Hooked

told you.”
    “I tried. They wouldn’t believe me. They think you’ll be true to your word and get them out of the country.”
    Mario laughed. “They’re perfect, aren’t they?” He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “I gave these up years ago.” He lit up. “Doesn’t matter now.” He dragged fully, exhaling curls of smoke through his nose and mouth. “Might as well enjoy the time I have left.”
    “After all these years, Mario. Is this the way it’s going to end?”
    “I’m afraid so, my dear.”
    “Why? You’re sick. You’ll never live to go to jail. What difference will it make if you let me go?”
    “You think it’s only about me, Tawny? Do you know how many others are involved? Chicago , L.A. , Boston , Vegas, Miami . This is a network, and Rick was embezzling from all of them. He was very smart, had it all on disks. If I hadn’t figured out what he was doing, he’d have gotten away with it. Unfortunately, you’re smart too. You figured out there was more.
    “Cooper will say I contracted those two yokels to take care of Rick because he was fucking around on my wife’s niece. That’s acceptable, and I won’t be around to refute it. But if you talk, my associates will come after my sons and their families, because that’s what they do. I couldn’t let that happen.”
    “So how do you know you can trust the next guy?”
    “When you make an example of someone, it ensures his successor won’t be so stupid. I needed someone who knew what to look for. I’ve groomed my replacement. He knows everything. He also knows it can’t get out or there’ll be a bloodbath. It’s like a new administration in Washington coming in and erasing everything the old administration did. You see my predicament? You’re a loose end. A lovely one, to be sure, but I can’t let you unravel my life’s work.” He put his hand on her shoulders. “Now, enough talking. I’m very tired, and I need to knot the threads. Come on.”
    He shuffled to his right and picked up a coil of electrical cord, then opened the door and spoke to Reggie. “Take her upstairs and tie her to the radiator so she can’t run away from you again. Third floor, like I told you.” He thrust the cord at Reggie. “Use this.”
    Reggie took the cord, swung Tawny around, and pushed her toward the stairs. “You don’t have to do this, Mario,” she pleaded over her shoulder.
    “I’m afraid I do, my dear. Sorry.”
    She saw Mario clutch at his stomach as if he had a sudden pain.
    Breathing hard, he said, “I can’t tell you how it breaks my heart.” He stooped down, his wasted face grimacing, picked up another fluorescent lantern, and looped the handle over his arm. He lifted a discarded two-by-four from a pile and used it as a cane to steady himself before following them up the stairs, one at a time.
    Jamming her big toe on one of the steps, Tawny cried out, but Reggie paid no attention and pushed her harder. When they got to the room, Reggie shoved her onto the floor. Her already painful shoulder shot burning daggers through her, and she cried out.
    “Don’t stand there, Colin, hold her down while I unwind this cord,” Reggie said.
    Colin, used to giving the orders, mumbled under his breath and sat on Tawny to keep her from wriggling out of his grasp. She fought Reggie as he wrapped her ankles first, then encircled her legs, lifting her until he reached her waist, where he threaded the coil through the radiator pipes, out again, around her arms, and up to her shoulders. She couldn’t move, tied and bound like a mummy.
    Mario entered the room and surveyed Reggie’s handiwork. “Good job,” he said, right before he drilled a Taser into the big man’s side, taking out his biggest problem first. Then he swung the two by four high into the air and down with all the force he could muster onto Colin’s head. Tawny couldn’t believe the sound. The body of the puny Cockney slammed into the floor, felled by one sickening blow, opening a gash on the back of his skull. He sank to the floor next to her in a heap, expelling a fatal-sounding last breath.
    Reggie jerked and twitched, making horrible noises resembling an animal caught in a trap. But seeing his lover sprawled bloody beside him, he marshaled his strength to rise like a leviathan out of the deep while emitting a low, raspy growl that gained force as he rose.
    Mario didn’t wait for him to get up off all fours. “Don’t look,” he