Monarchy

Five

"You better start talking and you better do it quick." Venom laced my voice as I shoved the blooded man against the wall behind him. A groan left his lips as the force of his back hitting the wall did more damage than good.

My patience was running thin and knowing that Dante was the one we were up against I couldn't afford to waste anymore time or to fall behind. If I let this situation get out of control Lorenzo might show up to take over the work that his son had started.

If that happened there would be an all out war on the streets and that was the last thing I needed in my own City. Having just earned my title this was the part where I needed to defend it. My father had always told me the first decade was always the hardest when you ruled. This was when people would start to challenge you. Seeing what you were willing to sacrifice and what they could take from you. There was also the part that I had come into this power so young, it gave people even more of a reason to try and challenge my leadership.

I'd sooner be damned than let anyone think they can walk all over me.

I'll show them all who the King is and it sure as fuck wasn't going to be them.

Not now, not ever.

"I told you I don't know anything." The man's voice was straggled as he tried to catch his breath between the pain and my arm at his throat. Panic laced his features and for a moment I basked in the glory that I had caused that. This was the power that I had earned for being at the top and it wasn't something I was going to give away so easily.

"We've been through this before and you had lied to me." Putting more pressure on his throat I could see his face start to turn red and his hands scrapped against my forearm trying to release that pressure. "If you're lying to me for a second time I won't take so lightly to it. I don't give second chances easily and I sure as fuck don't give a third."

"I swear it's the truth." Blood dripped from the broken nose that he was now supporting curtesy of Zane who had found him first. "The Italian's haven't been at the docks since the last time you were here. I think he got wind that you were on to them down here, they probably moved their operation."

"And if I was to guess you were the one that told them?"

The man stopped struggling when he realized what I was talking about. His eyes flashed some kind of emotion that I couldn't make sense of but there was one thing that was clear. He was looking at me like he was staring death in the face.

He was, I was death and I had come to collect.

"I haven't told them anything." He all but screamed out adrenaline clearly getting the better of him as his body seemed to forget the situation it was in. "How stupid do you think I am to double cross you."

"You thought that you could get those shipments in for the Italian's under my nose, so if I was to guess you are pretty fucking stupid." With one arm still against his throat my other hand held my gun and slowly I raised it so that it was pressed against his stomach.

Then something unexpected happened, that panic that had once graced his features was gone. In replacement was now a man who was grinning through the blood that lined his face. He looked like someone who had just climbed through hell to grace my presences. For a moment I didn't know what to think, maybe the man had just officially lost the plot knowing that the end had finally come.

"I don't think my cousin would appreciate it to much if you of all people killed me." His voice was the calmest I had ever heard him speak. He was playing a game and it was a game I didn't see coming.

My blank look that I was an expert in never left my face and I never eased the pressure on his neck. Not once did I give away the fact that he had caught me off guard but that didn't stop my mind from racing but I didn't care. This man was fucking with me and I have had enough of this shit.