Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33
L ost Monsters
Michael
Five months later …
Uri has asked us to come to America. He wants to introduce us to his wife before the baby is born. I think he has made a mistake. His wife was right on our property, and he chose to keep us hidden.
I know who his wife really is. She is one of us. A hitter.
At times, I have wished Sim could be by my side in all of this. Then I realize how ridiculous that is. This darkness shouldn’t belong to anyone.
“I may not have a choice,” I mutter to myself.
I may have to go to America. Italy has been compromised. Leonardo has gotten too close to our home.
He is forcing my hand. I will either have to reveal myself or I will be revealed. This vise grip and my confusion about what happened with Symphony have strained my vision.
It feels like I no longer have a purpose. I feel nothing. Bitterness always fills me.
I’ve been lost since the day Sim left without a word. Leonardo kept me from running after her. He had me ambushed the day I decided to head to Boston for answers.
Sim wouldn’t answer my calls. I had no idea what I did wrong. However, after the attack, I knew her leaving was for the best.
It happened between the properties, so I couldn’t be sure if it was an attack meant for me or Uri. The real supposed husband of Symphony. Now that Uri is married to a Caprisi, this cover we have kept will be blown soon.
I’m infuriated with the situation. Not that my brother has found happiness, but the fact that his new life threatens all I have been protecting for the last fourteen years. Now, I move with rage.
It’s only been five months, but I have been on a warpath during this time. Leonardo has only fueled my rage and the fire building inside. If I can’t get to him, I will kill everyone he sends and anyone connected to them until they give him up or give me the proof I need for the families to okay his kill.
These German bastards are only the latest victims he has sent my way. It wasn’t hard to find them. Their arrogance led me straight to them. I enter the old run-down hideout I’ve followed them to from the bar.
To sit in one of my cities and speak so freely of your crimes is like buying the Grim Reaper a first-class ticket to your funeral. You might as well go running through the streets screaming silenzio . I don’t think they know they have been calling my fucking name, but I’m here to answer.
Pulling my gun with the silencer already in place, I shoot out the lame surveillance cameras they have in place. Then, like a thief in the night, I move through their hideout like a freight train. I hit hard and fast. There are about twenty of them to one me, but you wouldn’t know that by the time I have the last one by the back of his hair as I walk him through the carnage I’ve left behind.
“Please, I have son,” he says in a heavy Czech accent.
“Not German,” I murmur to myself.
“No, I get job through cousin smuggling in Germany. He runs with Germans. I come along to drive. I know nothing more.”
“That’s a shame. I hope your son learns to make better choices from his next father.”
With that, I blow his brains out and drop him in front of the door I came in through. I double back to a room on the second floor that grabbed my attention. There is blood everywhere.
As I walk into the room in question, the sound of someone gasping for breath fills the air. I grab the case I noticed then turn to put a bullet through the head of the gasping bastard leaning against the wall. Stepping over another body, I leave as quickly as I came in.
Symphony
“Shit, Sim. How do you plan to get out of this one?” Adriano hisses through the comm.
His assistance was needed for this job. I don’t normally take jobs like this one, but I needed to get out some of this pent-up frustration. I miss Michael.
All I could think about when I woke up on his chest in that bathtub was Ellen Mairettie’s words. I’ve done some more research on the woman and found she’s from a family of Gypsies.
A few of them are known for fortune-telling to the underground world. Before meeting Ellen, I don’t think I would have subscribed to such things, but now I refuse to play with Michael’s life to find out the truth from experience.
“Answer me. Are you okay in there?” Adriano demands.
I sigh and roll my eyes. If I’m supposed to be hiding, how can I answer? And people talk to me and treat me like I’m slow.
I roll my eyes again. I’m going to have to fight my way out before he storms his way in here and gets us both killed. Now I wish I had come on my own.
The dojo beneath me holds my three targets, but they have security with them. This shouldn’t be the case. I was told it would only be the three.
Looking through the vents, my eyes land on the wall of weapons. If I can get to it, I can get out of here. I will need to disarm the big guys first and then take on the targets.
This might be the challenge I need. I have never truly tested my combat skills other than in training with Uri and Adriano. However, these three are masters.
