Brick snarls and starts toward the elegant, suited man, but Aidan puts out a hand to stop him. Brick sighs and backs off, muttering about his shoe.
Tane glances around at each of us, his gaze settling on Dimitri and his group. "Jesus, every time I look there are more of you. You're multiplying like bacteria." He smirks. "Although this would be a case study to disprove survival of the fittest."
Brick snarls again.
"You look familiar," Tane says, glancing at Aria. "I know you from somewhere."
"Oh yes," Aria beams. "You were one of the first customers at my new restaurant. It was an honor having you under my roof, and being able to prepare a special meal just for you."
Recognition dawns in Tane's eyes. "Aha that's it," he nods. "I never forget a face…" he pauses. "Especially not one like yours."
Aria's facial expression remains neutral, but I notice the almost imperceptible shudder. But then she puffs herself up and smiles. “The ribs you ate? The one that your bald friend liked so much? They were human ribs. Ricky’s in fact,” says Aria.
Tane’s face turns white as her words sink in.
“And in case that isn’t enough for you, the paté was also made from several of your men. Those three guards of yours who disappeared. Oh, and the dessert, too. Fingernails, eyeballs, the whole shebang. A locally-sourced, farm-to-table approach where nothing goes to waste, you know?"
"Stanley, Boss and Takowsky?" His eyes narrow and his face grows mottled with rage. He's just about foaming at the mouth. "You're fucking with me."
"Nope," Aria shrugs. "Sorry, but you're a full-blown cannibal. And you really seemed to enjoy it, too."
Tane struggles in his restraints, just about turning green. Of course, he can't move, so he pukes his guts out on the floor beside him, for once his poised charmruffled to pieces. A splash of his vomit lands on his no doubt very expensive shoes.
Brick snickers. "Well well well, karma is a bitch, and sometimes she's quick."
Dimitri clears his throat, and Tane's eyes fly to him. “You’re an evil man, Tane Brown. And so it seems fitting to add cannibalism of your most loyal men to your list of atrocities. You do know, however, that eating the brains of another human is reported to make you crazy, right? Although clearly you’ve been able to check off that box for a while.”
"You—you—" The normally very articulate Tane Brown cannot find words. Finally, he's able to spit it out. "Who the fuck are you? You look familiar, too?"
Dimitri's eyes darken. "So fitting for you. You annihilated my whole fucking family, killing my wife and daughter, and you don't even have the common decency to remember my face. We're really all nothings to you, aren't we?"
Tane's eyes narrow in confusion. "Oh, wait… was this several years ago?"
Fucking hell. For him not to remember, I can't even imagine how many people this man has killed… how many innocent women and children that he can't even have the decency to remember.
I snarl. “Enough!" I growl, and all eyes turn to look at me. "The truth, Tane, is that your men are a bunch of lemmings, idiots blindly loyal to you because of the chance at a sliver of your power. They don’t care about you as a person, and many of them are clearly incapable of much except for following your instructions. And following instructions they think are from you.”
Just when it seems like Tane’s face couldn’t get any paler, it somehow does.
“Even if today hadn’t happened, we’d be coming after you again and again. Disrupting your business when you least expect it. You’d never be able to trust the ingredients in another meal. You’d never be able to trust any of your men to carry out the most basic of instructions without peering over their shoulder the entire time. You wouldn't be able to host a meeting without worrying your blathering idiot henchman have allowed us to insert personal pleasure devicesunder their skinlike absolute morons! Is that the kind of life you want to lead, Tane? Is that really the quality of empire you’re able to create?"
"Jesus.When you put it that way, I could probably go on Temu and find a better option," growls Brick as he sharpens a wicked blade. Tane's eyes flick to the shiny blade of the knife, and he visibly pales.
“I am abusinessman!” Tane explodes. “I have done so much for these islands! Provided jobs, created charities.”
“Everyone knows you’ve come here to exploit vulnerable people and make them do bad things, Tane. Nobody’s falling for your philanthropy act.”
“And you know what seems fitting? For someone like you to go out with a bang. And you know what this island is really good at? Fireworks. They’re like the island’s favorite pastime.”
His eyes grow wide. “Please, no.”
“But you love fireworks, Tane. Didn’t you spend over a million dollars at your company’s fourth of July bash? And didn't you ignore that the fireworks factory you commissioned them from went up in a blaze and killed all the workers?”
“Well, yes… but that didn’t mean I want to be a firework myself. And as for the workers, that's just part of doing business.”
“Come on, don’t be so selfish,” says Brick. “Appease the masses. After all you’ve put them through, the only fitting thing is for you to go out this way. In a way that nobody will ever forget. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted, anyway, Tane? To leave a legacy?”
“Yes,” he splutters, “but not like this.”