Love Vs Murder

Chapter eight: Revenge in the Night

Michael took a hard drag from the Ashton cigar gifted to him by Pablo. He sat down on his brother's sofa and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. Felix was positioned on the couch across from him while Antonio stood with his hands in the pockets of his robe. The time on Antonio's wood-faced wall clock read 2:14 am. The three of them gathered together to have an open discussion about how to solve one of their problems; Lettie.

They tossed around ideas for a while; kidnapping, torturing, murdering in broad daylight, but Antonio declined all of them. Kidnapping and torturing Lettie would take lots of energy and would require space for them to keep him in. Murdering him in broad daylight was also out of the question. Since being followed by the crummy detectives earlier, he wouldn't be able to pull something like that off. There needed to be a simpler, doable way to get rid of Lettie.

"Alright, you call and you cancel and then reschedule for another day. Let him think it's all good. Dead of the night we show up and pop a couple in him. That's it." Felix said, reclining on the couch. Michael teetered his head from side to side at Felix's idea.

"Cancelling and rescheduling? I think it's too suspect. That's not something Murder would do. It still has to seem normal." Michael puffed smoke from the cigar planted between his fingers. "I say you go, give him the money. You leave. And then we wait a few hours, let his people go home, come back, and do what we gotta do." Michael pitched. Antonio listened carefully.

"He usually has security in the front, though. So, I'll go first, take care of him, and you take care of Lettie." Felix pointed to Michael.

"I like that." Antonio shook his finger. "Felix, you still got those silencers?" Antonio began to pace the floors with his hands behind his back.

"Yep, still got'em. Vests too, if we need them." Felix verified, slumped into the plush sofa. Antonio bobbed his head, knowing that Lettie would soon be gone.

"Yeah, we do. We need everything. Lettie is about to get exactly what the fuck he deserves." Antonio concluded the brief gathering, sending Michael and Felix on their way.

He went upstairs to his bedroom. He settled himself under his covers for a good night's rest, in preparation for the plan set in motion.

      Lettie's Place

Antonio stood in the library of Lettie's home with his shoulders squared, watching him unload the neat stacks of pale green bills from the stuffed backpack. The backpack rested on the arm of the paisley sofa, across from where Antonio planted himself. He kept his arms behind his back, closer to his pistol.

Lettie flipped through the single bundle of cash with his thumb, moving the money closer to his ear so he could hear the pitter-patter of the bills clapping together. He gave a wide-mouthed, spastic chuckle and began fanning himself with the money.

He reached back into the bag, pulling out more stacks of money until his hands were full. He sucked his teeth with his tongue and blurted out another odd chuckle. With a foolish ear-to-ear grin on his face, he looked up at Antonio.

"This is a million?" He replied, still grinning widely.

"It's all there," Antonio said plainly. Though he wanted to give Lettie an earful, he bit his tongue.

Lettie began tossing money back into the bag. He kept one wad of the cash glued between his fingers and waved it in Antonio's area. "You're not half bad," Lettie said. "Nice doing business with you." He played around.

As if he expected Antonio to escort himself out, he turned back to the money. Antonio shifted his jaw, standing in front of Lettie was getting to him. The same person that hated him for years was the reason that Manny, one of his most trusted workers, had to leave.