The Holy Ghost

by M. E. Clayton

  “I pulled the chainsaw out from the storage room,” Luca added. “I figured the occasion called for it.”

  I put on the gloves and rain gear Ciro had laid out for me. I wouldn’t need the goggles until I used the chainsaw, so for now I was set. I grabbed a scalpel and turned back towards Randy. “How long has it been?”

  “About two hours,” Ciro answered. There would have been no point in picking up where Ciro left off because Randy’s mind would have been so consumed by pain, nothing I did to him would have fazed him. His body needed time to come down off the momentary madness and begin to ache again.

  “Well, Randolph,” I started with a smile in my voice, “since you felt it necessary to degrade my wife by forcing her to endure sitting before you stupid fucks in her bra, how about we go straight to the sexual connotations of your crime, shall we?” He let out a low moan, but it was lifeless. It held no real power or emotion.

  I gave Luca a quick nod and watched as he stood up and hit the button on the operation panel, lowering the chains. Randolph Masterson’s tied feet touch the floor, but he didn’t have the strength to stand on his own. I imagine the rope around his ankles had probably cut off circulation to his feet already. They were looking a little discolored.

  Ciro had a table fashioned with limb fastenings on the legs. It forced someone’s body to be bent over at an unnatural angle. Ciro and Luca hung back as I removed Randy from the hooks that had imprisoned him to the chains. He was so lifeless, there was literally no struggle as I draped him over the table and fastened his wrists to the table legs and then untied the ropes around his ankles to fasten them to the opposing legs on the table.

  “Remember, whatever you shove up there, if you push too far his insides will rupture,” Ciro commented helpfully.

  “Will it kill him?” I asked.

  “Well, I mean…eventually, yeah.”

  “I personally think you should just cut off his balls and stuff them down his throat,” Luca chimed in. “Without a tongue to get in the way, you can probably shove them down far enough to make him choke on the sonsofbitches.”

  “There’s an idea,” Ciro remarked, sounding chipper about the whole thing.

  I turned back to face the two people in the world who have stood by me through thick and thin. “You know, no matter what I choose, it’s not going to be enough,” I told them honestly. Nothing was going to rid me of the rage at him daring to touch my wife. No matter what I did to this man, no image, no memory would be greater that the moment I walked into that basement in Cedar Creek and saw Frankie tie to that chair. That image was going to haunt me the rest of my life.

  “I know,” Luca agreed.

  “Finish the fucker off, Ghost,” Ciro encouraged. “Every breath he takes is an insult to Frankie.”

  I walked over to the tray of instruments and grabbed one of the flanged maces. Not sure where Ciro got his toys, but he had the strangest variety of torture accessories I’ve ever seen.

  I grabbed the smallest flanged mace, which wasn’t really that small at all, but I figured it’d do the damage I needed it to while still keeping him alive.

  “Nice,” Luca observed. “Simple and to the point.”

  Flanged mace in hand, I walked behind Randolph Masterson and rammed the weapon into his rectum all the way the leathered handle. His screams indicating that he was no longer disassociated from the pain his body could still experience.

  “Goddamn it, Phoenix,” Ciro growled. “He’s not going to last long now.” He actually sounded disappointed. “You better hurry up with the rest of whatever you have planned for the poor fucker.”

  “Seriously,” Luca muttered. “We went easy on him to give you extra time with him, and this is what you go and do.”

  I smiled.

  The next thirty minutes were spent making a statement. I needed the entire world to know what would happen to them should anyone ever come near my wife again. I knew her place as my wife and within the organization, would be public soon, and if I wanted her to stand tall next to us, I had to step back and let her shine. However, Randy would serve as a reminder to everyone that Frankie was never walking in this world alone.

  I ended up going with Luca’s suggestion, and after skinning Randy’s limp dick, I sliced off his balls and shoved them in his mouth. I didn’t shove them down his throat suffocating him right away. I waited until after I pulled his lover out of his rectum and dropped him on his ass. Laying on the floor, I shattered both kneecaps with a pickax before plucking out his left eye. It wasn’t until his right eye reflected nothing but emptiness that I finally shoved his balls down to the middle of his throat, and we all stood back and watched him suffocate to death. Ciro snapped a few pictures on a burner phone as I removed my protective gear and headed for the showers.

