‘Sob! Sob!’

The little girl’s eyes were streaming tears of agony and sorrow. I can’t imagine the pain she must have been feeling after getting 5 of her fingers mercilessly snipped off, moreover, witnessing the greedy gutter rats scampering away with them. It must have been a grievous experience.

“Give me your fingers my dear.” Sharp Stepper proceeded with the pliers over the little girl’s right hand. “This is going to hurt me as much as it is going to hurt you.” He told her, “I didn’t want it to come to this my dear. Blame it all on your father for refusing to comply.” He directed his sinister eyes at me and added, “You’ve already caused this poor child to lose vital manoeuvrability in her left hand. Will you also allow her right hand to be impaired? Well, Smoke Pac?”

This shit stain stared at me with those sinister eyes piercing deeply into my tainted soul. I wanted to tell that piece of shit to get on his knees and suck my sweaty junk, however, a soft part of me was beginning to feel for the little girl even though she had no blood relation to me whatsoever.

I had no idea what came over me, was it some latent paternal instinct or was someone working a voodoo spell on me somewhere to make me extra caring all of a sudden? Whatever the hell it was, it prompted me to start crying. Manly tears I called it, manly effing tears.

“What’s this?” Laura Thotinton noticed how silent I had been with my head hanging low. “My employer asked you a question, Mr Smoke Pac. Now answer!” She used her boot heel to kick my face upwards. Now everyone present inside the warehouse could clearly perceive tears streaking down my eyes. It was such an embarrassing moment for me, I could hear the bastards mocking me obtrusively.

“Look at that. I can’t believe the big bad Smoke Pac is crying like a little bitch?”

“So he isn’t a tough guy after all?”

“He’s a damn coward that's what he is.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I think it is sweet that he cares that much for his daughter to be crying like that.”

“But a moment ago he said that he didn’t give a shit about what happened to her and that she wasn’t his legitimate daughter. So I don’t understand the sudden call for these tears.”

“You fools don’t understand the mechanics of the human heart. The mind may say one thing but it can never deceive the heart. Even I am starting to feel a little bit sorry for that poor girl. Why does the child have to suffer for the crimes of her father?”

“Don’t get sentimental on me, Prento. We are gangsters. We live this shit every day. Crying over some dying chick won’t change the outcome. All that ugly bastard has to do is sign the damn papers so we can be out of here.”

“What’s the rush, Jordon? Do you have somewhere else you need to be?”

“Well, of course. My sugar mama at home can’t go on too long without me. She needs me to spank her behind every night before she can go to sleep.”

“Lucky you, I don’t have that kind of relationship with my women. They just can’t satisfy me.”

“That’s because you’ve been sleeping with too many cheap hoes. You need to find yourself a quality woman who can whip your junk into submission.”

“Is that what your woman did to you man? No wonder you’ve gotten so soft. You and Smoke Pac might be kindred spirits. Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

I tried to drown out the derogatory remarks of those gangsters but they kept on insulting my manly tears. Due to this, I tried my best to suck it up and repress my emotions. But every time I glanced over in the little girl’s direction, I saw her staring at me with those droopy eyes of hers. Although she was at the breaking point of losing consciousness, she kept her sight of hatred fixated on me.

Why was she doing this to me, making me feel so emotionally distressed? This was one of the reasons why I didn’t want any children, not in this line of business. Any rival can use family as leverage to force you to do shit that you didn’t want to do and this little girl just so happen to become my bane, my unwanted Achilles Heels.

“Trish my dear please straighten your fingers for me. I need to make a clean cut.” Sharp Stepper maintained his top-notch cruelty through and through. This bastard didn’t show a shred of remorse while he cut off 5 of the girl’s fingers. It was as if he had a brick wall for a heart. There I was trying to restrict my caring tears from pouring outwards and there he was with the damn pliers pressing lightly against the girl’s finger.

Sharp Stepper looked at me again and said, “This is the last warning I’m going to give you, Smoke Pac. Unlike what I did earlier with her left hand, I’m not going to stop cutting once I’ve started. If you don’t agree to sign those documents right here and now then you can kiss your daughter’s fingers goodbye, all ten of them. I’ll make sure to get her the best medical care so you can watch her suffer as a cripple; a condition that you’ve brought on to her.”

“You sick piss stain!” I couldn’t help releasing a few expletives at that ruthless excuse for a man. “How dare you torture that child and say that I’m the cause? Don’t you have a shred of decency left inside of you? How can you be this heartless?”

“Look who’s talking?” Sharp Stepper tried to slam me with my own words. “Aren’t you the man who set ablaze a house filled with sleeping women and children in the dead of night? Aren’t you the same man who tortured Gonzalez Junior before his father and mother? If my memory serves me correctly, I believed you skinned him like how a butcher skinned his rabbits. And what was the reason behind you executing that manner of cruelty? Oh, you did it because he was short on payment only by a few Crowns. Tell me, Smoke Pac, where was your compassion then, eh?”

I couldn’t answer this bastard's question for I was guilty of being equally cruel. “Thanks for reminding me you piece of shit!” Now that I was reminded of all the evil that I’ve done, I figured that this was my karma taking its toll or divine retribution. I was starting to feel compelled to lighten my accumulated burdens, so before Sharp Stepper could make the little girl a complete cripple I made up my mind.

“You’ve taken too long to comply with my request, Smoke Pac. You’ve caused Trish another 5 of her fingers.” Sharp Stepper started pressing down on the pliers.

As I observed the flow of blood trickling down its sharpness, an explosion went off into my chest which compelled me to shout, “Stop! For God's sake stop! Don’t cut off any more of her fingers. I’ll do it, I’ll sign the bloody papers!”

