Chapter 26
DANTE
At the first sign of death, Agnelo ran. He’s too afraid of what we’ll do to him, and he should be. His death will be slow, unlike that of his brother, who’s currently lying on the concrete, too dead to tell us what we need to know. But we have a few of their men still alive, tied up on the chairs.
Enzo and I are too overcome with rage to let them die humanely. With Chiara in the hospital and our women being caught in the midst of danger, we’re going to make this as brutal as possible.
“If my brother Dom were here, it’d be a lot worse for you,” I tell a nameless man who’s bleeding from the top of his cheek, the thick gash seeping crimson thanks to my blade.
I clutch the blue handle of my knife, pacing around him slowly. The tip of the weapon edges to the side of his throat, licking upward.
“Tell me where they keep the kids, and I might consider being a little nicer.” I push the blade in deeper and pierce through the skin, making drops of blood drip down his neck.
“Not that nice, but still a lot better than torching your body while you’re still breathing.
I’d tell you to ask some of your friends how much fun that was, but… ”
I glide the knife down slowly, curving the angle of the blade around his Adam’s apple.
“Listen…” He coughs harshly before catching his breath. “I have no fucking clue about no kids. I swear it.”
I blow out an exaggerated breath, pacing over to Enzo, who has another man on a chair in front of him.
“I’m really disappointed, Ricky. I had high hopes for you.”
“My name isn’t Ricky.”
“Well, today, it is.” I glare, my eyes seeped in violent vengeance.
He shuts his mouth quickly.
Enzo hands me a torch while I place the blade down, picking up the red gasoline canister from behind him, where another two are waiting for us. Holding the container in my hand, I tread back to Ricky, placing it between his stretched legs.
“I have no patience, so you either tell me something valuable, or I burn you alive.” I switch the torch on as he pants, his eyes glued to the blaze of the flame: calm, yet dangerous.
“Please, man, I don’t kn—ahhh!” He screams as the fire incinerates through his shoulder, making the air reek in burning flesh.
I’m almost immune to it, that stench I can only describe as burning leather with a pinch of garlic. Sweet. Sickening. The unpleasant smell took a little time to get used to. It’s funny what a human mind can embrace when not given a chance to know otherwise.
“I know you know,” I warn as the torch lowers to his bicep, almost searing him there too. “Speak.”
“They…” he cries. “They told me nothing.”
“That’s too bad.” I lower the spark back to his body and let the fire tearing through his muscle speak for me.
His wailing and groaning only irritates me. I lift the canister and twist the cap off.
“Mmm, smell that?” I ask, inhaling the odor of gasoline. “I hope you love it.”
Then I flip the can and let the liquid pour down his body as my men move back.
“Please, don’t do this,” Ricky—or whatever the fuck his real name is—begs.
But I ignore him. They came for our women. They were going to kill them. For that alone, they will know death more painful than they’ve ever imagined.
Closing the canister, I drop it on the floor, along with the torch. Removing the matches from my pocket, I light one up, staring at the dancing flame and respecting its power before I toss it onto Ricky’s lap.
His screams are trapped within the roaring glory of orange flames, caught in his regret. He should’ve spoken. He knew. I know he did. But he was afraid of what the Bianchis would do to him or his family if he were to tell us.
I have no sympathy. We all make our own choices in this life, and his was to be a Palermo. This is his fate.
He stops screaming as death claims him, and I let the water hose wash away the rest of the blaze and find the charred flesh of the man who once sat there.
Moving to the other sack of shit next to Enzo, I get the torch and hand it to my brother.
“Do you see that?” I ask the man, turning his face sharply with my fist toward where his friend once sat. “That’s about to be you if you don’t give us the location.”
He wails as he glances at the destruction I enacted on good old Ricky.
“Okay. I’ll tell you.” He gulps. “I’ll tell you where the kids are kept. But once I do, promise you’ll just shoot me, man. I don’t want that to be me. Please!”
“You’d better not fucking lie to us,” Enzo warns, grabbing the front of his shirt and balling it roughly before coming face-to-face with him, his teeth gritted and bared.
“I’ll personally come after every member of your fucking family if you do.
