CHAPTER VIII #2
“Okay! Okay!” he shrieked as Matteo's blade hovered over his thumb, ready to slice it off. “I—I don't know his location, but I know someone who does!”
“Who?”
“H-he’s known as Smiley!” He sobbed, his body trembling uncontrollably.
“Smiley, huh?” I sneered, my finger tightening slightly on the trigger. “Where can I find this Smiley?”
He swallowed hard. “He lives in the outskirts of the city.”
I gazed intently at him, sensing the truth in his words. But how could we track him without an address? Then an idea clicked.
“Do you have Smiley’s number?” I asked Gabriel.
He nodded rapidly.
I looked at Matteo. “Grab his phone.”
Matteo wiped the blood off his blade on Gabriel’s shirt before shoving it back into his pocket. He took the phone from the desk and asked, “What’s the code?”
Gabriel rattled it off, still trembling. Matteo’s fingers flew over the screen. “Got him,” he said.
“Send him a text,” I ordered.
“What do you want it to say?”
I turned back to Gabriel, who was looking increasingly pale. “What would you normally text him?”
“It depends…but I only text him when there’s a problem,” he whispered. He was teetering on the edge of losing consciousness. His eyes fluttered shut, and Matteo slapped his face a few times.
“What kind of problem?” I pressed.
“When…one… of the girls becomes… an issue.”
He meant if the girls were overdosing. My stomach twisted at the thought of that happening to Gigi. I looked at Matteo. “Tell him three of the girls overdosed.”
Matteo shot off the text, his fingers moving quickly over the screen.
A moment later, the phone dinged.
Matteo read the message aloud. “It says he’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
Good.
And now we waited.
After briefing Luca and Lo with the additional directives, they conveyed the message to Enzo to be discreet and stay out of sight. The last thing we needed was for him and his team to fuck things up.
“We got company,” Matteo observed, his gaze fixed out the window on the approaching headlights.
I turned my attention to Gabriel, who had finally succumbed to his injuries and passed out. I joined Matteo and peered through a narrow crack in the blinds to get a better view.
The car stopped, and the headlights flickered off into the darkness.
Moments later, the driver’s side door creaked open, revealing a stocky man who strode purposefully toward the trailer.
He scanned his surroundings with a keen eye before pushing the door open.
As he stepped inside, his gaze swept over the dimly lit room.
It took him a moment to finally spot Gabriel sprawled unconscious behind the desk.
“What the fuck?” the man hissed.
In unison, Matteo and I aimed our weapons at the back of his head. I gently closed the door, prompting him to whirl around, lose his balance, and fall to the ground. “Who the fuck are you?” he shouted.
“Nico Moretti,” I replied, my voice cold and steady.
Recognition flashed across his face, followed by a grin. The asshole grinned.
“Ah, Nico. The boss’s new favorite puppet,” he mocked, his gold teeth glinting. “Tell me, mafia king. Are the strings too tight ?”
Taking a deliberate step forward, I drove my foot forward, my heavy boot connecting with his face, the satisfying crunch of bone echoing in the room.
“Fuck!” he bellowed. “You broke my fucking nose!”
“I’m going to break a lot more if you keep running your mouth.” I knelt down, holding my gun so it dangled between my legs. “Tell me where I can find your boss.”
The idiot laughed. “What are you going to do? Torture me until I talk?”
I cocked my head slightly, studying him.
“You don’t scare me. So, go ahead, do your worst. But you ain’t getting nothing out of me!” He reared back, a flash of disdain crossing his face, and unleashed bloody phlegm that landed on my jacket.
“Motherfucker,” Matteo growled, taking a step forward. I shot my arm out, blocking his path.
I stared at the crimson stain on my jacket, then snapped my gaze back to the piece of shit on the ground.
As our eyes met, terror and surprise flashed across his features.
He began to scurry backward, his hands and feet scraping against the carpet.
I lunged and clamped my hand around his ankle, my grip like a vice.
A pained yelp escaped his lips as I applied pressure.
“You haven’t seen a fraction of what I’m capable of,” I spat. “If I don’t get what I want, I’ll go after the people you care about most. Let’s start with your sister. She’s due anytime now, right?”
The blood drained from his face.
I smiled in triumph. Luca had looked into this asshole and given me enough juice to use against him.
“Now that I have your attention, tell me what I need to know.”
