the family.”