Dog eat Dog

They grabbed him at the corner of Church and elm. Two things that in his deep southern town seemed ripe for a lynch mob, let alone a couple of mobster consiglieres. From the center seat, Billy looked out the tinted windows and the trees passing by and thought of how tight the noose of debt was around his throat. He thought of how many times the Don's men had almost gotten him only for him to slip away. It had been 6 cities long but they caught up with him outside Atlanta.

As they got to the building with the darkened vaulted windows and limousine parked outside, Billy was led through what looked like the back of a third rate pizza shop. In the office, the Don sat behind a desk with a coat on next to a door for the walk in freezer. It looked as though he had this desk set up just for this meeting and subsequent quick take down if it got dirty.

"Leave us," said the Don as the goons sat Billy in a crooked chair. "So Billy-boy, I haven't seen you in a long time, it seems. It's a shame because good friends are so hard to find and I considered you one of mine. You know what else is hard to find, Billy? Bad friends. I work veeeeery hard to make sure bad friends are never found."

Billy noticed at that moment that his hands weren't tied and a snub-nosed .38 was sitting on the table. The Don looked at him and said, "I've instructed my men... As a matter of fact, HEY VIN!"

"Yeah boss?" A voice came from outside the door.

"Hey Vin, you remember what I told you before Billy got here?"

"You mean that if he killed you with that .38 there, we should treat him like the new boss?"

"That's the one."

"Boss, that's a bad idea. I been meaning to tell ya, some of the guys won't be very happy getting passed up for this Mook..."

"I said what I said, Vin, now get the hell out of my office."

Sitting on the side of the table, the Don looked Billy in the eyes and said, "I've taken assurances that this happens. I have a bank account in your name that's yours, here it is," said the Don, holding up his cell phone at a bank account with Billy's name on it.

"You see in my 20 year career as a man of my business, I never been conned quite like you and..." TheDon looked away from the table for a moment as Billy jumped towards the table as the Don grabbed the gun. The Don quickly unloaded all 6 rounds in Billy's frontal lobe as what was left of his face hit the metal desk DOI.

"I HATE being interrupted," said the Don, wiping blood and brain matter off his forehead. "As I was saying, 'nobody has ever conned me like you have and that's why you got the chance to best me just one more time. Nobody ever bests me, kid. You were a bad friend. Thanks for proving it."

The Don called out to Vinnie who came into holding his arm over his face in disgust. "Hang him on a hook until we figure out what to do with him."

Carefully, and gagging a bit, Vinnie, placed Billy's body on a meat hook in the freezer behind the Don. Vinnie had killed people before but he was a quick in and out kind of guy. He wasn't used to dealing with bodies.

The Don was a force of nature though: an enigma and wrath incarnate. I wrote this fucking thing and I bet you still don't know my name other than "The Don."