Pretending to Be an Untouchable Crime Boss-Chapter 39: Three Artist.

Ferucci was the first to step toward Takoi.

He grabbed Takoi's hand, pressed the tip of his blade under his fingernail, and peeled it off.

His scream rang out, sharp and agonized, but not loud enough to impress Hector and Bella.

"I give it a 6.5." Hector said, scratching his chin like he was already planning what to do next.

"I give it a 5. It was ass." Bella added, unimpressed.

"What?! It was a decent scream!" Ferucci scoffed, shaking his head.

"Let me show you what a real scream sounds like." Hector said, stepping in. He grabbed the same hand Ferucci had just tortured and, without hesitation, began bending each finger backward—slowly, making sure Takoi felt every excruciating second of it.

His screams were louder this time, his fingers now mangled beyond recognition.

"Basic, but the suffering was good. I'll give it an 8." Ferucci said, nodding in approval.

"Yeah, I'd say a 7." Bella agreed. Then she turned to Ferucci, holding out her hand. "Give me your knife."

Ferucci didn't hesitate for a second, he handed it to her without question.

"Now we need to hang him up somewhere." Bella said casually.

Hector and Ferucci exchanged confused looks.

"Hang him?" Hector asked.

"Yeah. I want to cut his balls off."

Silence.

Hector and Ferucci just stared at her, disbelief in their eyes.

"You want to do what...?" Ferucci asked, like he hadn't heard right.

"Cut. His. Balls. Off." Bella repeated, completely serious.

Ferucci blinked, staring at Bella like she had just spoken in an alien language.

"You're messing with me, right?" He asked, letting out a nervous chuckle.

"Nope." Bella twirled the knife between her fingers, perfectly serious. "We hang him up, and I slice them right off."

Hector let out a long, exaggerated sigh, rubbing his temples. "Bella, Bella, Bella... I like a good torture session as much as the next guy, but cutting off his balls? Isn't that a bit... extreme?"

"Are you seriously asking that?" Bella raised an eyebrow. "You just broke all his fingers backward like a psychopath, but I'm the extreme one?"

"Yes, because what I did was elegant. It was art." Hector replied, dramatically placing a hand on his chest. "What you're suggesting is just... barbaric."

Bella scoffed, crossing her arms. "Me? Barbaric?" She pointed accusingly at Hector and Ferucci. "You two skinned people alive and cut them into pieces!"

Hector raised a hand like a professor about to give a lecture. "First of all, that was strategic."

"Yeah." Ferucci nodded, backing him up. "It was a message. An artistic statement, if you will."

"Oh, so when you two do it, it's 'strategic,' but when I want to do it, it's barbaric?" "

"Bella, we didn't just cut balls off." Hector said, looking mildly disgusted. "That's just unnecessary. And weird."

Ferucci shook his head. "And impractical."

"You guys are such babies." Bella muttered, rolling her eyes.

Takoi, still writhing on the ground, tried to speak through his pain. "W-Wait! Please, just—"

"Shut up," Hector cut in. "We're having a debate about your balls."

"Yeah, don't interrupt." Bella added.

Takoi groaned in agony, probably regretting every single life choice that led him to this moment.

Then out of nowhere Ferucci suddenly burst out laughing, his laughter so intense that tears streamed down his face.

"What?" Hector asked, his lips twitching as he started to smile.

Ferucci only laughed harder, tilting his head back for a moment before choking out, "Bella is the ball master—"

Hector lost it. He doubled over, laughing so hard his shoulders shook.

"What?!" Bella shrieked, her eyes narrowing dangerously, but the two idiots just laughed even harder.

"You love balls, don't you?" Hector wheezed between fits of laughter.

Without missing a beat, Bella crossed her arms and shouted, "I only love James balls!"

Silence.

Ferucci collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach as he howled with laughter. Hector fell against the wall, gasping for air.

Bella's face turned red, her whole body stiffening. "WAIT, NO—"

The whole warehouse echoed with laughter, a twisted, almost nightmarish contrast to the horror that surrounded them.

But as Bella shivered from the stress and embarrassment of the situation, one of the gang members groaned, which only pissed her off even more.

So she pulled out her gun.

And shot them.

All of them.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

An entire magazine unloaded straight through their bodies.

Even when the gun clicked empty, she kept pulling the trigger, her frustration refusing to die down.

The warehouse fell silent.

Hector and Ferucci, who had been laughing like maniacs just moments ago, both straightened up.

"Bella..."

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, throwing the empty gun at the ground.

Silence again.

