Page 16 of Under His Protection

“You’re coming with me, you prick,” I growled. As he doubled forward, clutching his neck as if desperately trying to force air down into his lungs, I took the opportunity to pat him down.

I found what I was looking for in seconds – the key card that operated the security door down and out of the air bridge.

“Time to go,” I said, swiping the card into the locking mechanism. The door beeped green, and I shoved Don Lorenzo through at the precise moment the crowd of happy families on their way to the holiday of a lifetime in Thailand came bustling through towards the plane.

The door clicked shut behind me, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I might not be armed – but at least I had the Don.

And you know what they say: he who has the Mafia boss makes the rules.

I gripped Don Lorenzo by the neck, and he struggled desperately for breath. I held him just tightly enough that he wouldn’t be able to find the energy to fight me – but not too tightly to kill him.

At least, I didn’t think. But it’s not like I put much thought into it. I was beyond caring.

An evil thought entered my mind.

“Hey, piggy,” I grinned. “I’ve got an idea…”

I unbuckled my belt, made it into a nose and put it around his neck – as though he were a dog wearing a collar and a lead.

I pointed down the stairwell that led down to the concrete. “I bet I’m right in thinking,” I growled half an inch from his ear. “That you and your goons paid off the ground stuff in this zone. It’s going to be nice and quiet out there, isn’t it? Quiet enough for me to strangle you to death without anyone noticing…”

I pushed him forward, and he stumbled down the stairwell – only held back by the leather around his neck. It took only a few seconds for us to make it to the concrete runway.

As the cool blast of air greeted my face as we stepped outside, and the roar of jet engines filled the night air, I heard a man say, “Boss?”

I pulled Don Lorenzo close into my body, pulling the leather nose tight in my palm. Lorenzo’s goons pointed their weapons at me.

Actually, only one did.

The other pansy ass bitch pointed his pistol at Jessica’s temple. Another surge of rage flooded like a tsunami inside me.

“Drop your weapons, assholes!” I yelled over the noise of jet engines. Lorenzo’s two goons glanced back and forth at each other – clearly with no idea what to do. They didn’t look like the sharpest tools.

“Jason,” Jessica whimpered, her lower lip trembling. “Leave me, I’ll be fine!”

“I’m going nowhere without you, Jess,” I promised. “You and me, we’re going to live a nice, friendly, gentle life on an island somewhere. Just like we talked about, you remember?”

“I remember,” Jessica replied, her voice little more fun.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch,” the goon on the right growled. “And you!” He said, jutting his ugly chin in my direction. “Let go of the boss or I’ll fill your hooker’s head with lead.”

“Now that,” I muttered, “was a really stupid thing to say…”

I saw the surge of rage come across Jessica’s face. She’d told me how angry she got when she had to listen to me call her a prostitute.

But this ugly prick saying it?

It was a recipe for disaster…

Jessica drove her elbow down low, into goon number one’s ball sack. He crumpled in an instant, falling to his knees.

“Oh shit,” I grunted.

; My body acted of its own accord. I flung the oxygen starved Don Lorenzo forward at the one remaining bodyguard, and the fat lump’s weight knocked into his goon, driving both of them down to the ground.

I took advantage of the momentary lapse in the bodyguard’s attention, taking a step forward and driving my shoe into his wrist. The bones crunched against the concrete, and the man let out a bloodcurdling squeal that was only just drowned out by the sound of jet engines. I pressed my full weight into the battered limb with all of the raging anger that was burning inside me.