"........The O'deans......" Alonzo coughs out the answer along with some blood. 10 steps from the door and nobody's going to notice,

My left foot slowly shifts back as he finally gives up.

There's nobody by the door now, and the fellows outside wouldn't know what happened and.......

"10....maybe more......They got Knox's crew with them...."

Back then, before I met Vix and Vel, cleaner crews were like mythical creatures to me, never seen one, never met one, but heard all about them. And Knox's cleaning group was no joke, they specialize in good old-fashioned clean houses, precision and not leaving loose ends are what their services guarantee. I heard there were about seven maybe eight in that group.

What surprised me was their employers were the O'deans which is not a big name in Little Italy. If I remember correctly they occupy the far east of Little Italy, by the train station, business involves peddling, extortion, protection rackets, the usual.

They never got into any disputes with Nicola's crew and generally not much of note..... at least that was what I thought at the time.

The room went quiet as the idea of a group of reapers and gangsters waiting outside the building slowly sink in, Doubts and fear creeps up their and mine shoulders, slowly penetrating my skin and bones until it reaches my heart.

I take a deep breath and tried to ignore the feeling of deja vu.

Nicola scratch his ear with the empty hand as his eyes momentarily lost focus. Then he backhanded him with that hand, so hard that blood from his gums spilled out on the table. Not giving him the lecture of a break, Nicola presses down on his forehead.

Bending his neck to an unnatural degree as he presses the muzzle of his revolver on the front of his neck.

"And what was your use in this? What did they ask you to do? You cocksucking snake."

"They.....told me to get you all relaxed and drunk.....and when the timing is right.... I'll walk out from the back..... go home...... and leave the back door and the steel door unlocked...ahem." In the end, Alonzo starts coughing, blood from the wounds in his mouth are slowly dripping down his throat because of the way Nicola is pressing down on him.

"Why?" After a deep breath. Nicola asks.

The coughing became gurgles, the gurgles became..... it took me a while to realize he was laughing as his lips curl upward even in this situation. I take a step forward to see his eyes. Delirious, rage, fear, desperation, and contempt from the bottom of his soul which burns so strong it surpassed all the other emotions.

"You want to know why? Ahem...... you want to.... want to know why I agreed?..... You wanna know why? They offered me money, good money...... but I said no. And they threatened me with some bullshit evidence about that heist...... I said I don't care .... And then, they threaten to kill Jennice, I said let the bitch die I don't care either.... Holy shit.. you guys...." Alonzo's line of sight is jumping from one man to another, implying 'you guys'.

"Y'all should have seen their face! They were fucking speechless!...... Then I told him I'll do it if you fuckers promise me...... to cut you to little pieces." His eyes stop at Nicola. The fat man's chest stopped moving ups and down as a wild, primo rage consumed him. His face became a color so red, it looked purple. But Alonzo wasn't done yet.

"You were always one fucking joke away from killing one of us.....ahem. Fuck. Sometimes for no reason at all, being in your crew is like consecrating a loose canon. Ahem!" The laugh returns as he coughs out more blood.

"The mercenary gets it. Hey boy! you get it right? You were two fucking lines from getting skewered too, weren't you! Ahem, akem, aha. Ha!" His laughter grows more and more hysterical, eyes filled with a deep hatred and a genuine glee as it locks onto mine.

Strange. Of all the things that are happening. Those eyes are the most terrifying thing for me at the moment.

Five subjected perceived seconds later. Nicola, with his left hand still clutching Alonzo's forehead. Slam his head down on the table. A muffled thud, the sound of accidentally hitting a table leg or shutting the closet door too hard. Alonzo limps down on the floor as if all the bones in his body disappeared, with his hand by the edge of the table, head lowered, nape leaning against the table.

"Gotti, check the window, see if there's any van on the street, but don't spook them." Nicola's voice is like a booster, not intimidating, desperate, shaky, or reassuring. It's a direct order, a cold hard order, and it's exactly what they needed now.

A man in a brown blazer and hideous necktie nods as he walks towards the window with soft footsteps as if the guys outside could hear them. He stands with his back against the wall as he pulls the edge of the curtains, opening a small slit just enough for him to peek outside.

Standing five steps from him I can see his pupils expanded as he immediately let go of the curtain.

Gotti turns around and slowly nods at Nicola.

"Two cars. They just got out, but doesn't seem like they're in a rush..... 7 maybe 8 in total but I didn't see any O'deans. Just the cleaners." A guy next to Nicola takes a swig of someone's drink left on the table. Nicola stares at the curtains for a second.

"You and Angie go downstairs, warn everybody but keep it quiet. We don't want to scare our guests. Enzo, you take a minute with our pal Alonzo to see if he's still got something or still alive, and come to my office when you're done....." As Nicola's line of sight examines the room, issuing commands like a bloody general. His eyes and words stop when he sees me. For a moment, I'm pretty sure he thought of killing me but the moment passed, he simply announced.

"You. I'll give you 3 hun in cash for every cleaner or O'deans you kill. How's that?" I nod wordlessly. "The rest go check if the alley is clear and find those fuckers, now!"

