Chapter Nine
ORAZIO
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Anger coursed through Orazio’s veins as his mind raced, thoughts flicking from one dilemma to the next. Monique, Trevor, Meka, Toya, Cas, his father, and his uncle . There was so much for him to take care of, and he felt he wasn’t getting anything done.
At least not fast enough and not how he wanted to get things done. The med team had arrived and were taking care of Monique in the far corner of the warehouse. At the center of the establishment, Trevor was tied to a chair as Raz sat across from him, watching him.
Raz took in the bruises on Trevor’s face and his busted lip. Trevor blinked, his swollen eyes struggling to focus. Though the bastard’s face was covered in dark purplish bruises, Raz wasn’t satisfied. He felt he hadn’t put a good enough ass whipping on Trevor yet. He knew he hadn’t inflicted enough pain yet.
The darkness inside him wouldn’t be appeased until he’d made Trevor beg for his life at least a hundred times. However, Trevor had leverage: Monique’s friends . So, his darkness would have to wait.
“Where are they?” Orazio growled, his voice like gravel against pavement. He leaned forward, dark eyes locked onto Trevor’s.
Trevor smirked, blood oozing from his split lip. “I’ll tell you where Meka and Toya are if you let me go.”
Orazio clenched his fists, rage boiling within him. His mind raced through various ways to make Trevor suffer. Yet, he couldn’t act on any of them. Not yet. Just then, he heard a movement in the far corner of the warehouse where the med team worked diligently on Monique.
Though he told himself not to, Raz couldn’t help looking in that direction. Monique . She was so still. Her eyes were closed. But she was alive, and that was what mattered the most. For her sake, Orazio swallowed his anger and loosened his fists. He wouldn’t kill Trevor. Not yet.
“You actually love her, don’t you?” Trevor asked, speech garbled due to his busted lips. However, Orazio noticed the surprise that tinged his words.
“Don’t talk about her,” Raz growled, facing Trevor. “I want to talk about her friends. Where are they?”
“If I tell you right now, you’ll kill me. So, I want to negotiate a deal.”
This bitch . Orazio forced his anger down.
“Alright, let’s negotiate,” Orazio said, a dangerous edge to his voice. “What do you want in exchange for their lives?”
“I’m a simple man. And what I want is simple,” Trevor replied, attempting to sound confident despite his injuries. “Let me live, and give me the money the Don promised me. That’s all I want.”
As Trevor rattled off the amount he’d been promised, Orazio gritted his teeth, trying to contain the anger that threatened to consume him.
“I want one thing: Monique’s friends’ location. Yet, you’re asking for two: your life and money. Does that make sense to you?” Raz asked.
Trevor smirked, or at least he tried to. “Two lives are on the line. Seems fair to ask for two things in return.”
If Raz gritted his teeth any harder, he’d grind them to dust. Trevor’s audacity made Orazio want to slice the man’s throat right here, right now. He didn’t want to give Trevor anything, but he’d play along for now. For Monique’s friends, he would swallow his pride and indulge this piece of filth. But letting Trevor truly escape was another matter entirely.
“Fine,” Orazio agreed, his voice cold and restrained. “You have a deal.”
“That was easier than I’d thought,” Trevor managed, his smile more like a grimace.
Inside, Orazio seethed. This was far from over, and Trevor would learn that soon enough. No one crossed Orazio and lived to tell the tale. The bastard’s days were numbered, and each tick of the clock brought him closer to an inevitable and painful end. Trevor’s mangled grin only fueled Orazio’s burning hatred.
“Wire the money to me now. And I’ll contact you with Meka and Toya’s location once I’m away from this warehouse,” Trevor bargained.
“Absolutely not,” Orazio snarled. “You’re not leaving here until I have their location.”
“Look, they don’t have much time,” Trevor insisted, desperation creeping into his tone. “If you want them alive, you have to let me go. Now.”
He’d hoped the bitch would be stupid enough to reveal the duo’s location before leaving the building. Orazio’s anger surged. Fists clenched, he stood, eager to deliver another blow to Trevor’s battered face.
But Trevor’s words echoed in his mind. They don’t have much time . With a frustrated growl, he lowered his trembling fist. He’d have to let Trevor go for now, but Orazio vowed to hunt him down again.
“Fine, I’ll let you go now. But you don’t get the money until I get their location.”
Trevor started to shake his head.
“Or,” Raz added. “I can beat you to death right now and just tell Monique her friends didn’t make it.”
