Nineteen
DARIO
Stepping into my office, I see Red and Maze making themselves comfortable—Maze sprawled out on the couch and Red in my chair, his feet up on my desk. As soon as they spot me, Red scrambles to his feet and offers a tight-lipped smile.
“What did you find?” I ask, walking over to my desk as Maze kicks the door closed.
“Antonio landed in New York three days ago under an assumed name,” Red starts, handing me a file. “But no one using that name signed in to any hotels, hostels or B he didn’t vanish , he’s hiding like the little bitch he is.”
“Yeah, well there’s been no sighting of him whatsoever. He’s off the grid,” Maze chimes in, raising himself into a seated position. “He’s back in town, Rio, and I need you to keep your cool. Remi is searching every security camera from the airport until he drops out of sight of the feed, and Silas is being a shadow on the streets—we’ll find him.”
“Why is he here? What could’ve brought him back here?” I ask, placing the file down in front of me, flipping through the pages.
“All we know is he’s back; the reasons are still unknown.” I can sense the anger radiating off Maze, his voice straining with each word.
“If I have any say in it, he won’t be leaving alive.”
“How does one find a man who not only doesn’t exist but hasn’t shown his face since he landed?” Red asks, squinting his eyes and folding his arms across his torso.
“It’s what we do, Red. With Silas’s skills of staying hidden, Cassian’s underground fights that resemble the ones Antonio used to visit frequently, Ciro’s hacking abilities and Remi’s soldiers who love to take on new missions, we’ll find him before he even thinks about leaving.”
“It’s easier said than done,” Maze mumbles under his breath. “You’re forgetting how much of a slippery fucker he is, Dario. It’s like he takes pleasure in knowing we’re looking for him. He’ll leave us breadcrumbs and dead bodies with his mark on them, but it’s always a dead-end search. He’s like a ghost.”
“Even ghosts have weaknesses—you only have to want him enough to find them. Without the source of power he feeds from, he’s weak and alone. If we find that, we find him wrapped up with a neat little bow.”
“I’ll call Ciro and get him to come home. We need him on the ground until we find Antonio,” Maze adds before excusing himself.
“While he does that, gather everyone but leave my parents out of it; they don’t need the additional stress right now. We need to talk strategy for when we find him.”
Red nods, quickly following in Maze’s footsteps, and I walk slowly behind, on my way back to Liana.
It’s like Antonio knows my mother is content with her life—a loving husband, bonus kids that Vincent had before he met her, and now more of their own—and he wants to corrupt and destroy it all.
Finally, back in my room, I head to the bathroom door and knock twice, waiting for her delicate voice to speak… but it doesn’t.
“I’m coming in,” I announce before turning the doorknob and pushing the door open.
My eyes fall to the bath, the water still draining, but no sign of her.
Retracing my steps, I exit and walk down the hall to her room, letting myself in. “Liana?” I call out.
Again, silence greets me, there’s no movement or answer.
Turning to the only plausible place I can think of, I head over to Kat and Maze’s room, but before I can let myself in, Kat blocks me and steps out into the hallway, closing the door behind her.
“She doesn’t want to see you right now,” she says, a bored look on her face.
“Why?”
“She feels embarrassed, Dario.”
“Why would she feel—”
“You left her to deal with more important matters. You left her bleeding, emotional and very fucking confused.”
“I told her I’d be right back,” I argue, staring down at her now angry features.
“I understand that you’re a don first, but in three days she’ll be your wife. You need to have a genuine conversation with her. Explain what will take you away from her and what will always come before her, but never, ever, leave her like that again.”
“I don’t do heart-to-hearts, Kat; you know this.”
“I don’t care what you do or don’t do; you need to address this now. She thinks she did something wrong and you left because of it. It was her first time, you know—that means something to women.”
“I intended to see it through, Katerina, I really did, but Red had news on Antonio, and I needed to hear it. She did nothing wrong.”
“Then tell her that,” she says, inching away from me and further into the hall. “And tell her about him, too. She deserves to know why this is such an important issue for you to deal with and why it will always, always take top priority.”
I release a heavy sigh, staring at the door in front of me. Repeating the action again, I open the door and slip through, closing it behind me. Within an instant, her eyes find mine and she quickly wipes away her tears with the back of her hand.
“Liana, I’m sorry I left you there the way I did, but there was business—”
“I know your job is important,” she starts, her voice weak and croaky, “but I’m important, too. I’m a person, not just someone you can be nice to for five minutes to please yourself.”
“That wasn’t—”
“I don’t know what it was and frankly, I don’t care. I need you to understand that while I know your job takes priority, if we ever want things to work out between us and you won’t let it, it never will. You’re a son and a brother first, a husband second and eventually, a father, too, but I need you to put me first sometimes. This family— your family—they’re all I have left. My own father shoved me into your arms and expected me to be okay with it, so forgive me if I’m prying my way into your life before you’re ready.”