  Ciro’s funhouse was an old industrial building a mile outside Morgan City. It used to be a testing site for farming chemicals, and it had emergency wash stations and showers that Ciro had converted for our use. There were only four other members of the Benetti family who knew of this place and had permission to use it. They were mine, Ciro, and Luca’s personal guard, and the fourth person was Sal.

  Each of us had our own ‘locker room’ where we could shower away the blood and guts and put on a fresh suit. The old suits and any protective gear were burned in an incinerator. If this place ever got raided, we’d be fucked, but the building was locked down tighter than Fort Knox. It was a block building with bars on the windows. Since it had been a chemical facility, it had been designed for safety. A feature we took advantage of the second Ciro procured the building.

  I let the hot water beat down on my shoulders and wash away pieces of Randolph Masterson. He was no longer an issue, but I still had a few rounds to go with Frankie, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. The woman hasn’t even been back two weeks and, already, she was driving me crazy.

  Was it unfair for me to expect her to acclimate overnight? Maybe. But she’s known what Luca’s been about her entire life. She had to have some inkling of what would be required of her. Or maybe that was our mistake. We tried so hard to shield her from the darkness that was the Benettis when we were younger, maybe she really didn’t have a fucking clue.

  Either way, we were going to have to have a come-to-Jesus talk, and I suspected that Luca and Ciro might have to come along for the ride because, just like me, they weren’t the same guys they were when Frankie left. She needed to understand that. She needed to recognize and appreciate the world we lived in now, not the world we lived in when she left.

  Then there was the issue of Roberta Regal.

  On the drive back from Cedar Creek, Luca had Sal pull up everything he could find about the woman and had forwarded the details to me and Ciro. There hadn’t been anything too exciting, other than she seemed to have terrible taste in men.

  She had brown hair, brown eyes, was five-foot-three, and worked as a waitress. Her parents lived in Missouri and owned a hardware store. She had no siblings to speak of, not even a pet. Her address wasn’t in the best of Cedar Creek neighborhoods, but it wasn’t located in the slums, either. She seemed rather boring, but my concern was for the men she dated. While Robbie might be a good person as Frankie insisted, she hung around riffraff. If Frankie were going to insist on keeping Robbie in her life, it looked like Frankie wasn’t going to be the only one who would need a come-to-Jesus talk.

  I turned off the water and took a deep breath.

  Time to face the spitfire.

  Chapter 24

  Francesca~

  Phoenix came home, his hair wet from a recent shower. Now, most women would automatically think ‘affair’, but I knew it was most likely that he had to wash someone’s blood off his body. There were so many things wrong with that thought, and, therein, laid my problem.

  I had plenty of time to think about everything Phoenix said, and has been saying, and I realized I was acting like the six years had never happened. I fell back into the life we lived six years ago, not the
life they were leading now.

  Time changed them.

  Time changed me.

  If I read between the lines correctly, Luca was about to go from the Benetti Underboss to the Benetti Boss soon. People were going to revere him. People were going to fear him. People were going to be in awe of him the same way we had been of Giovanni when we were kids. Luca was going to control Morgan City, if not the entire state, and Phoenix and Ciro were going to be standing next to him as he did.

  I was going to stand next to him as he did.

  I got it.

  I finally got it.

  I had been sitting on the couch, texting Robbie, when Phoenix had walked in and announced, “Randy’s dead.” No greeting, or anything. Just that Randy was dead.

  I shot Robbie a quick text, letting her know Phoenix was home, and we were going to talk. I wasn’t stupid enough to put anything in text. Phoenix had told me I was going to get two new phones soon. One would be strictly for use between me, him, Luca, and Ciro, but the other could be used for everyday purposes. I knew I’d have to use the second phone carefully and, even then, I hadn’t made a barrage of friends while I lived in Cedar Creek, so there really wasn’t anyone to give my new number out to. There was Robbie, Mona, Teddy, and Lydia, all who worked at Brighton.

