He had shit he wanted to do, and it wasn’t talking about girls and sex.
“What about Robin?”
“You’ve not been right since you discovered she’s pregnant with your kid.”
“I wonder why that is.”
“I’m not trying to be a dick about this,” Bear said. “Has she changed you?”
“No. I’m not talking about this shit with you. Don’t try to analyze me. I don’t like it.” He returned his attention to Milner. He slapped him on the stomach. “Do you feel like talking yet, or are we going to keep on pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about?”
“Fuck you!” Milner spat the word out.
Blood dripped from his mouth, and Preacher stepped out of the way so he didn’t get splattered.
Taking one of the knives off the tray, he held the tip up to the light, and drew it down in one slice across the man’s stomach.
It wasn’t deep enough to spill out his guts, just to cut the skin and cause no end of pain. He liked to hear the man’s screams.
“You shouldn’t have run from me, Milner.” He tutted. “You should know right now that I don’t like it when you do shit like this. It makes me so upset. What could you possibly have to hide from me?”
“Please, Preacher. I know you don’t want to do this.”
“But you see, here is the thing, I really, really do. I want to fucking kill you, and I think it’ll be a whole lot of fun. In fact…” He sliced him three more times, the screams getting louder and the blood dripping down.
“I had no choice. They want to put you in jail and throw away the key. They hate you. Please, don’t hurt me. I can’t take anymore.”
Preacher stood. “Your lies are boring me. You don’t have a fucking clue as to why O’Klaren is here, Milner. You see, unlike you, I know the truth. Your little gambling problem, it never really went away, and I discovered you lost big. This has nothing to do with O’Klaren or anyone else.”
Milner whimpered.
“You know what I discovered when I started to look into your finances, Milner?” Another whimper. “You need this job and can’t afford to go into retirement. O’Klaren taking this job, well, it has taken away your steady income and the only leverage you’ve got over your creditors.”
Milner let out a sob.
“You’ve lied to me about a lot of things, Milner. You see, I know all about your little problem. Gambling debts, and you thought you could use your connection to me at the club to help your problems. Throwing my name and my club’s name around to make people afraid. I bet it started out fun, didn’t it? You liked the power it gave you. You knew I’d come after you. There was only so much you could take before I got a call. Knowing there wouldn’t be a chance in fucking hell of you getting away from me. You’d still risk it?”
“I don’t want to die. Please, Preacher, I can give you what you want and need. I admit the gambling, it got out of hand, but I didn’t mean for it to. I had it under control. We’re friends. O’Klaren is an asshole. I can help you. I can give you all the information you need. I can be your informant.”
Preacher threw his head back. “You really think I’m going to help you out? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Can you believe this guy?” he asked, looking at his men, who were laughing.
He liked Milner, or at least he used to. Now, he was more of a liability than a friend.
“O’Klaren will use any means to get to you, Preacher. He’s got ways and knows how to find a weak link.”
He sighed. “Milner, O’Klaren isn’t the first person who has come after me. They’ve been doing this for years. You think I’m not used to having a snot check through my shit? I’d be offended if they didn’t.” He laughed. “You should have come to me, but you tried to trick me and I don’t like that.” Preacher slammed the tip of the blade into Milner’s eye.
The screams were deafening.
He’d lost interest now.
He wanted to get back home, check out his businesses. He didn’t doubt he had everything in the right place and was in control. Never had he left anything to chance.
Bored, he poured some gasoline onto Milner and set him alight.
Stepping back, he watched as the man screamed and thrashed around, trying to put out the flames.
It didn’t take too long for him to die, and when he had, Preacher gave Bear the order to bring in the cleaning crew.
Stepping out of the warehouse, he spotted Dog waiting for him.
“I want you to check out the offices and clubs. Make sure no one has been hired without my say-so within the past six months. I want a thorough background check on anyone who hasn’t had one.”