Kiss The Ring

It was the sound of his wife singing in the shower that woke Frank, the sun now streaming through the windows. He checked his watch, nine thirty. Well he deserved a late morning once in a while and there were no missed calls so things must be under control He smiled, he might love her but fuck she just couldn’t sing.
As if on cue, his phone went. Settling back against the pillows Frank put it to his ear, expecting to hear Ray’s voice and not being disappointed.
“Job done, rather nicely too.”
“Good, details ?”
“One off a roof, about eight stories down with a nice blunt message burnt into him. I believe the other one got a bullet and was then nailed to the front door.”
Frank chuckled.
“Those boys are artists I’ll give them that.”
He looked up as Linda wandered by wrapped in a towel. She winked at him before disappearing into the huge walk in wardrobe. Frank reigned in some rather explicit thoughts and turned his attention back to Ray.
“Get them to drop by later so we can settle up. I’ll be down in half hour.”
Frank got up, noting that Gerard was missing and then wandered into the havoc that was his girl trying to decide what to wear. Leaning against the door, he spent a moment admiring her backside before commenting.
“Where’d the bitch go ?”
“You know Nancy has him doing that charity thing this morning.”
Frank grinned, fuck that boy was too submissive for his own good. He liked Gerard’s wife she was a woman after his own heart. He returned his attention to Linda.
“Plans for today honey ?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna go shoot the caterer. Little fucker can’t even get a simple lunch right.”
“Ok, sounds good to me.”
She turned back knowing he was teasing. He just smiled.
“Fuck off Iero.”
“What ?”
“You know what, go annoy someone else.”
Admitting defeat, Frank went and showered before heading back down to his office. A quick trip across town followed. Frank wanted to see the latest shipment for himself. You could never be sure of the quality of these things unless you saw them yourself. Not that they had entered the country legally, machine parts could look real odd these days and a large amount of money could guarantee an easy trip through customs.
He carried on arranging business with Ray by phone but made sure to have several off his boys along for the trip. You could never trust the fucking Russians, more than once he had been screwed over and it cost time, money and men to put it right. It was also irritating to the extreme. Frank checked the pistol snug in its holster under his arm.
There were no hitches, the deal was too big for anyone to mess about and Frank was happy with what they had brought him. One thing that bothered him was that the whole thing was a little too easy. There was something in it that smelt wrong.
“So Yuri, we done here ?”
The small man smiled and nodded. A brief phonecall had told him the money had gone through.
“We are sir. A pleasure as always.”
Frank nodded absently, now noticing a small red light. He motioned to one of his guys.
“What’s that ?”
The young man pulled out a crowbar, leavering the wood aside. There was an unconscious move backwards from most of those present at the look that now crossed Frank’s features.
“A fucking camera ? A fucking camera, you working for the feds now ?”
Instantly guns seemed to appear from all over. The Russians knew they were rumbled, the little plan to buy some credit with the US government now gone. There had been serious money on the table, obviously Iero was getting a little too close to achieving his objectives for some of the other big players. It had been a simple idea.
Frank raised a hand.
“Lets not do anything stupid. Whatever they are paying, I’ll double it.”
Yuri licked his lips.
“Triple.”
Frank smiled and extended his hand. Yuri shook it eagerly and then paled at the gun that was suddenly pressed against his head.
“Greedy little shit.”
There was no time for the other man to react, Frank pulled the trigger as the warehouse erupted into a roar of gunfire. It was over in less than a minute.
“Clear this shit up.”
Wiping the blood from his face, a frown crossing his face at the mess the whole incident had caused to his suit, Frank called Ray.
“Cancel that last payment. Might teach these fuckers a lesson not to get paid.”
“Issues ?”
“Yeah, get our boy in the FBI to sniff around. I wanna know who’s after us.”
Frank left the warehouse still more than a little pissed but slightly mollified at getting the guns for nothing. 100% profit on the next deal was worth a few bodies.
He arrived back home to find Mikey and James chatting with Ray. Linda was sitting in the corner, she had a problem with the two freelancers wandering around like they owned the place but was keeping her silence for now.
“Money is already in your account. Nicely done .”
Mikey smiled.
“A pleasure boss.”
Linda pouted.
“You have problems baby ?”
“Nothing we couldn’t sort. Who wants a drink ?”
Ray’s phone interrupted them. He answered still smiling but went very pale. Without a word, he passed the phone to Frank.
“Hello ?”
“Frank ?”
He frowned, recognising Nancy’s voice and that she was in tears.
“It’s me, what’ wrong ?”
“It’s Gerard, he’s been shot.”

Notes

Double whammy tonight so we can end on a cliffhanger...thanks for reading x