“I never know where he is,” he said. “He just sends me coordinates for where to pick up the shipments.”
Shipments. As in the cargo that held innocent woman. I shook my head in disgust.
“Give me your phone,” I demanded.
“You won’t be able to track it. Not even the best hacker can find him. He’s that good.”
My jaw clicked. We were right back at square one, and my patience was slipping away.
“I’m going to show you a picture of someone. I want you to tell me if you’ve seen her.” I yanked my phone from my pocket and thrust it in his direction. A picture of Gigi filled the screen.
The man stared at the photo and shifted his gaze back at me. “Maybe,” he simply said, his expression unreadable. I clenched my phone tightly, my fingers threatening to shatter the screen from the pressure.
The fucker knew something. I could taste it.
“Where is she?” I bellowed, stepping closer until the end of the gun was touching his forehead.
The man cackled like a maniac, the panic from earlier long gone. “You’ll never find him because he’s a ghost. And you’ll never find her .”
I squeezed the trigger with every ounce of anger built up inside me, watching the bullet pierce through his kneecap as he screamed.
“If she isn’t dead already, she will be,” he sputtered in agony.
He writhed on the ground.
“The Puppet Master doesn’t have feelings,” he breathed heavily. “He won't… hesitate to…kill her. He enjoys... playing with his toys,” he gasped, blood spilling from his lips as he struggled to speak. “He will... make her suffer in ways that…will make her wish she were dead.”
My fingers tightened around the trigger.
“First, he’ll torture her,” he continued.
My right eye twitched.
“Then he’ll humiliate her by stripping her naked.”
My heartbeat picked up its pace.
“He’ll have his guards rape her?—”
My blood boiled as I rushed toward him, using the butt of my gun to strike the back of his skull.
I unleashed my fury, delivering blow after blow, each strike fueled by the torment he’d put me through.
He raised his arms in a frantic effort to shield himself from the blows, but his efforts were futile against my rage.
The Puppet Master had my Angel, and the thought of what he could be doing to her was like poison coursing through my veins.
With a furious growl, I lifted the gun and unleashed a barrage of bullets, emptying the magazine into his skull. Blood sprayed across the room, covering my face, but I didn’t flinch. I watched as his face became disfigured beyond recognition.
“Nico! Fuck! He’s dead,” Matteo shouted, tugging at my arm. I glanced down at the lifeless body, my lips curling into a sinister smile.
A faint sound from behind the desk caught my attention. Gabriel, that fucker, was still breathing. I tucked my gun away and reached for my knife, sliding it out. I strode over to Gabriel, seizing his hair and forcing his head back. His eyes widened as I stood over him.
I raised the blade and plunged the knife into his neck, again and again, silencing his pathetic gurgles. The warm spray of blood only pissed me off more.
Matteo’s worried gaze met mine, but I ignored it.
“Let’s move,” I snarled, my voice dripping with contempt as I turned and stormed out of the trailer, but not before I snatched Smiley’s cell phone.
Striding toward the exit, I could feel Gigi’s presence haunting me. Her laughter echoed in my mind, driving me forward to find her.
Matteo and I trekked through the snow until we reached the others at the car. I looked at Miguel and said, “Blow it up.”
He took position and launched the rocket, the trailers exploding.
“Luca, I want you to hack into this phone. This could be our way to finding the bastard.”
Luca's eyes darted from the phone to my bloodied face, his own expression a mix of shock and alarm. “Nico... Jesus, what happened in there?”
I looked up and met the wide-eyed horror etched on Lo’s face as he took me in. Blood was smeared across my face and soaking through my clothes.
Suddenly, two blackout vans pulled up to us, tires crunching on the snow. The passenger door opened, and Enzo stepped out.
“What the hell did you do now?” he snapped, striding toward us. But then he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide. “Holy shit, Nico. What the hell happened?”
Ignoring his question, I pointed at the cars. “Take the girls somewhere safe.”
I opened my car door when he asked, “Nico, what the hell did you do? You can’t keep going off half-cocked and expect me to pick up the mess.”
“I didn’t ask you for shit!” I yelled. “Just do your fucking job and get them somewhere safe.”
Turning my back on him, I climbed into the car, the door slamming shut with a force that could shatter glass.
As I revved the engine, the tires screeched against the asphalt, and we peeled away into the darkness, the city lights flashing by like fleeting memories. I had a woman to save, and nothing would stand in my way.