“I can see you are upset.” I smiled; it was always amusing watching a rat run to a trap. “And I could also spend time explaining to you my reasoning, but I do not like your tone. When my children throw temper tantrums, I usually send them to their rooms. How about you go to your office and when you—”
“I am the goddamn mayor of Chicago! You will speak to me with respect!”
“No,” I said, casually throwing the file Mina had gave me onto the ground in front of him. “Do you know why the people elected me even knowing this was my first ‘job’ and that I had more money than I knew what to do with?”
Slowly he bent down to pick up the papers.
“It’s a simple reason really. Four out of the previous seven Illinois governors went to prison. Along with two U.S. Representatives, the former Secretary of State, and Attorney General, in total 79 elected official have gone to prison for depravity since 1972. Illinois has a long legacy of public corruption, all of them from men who look just like you, pretending to give a shit when you honestly don’t. Men like you who grew up taking it up the ass from everyone else and now want to fuck over anyone in sight. This city, this state is tired of men like you, which is why my pretty ass is sitting so comfortably in this chair. What is money to someone who is rich? What is power to someone who is already powerful? If you wanted to take me out you should have at least kept your nose clean Benjamin. Prostitutes and bribery? You weren’t even original.”
He clasped his hand over his mouth, just staring at the papers. I had to give him credit; if Mina hadn’t known where to look, he would have been able to keep it a secret.
“Oh no.” I shook a finger at him when he tried to take a seat across from me. “We aren’t going to have a civilized conversation now. You kept whipping your dick out to show me how much of a man you are. Go ahead. Prove to me why you are chief executive of the third-largest city in the country. I’ll wait.”
He stood there staring back at me for a moment before slowly getting onto his knees. It was a sorry sight.
His fists clenched. His jaw locked. “What…what do you want?”
“A lot of things…none of which you can give me, Ben.”
“My wife…my kids…if you do this…”
“I care as much about your wife and kids as you did while fucking that pretty nineteen-year-old with the perky breasts.”
“Governor—”
“Get out the fuck out of my office, Benjamin.”
Rising to his feet, he spat in front of my desk. “One day, all the shit you ram down people’s throats, all the bloody deals you make will come back to you tenfold. Then it will be you on your knees. I won’t be there to see it, but I’m going breathe easy knowing justice has been done.”
“Benjamin, even if the world was on fire and my skin was melting off my body, I would never be on my knees. Don’t mistake me for a bitch like you.”
When the door slammed as he exited, Bruce poked his head back in. When he saw my face, he said nothing, just closed the door.
Justice, he said? What he didn’t realize was the Callahan family was justice personified.
EIGHT
“In business, ruthlessness is righteousness.”
~ Justin K. McFarlane Beau
LIAM
He sat across from me, his face expressionless as I poured a shot of Green Spot Irish Whiskey into my coffee.
“Sir—”
The moment I held my hand up, he stopped speaking, allowing me to enjoy my afternoon coffee in silence. Like always, I dipped my pinky finger in it, stirring it around before sucking the coffee off my finger. Inhaling the scent as I brought to the cup to my lips, it tasted like liquid fire goin
g down my throat, and yet I couldn’t stop until I finished every drop.
Licking my lips, I sat the cup to the side, next to the salt and pepper shakers on the diner table, relaxed back into the booth, and focused back on the man in front of me. “You’re going to need to repeat what you just said one more time.”
He swallowed, licking his lips. “We got jacked sir…about ten pounds worth of product and ten large.”
“But you know who did it, right, Flannery?”
“They are nothing but a bunch of bone-headed kids. Viona’s boys. Right after leaving her I was going to see—”