Chapter Eighteen – Lee
I wiped the sweat from my brow, drew my fist back, and slammed another punch into his jaw.
Olivio -he’d pleaded for mercy, spilling his name, his home, all of it, before I’d lifted my fist - spun back in his seat, a spray of blood spattering the walls behind him – he let out a whimper of pain, but if he thought that was going to be enough to stop me, he had another thing coming.
”Tell us,” I growled to him, grabbing his collar, and yanking him upright. ”Tell us where the fuck Lombardi is, you piece of shit.”
He squeezed his swollen eyes shut, trying to draw his gaze away from me, and I let out a grunt and shoved him back down again.
It had been nearly two hours since I had started working on Olivio, and I was still no closer to shaking the truth loose from him. What the fuck was it going to take?
I shook out my fist and began to pace. I knew there were Dogs stationed everywhere around the city right now, waiting for me to feed them the information that they were waiting for – Olivio was the last man left alive from the raid on Lombardi’s place, the last of his crew still standing. At least that we had access to.
I had taken Chuck aside and told him that I wanted to be the one to get this information out of him – I hadn’t explained exactly why, but I figured he didn’t need to know the details.He could see from the look in my eyes that I meant it when I said I was perfectly capable of handling this, and he deferred to me without a second thought.
” Find out any hideouts that he knows off, any allies Lombardi has who might be putting him up right now,” he told me. ”I’ll have men all over the city. As soon as you get any information we can use, I’ll send them out to get Lombardi. Then we’ll bring him in and get him under control.”
I nodded curtly. I didn’t need any more encouragement. We were so close to finishing Lombardi for good. Just one more move, and he would be done. Shit, he was already on the ropes now, with his compound cleared out and his men gone. He was on the run, and he knew we had him right where we wanted him...
Now, it was just a matter of bringing this to an end. Once and for all. Leaving no room for him to fight back.
I grabbed Olivio’s collar once more and yanked him to me, glowering into his eyes. I could see the terror written all over his face, but it wasn’t enough – I needed more.
”You know who I am, don’t you?” I murmured to him. I noticed he walked with a limp when he arrived here, a sure sign that everything I did to him was still fresh in his mind. It gave me some twisted relief to know that he didn’t spend a day without remembering it, without remembering the extent I went to, to make him pay.
He nodded, slowly, as though he wished he had any other answer for me. I grinned at him, feeling like a shark, cutting through the water – ready to take out my prey.
”And you know what I did to you last time,” I reminded him, as I grasped his leg roughly, landing a hit below his knee. He winced again and nodded.
”If you think I’m going to let you walk away without giving me what I want,” I continued. ”You’ve got another thing coming. So, come on. Tell me what we need to know. And you can leave.”
His eyes slid to the door. I could tell he wasn’t certain if he could believe me, but I was willing to do what I could to convince him.
”Think about it,” I told him. ”A life after Lombardi. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
He nodded, slowly. I didn’t know if the exhaustion from the hours of beating was finally getting to him, or if he was just that much of a spineless fucking coward. I wouldn’t have put either past him.
”Then we want the same thing,” I pointed out. ”We can make this work, Olivio, I know we can. You just have to tell me where he’s hiding. That’s all we need from you.”
He gritted his teeth, trying to muster whatever bare ounce of strength he might have left in him.
”What do I get out of it?”
I almost laughed when he said that. As though he was in any place, any place at all, to sit there and strike a bargain. I caught him by the hair, yanking it back, drawing a yelp of pain from between his lips.
”You get to live,” I replied. ”You get to walk out of here with your life.”
”And if I don’t?”
I reached for the gun at my side and pressed it into his gut.
”Then this time, I won’t let you walk out with a bullet in your leg,” I murmured. ”I’ll put this thing in your mouth and paint the walls with your fucking brains.”
The blood – what was left of it, – drained from his face. He could tell I was serious. The rage was boiling inside of me, so intense it almost threatened to overtake me completely. But I knew I was getting close – edging, slowly, to him finally giving me what I needed. Just a little further, just a little more, and I would have it.
”And if I give you what you want...I walk?” he asked me. I nodded. It was a fucking lie, of course it was, but if it was what it took for him to give us what we needed, then so be it.
”I’m a man of my word, Olivio,” I replied. ”I think everyone deserves a second chance. Even after what you did.”
I spat that part out. I couldn’t believe I even had to play it like this, but I knew it was for the best. Just let him think there was a chance he could get out of this, and he would take that glimmer of hope and...
”There’s a safehouse, outside of Atwood,” he blurted out finally. My ears pricked up.
”Keep talking,” I ordered him, dropping my grip on his head to let him speak.
”Uh, I think it’s an old bottle factory?” he replied, furrowing his brow. ”Some soda company that operated out of the city or used to. Lombardi has some allies who own that place, and they offered it to him once, if he ever needed it. That’s the only place I can think of he might have gone-”
I turned on my heel before he could say another word and whipped my phone out, planting it to my ear as I speed-dialed my boss.
”Chuck?” I greeted him. ”Old soda factory, just outside the city. You know it?”
He paused for a moment, considering his answer.
”Shit, yes, I do,” he exclaimed. ”The King Pop company. I remember it. You sure that’s where he is?”
”That’s the best I’ve got for you right now,” I replied. ”Go check it out and tell me if the information’s good.”
”Will do,” he replied and hung up abruptly. I paced back and forth outside the room, listening to Olivio’s cries for help inside. I ignored them.
This was why I had left him alive all those years ago. It made sense to me now. Back then, I hadn’t taken the revenge I wanted because we needed him more now – needed him to bring an end to the suffering of so many women and girls around the city. But, if his information was good, I was going to snuff out his worthless little life once and for all – and, shit, I could hardly wait to make that happen.
My heart slammed against my chest as I waited for the callback. How long were they going to make me wait? I checked my phone repeatedly, silently urging it to ring, for Chuck to tell me whether this was over...
And then, finally, it did. My phone sprang to life, and I answered it at once.
”Chuck?” I barked expectantly down the line.
”We’re at the factory,” he told me. ”He’s here. We have him surrounded. The information was good – whatever you want to do to that fucker, Olivio, he’s all yours now.”
A grin spread over my face. Now, that was what I wanted to hear. Lombardi didn’t have the men to fight off the Dogs who were coming his direction, and I knew Chuck was going to finish him on the spot.
Which left me free to take care of Olivio.
I pushed the door open again as I hung up the phone, and locked eyes with Olivio again. He struggled against his bindings, gazing up at me with fear in his eyes – the same fear I felt when I saw his car swinging around the corner towards my daughter; I remembered it all too well.
”I gave you what you wanted, right?” he exclaimed. ”You can let me go now. Like you said”
”Do you really think I’m going to let you walk?” I taunted him, as I reached for the gun at my side.
”After what you did to my daughter, do you really think I’m going to let you walk?”
I lifted the gun and planted it against his head.
”Please, just give me a chance-”
”You didn’t give my daughter a chance,” I growled to him. ”You drove away and left her there to die. Who knows, maybe things would have been different if you stayed...”
I took a deep breath, steadying my hand.
”But you didn’t. And now, you’re going to pay for it.”
And, with that, I squeezed the trigger.