  “I figured,” I replied from where I sat on the couch. “Is this how it’s going to be? Are you going to come home from work every day and just announce your kills?” He shot me a look designed to shut a person up.

  It worked.

  Phoenix took off his jacket, draped it over the back of the couch, and began loosening his tie. I sat silently as he took a seat next to me because I knew the man was about to put me in my place. But, honestly, he didn’t need to. It’s amazing how getting kidnapped can fix one’s vision.

  “We need to talk,” he began, “but I’m thinking, maybe, I need to call your brother and Luca over for this. You-”

  “Don’t,” I interrupted. “You don’t need to call them.”

  Phoenix tilted his head a bit. “I don’t?”

  I shook my head. “No, you don’t.”

  His lips rolled in, no doubt trying to hold his tongue. After a few seconds, he gave me a small nod, allowing me to proceed.

  It grated on my nerves.

  For six years, I’ve been my own person and lived my own life, making my own decisions. And, now, I was obligated to someone who couldn’t be manipulated or controlled.

  I was married to The Holy Ghost of Morgan City.

  “It was unfair for you to expect me to acclimate to…this lifestyle in only a matter of days, Phoenix,” I began. “Even knowing who Luca was, I still spent my childhood being a girl on the outskirts of what you three did. And, as we got older, you guys still sheltered me. Sure, I knew what Luca and his family was about, but my days were filled with being young and carefree. Even after my parents died, Ciro did his best to make sure I still graduated from high school and went to college. Massimo was a great substitute parent, but I knew it was Ciro who did his best for me day in and day out.”

  “Frankie, your brother doesn’t resent you.”

  “I know that, Phoenix.” And I did. I knew my brother loved me. “The thing is, I never…lived the life you guys do now. The life you guys lived then. You guys kept that part of yourselves from me. And-”

  “Goddamn it, Frankie,” he hissed. “How much longer are we going to have to apologize for that?”

  “I’m not throwing it in your face, Phoenix!”

  “Then what are you doing?”

  “I’m trying to explain why I need time,” I clarified. “I was a clueless girl in college, making plans to live a normal, regular life. All the while, my brother and boyfriend were making plans to join the goddamn Mafia. You guys went behind my back and kept me in the dark. And because of that, I never got a taste for what you guys had to endure, for the kind of lifestyle you guys were accustomed to. And six years later, when I barely know any of you, I’m just supposed to automatically know my role?” I shook my head. “Come on, Phoenix. Give me a break here.”

  Phoenix didn’t comment right away. I could tell he was absorbing everything I’ve just said. It was one of the things that hadn’t changed about him. Phoenix was a listener. He would always listen to me. Even if he didn’t end up agreeing with me, he always listened. It was only when he was angry did that trait disappear until times calmed. But he was listening to me now.

  Finally, he said, “That’s fair.”

  One brow shot up. “That’s it? That’s fair. That’s all you got?”

  Phoenix smiled and my entire body went all gooey. A genuine smile from Phoenix Fiore was a dangerous thing. His dimples were deep, and he was just so damn gorgeous, it hurt to look at him sometimes. The girl in me really hated that he didn’t wear a wedding ring. Sure, most women would swoon at the knowledge that he had their name tattooed across his chest or that he had a symbol tattooed on his ring finger that was forever, but other women couldn’t see the church tattooed on the inside of his finger. And I was insecure enough to want every woman in the city to know Phoenix was taken.

  I really was a tool.

  “Look, Frankie, we’re not trying to dictate every second of your day,” he said. “We’re really not. We just want you to be safe. We want you to understand that you’re irreplaceable. Even if we weren’t in the Mob, we’d still look after you the same way.”

  “I know,” I muttered, and I did. Luca, Ciro, and Phoenix had been super protective over me from the beginning. Even when we were just small children, and had no clue what the Mafia meant, they still hovered over me like hawks and protected me like warriors. Small, scrawny, dirty warriors, but warriors all the same.

