Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Dante
The stench of blood, piss, charred flesh, and fear fills the warehouse situated on the outskirts of Boston. The carcass hanging on a hook from the ceiling is unrecognizable. You can barely guess it belonged to the homo sapiens species.
The door opens. Bright sunlight and a breath of clean, fresh air spill into the gloomy interior.
Sav steps over the threshold and quietly closes the door behind him.
He didn’t have to come, but he flew in from New York City anyway, using the opportunity to check on the money laundering business we run at a nearby cement factory.
He nods at Kent, who stands aside with his hands folded in front of him, and slowly walks over, inspecting the piece of meat dangling under the bare lightbulb.
He doesn’t as much as blink, but he flinches when he moves his gaze over me. “Jesus, Dante.”
I don’t have to look in a mirror to know I’m soaked in blood. It’s all over my face and has drenched my clothes and shoes. Many men in our circles believe the reason I can chop off body parts without showing a stitch of reaction is because I lack emotions.
That’s not true.
I experience feelings with overwhelming intensity. I just know which ones matter to me and which ones are worth my energy. The rest doesn’t faze me.
Take this piece of scum I turned into carpaccio, for instance.
Now him I cared nothing about. His screams and pleas did nothing for me except bring me great satisfaction.
What I did have strong feelings about was what he’d done to Tatiana.
Those emotions were powerful enough for me to snuff out his life slowly and painfully, until he told me everything I wanted to know.
Admittedly, he did confess quickly. He wasn’t a loyal man working for someone he wanted to protect.
He was just a lowlife fucker operating for money.
The fact that his tongue loosened at the first swipe of my blade didn’t stop me from working on him through the night, torturing him to his last filthy breath.
I was planning on prolonging his suffering for a month or longer, for exactly as long as Tatiana took to heal after he hit her in the face, but the coward gave out quickly.
Sadly, despite resuscitating him several times, his heart finally failed.
The bastard I caught in Detroit didn’t last much longer either.
Sav exhales slowly. “Did you find out what you wanted to know?”
I smile. “More than I was bargaining on.”
He juts his chin at the corpse. “Mercenary?”
“Freelancer. And not a very good one at that. Figures, considering how cheap his rates were.”
Sav shoves a hand in his pocket. “Teszner? He seems like a man who can’t afford proper rates.”
“Exactly.” I grind my molars together. “Same goes for the man I took down in Detroit.”
Sav considers that for a moment. “I assume he didn’t want his sister back because he missed her.”
“He promised he’d give the first man to return her to him a million from the money the necklace would’ve brought.”
Sav chuckles. “Definitely cheap, considering.”
Yeah. That necklace is worth hundreds of millions.
He looks at me. “What now?”
“Now I know what I’m up against.”
“Teszner will do everything in his power to get his sister back in his clutches.”
“He won’t succeed.”
“If you care about her, he better not.” He seems mildly intrigued. “How did they find her when your bounty hunters failed? Aren’t those men you hired supposed to be the best?”
“They are. Teszner must’ve had a hunch that Tatiana was going to run.
The motherfucker knew she was pregnant.” He knew all these years, yet he didn’t tell me.
He’ll pay not only for what he did to Lee but also for hiding that knowledge from me and for sending these men after Tatiana.
“He bugged a stuffed toy Tatiana’s mother had bought for the baby.
” I bet my life it’s that dinosaur. “The idiot put a tracker chip that works without a battery in one of the eyes. He obviously didn’t think his plan through because the chip recharged with kinetic energy like the ones wildlife conservationists use for tracking animals.
A stuffed toy isn’t something an adult moves constantly.
It’s something that sits on a bed or that a baby sleeps with.
A child who’s old enough to walk may carry it around the house, but it’s inevitably going to be stationary for longer periods.
Maybe that’s why the tracker signal was unstable.
” I wave at the corpse. “They only managed to get a signal a couple of times. It vanished completely two years ago. The bug either died or got destroyed.”
I’ve got my money on the latter. I wouldn’t be surprised if Teszner did such a bad job in sewing the eye back on that it dropped off at some stage.
The chip could’ve been washed down a drain or flattened by a shoe.
If my guess about the dinosaur is right, that would certainly explain the toy’s missing eye.
Sav shakes his head. “Idiot.”
“Yep.”