She pushes herself off the bed. “If you’re not ready for me to be immersed in your life, then fucking tell me. I won’t be angry or annoyed… Sure, I’ll be upset, but I can’t force you to accept me before you want to. So just fucking tell me, Dario.”
Her words take me by surprise, and for a second, I’m at a loss for words. How do I tell her that her assumptions are right, but also so fucking wrong?
“I’ll admit, I’m not ready for you to be in my life the way you should be, but you’re in it and I can’t stop it now.” And I wouldn’t want to. “Neither of us can stop it. My parents and your father made this happen, and while your father used it to his advantage, my parents are good people. They’ll accept you for who you are and who you’ll become once we’re married and your responsibilities really start.”
I approach her, stopping in front of her. My hands move to her cheeks, my thumb wiping away her silent tears. “You’re not the wife I wanted, nor the one I needed, but you’re here now and soon, you’ll know everything about me and vice versa.” I exhale a steady breath, regaining my composure again. “Get dressed; there’s something you should see.”
She nods, her hand finding mine as we walk to her room. Quickly, I rummage through her drawers in search of appropriate, non-revealing clothing before handing it to her.
She looks up at me through her long lashes, her doe eyes pleading.
“I’ll turn around just this once, Liana. You’ll get used to changing in front of me.” I spin around and within a minute, she’s ready. “Let’s go.” I stick my hand out, palm to the ceiling, and wait for her to take it. This time, she hesitates, almost as if she’s considering not doing it.
Then, her warmth collides with mine, and a fire ignites within me.
Shaking the feeling away, we walk out of her room, down the corridor and stairs, and out of the house towards Remi’s.
The cold air nips at her skin as her hands tremble in my grasp. I remove my jacket, draping it over her shoulders and find her hand again.
Turning to me, she flashes a soft smile before spinning to walk up the three steps.
“Can I do it?” she asks, releasing my hand. “I haven’t used my code yet.”
“Sure,” I smile, gesturing to the keypad. She’s as giddy as a child on Christmas.
Covering the keypad with her palm, she says, “Don’t take this personally,” shoving my own words in my face with a devious smile before typing in her four-number combination.
The door pops open and we slip inside, me following behind her. Holding out my hand again, she takes it and lets me guide her to the basement door.
“What’s down there?” she queries as I type in my code.
“My problems,” I say, turning back to face her. “I want to warn you before we head down that the people down there aren’t good people. They’ll try to get in your head, and burden you with their stories. I want you to ignore them. They’re bad people who have done bad things, and they deserve every single thing they endure down there.”
She opens her mouth to speak, but snaps it shut again and replaces the unspoken words with a nod.
I lead the way down the narrow staircase and I listen as her shoes thud on each step. The sound vibrates the metal stairs and echoes down the wide corridor in front of us.
A small, breathy laugh escapes me. In due time, she’ll know how to avoid those noises. The cells around us may be soundproofed, but only to an extent. Those creaks have alerted every fucker that we’re coming, giving them a slight advantage. “I’ll have to teach you where to place your body weight, little one. It’s a skill that’s needed when you want the upper hand on your intended target.”
Reaching the end of the hall, I stop and turn to her, her body swaying as she mimics my abrupt halt. “I want you to remember what I said, Liana.” She nods. “I mean it. These are bad people, and I don’t know what they look like right now. Silas tends to release his pent-up stress and anger on them in wicked, wicked ways. Don’t let their appearance or words scare you. Don’t let them get to you.”
Her eyes widen as if she’s only now understanding the sincerity and warning in my tone, her nod becoming more halting in its movements.
I unlock cell C5 and open it swiftly. The man before us jolts, his arms thrashing as best as they can in his weakened state. The chains keep him strung up like a marionette.
Liana gasps from behind me; I can feel the terror radiating off her. I turn to her, my eyes softening to show her a sense of comfort, and she reacts, her shoulders losing their tenseness.
Inhaling deeply, she steps into the cell and I close the door, the table of weapons now on display for her to see.
“They’re for Silas’s games,” I say, watching as her eyes linger on each one for no longer than a second. “He can get quite creative, sometimes.”
“Who’s this?” she asks, stepping further away from them, almost as if the sight disgusts her.
“No name yet,” I reply, my voice calm. “He’s a stubborn fighter, but he’ll talk. They always spill their secrets eventually. It just takes time—time that Silas likes to use to perfect his methodology in his torture techniques.”
“What has he done?” This time, her question is cooler and more collected, like she flipped a switch and turned off her fear for the time being.
“Remember what I said before about the infiltration? Why we use different codes for each person?”
“To avoid theft or hurting people, right?”
