Chapter 7: Two Truths and a Lie
1925 Words
Chapter 7
Two Truths and a Lie
Matteo
New York, United States - November 18th, 2020
I moved into the new apartment a week ago, per my father’s request. Aurora was scheduled to move in Marco in December, and to be honest, I am enjoying living by myself for the first time in my life.
It’s a two-bedroom, 120 square meter apartment on the 22nd floor, in one of the apartment buildings my dad’s company owns. It’s close to Wall Street, within walking distance to our office buildings. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, just like in our old apartment, but my bedroom has a much better view, and the bathroom as well.
Ariana had just left after her short visit to New York, and I keep thinking about the relief I felt when she finally got into the taxi to go to the airport.
I don’t know what she expects; we still haven’t had the talk about what we are. Sometimes I feel like she might bring it up, but she never does. Maybe she thinks me posting a photo of us from yesterday proves something, but I couldn’t care less about how my i********: comes off to the rest of the world.
New York, United States – November 25th, 2020
“That’s the guy.”
I look to where Luca is nodding his head.
“I have to go.” I say to Valentina before I end the call. I turn to Luca, switching back to Italian. “The guy who stole from us?”
I see him clearly now. He doesn’t look taller than me, so I could definitely rough him up once we get him somewhere more private.
Our last job for the week is to locate an American who has been working for our company since 2015, and who has also been embezzling money from us since 2017. He quit last year without giving a reason and has been really hard to find ever since.
We have been sent to a private auction as attendees, with the sole purpose of getting the guy to give us our money back.
He was dumb enough to put his real name on the list. That’s on him.
“Richard Kanaghan.” Luca states. “It’s him.”
I push myself off the bar. “Get the car ready.”
“You sure you can handle this?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, I’m sure.”
He grins, obviously enjoying the act of riling up my ego.
So far, he’s been the one who has taken care of business while I’ve been waiting in the back alleys of buildings, ready to drive off.
“Alright. But if you’re not there in five minutes, I’m coming back inside.”
“Just go, for f**k’s sake.”
His grin grows wider as he places his glass on the bar and heads towards the back exit.
The guy senses me walking over to him, because he turns his head when I’m a few steps away.
“Mr. Kanaghan, long time no see.” I say in English.
He looks confused. “Do I know you?”
The two women he’s talking to shoot me a curious glare.
“Don’t you remember me? We know each other from way back when. I work with your corporazione.”
The word in Italian is all he needs to hear before his face goes pale.
“Excuse me ladies. There’s an urgent matter I need to attend to.”
He’s practically shaking by the time we retreat into a private corner of the room.
“Who are you? Are you with the Italians?”
“I’m a mere employee.”
“Why are you here?”
“We want to talk to you.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. Leave me alone. I quit a year ago, and you have been bombarding me with calls.”
“Why didn’t you answer then, Richard?”
I place a hand above his head on the wall as I shift my weight to my feet. It shows that I’m relaxed, and that I’m bigger than him, so there’s no need to try and escape.
“Do you have something to hide?”
He licks his lips, and I notice beads of sweat forming on the sides of his forehead.
Sign of stress
“I have nothing to hide.” His voice breaks, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes.
I just can’t deal with weak grown ass men.
“We want to talk to you. Why don’t we go somewhere more private?”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re with them.”
I turn by back to the rest of the room as I pull out my gun and place my other hand on his shoulder. His eyes widen when I take another step forward so the gun presses against his stomach.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be. We just want to talk.”
He slowly nods before I turn him around, pressing the gun to his lower back.
“Now walk.”
We exit the building through the back, where Luca is already waiting in the car. I climb in the back after him and Luca takes off as soon as I close the door.
I keep the gun pointed at Richard as Luca speeds through the streets towards one of our houses.
“I know what you do to people like me.” Richard says, pulling at his collar.
I smirk. “People like you hm? Are you saying you did something?”
He shoots me a look. “I’m not saying anything. I’m just stating the truth.”
You catch Luca’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Enough with the talking.” Luca barks.
