Joe walked into the dark warehouse. Ten men fanned out around him in a loose circle. Rocco walking next to him, with Lewis’s matt black automatic in his hand. Having found it resting on the edge of the bath and claimed it for his own. Vowing revenge. Someone had found the foot switch and turned on the twin Nitesuns. Revealing Lewis, entombed in concrete up to his neck. Only his head remaining clear of the flat grey surface.

‘Jesus fucking Christ!’

And for once, Eddie was inclined to share Joe’s… well, whatever it was. Outrage. Anger. Horror. Disgust. All appropriate, given the state his former enforcer was in. White-faced, presumably from blood loss. Eyes bulging in their sockets from the heat that had cooked him. His mouth gaping wide, labouring to breathe as the concrete dried and crushed his lungs. Tongue, blackened, protruding between lips cooked cherry red.

‘What the fuck did he do?’

A rhetorical question? Eddie wasn’t given to ignoring Joe’s questions. So, genuine request for information or simple railing at the heavens, he answered it with faultless logic.

‘I’d say he shot the poor fucker. Possibly twice, there being two rounds fired from that…’ gesturing at Lewis’s automatic in Rocco’s hand. ‘Kneecaps, possibly. Or just in the guts. Made him bleed out, in case we found him before the cement hardened. But gave him time to feel the cement cooking him.’

He managed to ignore the look Joe shot him. It not being from his usual repertoire of death stares. More like amazement that Eddie could be so callous. Perhaps forgetting that Lewis had been the bloke who had shot his best friend.

‘This is a message.’

Eddie nodded. Thinking that much was pretty obvious. Joe standing over his dead killer with an expression that said his temper could go one of two ways. Ice cold or apocalypse.

‘He’s sending a clear message. To me. Saying that he could just have shot the poor bastard. But chose not to. And that he’ll do the same to me.’

Eddie nodded, feigning thoughtfulness while marvelling at the man’s sheer self-centredness. Joe shook his head decisively.

‘This has gone too far. I want another meeting with the other families. Fuck the rules. Anyone who doesn’t agree to talk will be making a very clear statement that they’re against me. Tell them all that.’

‘Yes, Joe.’