Your mother. Your grandmother. Her fucking mother too, if she’s alive. We understand each other, pal?”
“I swear, man. I won’t bullshit you.” He shakes his head violently as Enzo backs away a couple of feet. “They’re sick. What they did—what they’re doing—is sick. I wanted no part of any of it. I never did. The kids. The club. None of it.”
“What club?” I pretend we have yet to hear about it.
His eyes widen, his lip bleeding from the kick Enzo gave him earlier.
“Speak!” I bellow, my punch flying out and hitting him square in his jaw. “You’d better not skip a fucking detail.”
It takes him a minute to catch his breath, and he mutters in pain before he opens his mouth again. “They’ve been taking kids and women for their sick sex club.”
My hand unintentionally balls into a fist as my muscles tighten. Every time I hear about that place, it makes me fucking insane.
“I swear I don’t know where it is. Only the members with a gold card and a spade on top of it know that info.
It has a phone number on it. They call it, and someone comes to pick them up and blindfolds them.
If anyone speaks about it, they’re automatically killed.
I heard about one guy who was offed and tossed into the river when he told his buddy about the place. ”
Enzo rushes toward the guy, removing a nine-mil from his holster and pointing it at the man’s temple. “What else?”
“Please don’t shoot me!” he cries. “I’m telling you everything, okay?”
Enzo backs away only a fraction.
“They’ve got this lawyer. Jo-Joey Russo,” he stammers. “He knows where it is. He’s a member. He knows everything. I’m telling you. You find him, you find all the answers.”
That’s what Joelle told Enzo too. But we can’t find that motherfucker anywhere.
“You said you knew where they’re keeping the kids. Spit it out.”
We need to find those children and women. To find Joelle’s boy. We need to save them all. Something we couldn’t do for our own brother or our parents.
“There’s a two-story building downtown where Joey has his office.
The whole building is his. The kids and women are in the basement, kept in cages.
It’s soundproof. Concrete walls and roof.
” He sucks in a quick exhale. “There’s a door that leads to the basement from the building lobby, but there’s also a cellar door on the corner in the parking complex. ”
“You knew all this and never reported it? Not even anonymously?” Disgust settles in my gut as my face turns with a snarl.
“You gotta understand, I didn’t want it to come back to me. They would kill my kids. Faro and his brothers will kill anyone who stands in their way. That club brings them a lot of money.”
“Who owns it?” I bark.
It sure as hell isn’t under the Bianchi name, because we would’ve found something registered to them besides the legit businesses we destroyed.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m guessing Joey, but I can’t be sure.”
Enzo plants the gun between his eyes, and the man rattles with a cry.
“Shit. Can I just call my kids and tell them I love them? Please? Let me say goodbye.”
Tears drip from his eyes, and for once, I feel sorry for him.
Enzo looks at me. Both of us are gripped in the past. I know he’s thinking what I am: how we never got to say goodbye to our father or our mother. How they were ripped away from us by a ruthless killer. How our brother never got to grow up.
But we can be better than that. We might not spare his life, but we can give him something we never got. I nod once at Enzo, and he returns the gesture.
“Where’s your phone?” I ask.
“Left pocket.”
I reach inside to retrieve it.
“I’ve got my wife’s number under ‘Sweetheart,’” he sniffles, crying harder.
The cell requires a fingerprint, so I place the screen on the index finger of his right hand at his back, and the phone unlocks.
I dial her number, putting the call on speaker. After three rings, she picks up.
“Hey, Anthony,” she says with exhaustion as the sound of screaming kids echoes in the background. “I’m making dinner. You gonna be home to eat?”
“I…uh, I don’t think so. Not tonight. I’ve got too much to do. I’m sorry.” His voice breaks in a silent sob as he takes a pause, sucking in a cry.
“What’s wrong? You sound weird.”
“Nah, all good.” He lets out a chuckle. “Just missed you. That’s all.”
“Okay?” Her response is marked by skepticism. “I miss you too. You sure you’re okay? Do I gotta beat anyone up?”
“Nah, baby. I’m all right. I love you.”
“I love you too, Ant. You come home soon.”
