49. Dante #2
“But your pop…” He sniffs, wiping the saliva from his chin. “I offered him the money back, but he didn’t take it. He said she would be enough.”
I look at Maximo whose frown mirrors my own. What the fuck did he just say? I grab a handful of Leo’s hair and yank his head back so I can look him in the eye. “What did you just say about my father?”
“He caught me cheating, man. He gave me a kicking and I gave him his money back, but he wanted more than that, so I told him about Kat and what had happened before. I thought maybe he might be into the same kind of thing. Then he told me we were square. If I gave her to him, he would give me back the money and then we’d call it quits. ”
My free hand is clenched into a fist, and I have to hold myself back from smashing it into his face. “Why are you telling me this now and not as soon as I walked in here?”
“I knew he’d come for me one day. I was supposed to meet him the next morning at Kat’s house because she worked nights at that government building.
He said he’d hand over the money if I handed her over.
But I’m not stupid, man. He could have just taken her anyway.
He wanted me there so he could kill me. So I took off. I thought you knew this already?”
I glare at the piece of shit on the floor as I try to make sense of this information. “You didn’t even try to warn her?”
“I was terrified. I left her a note, but I had no time to get to her. She doesn’t even have a cell phone.”
“But why did my father want your sister? And if she was so important to him, why did he send me for her?”
Leo trembles. “If I tell you what I know, will you let me go?”
“Not a fucking chance in hell. But I could make your death less painful and right now I can assure you that you’re going to want me to do that. Now tell me why the fuck was my father so interested in Kat?”
“He wasn’t. Not at first anyway. Not until I told him about Elmo and Tony and how they’d taken her as payment for a debt before.
Then he started asking me all kinds of questions like when it happened.
I mean, he wanted specific dates and everything.
It was like he remembered something, but all of a sudden, he was more interested in her than me. ”
“So he just let you go? Just like that? Because you told him about Kat’s attack? You expect me to believe that?”
“He let me leave because the club next door was closing and it was getting kind of busy. But he had no intention of letting me go.”
“So you bailed on your sister and left her for Salvatore Moretti?”
He glares at me. “It’s not like I thought he was going to kill her. He seemed really eager to meet her. At worst, I thought it would be a similar deal to last time.”
“When she was raped and tortured for days?” My head feels like it’s about to explode with holding it together instead of kicking this sick fuck to death.
“Kat is strong. Way stronger than me. I knew she’d be okay.”
“Well, you got one thing right,” I say as I start rolling up my sleeves.
“Dante, please,” he snivels. “She’ll never forgive you if you kill me. I’m her brother, man. Kat’s not like us.”
“Oh, I know that, asshole. But I would rather that than allow you to live and risk the prospect of you ever being in her life again.”
“I won’t. I’ll stay away.” He wipes his nose, his hands clasped as he begs for mercy. If Kat were here, she would take pity on him. She’d ask me to let him go because he’s right — she is better than us and she would try to convince me to show a little mercy. But I am not that man. Not even close.
“No, you wouldn’t, Leo, because people like you are a disease — an insidious cancer that never stops destroying everything it touches.
The moment you’re in trouble again, and let’s face it, that’s gonna happen as sure as the sun is gonna rise, you’d be back.
Asking your baby sister to protect you now that she’s the most powerful woman in Chicago.
If you think I would ever allow that to happen, then you’re the dumbest fuck I’ve ever met. ”
“D-Dante, please?” He’s still wailing as my fist connects with his nose for the first time, bursting it open like a ripe peach.
I don’t stop punching him. Not until all that’s left of his face is a bloody mess of skin and brains and bone.
Not until my hands and shirt and face are soaked in his blood and Maximo has to drag me off his lifeless corpse.
Not until I have poured out most of the rage that is burning through my veins like it’s the only thing keeping me alive.
“Dante, you’re gonna hurt your hands if you keep doing that. There’s nothing left, buddy,” Maximo says in my ear, wrapping his biceps around me. “We got to get you cleaned up and out of here.”
I rock back on my heels, staring at the battered body of Leo Evanson.
He was dead by the third or fourth blow.
He was a lucky son of a bitch. If I wasn’t eager to get back to Chicago to confront my father and crawl into bed with my wife, if I didn’t have to look her in the eye every single day for the rest of my life, I would have tortured this sack of shit for days. At least I can tell her it was quick.
I shower and change in the small unused office block that Maximo and I brought Leo to earlier.
The building belongs to the corporation of the man who owns LA — Alejandro Montoya.
And while he and I aren’t exactly friends, we have a mutual respect for one another.
I trust that his team will clean up any mess here without any issue.
He owes me after the last time I did the same for him back in Chicago.
As soon as Maximo and I are done, we drive back to the airport and spend the entire time wracking our brains to think of any possible connection between Kat and my father.
Have I been played for a complete fool?
If so, by whom?