“What was that?” Sharp Stepper pretended as if he didn’t hear me, all because he wanted to hear me beg him some more. This cunning piece of human trash got his wish.

“I said stop you bastard. Take the goddamn pliers away from her finger! I’ll sign the documents. Are you happy now?”

“You should have said that a long time ago.” Sharp Stepper removed the pliers from the girl’s finger. He gave it to one of his men to put away then walked on over to where I was kneeling and stooped to my level. “I knew you would comply sooner or later. Now sign.” He took up the documents from the crate and tossed them before me.

“Remember what I told you earlier, Mr Smoke Pac.” As she reminded me of the signing procedure, Laura Thotinton released the tight grip she had on my arms so that I could properly sign the documents. Both of them hovered closely over me, making sure that I got all the dotted lines.

“You’re doing great, Mr Smoke Pac.” This lawyer wench offered me some unwanted encouragement by patting me on the back.

“Don’t bloody touch me!” I lashed out at her with my brusque tongue. I wanted to bite her nipples off. They were so close too; all I needed to do was erect my spine a bit further and moved in for the kill, but unfortunately, it wouldn’t have done me nor my fake daughter any good. Thus, I tried to keep my rage in check as I continued to sign the documents.

The stroke of my pen was hard to keep balanced due to how fiercely I was gripping it. I could feel the plastic casement slowly breaking under pressure. This signing process was like committing suicide to me. Thus far I’ve already signed over half of my hard earn wealth to this playboy gangster before me. With each stroke, I became poorer and poorer. Materialistic penury wasn’t something that I could live with. This thought delayed me from completing the last signing process.

Staring down at the still pen, Sharp Stepper said, “Why have you stopped? Do you want me to recommence the cutting of your daughter’s fingers? You know me well enough, Smoke Pac, I will do it. Don’t make me get up from here without having these completed documents in my hand, for you won’t like the outcome.”

“Stop buzzing in my ears you piece of shit!” I couldn’t stand this little punk belittling me without getting a few curse words in. “I’m going to bloody sign, ok? I just need to rest my fingers for a while.”

“We understand, Mr Smoke Pac. Take your time.” Said Laura Thotinton, who also added to Sharp Stepper, “He must be slightly traumatised by witnessing his daughter’s fingers getting snipped. The poor thing.”

“Goddammit!” Hearing this intellectual slut pretending to feel sorry for me was torture to my eardrums. I couldn’t stand smelling her stinking mouth any longer, therefore, I finished signing the documents faster than I had wanted to.

“There you go, you thieving bastard! I’ve signed it all.” I madly tossed the documents along with the pen at Sharp Stepper.

“Hmm…” He browsed through the papers while perusing their contents. Afterwards, he gave the document to his lawyer for further analyse. “Laura if you would…”

“Give it here, sir.” I watched her for a few minutes bracing against the crate for support while looking over the documents with the pen twirling provocatively between her lips; she was also using the legal stamp she’d brought with her to stamp a few of the papers.

“Yes, here is good as well.” The position Laura Thotinton was in had her ass facing smack into my face. This disrespectful intellectual slut. Did she take me for a toilet bowl on who she could release her fetid farts?

“Get your stinking ass out of my face!” With anger seething in my bones, I lifted my left hand and gave Laura’s smelly ass a brutal slap that sent her crashing onto the floor.

“Kyah!” She screamed in shock as her big breasts cushioned her fall. The papers she was perusing scattered all over. I watched as she tried to readjust her skimpy skirt while staring back at me angrily.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” I felt so fantastic that I couldn’t stop laughing. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” My voice sounded like a psycho who had reached the height of his climax.

“Why did you go and do that?” Sharp Stepper sounded displeased as he directed his voice at me. He snapped his fingers for some of his men to come over and help assisted Laura to her feet as well as picked up the scattered document.

While Sharp Stepper’s minions were doing this, he walked on over to where I was kneeling and said, “I won’t tolerate anyone who abuses my sweet lawyer.”

Perceiving how angry this shit stain sounded, I asked him, “What are you so mad about, are you shagging her or something, or are you upset that I damaged her fake ass? Now that I think about it, I did hear something pop when I smacked her butt on the floor? Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“You!” Sharp Stepper became furious at my incessant psychopathic laughter. Being unable to take it anymore, he placed his right foot at the centre of my chest and spoke, “I was considering sparing your life, but you’ve just forced my hand. See you in the afterlife, Smoke Pac.”

‘Boom!’

“The hell…?” I felt a sudden sharpness penetrating my chest deeply and bursting through my back. I was truly dumbfounded. I had not expected Sharp Stepper’s boots to be equipped with slender swords capable of extending and contracting at his will. I grabbed onto his leg, looked him in the face and said with my dying breath, “You goddamn… sneaky… shit stain… I’ll make sure to save you a spot in… hell!”

“You can keep it. I can purchase my own.” Saying this, Sharp Stepper withdrew his boot sword from my chest. As soon as he had done so. I witnessed my blood spewing out ceaselessly. I had transformed temporarily into a bleeding fountain. Eventually, I collapsed backwards with my arms spread asunder and my tongue hanging loosely out of my head like a dead dog’s.

As my eyes were closing and I began losing consciousness, I overheard Sharp Stepper conversing with his men.

“Hand me his briefcase and bury that rubbish at the Sunflower Cemetery.”

“What about the old man, boss?”

“Bury both of them together.”

“Understood boss. Digging one grave for both dead bodies is easier than digging them separately. Ok, you heard the boss. Let’s get this shit cleaned up before sunrise.”

“Boss, I think the little girl is still alive. Do you want me to bury her with these 2 as well?”

“There will be no need for that. If she’s alive then she can still be useful to me. Take her to Dr Leprechaun to be looked after. He owes me a debt.”

“Yes, boss!”