Deathless & Divided (The Chicago War #1) by Bethany-Kris Read Free Book Online Page B

talk about this again,” Joel said.
    Terrance pointed at his office door and said nothing.
    Damian turned to leave with the remaining men but stopped when his boss said, “Not you, Ghost.”
    It wouldn’t matter how many times someone called him that, Damian still didn’t like it. The damn nickname just reminded him of how forgettable he’d been as a kid and not the shit it referred to now in the present time.
    “Yeah, Boss?” Damian asked.
    Terrance waited for his office door to be closed, glaring at the last man who left with a glower: Joel. “Christ, he’s a problem waiting to happen that boy. I wish his father would have pulled his head out of his ass and joined the Outfit like I wanted him to. He would have made a good boss. Joel makes a damn good fool and nothing more.”
    Damian chose not to dignify that with a response. He figured Terrance wasn’t looking for one, anyway.
    “What did you need?” Damian asked.
    Terrance rapped his fingers down to the desk in a fast beat. “That boy he mentioned … James. Do you know who he is?”
    “Of him.”
    “Me, too. His father was a habitual gambler that got beat to death when he couldn’t pay his bookie repeatedly. Made the kid’s mother a young widow to four kids she barely managed to take care of. I don’t want that family’s mess anywhere near the Outfit.”
    Damian didn’t blink at that omission. “Interesting, but what does that got to do with me, Boss?”
    “Joel needs to understand he doesn’t get to make calls like this, you see. And his little show like he did tonight has been happening far too often lately. I don’t know what has gotten into him but I feel the need to remind him of just who is in charge and why. So, you’re going to do that for me.”
    Damian wasn’t sure he understood the job correctly. “You want me to teach Joel a lesson?”
    He couldn’t think of a single time in his career as a hitman for Terrance that he ever had to make a move on the boss’s close family or friends.
    “Of a sort,” Terrance mused. “If Joel wants to behave like a child, then I will punish him like one by taking away something that he wants. Clearly, he wants this man in with the Outfit, so that can’t happen. Make sure Joel understands that in a way that is permanent, Damian.”
    Yeah, Damian got it.
    James Poletti would need to go.
    “Joel won’t like that, I imagine,” Damian said.
    Terrance made a dismissive sound that came off as cold as his demand when he said, “I’ve let his nonsense go on long enough. It’s high time he begins to learn he is not the one man who runs this show, my boy. And it seems you now have a job to do, so why are you still standing there?”
    Damian didn’t know. “How do you want it done this time?”
    “Oh, make it easy on the kid, I suppose. It isn’t his fault, after all.”
    No, it certainly wasn’t. Damian didn’t feel much about the entire thing and he wasn’t all too surprised about the demand, either. This was who he was and a part of living the life he chose. The killing didn’t always have to be justified or even make a whole lot of sense, not when the boss made the call. Men like Damian didn’t get the option to refuse, not if they liked being alive.
    “You want a call when it’s done?”
    “No, I’ll be watching the news.”
    “All right, then.”
    “Thirty-k for this one, Damian,” Terrance said. “It will be transferred into the account when I first get word.”
    Thirty-k.
    That was the price of the man’s life.
    Damian probably could have argued the number with his boss and tried for something higher, especially since the man’s death was pointless and Damian didn’t usually go for that nonsense, but he didn’t. Obviously Terrance had his mind set on what he wanted and killing the Poletti man was it.
    “What about his mother’s family?” Damian asked.
    Terrance didn’t look like he gave much of a damn if his disinterested expression was any indication. “What about