He motions at Kent. “He’s surprisingly clean.”
“This was personal.”
“And you’re surprisingly calm.”
I shrug. “The kill is over.”
Tilting his head, Sav studies me. “Sometimes, Dante, I think you have DID.”
“Are you slapping labels on me, Sav?” I grin. “That’s not nice.”
“You must have a split personality if you can swing between this in the morning,” he motions at the rusted meat hook that squeaks as its charge sways back and forth, “and acting the perfectly eligible pretty boy bachelor at all those black tie parties in the evening.”
“Fuck you, Sav.” He knows I hate it when he calls me pretty. “You’re not any better.”
“Do you need help with the cleanup?”
“I’ve got it under control.”
“Detroit?”
“Already handled. The loser I took down there was a loner. He wasn’t affiliated with any organization we need to worry about.”
He reaches out to pat my shoulder but must think the better of it because he drops his hand and simply says, “Take care,” as he struts away.
I nod at Kent. “Let’s get out of here.”
He hands me a cloth to wipe my face and holds open a plastic bag in which I dump the gloves I peel from my hands.
I hose myself down with freezing cold water in the onsite area where the meat processing used to take place, wash my hair, scrub my body and nails with a strong disinfectant, and dress in clean clothes and shoes.
The cleanup team is already at work when Kent and I leave. I prefer to go straight back to Tatiana, but I never leave a site until I’m certain the team in charge of getting rid of the evidence has done a good job.
We spend the night in the safe house we keep in Boston.
The next morning, I inspect the abattoir.
Sav owns the non-operational plant. It hasn’t been used as a slaughterhouse in years.
Well, not for animals. Sav claims to have bought the old factory for investment purposes.
He’ll make good money when he sells it to the property developers who are planning on constructing a luxury hotel on the site.
Just as well the guests won’t know what went down here when they put their heads on their goose feather pillows.
Satisfied that the team did a thorough job, Kent and I head for the airport to meet my pilot.
On the way there, I stop at a sports outlet store.
I’m in a rush to get to Denver, and it’s not only because I’m eager to move forward with my plans.
It’s got a lot to do with a small boy who’s waiting for me and a woman who’d rather never see me again.
It’s early afternoon when we land in Denver. I send Kent to rest at the hotel where my men are checked in while I go straight to the house where Tatiana works. I go around the back first, knowing I have a good chance of finding Noah in the yard.
Reino and Ulysses stand under the tree, their postures relaxed but their eyes vigilant. Ted is patrolling the perimeters of the property.
“Boss.” Reino nods in greeting. “They’re inside.”
I go through the back door. Noah sits at the kitchen table with his storybook about the yellow plane open in front of him, swinging his legs as he looks at the pictures. I dismiss the two men who guard the door, telling them to take a break.
Noah’s face lights up when he sees me. He jumps off the chair and runs over before throwing himself into my arms.
“Dante!”
I pick him up and hug him to me. He wraps his small arms around my neck, holding on so tightly he nearly strangles me.
“Easy, buddy.” I loosen his hold and tickle his stomach, which makes him giggle. “You’re like an anaconda.”
“You’re back,” he says with obvious relief.
“Of course I am. I said I would be, didn’t I?” I put him down. “Where’s your mom?”
“In the basement. Jazz is washing the floors. I’m not allowed to walk on them until they’re dry.”
I ruffle his hair. “I thought you’d be playing in the yard.”
He averts his gaze. “I was waiting for you.”
“Hey.” I lift his chin with a finger. “I’ll never lie to you.”
“Lying is bad.”
“That’s right. It sounds as if your mom taught you good values.”
He makes big, innocent eyes. “She says I’m not allowed to speak with food in my mouth.”
“That’s good manners.”
“Do you have good manners, Dante?”
“Depends,” I mutter with a smile.
He studies me. “Where did you go?”
“To a different city.”
“A big one with smelly streets and broken windows?”
It bugs me that he knows that part of a city, but my smile stays in place. “Kind of. I brought you back something.”
He drags in a breath. “You did?”
“It’s in the car.” I hold out a hand. “Shall we go get it?”
He wraps his tiny fingers around mine. It’s one of those moments where I experience emotions intensely, where warmth spreads through my chest, and I want to burn the memory into my mind so that I can revisit it forever.