10. Emory
CHAPTER 10
Emory
“ W e have to be a bit more careful,” Ines hissed into the phone as I finished tying the last knot on my latest victim, binding him to the chair. “Discreet. You understand, yeah?”
“I have to find her,” I said, winking at the idiot who thought glaring at me would work in his favor. “I’m running out of time. Done playing it safe.”
I straightened, observing my handiwork while rubbing at a kink in my lower back. I must’ve pulled a muscle dragging the fucker and shoving him into the trunk.
Fortunately, I knew all of Basilio’s prime locations for this type of covert activity . He was too busy with his wife to even notice it being used anyway.
“This is too risky.”
“Only for me,” I promised her.
“I don’t understand how nobody knows a thing about her,” she said dryly. “Or even who the fuck we’re talking about.”
It was the same exact worry I had, but I hadn’t been voicing it for fear of what it could mean. The address that had been left behind with butchered girls’ bodies led me here, but somehow it hadn’t really given me any answers. It felt like someone kept toying with me or running me in circles.
“This guy might know something. Don’t wait up,” I said before hanging up on her.
I put my phone away and studied the man in front of me. He was attempting to look tough, but the beads of perspiration around his thinning hairline betrayed him. I kept my eyes on his as anger slowly gave way to fear.
“Now, let’s get started, shall we?” I purred and reached for a pair of pliers. He screamed, the sound muffled by the gag. “Maybe if you tell me what I need to know, I’ll set you free.”
And maybe Santa Claus was real, too.
He trembled, nodding furiously as if he was eager to help, and continued struggling against his bindings.
I yanked the gag down and he swallowed. “I’ll tell you anything.”
“Where is the DiLustro girl?” I asked, hating myself for not knowing more. I didn’t know her name, I didn’t know what she looked like, what made her happy or sad or scared. I had fucking nothing to go off.
He blinked. “Who?”
“The girl who was given to Perez Cortes to settle a debt,” I hissed. “By… by Gio DiLustro.” I hated the way emotion clogged my throat, hated sounding weak.
The color drained from his face.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he stuttered.
“Then you’re dead—” I reached for his index finger with the pliers and pulled, the sound of bones breaking filling the space.
“Atticus Popov,” he screamed.
I frowned in confusion, sifting through names in the underworld. The Popov family had one foot in the criminal world and the other in the legit world, and they hid their ruthlessness well behind their philanthropy and glitzy charity events.
“What about him?”
“He mentioned a DiLustro baby, years ago.”
“What exactly did he say?” His chest heaved as he darted his eyes left and right, probably giving himself whiplash. “Lie to me, and I’ll string you off the Empire State Building.”
Panic froze him in place as he gawked at me in disbelief. It was only last week that I’d done exactly that to one of his buddies. He knew I wasn’t throwing empty threats around.
“Tell me everything,” I said quietly as I crouched to his eye level, pulling a knife from my boot and toying with the handle.
He choked on his sobs, hiccupping out the next words. “I don’t know?—”
I sliced the knife across his torso with no warning.
“Bullshit!” I snapped, holding the bloodied blade in front of me. “Tell me the truth.”
His breathing grew labored, his chest heaving and quaking in fear.
“He mentioned Perez Cortes lost a DiLustro girl.” The words spilled from his lips faster than his blood could drain onto the ground. “But that happened years ago.”
“Lost how?” I rasped, my heart hammering against my chest. When he didn’t answer, I stabbed him in the lower abdomen, then twisted the blade inside him. His screams ricocheted off the concrete walls as blood continued to pool around him. “Don’t make me ask you again,” I warned.
“I don’t know,” he whimpered. “That’s all he said.”
I believed him.
Done with him, I sliced again, the gash deep and ugly, and his insides spilled out.
I stood over him until he stopped moving, then I turned and walked out, leaving the mess to be taken care of by one of my men.
It was time I paid Atticus Popov a visit.