Chapter 27
MATTEO
I couldn’t even enjoy killing that asshole, Louis, because all I could think about was finding her, finding Robby. If she’s dead, I may as well be too.
I’m back in the van, the night still fitted over the sky as I drive on a long, empty stretch of the road, the tracker long abandoned. The light changes to green and I turn a sharp right, too sharp, almost crashing into a tree I didn’t see.
I curse under my breath as the van jerks, before I step on the gas, a black pickup truck honking at me from behind. I stop, letting him pass, and he throws me a middle finger.
I drive on, the cigar shop only half a mile away according to the GPS. I’ve got more fire power than I could ever need, and with my fighting skills, I hope I can take whoever is holed up there. I’m wishing it’s Faro and Agnelo so I can kill them both.
A few minutes later and I’ve arrived, driving around the block once I see the place. It’s on a corner, huge empty lot, and the only other place in the area is a closed deli across the two-way street.
Parking half a block away, I step out of the van, lifting my hoodie and keeping my head down as I walk, hoping no one recognizes me.
Heading into the parking lot, I find two white vans and a black SUV parked all the way at the end.
The place is pitch black, except for one streetlamp illuminating the lot.
I step around the cigar shop, peering through the small window, seeing three faces inside, but no one I know.
Two of them count a large stack of cash, while another is smoking.
My hand grips the door handle, trying to see if it’ll turn.
Once it does, I let go. Removing a pistol from my waistband and a flip knife from my pocket, I keep both close as I look through the window again.
Aiming the gun at the one smoking, I slowly pull the trigger until the bullet cracks through the glass, puncturing him right in the temple.
“What the… Sonny?”
That’s when I rush in.
Pop.
Pop.
They fall fast, their bodies hitting the floor, the faint sound of my footsteps near them.
One is dead, blood seeping from the center of his chest, while the third stares up at me with fear in his eyes, his hand trembling with the gun in his palm.
A round circle of crimson saturates his white t-shirt around his stomach.
“Who a-are you?” he asks.
“A friend.” A smirk pulls at my mouth.
When he fires a shot at me, I duck, hitting him with one in the thigh.
“Ahhh!” His weapon clacks to the ground and he attempts to cover the hole in his leg, trying desperately to cling to the life he’ll no longer see.
“Where’s Aida? Where did Agnelo send her?”
“I—ahh…” he stammers with a jerk of his body.
“Tell me!” I growl, stamping into his leg wound.
“S-sold her to someone. No names. Didn’t tell us.”
“Has he been here? And don’t fucking lie!” I dig my heel into him.
“No, man. I s-swear.”
“Fuck!” I roar, smashing a fist into my temple.
“I need to know where the hell Agnelo is, and if you don’t tell me…” I stomp my sneaker over his hand, pushing so hard, he screams. “Things are gonna start getting even worse for you.”
He cries, unable to catch his breath as I remove my foot.
“Okay, then.” I pop him with another bullet into the other thigh.
“I can do this all fucking day. They have no idea I’m here.
So talk or I keep shooting.” I flip the knife in my hand.
“Or cutting.” I lower the tip of the blade into his dick.
“I’d do anything for her, so you better tell me where the hell your boss is, or I’m gonna start cutting. ”
The blade pierces his balls and he gasps with desperate inhales.
“W-warehouse. Hiding. Please, don’t cut my dick.”
“Address.”
“Fifty-six Main Street, right on the corner of Smith. Ca-can’t miss it,” he stammers, lost to the pain.
“You better be telling the truth.”
“I am, man. Please let me g—”
“The only place you’re going is hell.” With a single bullet into his head, he stops talking.
I gather all the money, stuffing it back into the black bag beside it, taking it with me, along with the weapons.
If I can take everything from the Bianchis, I will. I’ll start with their lives. It’s time the reaper pays them a visit.
When I get to the warehouse, the last thing I expected was to join a gunfight that had already started.
The only good thing about that is no one notices me.
I blend well with the men here, some of them in black hoodies like me.
There are two women here too, and I can see Agnelo holding one around her throat.
Figures the coward would get some innocent woman involved in his war.
A man comes at me and I kick him in the stomach, dropping him with a bullet in his chest. I have no fucking time to figure out who the hell anyone is. If they come at me, they’re getting killed.
I find a spot behind a steel beam and watch the rest of the fight, waiting for my chance to get Agnelo. That’s all I’m here for. But I won’t kill him. Not yet. Not until Aida and Robby are safe.
