Alex and Sophia were watching Vinnie come into the bar, accompanied by armed guards, into a shabby bar on the outskirts of town.
""This is rather much protection," Sophia squints. "Vinnie's probably too paranoid,"
Alex nodded, even though this seemed pretty annoyed. "He should be. He's been playing both ends for too long."
From Sophia came the stare. "Ready to bring him down?"
"I was born ready," he replied, with a cold smile dancing on his lips.
They stepped into the bar, looking for Vinnie lounging smugly in the corner.
Guns were drawn before Vinnie, and their entrance was known to him. Surprise found so long the way into his eyes but then, he held ground as if not backing down at all.
"Well, well, well," he sneered. "Look what we have here. The dynamic duo, back for another round."
That was too much for Alex, and he stepped so close that his gun muzzle pointed directly at Vinnie's head.
"You're a traitor, Vinnie," was the spittle from Alex to him. "You're going to get your dose for what you have done."
For about a second, the well-water gate-three core for Alex passed through the fun; the smile faded, and Alex could almost swear he'd seen a glimmer of fear in the eye.
Yet there was the glimmer of contempt, too, in place of that fear.
"You'll never take down Francesca and Marco," he added. "They're too strong. And even if you take them down, you won't take their place. You're just a foolish little boy, playing at being a gangster."
Alex found his finger on the trigger with a hairline crack.
Then, Sophia's hand was on his arm and pulling it back.
"Wait," she said. "We can't go just kill him before gaining an intelligence report from Francesca's plans."
Narrowing eyes, Alex bore a glare at Vinnie and nodded, gun still holstered.
Daring to smile at Vinnie, who was a bundle of fear behind bravado, he said, "You're making a very bad mistake. Francesca will see to it that you are dead for this."
And Alex smiled, a cold smile.
"We'll see about that."
They began pulling Vinnie from the bar: they wanted him alive and in some position of power, where information would be derived before stirring against Francesca and Marco.