She then stepped toward Takoi, her fists tightening with frustration. Without hesitation, she began pounding his face left, right, left again until his head lolled back, barely conscious.

Then, something small and black slipped from his pocket and clattered onto the ground. A phone.

Bella paused, breathing heavily, before crouching down. She grabbed Takoi's bloodied face, forcing his barely-open eyes to meet the screen and the phone unlocked.

As she scrolled through his gallery, her movements slowed.

Then, she froze.

"We can't kill him." She took a step back, eyes still locked on the screen, her jaw tightening.

Then, she thrust the phone toward them, her voice filled with barely-contained rage.

"Because of this bitch."

Ferucci stared at the screen for a second before blinking in confusion.

"Who is it?" Hector asked.

"The Vice President's daughter."

"Fuck..." Hector exhaled sharply.

"Vice what?" Ferucci blinked, looking at them as if they were speaking a foreign language.

"The Vice President's daughter is this fucker's girlfriend." Bella repeated slowly, as if that would help.

Ferucci blinked again. "Okay... but what is the Vice President?"

Silence.

Bella and Hector exchanged a look before turning back to Ferucci, their brows furrowing.

"What do you mean, 'what is that'?" Hector asked, genuinely baffled.

"Like... what is a Vice President?" Ferucci said, his face dead serious.

Hector let out a laugh, shaking his head. "You stupid?"

Bella groaned, rubbing her temples. "There's the President, and then he has a Vice President who takes over when he's not available and does other government shit."

Ferucci frowned. "So, like... a backup boss?"

Hector smirked. "Something like that, yeah."

Ferucci nodded slowly as if he finally understood. Then, after a second, he asked, "So... does the Vice President have a Vice Vice President?"

Hector burst out laughing, nearly doubling over. "A 'vice-vice president'? Oh my fucking God."

Bella clenched her fists. "Ferucci, I am begging you. Stop talking before I actually shoot you."

Ferucci frowned. "I'm just saying, if the President has a backup, doesn't the backup need a backup too? Like a safety net? What if the Vice President also dies?"

Hector wiped a tear from his eye. "They got a whole ass chain of command. They don't just stop at two people. They like us—the family."

"That's a bad example because only James gives us orders." Bella said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, there was Marcello too." Hector added casually.

"What?" Bella and Ferucci said at the same time, both turning to look at him.

"Marcello was the underboss." Hector shrugged. "But he died."

Silence.

Bella blinked. "Hold the fuck up—who?"

"Marcello." Hector repeated, looking between them.

Ferucci frowned. "We had an underboss?"

Bella's face twisted in disbelief. "And he's dead?"

"Well, yeah, it was at the beginning." Hector said with a shrug. "I think I'm the only one who actually knew about it."

He smiled like he didn't just drop a fucking bomb on them.

Bella's eye twitched. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Ferucci ran a hand down his face. "So, wait—you mean to tell me that we had an underboss this whole damn time, and we just never knew?"

"Well, not exactly. I was the only one who ever served him or talked with him. He died before any of you could even know him." Hector said, still grinning.

Bella took a slow breath like she was trying not to strangle him. "And when exactly were you planning on telling us?"

"I dunno." Hector shrugged again. "Never really came up."

Ferucci stared at him, deadpan. "Never really came up?"

Bella looked like she was about to explode. "Marcello was an underboss, Hector. That's kinda big fucking news!"

"Well, he's dead, so what does it matter?" Hector said nonchalantly.

Bella turned away, breathing deeply like she was summoning every ounce of patience she had left. Ferucci, on the other hand, just looked at Hector with newfound disbelief.

"Hector, you are the most unserious motherfucker I've ever met."

"What happened? Who killed him?" Bella asked, her voice quieter now.

Hector glanced at her, then at Ferucci. He hesitated for just a second before answering.

"It was James."

Bella and Ferucci just stared at Hector, their expressions frozen. The weight of his words sank in slowly, like a stone dropped into deep water.

"You're telling me," Bella started, her voice dangerously calm, "that there was an underboss, and James just killed him, and nobody knew about it?"

Hector shrugged, still grinning. "Well, yeah. I mean, I knew. But you guys never asked, so I figured it wasn't important."

Bella crossed her arms, looking at Hector with narrowed eyes. "So why did James kill him?"

Hector's smirk faded a little. "No clue. But if I had to guess..." He trailed off, glancing at the unconscious Takoi on the ground, then at Bella and Ferucci.

Bella arched a brow. "Guess what?"

Hector grinned again, but this time, there was something dark in his eyes.

"If James did it, there was a damn good reason."