One of the guys in the hoodie throws a man off him, his green eyes so damn bright, for one second, it’s like I’m staring at my big brother Dom. He and Enzo, they had the same colored eyes. The greenest shit you’d ever seen. Damn coincidence.
“Don’t, Jade!” another shouts, and before I realize why, a bullet fires from a tall blonde woman’s weapon, aimed at Agnelo.
“Fuck!” I groan, hoping the bastard doesn’t die. But instead, it hits the woman trapped in Agnelo’s grasp. She falls, just as Agnelo runs, pointing his pistol at the guy who now has eyes set on him.
But he won’t get him because I will. Once he kicks Agnelo’s weapon away, throwing him to the ground, he plants a foot over the asshole’s stomach.
“Finally. I get to kill you,” he tells the man who tortured Aida and me our whole lives. This is our kill though. It doesn’t belong to whoever the hell this guy is.
Without anyone noticing me, I come out, the barrel of my gun pressing into the back of the guy’s head. “Put your gun down. He’s mine.”
He snickers. “Nah, man. You must be confused.” He pivots to me in one quick motion, like he’s not afraid to die. And his eyes, they're the same color green as the other ones.
I ignore the unnerving feeling punching me in the gut, concentrating on what I need to do to find Aida.
Annoyance settles behind my eyes, and fuck, I wanna kill this guy bad. He’s smug as hell and I’d love to rearrange his face until he stops looking at me like he is right now. Like he can take me.
But something suddenly shifts, his brows bending as he focuses his entire attention on me. He stares like he’s trying to piece something together that doesn’t fit right, like when Aida and I would do those crossword puzzles she loves.
“Who the hell are you?” His question splits open the silence as his eyes grow large, as though he knows the answer to his own question.
But that would be crazy. No one knows who I am.
I’m a kid long forgotten, erased from history.
Memories of me long vanished like I never existed at all.
I matter to no one but her, and now, I’ve lost her too.
I suck in a slow inhale, and my eyes revert to the man I’m truly after. Agnelo. My gun rises toward his head.
“Ahh, there he is,” Agnelo taunts with a sneer. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Well, you found me.” My reply is calm, but inside, the wrath pounds as though trying to escape the cage I’ve built around it, needing to satiate its desire for revenge against the man who took everything from me.
Once I find her, I’ll rip him limb by limb. He’s going to know what suffering is, and he’ll die while enduring it. Sometimes, an eye for an eye is the best medicine.
“Tell me where she is,” I whisper-shout. “Where the hell did you send her?”
I tune the others out, now coming to stand around us. There are four of them in all, plus the two women.
Who the fuck are these guys?
“Tsk, tsk.” Agnelo chuckles, and even on the ground, this fuck thinks he’s got the upper hand. “You’ll never find her. Stupid kid. I told you, she’ll never be yours. When will you finally listen?”
I roar with a growl, the butt of my gun popping him right in his temple.
“She’s your fucking daughter and you sold her?
To who?” I know he’s not her father, but she was his daughter in every sense of the word.
He was supposed to protect her. She was just a child when he stole everything from her.
The least he could’ve done was keep her safe, but Agnelo is the devil, and the devil has no soul.
“Are you looking for Aida?” the guy asks, and I instantly look at him again, my pulse racing.
“How the hell do you know her? Have you seen her?”
“No, man. I’m sorry. But if you need help, my brothers and I, we can help you find her.”
Brothers. I once had those too.
I stiffen my jaw. “I work alone.”
Staring back at Agnelo, I’m ready to get him out of here so he can tell me where the hell Aida is.
“This is so beautiful.” A synthetic smile crosses Agnelo’s face. “Reunited at last and they have no idea. I only wish my brothers were still alive to witness this miracle.”
My body breaks with a cold wave, a subtle awareness filling the space around me.
What is he talking about? Who are they? His brothers are dead?
“What the fuck is going on?” the guy asks, equally confused.
“Why don’t you tell them who you are?” Agnelo stares hard at me before glancing at each of the people here.
Suddenly, the other one, who I first saw with the green eyes, he’s in front of me, his gaze narrowing as he circles me.
My heart throbs in my chest and that strong desire I had to kill them all just to get the man I want, is slowly fading. The more I look at him, the more I realize something I never for one moment thought I’d find again.
Brother? Raw emotions clog up my throat. How’s this even possible? Is this really him?
Dom?
