24. Dino
24
DINO
The incessant rain is beginning to grate on my nerves.
I reported my findings (which were total fucking bullshit) to Benicio. He seemed unwilling to accept that Luca, who looks very obviously Italian, was a member of the Irish mob, but he didn’t disagree. I had the impression that he was distracted by something, because he seemed to be less than attentive when I told him who Luca was.
Still, I’m not dead.
I passed this test.
That task done, I head back to my barracks room. I knock on Johnny’s door, and when he comes into my room, I sit him down on the bed.
“I need you to leave,” I growl.
Johnny glares at me. “Oh. You do? Is that what you need, Dino? Fuck?— ”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snap. “One of Marco’s guys that I used to work with, an enforcer, is down in the fucking dungeon. I beat the shit out of him and pretended he was Irish. You’re going to get him the fuck out of here.”
Johnny’s eyes widen. “Who?”
“Luca. Don’t remember his last name.”
“Didn’t he recently get married? Couple of years back?”
I nod.
“Fuck, man. Marco must have sent him down here…”
“How Marco pulled that off when he was fucking hiding in Ireland I’ll never fucking know,” I grunt. “But we gotta get him out of here.”
Johnny surveys me. “What about your girl?”
“Let me worry about Marisol.”
“Dino…”
“Look,” I say. “You’ve been great. You really have. I fucking needed you here. But I’m going to get Marisol out of here, and I don’t need help. What I do need,” I say in a firm voice that’s definitely not gentle, but it’s not fuckin’ mean, “is for you to get out of here, and to get Luca the hell out of here and back to Elio and Marco.”
Johnny blinks.
Good. He’s paying attention. “We gotta get two of our fuckin’ people out of here, man. You get Luca back home. I’ll get Marisol. You understand?”
“I… yeah,” Johnny says .
I grin. “Good. Now this is how we’re gonna get him the fuck out of here.”
It’s not a good plan.
I ain’t no fuckin’ planner, that’s for sure.
But it’s gonna fuckin’ work.
We creep down into the barracks dungeon. God, I would hate to be a poor soul trapped in here. The water is ankle-deep now, and the rocks around us are making noises.
That isn’t fucking good.
Rocks should not make noises.
“Hey, I didn’t pass science past the seventh grade,” Johnny whispers as we hear something particularly fucking shady, “but should that wall that looks like it’s made out of solid fucking rock be making that sound?”
“Absolutely fucking not,” I murmur.
The guards are easy to dodge, because none of them are fucking down here.
I have no clue where they are, but I’m hoping that it’s just a stroke of luck and not some kind of disaster waiting to happen.
Better not count on that, fucking idiot.
Eventually we get to the door that’s keeping Luca’s cell closed.
Johnny blinks at me. “You got keys?”
“You don’t know how to pick a lock?” I fire back.
Johnny sighs. “No, I didn’t learn that either.”
Fucking hell.
Digging the pins in my pocket that I stashed just in case, I kneel down. I can barely hear the lock over the noise from the cells around us, but eventually it clicks.
I move quickly up and tug at the door handle. It opens.
“Jesus fuck,” Johnny breathes.
Luca looks fucking bad.
He’s curled into a ball on the floor, which is not even remotely dry. Water laps dangerously close to his mouth, which looks like it’s open so he can breathe.
I think he can breathe, anyway.
“This motherfucker is not going to be able to get out of here,” Johnny murmurs.
“Help me get him up,” I snap.
But, I’m thinking the same fuckin’ thing.
Slowly, we help Luca up. The groan he releases is a good thing, as it tells me that he’s alive.
Until now, I wasn’t fucking sure.
“Luca,” I say, listening to the rattling breath rasping in and out of his lungs with concern. “You fuckin’ good, man?”
“I… Just…”
“He’s in no condition to travel even if we had a fuckin’ five-star service to get us out of here,” Johnny hisses. “How the fuck are we going to..”
“Luca,” I say, ignoring Johnny. “Johhny here is in contact with Marco. He’s going to get you to whatever drop point he has, and then you two are getting the fuck out of here.”
Luca’s eyes flutter. “What…”
“Can you do it?” I demand.
I know I’m not being nice. I know that I’m being intense.
But fuck.
Luca has to be able to walk out of here. Johnny can’t carry him.
He has to be able to do it all on his fuckin’ own.
Johnny grunts as Luca’s knees go a little weak.
Fuck. “Luca,” I bark. “Do you want to get back to see your wife and kid or do you not?”
Luca’s eyes snap open at that.
“If you want to fucking die in this rathole that’s on you. I ain’t gonna make you go. But shit, if you want to get the fuck out of this fucking piece of shit place…”
“I’ll go,” he says.
His voice is surprisingly steady.
“Back up,” I bark at Johnny. “Let’s see if he can fucking stand.”
We slowly back away.
Luca wobbles, once, and I’m worried that it’s all for nothing because there isn’t any way that he can fucking make it…
Then, he takes a deep breath, gets both feet underneath him, and pulls himself up to his full height .
My chest constricts, because damn.
Luca is a big guy. But right now? He looks… gaunt. Clearly the last few weeks or however long he’s been down here haven’t been kind, because he looks like the shell of who he once was.
I look at Johnny, who shrugs. “We’ll make it work.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I mutter.
We head back out.
My feet are fucking cold at this point, and I hate to think of what kind of germs and nasty shit are in the water that’s at my ankles by now. The other cells seem empty, or their occupants are too far gone to care that the water seems to slowly be creeping in.
I can’t think about that.
Benicio Souza is a fucking monster. He really is. Elio and Marco are both hard fuckin’ guys, but they don’t have people rotting in cells, slowly dying as water creeps up on them.
Well.
I guess Elio does.
Having been one of the people who rotted in one of his cells, once.
Bile rises in my throat.
This whole fuckin’ business is dirty as shit. And I’ve never really thought about it until now.
Until seeing one of my friends, my guys, that’s been harmed.
We make it out with no guards again. Johnny leads Luca about a hundred yards away from the barracks, near to the main house. The rain is coming down in fuckin’ buckets, but with a quick nod, Johnny and Luca disappear into the forest.
Fucking hell.
I don’t know where his contact point is with Marco, but I know that he better fuckin’ make it there.
I want Luca to make it home.
I’m trudging back to the barracks, my shoes squelching, when a dark shape crosses my vision. It’s almost night, and the square of someone’s shoulders cuts a clear silhouette against the fading sky.
Fuck.
The Russian.
He looks at me, arms folded, eyes narrowed. I glare back at him. “The fuck is your problem?” I hiss.
He gives me one more second before he waves his hand…
And Benicio’s men, armed to the fucking gills, sprout out of the forest around me.