As his crew gets in motion to follow their separate tasks, I do a rough observation of the situation. There are 7 men in this room not counting Alonzo and Nicola. Plus the ones I saw earlier on the hallway and ground floor in total are about 10 maybe more in this building.

Tommy grabs a bottle on his way out of the room, his other hand is trembling before he clenched it into a fist and takes a big swig of the bottle.

Angie and Gotti gave each other a look before they go downstairs with heavy steps.

Mo keeps mumbling something to a younger lad with similar jawlines and narrow ears like him.

Dino finished his drink, checks his smith&Wesson and walks out of the room before giving Alonzo a final look.

Nicola was the last one to leave.

The smell of burned iron and blood. Adrenaline can only do so much on dwindling the pain all over my body and the effects won't last long, but that's not any of my concern.......

The flash of memory, no not even memory. Just a familiar feeling I felt back then gone through my head, reminding me how it was about to end......

I clench my hand into a fist and keep clenching until my nails are biting into my palm. I shut my eyes for a second to clear my head. And starts thinking how am I going to get out of this? When I reopen my eyes and find Enzo still in the same position next to Alonzo, I was dumbfounded as I completely forgot about him.

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He is smoking while looking at Alonzo limping on the floor. Left hand on hip, right hand with a cig falls down next to his trouser's pocket. The left corner of his mouth twitched in an unnatural way. His blue eyes shine with a cold glint.

***

I walk past them to the window. Mimicking the movements of Gotti, I move the curtain aside just enough for the eye to peak. The visibility is pretty shit, but the unmarked black Van parked about 30 maybe 35 meters away across the road is unmistakably the cleaner's. Though I don't see the reapers themselves......

On the empty street, in the dark of night. A flash of spark flew across the pavement from the alleyway next to this building. Squinting my eyes and opening the curtain a bit more as I try to get a better look. A triangular shape small black object jut out the corner before quickly disappearing.

Was that.... the stock of a riffle?

A spark appears abruptly again, this time inside the alley. Instantly shines the corner of the street, next to this building.

Two seconds later, a face pokes out of the alleyway. A cigarette in his mouth, dull brown eyes, weather-beaten cheeks ruffled by scars and scribbled beard. The eyes survey the whole street while the man uses his left hand to take the cigarette out of his mouth letting out a puff.

As his motion shifts, I finally confirmed his identity, as the muzzle of a riffle peaks out the corner of the alleyway, 30 centimeters below his head.

As if the man has a sudden intuition, his head rises up as his eyes suddenly met mine at the second-floor window. I drag the curtain to conceal his view. My heart's pumping faster than a racehorse on crack. With my right hand still pressing down on the curtain as if the man is going to poke his face out the window if I don't, I tell myself to take a deep fucking breath.

And it didn't help at all, so I walk back to the cabinets behind the table where Alonzo who's still moaning like a sickening dog. And drag a half-empty whiskey bottle out of the back.

Enzo's looking at me across the room with a hint of laughter. I take a look at the bottle I find. 18 years, single malt. And decided not to throw it at his face. The guy's getting on my nerves for some reason, the way he talks. No, the way his eyes talk. The pressure on the back of my head and the occasional shiver down my spine just keep on giving me hint about how this guy is one nasty motherfucker.

Not bothering with a glass, I pull the cork out and take a quick swig from the bottle directly. It burns down my throat leaving a trace of smoky scent. My heart is still pumping as if it would help somehow, but the nerves are becoming quieter. At least quiet enough for me to think.

It's absurd how booze is the best anesthetic to put off all the useless voices in my head but also the constant reason why I got into trouble in the first place. (At the time, I haven't got my inhaler made yet)

My mind runs through the situation I'm in as my thumb brush through the words on the base of the bottle.

Right now, there are about eight maybe more cleaners in the alley next to us. And a squad of O'deans somewhere with possibly more men. The cleaners haven't breached yet probably because their employers haven't given the orders yet.

Bet the reapers are agitated outside, those killers could whip off the entire building by themselves.

As for the O'deans, they're possibly still waiting for Alonzo to open the back door.

A bloody stalemate.....for now. Sooner or later one side is going to act on their own. Knox, O'deans, Nicola. But unless that fat fuck ate four aces for dinner tonight or else he's as good as dead and I'm 95% certain the fellows outside wouldn't care if I'm affiliated to him or not.

I'm not interested in getting into a shootout with cleaners, outnumbered and outgunned, it's a death wish. Escaping seems like a possible solution, but there's no telling if they would shoot me at the doorstep. Which leaves me with one option.

I have to dispatch the cleaners first, but not with force. They might be the most dedicated freelancers in Faust, but none will be interested to put their life on the line when their employer can't pay them. But I have to make them believe it somehow, and if....

"You're going to doze off right now, chino?" A finger snap and a half-assed concerned tone from Enzo shattered my thoughts. I raise my head and find him standing exactly where he is, but the cig in his hand is now cinders on the ground. The calculated eyes shine brightly.

A shiver rushes down my spine again. Warning me to be careful.

"Shouldn't you be at Nicola's office right now?" I answered him dryly.

