Sold To the Grizzly Don (Alcee and Bruno) novel Chapter 73

Chapter 73

He was called The Grizzly for a reason.

Torquato Lozano was one of the cruelest men on the planet and as he sat straddling a chair backwards, eyeballing three men who were currently suspended in the basement of one of his many properties he was feeling especially cruel.

“Do you know, I left my woman in my bed all warm and cozy to come down here to see you? Torq questioned a flicker of irritation coating his features as he regarded the three men hanging by their wrists. “You are disrupting time with her, and it is annoying.”

“You better pray the dog do

doesn’t wake up and wake her up.”

Tory shot Tito a look, “Cieciu is on dog duty until I return.” At the mention of his stepfather, one of the men hanging looked worried. “Oh, did you not realize your assassination plot failed? He is alive. He, my mother and my sister are all alive. They are here, in New York. He sends his regards.”

“How?”

“How? How did we get him here? On a plane.” Torq was deliberately obtuse and then he grinned wickedly, “or did you mean to ask how did your plan fail? It failed spectacularly. I know what Corrado made you think. I’m so caught up in my woman I wouldn’t even notice the influx of his men into my parents‘ town. We were ready. We were waiting. We made sure you all thought you hit your mark. Your brother,” Torq watched the man hanging in the middle, an underling of Corrado, “died a very painful death. You sent him to be slaughtered.”

“You lie

“Do I?” Torq motioned to Bastiano who lifted a canvas bag and pulled a head from it and rolled it at the feet of the men. “Look familiar? Never send a boy to do a man’s job. He was only twenty and yet he was so confident you were leading him on the right path. He spit in my father’s face.” He smirked, “Cicciu took quite a bit of pleasure in delivering this justice himself. For a smaller man he is rather powerful and quite inventive with his tools. I learned a lot from him and my grandfather”

The man turned his head and gagged before vansiting down his side at the grisly sight.

“You are a

a traitor. Your father should be Don.”

“My father would be incapable of running a vegetable stall if we provided the inventory for him to sell, Torq said dryly. “Corrado is mentally deficient and while charismatic, he lacks the,” belsnapped his fingers at Tito, “what is it, the word I’m thinking?”

“Intellect?” Tito offered.

“Competence?” Bastiano tossed out.

“Acumen?” Kylen questioned curiously.

Torq grinned at his men, “all are good words, but I was thinking balls. My father lacks the balls to do the job the way it needs to be done. See Corrado whispers behind the backs he stabs about his little plans, but he sends boys to do his work because he is not man enough to do it himself. Now see, me,” he touched his chest, “I will do the work myself. I do not mind delegating but the important tasks, such as killing an important rival or figure head, I will do such things myself. Corrado works in the shadows whispering his little secrets,” he pinched his fingers together as if mocking the lip movements, “and while I appreciate the clandestine way he likes to operate, one of the few lessons I ever learned from him, he forgets all the walls have ears.” He waved around the room, “except the walls in the rooms which I own, or I pay off. This room is mine. Nobody will hear you scream. Nobody is coming to rescue you.

“He knows you took us.”

*Does he? He’s not here though, is he? Do you think because you are the son of his so–called best friend you are going to be miraculously saved? I do not think so.”

“He will have a team.”

“He has no team. Do you not realize they’ve been filling your head with bullshit for years? Tito gave a bitter laugh. “Is it hard to breathe suffocated by the piles of shit they dump over you or are you like a maggot thriving in it?”

“I think he’s a maggot,” Bastiano said with a nod. “Or a worm.”

“Worm is an apt descriptor, Torq sighed. “Your men made an attempt on me this week. You made an attempt on my mother and stepfather

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Chapter 73

yesterday. Tell me, Andreas, when you rounded up this little posse,” he waved to the two unconscious men, “did you tell them it was a suicide

mission ”

“Corrado and my father will come for us.”

“They don’t even know I took you.” Torq laughed.

“He has sples everywhere.”

“Let me guess.” Torq snickered, “he’s working with Don Mariani who offered his services.” As the man swallowed he gave a laugh. “Did you think I didn’t know? I knew, I have known how Edgardo Mariani has been desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy and reaching out to anyone and everyone to offer his services but he’s old, dried up, his resources are thin and after what he did to his daughter, nobody trusts him. If you will beat your own daughter and offer to let your men rape her, you tend to lose a lot of respect of the families who put family first.”

“You knew?”

“I have known for six months how Don Mariani was trying to offer to help my father overthrow me. Why do you think I am back in New York, Andreas? I came to New York to deal with three things.”

He rose from his chair and walked to the man swinging, “first, I came to eradicate the remaining few dissenters who were faking their loyalty to me in my family. My arrival exposed the little party of true traitors. You do know, Andreas, my grandfather himself named me to his seat and any family man knows the outgoing Don names the incoming. You didn’t know?” he slapped Andreas‘ face patronizingly. “I was named successor by the man himself. Corrado tried to take what wasn’t his and it’s not his first time. I mean he did steal five billion from me.”

The ether two reasons?”

“To get rid of the gang my father created with his buddy, your father. All I needed to do was draw you out in the open and it worked. Moths to a flame. Your entire business operations will be shut down by nightfall-

“Third?” the man tried to pretend he was still holding out for a rescue.

“Don Mariani has been shooting his mouth off for the last eight months in a desperate bid to try to regain his power. He offered to pal up with my father. I came here to kill him ”

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