Taking Over the Dark (High Stakes Syndicate #2)

Chapter 38

THIRTY-EIGHT

ZAMIR

Arben explains, “He has to be in some kind of bunker, or he’s keeping his phone in a Faraday bag… we haven’t heard or seen a goddamn thing since he got back in the city after killing Vito.”

Marcello and I got Alex and Arben out of their locked rooms early this morning, and we’ve been working with Noah to figure out where my dad could be. And we haven’t had any luck figuring out where he is. I know he can’t have any allies here in Vegas. People aren’t stupid enough to cross Marcello, but I know he didn’t head back to Chicago, either. Alex made a coast-wide announcement that he’s now the head of the Prifti family business due to his father’s tragic passing, and with that announcement came a picture of my dad with a price on his head.

Alex had everything in place for when his dad and mine inevitably fucked up, knowing it was needed to protect our family name and the people of his city. Trafficking has slowed down heavily in Chicago from what we’ve heard, and understanding the cause is from Vito and Agron being gone hits me hard in the chest. Plus, the pipeline for the Russians being shut off from Marfa’s dad being taken out here makes my soul hurt for the families that have been affected by everyone running the tracking ring.

Noah and Arben have been searching CCTV footage from all over the city, with no hits coming back with matches.

I’ve given up at this point, doom scrolling socials when my phone vibrates with a call.

My fucking father’s name pops up.

Or whoever may have him or his phone at this point.

I wave my phone screen to everyone in the room, and Noah and Arben are tapping away, trying to pinpoint where he’s calling from.

? * I slide to accept the call. “Hello.”

“Zamir? It’s your dad.”

What the hell is he talking about? “Yeah, I have your number saved…”

“Are you okay?” Why is he suddenly acting like he cares?

Marcello’s brows pull together, so I ask my dad, “What do you want? Or the bigger question, what have you done?”

My dad’s quick to quip, “Nothing.” Noah gives me a nod that they have his location, so I’m about to hang up and head straight to him to slit his goddamn throat, but he starts to say something. “I’m sorry, Zamir…”

I sit here in silence, letting his words sink in. But I’m quick to remember every minuscule bad thing he’s ever done to me or someone I love.

“No you’re not. You don’t have the capability to be sorry.”

“How can I show you that I am?”

My eyes widen to Marcello, and he starts pointing to the ground.

“Meet me. I need to see you and your expressions.”

“Send me the address.”

And with that, I hang up and send the address to the warehouse over to him.

Marcello’s brows are pulled so high, touching the few pieces that have fallen to the front of his face. “Do you think he’s dumb enough to come here alone?”

“I would’ve said no a few days ago… but I truly don’t think anyone’s dumb enough to be standing beside him anymore. But just in case, we need everyone here, strapped and ready.”

And that’s precisely what we do.

Marcello calls in the inner circle to come to the warehouse immediately. As they all come in, we’re handing out weapons and bulletproof vests like they’re candy and watching CCTV footage for any movement on Agron.

Noah announces, “We’ve got movement ten minutes out. He’s coming out of a motel.” It enrages me that he’s been ten minutes away this entire time. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s with him.”

Shaking my head, I wonder out loud, “He must have known he was a sitting duck there, and he had fucked over one too many people.”

Marcello walks up to me as we’re standing at the front lobby of his big-ass warehouse. “Are you okay to deal with your dad? I can handle it all if you need me to.”

“I need to do this. I need to finally tell him I’ve known how bad of a person he was my whole life. Finally speaking on what has plagued my mind since leaving for college all those years ago.”

I still can’t fathom how a father doesn’t want anything but the best for his kid, but not all parents need to be parents, I guess…

He pulls up in an old beat-up car, and I smile because Arben froze all of his accounts, so he would have to come out of hiding eventually. He’s getting to experience life the way many Americans have to live, and it sure as hell looks like it’s taken a toll on him.

Agron—my own father—looks decades older. I’m staring into his eyes as he makes his way up to the building. This man brought no one else with him.

He has no one else.

I rub the Barone family brand over my heart, knowing that’s the family I truly belong to. Opening the door, I yell over my shoulder, “I’ll be fine. I’m going to talk to him.” The growl I hear come from Marcello is all the warning I need that he’ll be right behind this door when it shuts.

I come face to face with the man who raised me.

Trained me.

Then turned his back on me.

I wipe a hand down my face. “This is all too anticlimactic. I’m bored. You did all this stupid shit, trying to get all the power and money you thought you deserved, and now you’re just handing yourself over?”

“What else was I supposed to do? I burned every bridge I had, happily, even the one leading to you. I’ve run out of money and have nothing else in me.”

“Do you think I’m going to let you go after hurting me and so many people I love? No. I’m not, so why not just kill yourself?” The shock on his face is telling me all I need to know about the true delusion he’s living in. He really thinks I’m going to spare his life. “Do you not know what this is leading to? Why not flee the country? I’m sure folks back home would’ve taken you back.”

“I… I don’t kn?—”

I cut him off by raising my hand. “I actually don’t give a fuck. You took the two people in my life and caused them massive amounts of harm for what? For your gain, of course. It ate you alive that I stepped up outside of our family and made something of myself. Something that you couldn’t do.” I let him sit on that for a minute, then keep going, “You’re not supposed to be jealous of your own kids. But you are, and you couldn’t handle it. You’re a deeply jealous human. You have to know when you have enough, but you don’t have that capability.”

“I owed bad people, a lot of things.” His head hangs between his shoulders, rightfully so.

“You would sell out your kid and everyone he loves rather than yourself?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“No, it didn’t cross your mind to give yourself up. You’re a pathetic, power-hungry, sorry excuse for a human. You put yourself into these positions of owing these people things. You’ve hurt plenty of people, and your karma is your organs keeping a lot better humans alive.”

The confusion lining his features is the last thing I see before I nail him with a right hook to the jaw that I’ve been waiting my whole life to land. That one hit seals the end of my fathers life in my eyes. There’s nothing he could’ve said to change my mind about him needing to die. He’s caused way too much pain in one lifetime to continue.

He buckles, crumbling to the ground, and Marcello’s out the door checking to make sure I’m okay. And I’ve never been more proud of being in love with the organ-harvesting mafia don himself.

* ? Karma Police - Pierce The Veil