"I'm not done with my dear friend here yet." He said while his head tilted forward, from this direction it's hard to tell if he's referring to Alonzo or me.

"Getting sentimental? Half and I'll take the burden off your shoulder." A series of chuckles so hoarse and short came out his mouth as if he was coughing out the laughter.

"Putting a bullet in a half-dead worm's brain and getting paid. Is your job always so easy?"

"Not really, but it doesn't usually get this complicated either." Watching Enzo adjusts his blazer made me notices his left shoulder pad seem a bit too thick.

"Someone's trying to kill us. He's a snitch. What's so complicated here?"

Why the hell is he so casual?

"And what are you going to do about it?" I ask after taking another swig from the bottle again.

"Whatever I can. When I can." Enzo replied while extending his left arm in a lazy motion to check time..... an idea pops out of my mind.

The back door isn't connected to the alley of this building or the front door. It leads to a parallel street on the north. According to Gotti, Knox's group is all at the front which means they're separated from the O'deans. Suppose they initially planned to coordinate the cleaners and wait for the opening created by Alonzo.

The cleaners are waiting for the O'deans's order, the O'deans are waiting for the back door to open. But when? When is he supposed to open the door?

The cleaners are already at the front door, blocking any chance of me getting out from there. But the back....

I stride towards Alonzo with the whiskey bottle in my hand. For the first time, I see a sense of uneasiness wash over Enzo as his facial muscle twitched.

Alonzo is still limping there with his eyes half shut, an irrational smile hangs on his broken face. Blood drips down the corner of his mouth and nose, and half of his cheeks are painted red. I splash the liquor on his face. His eyes closed out of reflexes but after that, the fucker remains in the same state.

I crouch down next to him and pour the liquor directly into his mouth, on his bleeding wounds where his front teeth were.

His eyelids rolled up immediately as he let out an incoherent scream and spits out a brownish fluid made of whiskey, saliva, blood, and sputum along with his teeth.

"Fuck!" If it weren't for the situation I would probably laugh since the 'F' is almost silent cause of him missing a few teeth.

"May I have your attention, please? What did you mean when you said 'when the time is right'? When exactly were you supposed to let them in?" Alonzo knit his eyebrows tightly, his pupils going crazy darting left and right before they lock on to mine. Then, he lets out a few waves of laughter that sound like balloons rubbing each other.

"You'll know when they start knocking, merc." As if satisfied with the answer he gave, Alonzo lies back to his former position with his eyes half shut, but I can see the pupils are still jumping around.

Why does people who knew there're dying tend to be selfish cunts?

I clutch his nose with my thumb and index finger, stopping air from entering his trachea. His eyes are wide open and full of rage again while his head bobs left and right as he tried to escape.

With little strength he could musters, Alonzo launched his fist at my face. But it's no use, he can't even reach me in this position. As his face's getting red, he stops trying to hit me and focuses on making me let go of his nose. He pulls, punches, grabs, and even scratches the back of my hand but he wasted most of his energy and oxygen already. His eyes are darting around again, at me and all over the..... wait.

His eyes are darting between two specific spots in his view. One of them is me, the other is something behind me.

In the end, as strength slowly leaves his body and eyes, he gave up. As soon as his mouth opens to catch a breath I stick the bottle of whiskey into his mouth while still clutching his nose. His eyes begin to water, the red slowly takes over the white. Hatred and pure disgust are surging through his eyes as he stares at me. But I noticed a subtle change of emotions as soon as his pupils shifts slightly to my left.

I took a risk and look back but there was nothing behind me except Enzo.

As the bottle is about to be empty. I let go of him altogether and took three steps back, so does Enzo as Alonzo's body falls forward. He vomits out his dinner, blood, the whiskey I just bought him, and whatever the fuck human body produces when you vomit. Catching breaths between waves of digest coming out of his mouth, this goes on for another thirty seconds.

When he finally stops puking, shakily raises his head and sees me with another bottle I grab from the cabinet while he was on the floor. Alonzo finally gave up.

"Nono. Wait!... stop....they were...Ahem! They told me to find an excuse to leave and open the back door at..." It was quick but I caught him darting his eyes towards Enzo again.

I had enough.

"Don't look at him, look at me you fucking wop! He made it pretty clear by now he's not going to help you. I might die full of lead tonight, but believe me. I'll make the time before that happens more miserable than anything you've experienced in life. You got that? Now tell me, when are you suppose to open the back door for your pals? When are they supposed to be here?"

"...between 11:30 to 11:50....."

5 minutes later before it starts......

"So are they here yet?"

A flash of fear runs through his eyes. As he starts darting his line of sight towards Enzo again but something's off, a shiver runs down my spine as I realized I'm being watched ...... that fear wasn't towards me, it was towards the man standing behind me.

The pressure at the back of my brain and every single nerve inside me tenses up.

I turned around and see Enzo's blue eyes now no longer resemble a calm ocean but the glaring glint on the edge of an unsheathed knife. The killing intent wasn't just towards Alonzo but both of us. The second our eyes met, no words are needed, we both know what is about to go down.

How could I forget? There's always more than one.