“Along those lines, yes,” I answer, tilting my head side to side and the corners of my lips pulling downward. “Well, this bastard right here gained my trust,” I continue, walking over to the man in the centre of the room. “He was my most loyal man and I trusted him with every cell in my body. But he tried to steal from me, almost killing my brother, Ciro, in the process—it’s one of the reasons Ciro no longer lives on the compound.”
I spin around to face her again. “I don’t know how he passed the background check when he has so much deceit under his belt.”
“So you do know his name, then?”
I shake my head. “I knew him as Axel Abrahms, but that’s not his name. I had Ciro dig further into his background and his alias crumbled, but it was a dead end. We were never able to find him, the real him, and he’s been here pretty much ever since.”
“B-but that was years ago, right? You’ve kept him here for years?”
“No,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “He managed to flee the compound before I could get to them here. He was on the run for two years before I found him again. He’s been here for three years.”
“Three years?!” she whisper-yells. “That’s fucking insane, Dario.” Her eyes widen again, her body reacting to my presence as if she’s terrified of me.
“I’m not a bad person, Liana. I do what’s necessary to protect my family and everyone who trusts me to keep them out of harm’s way. This man violated my trust and faith in him, proving himself to be the bastard that he was hired to eliminate.”
“This is a lot to process,” she breathes quietly.
“It’ll take time for you to understand what I do, and when that happens, you’ll realise that it’s necessary for me. To be a don is a tiring task, but it’s a responsibility I take seriously. If breaking this fucker is what it takes to find out who sent him and why, I’ll do it, even if he dies in the process. As long as I get the answers I’m looking for, I’ll be happy.”
“So why did you bring me here?” she asks again.
“To show you that even though it looks like I sit in that comfy chair back in my office and flip through files for hours on end, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. To show you that you’re safe here with me, even if sometimes, you doubt that.”
“Why this particular room?”
“What’s with all the questions tonight?”
“I’m only trying to understand.”
“Well, I wanted to introduce you to one of the many men that may take me away from you from time to time. I haven’t spent a lot of time here recently, but eventually I’ll go back to my old ways and spend hours just trying to understand the lengths this man was willing to go to in order to get what he wanted.”
“Can I see him?” she asks, peering around me to get a quick glance at him.
“Are you sure?” She nods. “Okay, but don’t let his appearance scare you. His face is worse than his body.”
“And I’m sure Silas is the one to blame?”
I just laugh, walking over to Axel . With a tight grip, I yank his head up, revealing his slightly disfigured face. God, it looks fucking horrendous. Silas has spent maybe a little too much time in here recently.
His mouth resembles a Chelsea smile, both corners have been sewn up multiple times, until the stitches are yanked out each time creating bigger scars. It’s like his entire right cheek has been Silas’s personal pin cushion.
Liana’s gasp fills the air as she slowly retreats towards the door, her chest heaving.
Releasing him, I walk to her in three long strides. “Hey, you’re okay.”
She thrashes her head side to side, shaking it with tremendous fear. “Can you—” She pauses, attempting to compose herself. “Can you show me his right bicep?”
“What for?” I query, stepping back once.
“Just show me… Please.”
Giving her a confused glance, I obey, walking back over to him and twisting his right arm to reveal a split skull tattoo with ghost-like skulls escaping it. “I never understood it,” I admit. “I’ve seen it hundreds of times and it never makes sense. I always thought tattoos had to have some sort of meaning behind them and maybe it does, but I can’t quite see the meaning here.”
She swallows. “I-it was his way of expressing himself,” she starts, her voice a mere whisper. “He was practically disowned as a teenager and we grew close because he and my brother were friends. We got matching tattoos, sort of. His was personal in the sense that he felt dead inside and the apparitions escaping the skull are his family, people who have been dead to him ever since.”
She takes her oversized hoodie off her own arm and reveals a similar one. “My tattoo tells a different story. In life, there will always be death, but from the soil that’s tossed into their space in the earth, flowers grow.”
“Come with me,” I say, almost excited. “I have something else to show you.”
She shakes her head again. “Release him, Dario. H-he doesn’t belong there like a puppet for your pleasure. He’s a fucking good man.”
“He has the information I need, Liana. Until I get it, he stays there. Now come with me.”
“No!” she shrieks through a sob.
Giving her no time to argue further, I grab her wrist and pull her from the cell as she tries her best to stand her ground.
Taking her further down the corridor, I push open cell A1 and walk over to the man in the middle, yanking his arm to face her.
A heart-wrenching sob escapes her and she runs to him, her arms wrapping around his torso tightly as the man tries to rid himself of her touch.
“Shhh,” she whispers, burying her head into his neck. “Don’t strain yourself.”
“Liana,” I say in a commanding voice. “Who’s this one to you?”
She freezes on the spot before turning around to face me, no emotion or recognition in her eyes. “His name is Apollo. Apollo Moretti. My brother.”