Trevor looked undecided for a moment. Finally, he nodded his head. “Deal.”
“Leave,” Orazio bit out, trying to ignore the bile rising in his throat at the thought of freeing this man. “But know this, you can’t run forever. I will find you again.”
“Sure, sure,” Trevor dismissed, though fear flickered in his eyes. “I’ll call you as soon as I’m safely away from here.”
Fuck! Instead of letting him go, Raz wanted to use his bare hands to remove Trevor’s eyes from their sockets. He wanted to break each of the bastard’s fingers and toes. He wanted to slice his Achilles’ heels so the bastard couldn’t walk.
He wanted to remove every one of his teeth and then slice open his gums until he choked on his own blood. But Raz wouldn’t let him choke to death. He’d keep him alive. He’d keep him locked up until Trevor healed from those wounds, no pain meds, of course.
Then, once he healed, Orazio would shatter his kneecaps, break his arms and legs, then cut off his tongue. And once again, he’d allow him to heal, no pain meds, until it was time to fuck him up some more.
“Did you hear me?” Trevor grunted, pulling Raz away from his fantasies of torture and blood. “Once I’m away from here, I’ll contact you with their location. First, I have to get away from here.”
Trevor stared down. Oh, right.
“Untie him,” Orazio ordered one of the guards, watching from the corner of his eye as his brother Rome stepped outside. Where was his brother off to? The guard complied, loosening the ropes that had left red bruises on Trevor’s wrists.
“Thanks,” Trevor grunted, rubbing his raw skin as he stood up. He swayed and tried to sit back down. Raz kicked the chair, sending it toppling over. Trevor hit the ground hard, groaning as he did so.
“Go,” Raz growled. “Before my anger gets the best of me.”
Wincing from the pain of his bruises, Trevor pushed to his hands and knees. His gaze darted around the room as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. His eyes were drawn to the corner of the room where Monique was. They lingered there a second too long.
“Keep looking at my woman, and I’m going to remove your fucking eyes,” Raz hissed.
Trevor quickly shut his eyes as he turned toward the exit. Then he opened his eyes and, without another word, began limping toward the door. Rome reentered the building, a devious smirk playing on his lips as he approached Orazio.
Orazio watched as Trevor slowly made his way to the exit. The room was large, and with the way Trevor was walking, it would take him forever to leave the building. With each step Trevor took, Raz mentally ticked off a reason he should just kill the bastard right now.
The weight of his decision to let Trevor go was settling heavily on his heart. He knew he’d made the right choice, for Monique and her friends’ sake, but it was a choice that left a bitter taste in his mouth.
As Trevor’s weak ass stumbled, nearly falling down, Orazio’s muscles tensed, the urge to chase after him nearly overwhelming him. His thoughts drifted to Monique in the corner of the room, battered and bruised.
Trevor had put his motherfucking hands on her. Fuck it! He would kill this bastard now! Raz took a step forward, but Rome’s hand clamped onto his shoulder like a vice, preventing him from getting far.
“Let him go,” Rome whispered.
Just as Orazio was about to argue, his phone rang, its shrill tone slicing through the thick tension in the air. He yanked it from his pocket and answered, his eyes still locked on Trevor, whose battered body could only move at a snail’s pace.
“What?” Raz growled into the phone, not bothering to check who was calling.
“Raz, it’s Leo,” the guard’s voice crackled over the phone.
Raz frowned. “Why does it sound like you’re outside instead of in a hospital room watching over my father?”
“Because I am outside. Well, I’m in my car. Don’t worry. I’ve got someone else watching the Don. I’m leaving the location where Trevor held Monique and her friends.”
Orazio’s gaze narrowed on Trevor’s retreating form as he whispered into the phone, “What’s going on?”
“The building Trevor held them in is on fire,” Leo replied.
On fire? “How do you know?”
“I set up cameras in the old front lobby area of the building and at the exit before telling Trevor where to take Monique for the Don,” Leo explained. “Since he took her there, I haven’t checked those cameras much. I’d only been alerted to movement when someone entered or left the facility. And over the past few days, it’s only been Trevor coming and going from there. So, I had no need to keep looking, especially since he kept Monique and her friends in separate rooms where no cameras were.”
Raz told himself not to snap on Leo for the part he’d played in all of this. If it wasn’t for Leo, he wouldn’t have been able to find Monique so quickly. That didn’t mean he wasn’t still angry with the guard. He was angry and thankful at the same time.