I had planned to use bullets to take them out from a distance. Now, if I speak to let Adriano know that I’m okay, I will lose the element of surprise and I’ll be cooked. If I take action and attack, I will need my bullets for the guards, not the targets.
I don’t know how I got into this situation. This client will have a lot to answer for. I will never work for them again.
As silently as I can, I move through the vent to the other side of the room where the weapons wall sits. I hold my breath, hoping not to make a sound over their heads.
I shift my body in the small space so I can slide instead of crawl. I already know the vents are thin and the sound carries. It was the first thing to grab my attention from the time I entered them.
“Sim, I’m coming in. If you can hear me, hang tight. I’m on my way.”
I hold in a groan. I don’t need him to charge in here. I can handle this. Ugh, this is why I work alone.
I purse my lips and release an annoyed breath. Here goes nothing. Reaching the vent, I pull my gun and drop down through the opening. Landing in a crouch, I take out the first two big guys—one to the head, two to the chest.
Not taking a moment to think about it, I then put down the other two. One of them gets a shot off before I drop him. The bullet hits the wall behind me. Unfortunately, the shot rings out, alerting the others outside.
Two more rush into the room, I take them both out then drop my gun. I need to get to the weapons behind me. The three targets snap into action, ready to take me on as they get into fighting stances.
“I don’t know who you are or who sent you, but you have come to die,” the first woman says.
I grin before I turn and run at the wall to my left. I use my momentum to walk the wall and get to the swords I have my sights on. I grab the hilts of the two I want and flip down to my feet.
One of the targets laughs at me. “Do you know who we are? You will be dead in seconds. I won’t even bother to remove my coat for you.”
I chuckle back. “I didn’t ask you to. I know who you all are. It will be an honor to take your lives.”
I have slowly moved into the center of the room as they have begun to surround me. I channel the anger I’ve been feeling since the morning I had to leave Michael in Italy.
I drop into a pose with the swords held out before me. They have begun to circle me like I’m the prey. From the sound of it, Adriano entered the building as he promised.
I need to finish here to help him. These three women have earned this death. They have lied to families, promising to give their daughters a better life.
Instead, they have used the poor girls to traffic them. One of the families had someone contact me and offer to pay the fee to make these women disappear. Because of the masters they are in the arts, not many were willing to take the job.
I fear no one. If you deserve to die. I will make sure I do my job.
The music starts to play in my head, and I begin to dance. I am abrupt and smooth as I move through their attacks and dodge their blows. I move swiftly as I swing up and cut through the center of the smallest one. She reaches for her open chest right as I spin and bring the other blade across her throat.
“One down, two to go. I believe I have made it at least a minute already,” I taunt.
The final two begin to work together. I move fluidly like the ballerina I am. Dipping back, I avoid a kick as the tallest one’s leg glides over my body.
When I come up, I slash behind her leg. She drops to her knees. I spin quickly and bring my blades up to block as the other now has a set of blades from the wall.
She is fast and fluid, but I am faster and more careful. She tries to back me down as the other one tries to rise back to her feet. I block her and force her to go on defense.
“You are skilled. I would have loved to be your teacher,” she says.
I grin before I spin and bring one blade across her body and the other across her center, separating her torso from her legs.
“No,” the last one cries. “Who sent you? How dare you?”
“How dare you?” I snarl. “They are all little girls. Why would you hurt them?”
“We only did what the world would someday do? It was done to us. We treat them better than we were treated.”
“All the more reason for you not to show them such a fate.”
With that, I move forward. I spin around her as she tries to fight me. This time, I slice through the backs of both knees, dropping her to the floor.
Spinning out on my toes, I then leap into the air and spin back in her direction. Her head is bowed as if in surrender. I take it for the respect that it is.
They fought hard. They didn’t make it easy on me. I just danced with grace and fought with skill. I did my best.
I land at the same time that her head falls from her body and rolls across the floor. Chest heaving, I stand and take a bow. This job is done.
I smile and turn to leave, finding Adriano standing right outside the door, shaking his head at me. I shrug my shoulders and start to walk out.
“You never needed me, did you?”
“No, Andiamo .”