Runner-up 2

Charlie Bonner had the beast by the tail, and that beast was the U.S. federal government. Charlie gave his word he would bring down Palmieri, right after signing the affidavit nullifying him from any wrongdoing, which included bribing an undercover fed to off a stripper.

It was actions that defined a man, the effort of getting things done, doing them right, for God and for your country. Bonner glanced up. It was by no misunderstanding a miracle that Palmieri was going down, the fact he himself was getting off free under the watchful eye of the DEA. Charlie had been given a do-over, he was certain a higher power had intervened. At the end of this horrible day he was headed back to Malibu, to his paradise overlooking the Pacific, not some dive in Cabo, not prison like Palmieri.

Steve Lopez stepped away from the men who held him off at the bar. Pulling up a seat, he settled his elbows carefully on the table. “Please, don’t let me interrupt.”

“You are interrupting. Put that in your paper.” Palmieri growled. Shooting Carmen a look, he added, “I’ll give you 20 grand to make him disappear.”

Carmen straightened in her seat; it was an alluring offer. If there was one thing Carmen needed, it was cash, lots of it. But more than she wanted the cash, she wanted to stay alive. Cutting her hand through the air, she declined.

Shaking, sweating, clutching at his temples, Judge Larry Greene was on the verge of a major cardiac infarction. He could feel his chest locking up, his lungs constricting. An hour ago, he received a call from Hermann Hauser asking why his number showed up on one of Palmieri’s thug’s cell. Things were picking up and he didn’t like the speed.

Lopez inadvertently put a lock box on Palmieri’s vocal cords, and for the life of him, Bonner didn’t know how much more he needed to drag out of him. One thing for certain, he wasn’t doing this again. No wires, no favors for the feds; heck, the sight of Carmen had inoculated him of strippers for good.

Judge Greene bled desperation. “Anything you want, my house, my car.” He gasped for air. “Name it.”

Playing games with Larry’s didn’t sit well with Bonner. He opened his mouth to say something, what, he wasn’t sure.

Larry Greene stood, leaning heavily on the table with the palms of his hands he zeroed in on Bonner.

“I trusted you! You are worse than an animal. You are a sociopathic predator, Charles! I hope one day you realize what a bottom feeder you really are.”

Charlie Bonner knew he was a lot of things, the majority of which were not too flattering. But a sociopathic predator was a first, especially delivered with such conviction. It bothered Charlie on the most primitive level. It was then Bonner turned to Palmieri.

“Judge Greene is a man I would be proud to call my friend. Bases are loaded, Vince. Just how bad do you want this flash?”

“150K. That’s 125 for the flash, 25 grand for you to buy some new friends.”

A smile slid across Bonner’s face. “You’re all the friend I need.”

Palmieri shook Bonner’s hand, pulling him in, he patted him hard on the back.

Palmieri froze, his hand still encapsulating the rigid line of the wires.

Pulling a gun from the back of his waist, he slipped it tight into Bonner’s rib cage. “Mr. Lopez, you ever watch a man die?”

Vincent Palmieri knew he had nothing to lose.

Tanja Bivinetto has “an overwhelming desire to hack down all the birds of paradise” surrounding her home.