The questions spin in my head. Fuck. It’s like I’m back to being that little kid again, wanting his big brother to hold his hand and tell him he’s going to always protect him.
Because that’s what Dom did for me. He protected me with everything he had.
At school, at the playground, he was ready to beat anyone who messed with me.
And here he is after fifteen fucking years. But I can’t seem to ask, how after protecting me for so long, how he could give up on me. How could he trade me for his own safety? Because that’s not the brother I remember.
“No…” His intake of breath sharpens with the slow shake of his head. It hits him then, who I am. His face twists with a bout of sadness, his brows furrowing. “It can’t be.” A palm runs over his mouth while his eyes don’t leave mine. “I watched you d—”
I attempt to steady my nerves, my breaths intensifying the more he stares. When I dart my gaze to the others, a heaviness sinks into me. The other guy with the green eyes… I can’t believe I hadn’t realized it as soon as I saw him.
Enzo.
I push down all these damn feelings clawing at me. I can’t be weak. I can’t let them know how much they hurt me, what abandoning me had done.
I cock the pistol at Agnelo.
“Who is that, Dom?” the dark-eyed one asks, swiping his hair away from his forehead.
I drag in a breath, my heartbeats slamming into my rib cage, realizing the man who just spoke is Dante. He has to be. He’s a lot bigger, but if I look at him enough, I can see it. It’s him.
They’re all here. But why?
“Don’t you recognize your own brother?” Agnelo sniggers, his shoulders rocking.
“Br-brother?” Enzo speaks low. “It can’t be.” He looks straight into my eyes and I can see the realization branding on his features. “Fucking hell.”
Dante comes over to stand beside Dom, his jaw straining as he examines me up and down, muttering a curse.
“Matteo?” Dom’s voice curls with a strain. “Is that really you?”
“Surprise!” Agnelo announces, flipping his hands in the air.
“H-how could you be here this whole time? Where have you been?” Dom stutters, his eyes still on me.
I try not to stare back. My heart, it can’t fucking take it. After all this time, seeing them again, it unravels me. They have no idea how damn hard it is not to ask them why? Why didn’t they search for me?
“He’s been with me this whole time,” Agnelo interrupts. “Isn’t that right, kid?”
“Tell me where she is!” I roar. That’s what matters now. Aida and Robby.
“You’re like a sad, little puppy.” He narrows his eyes with a harsh squint, trying to sit up but some other guy I don’t know pushes him back down. “She’s long gone by now. Probably in a different country.”
I let out a deep-chested growl, forcing the muzzle of the pistol to my own forehead.
She can’t be gone!
“Good luck finding her by yourself,” Agnelo tosses. “But if you want a shot at saving her, well, you’re going to have to take me out of here before your brothers end your chance of ever getting to her in time.”
Did you actually think I’d leave you here? Believe me, the stuff I’ll do to you will be far worse than whatever my brothers are capable of.
“Matteo, please,” Dom pleads. “Let us help you. Don’t fucking listen to him. All he ever does is lie.”
But I ignore him.
“Goddamn, Matteo. We’re your brothers.” Dante clasps me on the shoulder, but I shove it away. “We’ll help you find her.”
“I have no brothers.” I pierce him with a deadpan look.
The words slip out before I have a chance to realize if I even mean them.
But after so long of being alone, knowing I had no family who loved me enough to fight for me, I can’t pretend we’re family now.
“The best thing you can do is forget you ever saw me. I’m still dead where it matters. ”
I draw my gun at the one holding Agnelo down. “Tell your friend to move,” I tell Dom. “Agnelo is coming with me.”
With Dom’s permission, the guy steps back, letting Agnelo get up. I gradually edge toward him, clasping my arm around the back of his neck, the barrel of the gun against his temple.
When I drag him away, Enzo yells, “Wait! Don’t go. We love you, man. We never would’ve given up finding you if we knew you were alive.”
I jerk back at that confession, the weight of it slamming into me, my legs growing heavy. Unable to move. To breathe. They thought I…I was dead? I glance at each one of them.
My brothers.
And though that little boy inside me wants so badly to stay, to know the truth, the man I am now, he wants to save the love of his life more than he wants his family.
“I’m sorry.” Dom’s voice wavers. His expression is as broken as my heart, cracked to the very bone.
With one last glimpse at them, I bolt out of there, knowing if I stay another moment, I won’t be able to hold on to the mask of fury that’s keeping me from remembering how much I still love them.