“We just wanted to have a conversation,” I tell him casually. “There was no reason for all the drama.”
“What do you want?” he gasps, spitting out blood.
“Information. You’re on your way to an important meeting, am I right?”
“No,” he says, but he pales instantly. “I was… I was on my way to the hospital. My wife’s giving birth.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Congratulations to your wife then. Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t… Well, yes,” he says, deciding mid-sentence not to lie. “Kian O’Sullivan.”
“Correct. If you know my name, then you’re aware of my reputation. And I hate—I hate— liars. Do you want to know what I do to liars?”
He just stares at me with fast-receding hope.
“Are you a liar?”
“No.”
“Good,” I say with an amicable nod. “Let me ask you again then. You were on your way to a meeting?”
He trembles and gulps. “Yes.”
“Where?”
“I can’t give you that information,” he tells me as the bravado fails. “They’ll kill me.”
“But if you don’t tell me, I’ll kill you,” I point out. “And I’ll kill you much more violently.”
He shakes his head, looking from side to side as though he’s hoping a rescue party is going to bust in and save his ass.
“It’s too late anyway,” he says, stammering over his words. “I tipped them off that I was being followed. They’ll have dispersed by now.”
I grit my teeth, but I try not to let my anger show. “Okay. So there’s no meeting to get to,” I shrug. “But you do know who was going to be there, don’t you?”
“Y—yes.”
“Tell me.”
The man shakes his head, but he talks anyway. “Lombardi loyalists and… and…”
“Yes?” I coax, raising my gun a little higher to help loosen his tongue.
“Rokiades and his men.”
It’s exactly the news I was hoping not to hear. So the Greek fucker really has surfaced after all these years.
“Why now?” I ponder out loud.
“He wants his empire back.”
“Is that what he calls it?” I ask with amusement.
“He and the Lombardis are allied against a common enemy. You.”