The sun is starting to set by the time he pulls the car in front of the two-story house. It’s empty but the basement is made from cement and equipped with soundproof walls, so it’s perfect for these types of situations.
Richard starts screaming as soon as we get out of the car, but Luca quickly reacts and knocks him over the head with his gun.
I catch his unconscious body in my arms and we struggle to carry him inside, then down the stairs.
He wakes up by the time he’s shackled to an iron chair and immediately goes into panic mode, pulling and thrashing as he tries to get loose.
“There’s no point in struggling, you’ll just tire yourself out.” I tell him.
Luca is looking through the table of instruments used for torture while I sit in one of the chairs facing Richard.
“Why am I here?”
I roll my eyes. “You know playing dumb will only make it harder for you.”
Luca nods as he picks out a screwdriver. He’s the one who takes it onto himself to torture the truth out of the people we bring down here, and I’m okay with that.
“You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, Matteo. Let Luca get his hands dirty. But always be the one in control of the situation.”
“What are you going to do? Pick out his eyes?” I joke.
He smirks. “There’s an idea. I was thinking something more like stick it into him and see where it hurts most.”
Richard tries to pull at his shackles once again, obviously freaked out by the idea of being stabbed with a screwdriver.
Luca and I both know we’re not going to kill him; we’re just going to scare him enough to tell us why he stole money from the company and then give him a few days to get the money together.
I watch Luca step towards Richard. “Now, Richard, how much money did you steal?”
“I didn’t steal anything from anyoooooarrgh!” He screams as soon as Luca stabs him in his thigh.
I c**k my head. “The more you deny it the more it’s going to hurt.”
Luca pulls the screwdriver out, and I can see the material of his black pants turning even darker from the blood.
“I’ll ask you again, how much did you steal?”
Richard shakes his head. “Please, I didn’t steal anything.”
Luca stabs him again in the other leg, which causes Richard to yell even louder than last time.
“We have you dead to rights.” I chime in as I stand up from my seat. “Every time money mysteriously disappeared, you were on the camera using your computer.”
“That-“
“And before you say it doesn’t prove anything, we tracked the IP address the transfers were made from. Into your shell account. Which we also tracked.”
There’s a look of defeat on his face before he drops his head. “I’m sorry.”
Luca removes the screwdriver from his leg. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”
“You’re smart though. You always took out just enough for it not to be flagged by our servers. But over the years, it adds up.” I pull out a cigarette from my pack. “You embezzled a total of 500.000 dollars over two and a half years. Weren’t we paying you enough, Richard? You could’ve asked for a raise if you were struggling.”
“I did ask for a raise in 2016. My daughter has cancer, and we didn’t have enough money for the proper treatment.”
Don’t f*****g care. Do not. f*****g. Care.
“The moment you let yourself feel compassion for those who do us wrong is the moment they’ll take advantage.”
“There’s no place for weak people in our business, Matteo.”
I try to think of my father’s words when I start to feel sorry for Richard.
“My wife couldn’t work because she was pregnant, and I just…I just didn’t think it through, I’m sorry.”
He’s crying now, and I look away. If I let myself think too much, I’ll end up understanding why he did what he did. I’ll end up caring.
“Our job is not to understand why people do what they do. Our job is to make sure they understand the consequences of their own actions.”
“Well, today’s your lucky day.” Luca’s words pull me out of my head and back to reality. “Because we’ll give you a week to get the money you owe us.”
“What happens if I don’t?”
Luca c***s his head. “I don’t think you want to find out.”
Richard cries even harder now, but all the previous hate I felt for him being is gone.
I look away. “Uncuff him and let him go.”
Luca does as I tell him, and Richard doesn’t wait a second before he rushes to the door.
“You know what will happen to your family if you even think about going to the police, right?” Luca yells after him, which makes him stop in his tracks by the door. He doesn’t turn around. Luca continues. “You have two beautiful daughters and a wife. I’m sure keeping them alive is more important than anything in the world.”
Richard turns his head. “People like you are going to get what you deserve sooner or later.”
“Happy Thanksgiving.” Luca smirks. “Say hi to your wife for me.”
- Writer
