Chapter 10
493 Words
10
Ivan Rudenko was trying a new topping on his pizza. Chicken and garlic.
Dimitri stood over the table, drying his hands on a small white kitchen towel. “Well?” he asked.
Rudenko looked up from the pizza box. Chewing slow, thinking hard. “Not bad, Dimitri,” he said, swallowing. “Maybe a little less garlic.”
Rudenko picked up the next slice and held it to his lips. The front door flew open. A figure in a black suit and white shirt burst in off the dark streets, into the artificial light of the takeaway.
“I was waiting for your call,” Rudenko said.
Frogger didn’t speak. He hurried to the table and stopped. On edge. Tap dancing on the spot.
“Well? Is it done?” Rudenko asked, fixing his attention on the fresh bruise on Frogger’s forehead. He dropped the slice of pizza. “What happened? What are you not telling me?”
A loud ringtone broke the silence. Rudenko reached inside the left breast pocket of his pinstripe navy suit. “Yes?” he answered, eyes on Frogger, pinching tighter the longer the caller spoke.
Rudenko came off the call. He was calm. “Sit down,” he said, laying his phone flat on the table.
Frogger took a seat across from Rudenko. Unsure.
“Pull your chair in,” Rudenko said.
Frogger scraped his chair in close to the table.
Rudenko pushed his pizza box across. “Here, eat.”
Frogger looked at the box. At Rudenko. “It was Breaker’s fault. He lost his bollocks and took the kid.”
“Later,” Rudenko said. Ice cool. “Now you need to eat.”
Frogger picked up a slice and took a bite. Rudenko grabbed a large pizza cutter off the table: a large wheeled blade with a stainless steel handle.
“Taste good?” he asked Frogger.
Frogger nodded, taking another bite.
Rudenko smiled. He snatched Frogger’s right hand and pinned his palm flat to the table. He rose out of his chair and leaned in close. “Two dead cops? You useless f**k!”
Rudenko dug the pizza cutter into the top of Frogger’s hand. Blood spilled and Frogger screamed, trying to pull his hand away. Yet Rudenko had all his weight pressed down on it. And he wasn’t done yet.
Rudenko rolled the pizza cutter back and forth with all the force he had. “Eat it. Eat the f*****g pizza, you dumb asshole!”
Frogger chewed, screamed, cried as his own hot, red blood pooled out over the table.
Rudenko let go. He tossed the bloody pizza cutter across the table. Frogger dropped the half-eaten slice of pizza and held his hand close to his chest, the open cut down to the bone.
Rudenko stepped away from the table. “Now for that other piece of shit.”
As Dimitri rushed out with fresh kitchen towels, Rudenko spoke to Freddie. “Get the boys together.” He turned to Frogger, “And you. Stop f*****g bleeding. You've got work to do."
Frogger whimpered as Dimitri wrapped a white cloth tight around the cut.
Rudenko stood with his arms out by his sides, cursing in Russian. Freddie helped him into his long black overcoat.
“Sorry about the mess,” he said to Dimitri on the way out of the restaurant.
As Frogger followed Rudenko and Freddie, Dimitri busied himself cleaning up the blood.
- Writer