  “I’ll concede that perhaps we went about this the wrong way, but I won’t ever apologize for the hasty marriage or bringing you back home, Francesca,” he stated. “I’m also not going to take back anything I’ve said to you so far.” I knew he was referring to the threats. “I refuse to be without you any longer. I won’t go back to a life without you in it.”

  “Phoen-”

  He threw his palm up to stop me. “I will respect you and your opinions on everything, Frankie. I will treat you as the smart, independent, courageous woman you are, whether at work or at home.” He leaned in and brought a hand up to cradle my face. His thumb ran back and forth, softly, over one of my stitches. His eyes were burning with an intensity I only saw in the bedroom. “However, when it comes to our marriage, you have no say,” he continued. “I’ll never let you divorce me, Francesca. I will never let you leave me. And, even if you’re so mad at me you want to stab me in the heart, we will sleep in our bed together every fucking night.”

  I could feel my nose tingle and my eyes start to fill up. “Phoenix…”

  Phoenix reached for me and pulled me over until I was straddling his lap. I placed my hands on his chest and stared at him as he continued to lay down the rules. “You can voice your opinion and make demands on everything under the sun. Everything, but our marriage. Our marriage is forever, Frankie. Death is the only thing that can separate you from me.”

  I couldn’t hold back anymore. “I love you, Phoenix,” I choked out, my voice broken with emotion.

  “Baby, I have loved you since I was five. I claimed you when I was seven,” he recounted. “I’ve loved you my entire life and I will love you for the rest of it, however long that might be.” His hand came up to cradle my face and thumb away my tears. “I’ve never known anyone but you, Frankie. I will die knowing only you. If you believe nothing else, believe that there is nothing and no one I want more than I want you.”

  “I hurt too much to have sex,” I blurted.

  His head reared back, and he looked confused as hell. “What?” his voice scratched out.

  I shrugged a shoulder, embarrassed. “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “It just felt like this moment should be followed up with some good sex.” Phoenix blinked his bright hazel eyes at me a few times in stunned fascination
before he started to laugh.

  The asshole.

  “Quit laughing at me,” I snapped, our perfect moment obliterated.

  He calmed down, but his smile was still in place. “I’m not laughing at you, Frankie,” he lied. “I…just wasn’t expecting you to say that."

  I ignored his obvious lie, because we both knew he was laughing at me, and got off his lap. He reached for me but calmed down once he realized I was just trying to get comfortable in his arms. He waited patiently as I sat on the couch and snuggled under his arm.

  We sat that way for a few moments, just basking in the security of our truce before I finally asked, “What about Robbie?” Phoenix let out a deep sigh and I worried that we were going to be thrown back into another fight. I wasn’t going to cave on the topic of Robbie. She was one of my dearest friends, and I was not going to walk away from her.

  “Right now, I’m not sure, Frankie,” he answered honestly. I wanted to jump up and kick off her defense, but the second he felt me jerk, he tightened his hold on me, keeping me in place. “You can call her and talk to her all you want, but you are forbidden from going to Cedar Creek.”

  “Phoenix, I-”

  “Frankie, we can’t have you in Cedar Creek so soon after three people have gone missing,” he explained. “It doesn’t matter that that all three were nothing but dirt. They were still humans. And, with that, the Cedar Creek police are obligated to investigate their disappearance, should anyone care enough about any of them to report them missing.”

  “So, I’m supposed to just hang out in Morgan city, safe, while Robbie’s stuck in Cedar Creek handling all this alone? Is that it?”

  “I honestly don’t care what she’s dealing with, Frankie,” he remarked. “I don’t know the woman. She’s nothing to me.”

  This time, I jerked out of his hold and sat up to face him. “But she’s someone to me, Phoenix.”

  “And that’s the only reason she’s still alive, Frankie,” he stated bluntly. “Do you honestly believe any of us as ever left a live witness around?”