“Today,” Leo continued. “I was alerted to movement and saw Trevor taking Monique from the building. When he went back in, I expected to see him take her friends out or at least see her father take them out. When he came out empty-handed, I figured he was leaving her friends with her dad but taking Monique to the rendezvous location to meet The Don. But a few minutes ago, the motion detection alerted again. When I pulled up the camera feed, I saw that the sprinklers had gone off, causing the motion detector to alert me. That’s when I realized something was wrong. And then I noticed the smoke.”
“That motherfucker set the building on fire,” Raz muttered, more to himself than to Leo, as he watched Trevor near the building’s exit. No wonder he’d said that they didn’t have much time. He’d planned to burn them alive.
“When I got to the warehouse, I found Toya and Meka trying to break down the back door. They were handcuffed, and I have no idea how long they’d been kicking at the door, trying to get out. Because they’d kicked the doorknob off, I’d been able to hear their screams for help and find them quickly. I’ve freed them, but their feet are badly bruised, and they haven’t had food or water for days. I’m taking them to the hospital to be treated. I would’ve called you sooner, but getting them into my car took me a little while. Even in their weakened state, they tried to jump me. They thought I was still working with Trevor for the Don.”
That sounded like Monique’s friends. And for his part in this, Leo deserved a good beating from the two ladies. Trevor looked over his shoulder at Orazio. Orazio glared at him. Frowning, Trevor faced forward and started limping toward the exit faster.
“Put guards outside their hospital rooms,” Raz told Leo. “Cas’s too. My uncle may try something. I don’t know how much he knows about what’s going on yet.”
“Will do, boss.”
“Prepare a hospital room for Monique, too. And have someone ready the Basement for me. I’ll be sending someone there for a lengthy stay.”
“The Basement? You haven’t used the Casino’s Basement in a while.”
Raz almost smiled as he thought of the Basement, a space below the Casino’s garage that wasn’t even on the building’s blueprint. And it took a combination of buttons to be pressed on the elevator panel to be taken to the Basement. Only a few knew about it. And soon, it would have a new occupant.
“I hadn’t had a reason to take anyone there lately. Now I do,” Raz drawled, eyes on Trevor’s retreating form.
“You plan to torture Trevor for an extended time, huh?” Leo asked.
“I do.”
“I’ll get someone to ready the Basement for our guest. Be careful. I’ve gotten word that the Tatums are having a meeting, and Mr. Tatum is going crazy looking for his son.”
“I’ll put that family out of their misery soon. We’ll be arriving at the hospital shortly,” Raz said before ending the call with Leo and shoving the phone back into his pocket. The Tatum’s could wait. Trevor couldn’t. “Hey, Trevor!” Orazio shouted, his voice echoing in the warehouse.
Trevor froze in his tracks like a deer caught in headlights. He looked back again, eyes widening as Raz smiled at his prey. Expression twisting into a look of sheer terror, Trevor turned and began half jogging, half limping toward the door.
Oh, hell no. He was not about to let him get away. There would be no escaping for Trevor Wilks. Orazio started forward, ready to chase after him. Again, he was stopped by his brother.
“Raz, hold on,” Rome said, gripping his brother’s arm. “He can’t go anywhere. I took care of his car.”
“What? Why?” Orazio raised an eyebrow, glancing at Rome.
“You said you were letting him go. You didn’t say he could use his car. I was going to make his bitch ass walk,” Rome said with a wicked grin.
Orazio couldn’t help but smile at that, a cruel satisfaction rising within him. He imagined Trevor climbing into the vehicle, desperate to flee, only to find his means of escape sabotaged. He could practically hear the pathetic whimpers and see the dawning horror in Trevor’s treacherous eyes.
“I’ll go get Trevor,” Raz told Rome. “Have the medical team prepare to move Monique to the hospital. Leo is heading there with her friends.”
“Good. Everything seems to be working out well.”
“Too well,” Raz stated as he headed toward the exit.
Whenever things worked out too well, something bad always came along to fuck things up. Raz was done playing nice. He was done negotiating. Anyone who did anything to fuck up what he had planned would get a bullet to the head.
And that included his uncle. He wouldn’t shoot his uncle in the head. But he would make it so that Uncle Patrick was no longer able to get their family involved in unnecessary chaos, which was something Raz’s father should’ve done a long time ago.
Raz was a firm believer in protecting his family. But when a family member turned on you, that family member needed to be taught a lesson. And Raz was in the mood to educate a few motherfuckers.