“I’ll do my best, babe. Can I say hi to the kids?”
“Yeah. Sure. Georgia! Runo! Get your butts off the damn couch!” she shouts. “Are you two crazy, jumping like that? You trying to break your neck?”
He laughs, tears streaming down his face.
“Your kids are driving me crazy, Ant.”
“Why do they have to be my kids when they act like that?” he laughs.
Fucking hell. I shouldn’t have let him call them. Killing a man when you hear the voices of his family is torture. But I know I had to give him this for what he gave us.
“Daddy! Hi! I miss you.” A little girl’s spunkiness comes on the line.
“Hey, princess. I miss you too. Stop giving Mommy a hard time, okay? She works too hard.”
“Okay, Daddy. I promise to be good.”
“That’s my girl.” He grins, the love for his kids evident in the glint of his eyes. “I love you so much. You have no idea.”
“I do know, Daddy. You always give me the tightest hugs and the best kisses.”
His eyelids glide shut as his features twist in pain. “Your brother there?”
“Yep. Here, Runo.”
“Hey, Dad.” The boy sounds maybe a few years older than his sister.
“Hey, buddy. I want you two to behave, okay? When I’m not there, you’re the man of the house, and you’ve gotta act like it. Help your mom and your sister. Make me proud like you always do.”
“Okay. I will. By the way, can we get burgers and fries after my baseball game tomorrow night?”
His tears quietly fall past his face and onto his lap.
“Yeah, sure, kid. Whatever you want. I love you so much. You and your sister have been the best thing me and your mother ever did.”
“I love you too, Dad. I’ll see you tonight. Georgia wants to draw with me, so I have to go.”
“Yeah, uh…okay.” He swallows hard, trying to keep his voice level. “Love you all.”
“Bye, Dad.”
Then the line cuts off and his sobbing comes louder as his head bows.
Enzo lifts his gun, aiming it at Anthony’s head, but my brother’s eyes are on mine and mine are on his.
“How old are your kids?” I ask.
“Georgia is four and Runo is almost eight.” He pulls his face up to me. “They’re good kids. Nothing like me. I don’t want them caught up in this life. We’ve done what we can to get them away from it.”
I glance at Enzo again, my mind fighting with what we should do and what I want to do. My brother can easily read my mind with just a look.
“You serious?” Enzo implores.
“I don’t know.” I shrug, completely warped with indecision.
“What?” Anthony’s focus darts from me to Enzo. “Please, don’t hurt my family!”
“We don’t hurt innocent kids.” My glare lands at him. “That’s what you and your people do.”
“I swear I wasn’t involved. I’m a piece of shit for not helping them. I know that. But if it meant protecting my own kids, then I had to do what I needed to. I’m sorry if you can’t understand that. But if it wasn’t for my babies, I’d get those kids out myself. I have my limits.”
There was a time when I’d never have considered letting a member of our enemy go, but fuck, I’m getting soft. Maybe it’s loving Raquel. Maybe it’s remembering the bond we had as a family. But the next thing I know, I’m using the knife in my hand and cutting off the binds at his wrists.
“What are you doin’?” His brows hunch over as his lips flutter in confusion.
“We’re giving you a second chance. Don’t make us regret it.”
“You…you’re letting me go?” he cries, falling onto the ground with his palms connected in prayer. “Thank you. Oh, God, thank you.”
“You have to get your family and get the hell out of New York. I don’t care where you go, but if I were you, I’d run and hope they can’t find you.”
I have a feeling that if they suspect we let him live, they’ll know he talked, and it’ll be lights out for everyone in his family.
“I swear. I’ll be gone. I’ll call my wife now, and we’ll leave immediately.”
He rises to his feet, wiping at the tears on his cheeks, interlaced with the blood from the cut on his face.
“Thank you for this. You’re honorable men. If there’s anything you ever need, I will help you.”
“We don’t need your help,” I say, handing him his cell. “Go. Now. Before we change our minds.”
He clasps his hands together again. “Thank you.”
Then he runs out of there like hell.
Enzo comes to stand beside me. “You think we did the right thing?”
I shrug. “I hope so.”