Dignity's Worth

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

We took our prisoner to an isolated warehouse that we'd specifically searched for this very purpose. It was not far away from the street we'd found him in, so it was easy taking him there. Plus any gunshots that we fired couldn't possibly be heard outside the warehouse itself.

And now the hard part was over.

We tied him to a chair and began with our encounter.

"What the fuck?" were the first words I ever heard him say, "Who are you people?"

"That's not important, is it now?" I asked, pointing my gun at his chin, "That's not important at all."

"What- what am I doing here?"

"That's none of your business. Now shut that mouth of yours unless you wanna get into trouble."

"You know who I am?" he asked, his arrogance building up, "You know who the fuck I am? I'm Martin..."

I fired another shot into the air, and he didn't speak anything further. Then I had to take the third gun because mine was out of bullets.

"Do I look like somebody who cares who the fuck you are?" I asked, "Now listen to me, you son of a bitch. There's some people who wanna talk to you. That alright with us?"

He didn't reply.

I put my gun to his neck.

"That alright with us?"

He nodded frantically.

"Good. Eddie?"

"You forced my girlfriend to sleep with you," said Eddie to Martin, "and she's been called a slut ever since that incident. And when I tried to reason with you the right way, you threatened to have my skull split in half. You threatened to kill my family. You made life hell for me."

There was silence.

"But that's not important." Eddie continued, "What's important is that you drugged my girlfriend and you slept with her without consent."

"Who- who?" asked Martin.

"Tina Armstrong."

I could see on Martin's face that he knew he was in trouble.

"Martha Hushman." said Hugh, "That's my older sister."

And that was all he needed to say. We didn't mention what Martin did to her, because it was too traumatizing to even hear once more.

"Elisa Franklin," sighed Henry, and his voice was by far the most hurt, "ring a bell? You son of a bitch you. You demeaned her around the campus after you'd had your fun with her. And when I tried to retaliate, you killed my dog with your fucking bike. And everybody forgot about what had happened to Elisa because they feared you."

Martin didn't say anything. He knew this was judgement. Now he looked at me.

"Mary Rosenthal," I sighed, "about two weeks ago you tried to do something to a girl named Mary Rosenthal. And so I gathered this little crew that I have here. And we're all desperate for justice. And you can be goddamn sure that justice will be done."

Here was when Martin Giovanni laughed out a little bit despite being terrified to the bottom of his heart.

"Justice?" he said, "You're gonna do justice? You think I'm a normal criminal? You think I don't know people? I'm a protected man, and you need to understand that. I know people from the High End..."

And that was when I fired a bullet that blasted past his ear, and he stopped speaking immediately. Although my shot didn't hit him, it was enough for him to know that I didn't care about how many contacts he had and how many people he knew.