23. Zeno
CHAPTER 23
ZENO
“I s this what it feels like to be crucified?” I grumble, my ankles chained together and my arms hanging on either side of me, suspended from the ceiling.
“Nah, they haven’t nailed your hands and feet to a cross yet. You’re only getting the prequel to that hellish story.” Gallo lets out a deep sigh, followed by a loud hacking cough. “Oh, fuck, that hurts,” he groans, seated in a chair next to me, his arms tied behind his back.
“Hey, at least you got a chair,” I say, giving the chains around my wrists a good hard yank. “My fingers are getting more numb by the minute. Ha, joke’s on them. By the time they nail me to that cross, I won’t have any feeling left in my hands.”
I look around the dingy room where we’re being held captive until my family arrives in Vegas for their VIP showing of Brutish Torture: Fall of the Villani Men . I wrinkle my nose, my gut twisting at the stench permeating the air. It’s some noxious combination of rotting garbage and sewage.
Maybe decomposing corpses, too.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see some kind of liquid trickling down the side of the far wall.
It’s not clear liquid, either.
Bile rises in my throat and I squeeze my eyes shut.
“Gallo, what the hell happened?” I mutter. “You weren’t supposed to be here for this meeting.”
“Come on, Z. I was never gonna hang back. I’m part of this family.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not a good enough reason.” I grumble. “Why the fuck are you trying to stay involved in this mess? I made a mistake by dragging you into my business. A big mistake, one that I’ll regret forever. I tried to make it right by leaving. I tried to spare you!”
“Zeno,” Gallo rasps, shifting in the chair so he can look up at me. “I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions. You need to stop beating yourself up over that night in Palermo.”
“I can’t,” I say, my shoulder muscles aching. “You could have been killed. And it would’ve been on my head because I’m the one who?—”
“Wanted to protect the family,” Gallo finishes. “That’s why I went with you. Because it’s our responsibility. Ours, not only yours.” He pauses. “And let’s face it, nobody took the threat seriously enough. What were we supposed to do, wait around for Domenico Messina to steal every last euro from us?”
“Why do you have to be so fucking rational?” I grunt.
“It was a dangerous play, I’ll give you that. But it had to be done, no matter what Papa and Ciro think. That’s why I went. I backed you because it was the right move for our family.” He lets out a shuddering sigh. “I stand by what we did, and I’m prepared to pay the price for that ambush. Even though we didn’t get Messina.”
“That’s the thing,” I say. “We did. Or, actually, I did.”
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. You’ve gotta tell me what happened so I don’t die with any questions.” Gallo quips.
My chest tightens as my eyes skate over his battered flesh.
I let him down.
I let everyone down.
“You really wanna hear how I fucked it all up?” I grunt. “How I tried to do the right thing and ended up in chains?” I grit my teeth. The metal chains are wrapped tight around my wrists, digging into my flesh. It hurts, but not nearly as much as it will our family if I don’t get us the hell out of here before they can broadcast our collective demise. “It was a hit on Messina.”
“I think those chains are cutting off the blood circulation to your brain,” Gallo says. “We got away. Nobody was killed. Messina didn’t even show. It was a setup?—”
“That night, yeah. But once I got here to the States, I was ordered to do a hit. You know how Pop has been cozying up to Joe Salesi for the past year so they could partner on the casino and other business deals?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, Salesi ran into his own problems with Messina. Said he’d been fucking around in their territories, trying to strong-arm Salesi into working with him. So Joe asked if Pop could send Messina a message to make him lay off. Pop volunteered me, so I made the hit.”
“Okay, so they’re pissed off about the hit?”
“More than pissed off. I didn’t just take out Messina’s men. I killed one of his sons and his nephew. Salesi never told me the truth about why he wanted to attack Messina. The reason he gave to Pop was bullshit. Joe wanted to make the hit because Messina tried to have his daughter kidnapped. It was retaliation and he didn’t want it traced back to him, so he had me do it instead.”
“And Pop didn’t know?”
“Pop still doesn’t know,” I say. “I just put all of the pieces together a few hours ago. But there’s more.”
“Oh, Christ. Do I want to know?” Gallo mumbles.
“Salesi’s daughter? She’s here in Vegas. Going to school. And Messina? He’s targeting her, too. She escaped when I got taken or else she’d be tied to a chair right next to you. They want to kill all of us. Revenge times three. See why I wanted to keep you away from this shit?”
“Well, it’s a little late, don’t you think? I mean, they knew I was with you in Palermo at the casino. That’s why they grabbed me.”
“Speaking of grabbing, how the fuck did you let that happen, G? Were you paying any attention at all? I may not have taught you the things that can help you run the world, but I sure as hell taught you shit that’s supposed to keep you alive!”
“I was a little more focused on my dick than on my safety when I was in the men’s room taking a leak after the flight. What can I say? They caught me by surprise.” Gallo lets out a shuddering sigh, wincing as he shifts in the chair. “Damn, I think they broke ribs. And one of them might be puncturing a lung. I’m gonna die a slow death of asphyxiation.” He snickers. “At least they don’t have me hanging from a wall.”
“Thanks, you’re so lucky.” I swallow hard. Nobody knows where we are, and nobody will be able to find us before it’s too late.
We’re both fucked like a whore in a brothel.
Every which way.
“Would you do it over again?” Gallo asks. “Would you have gone after Messina if you knew this was gonna happen?”
And for a second, I allow all of the memories of the past eighteen hours to come rushing forth.
The pit bull, the hackers, their scam to take down our casino, Lily in that red dress, escaping a sea of gunfire that was intended to pepper me with so many bullets, I’d resemble Swiss cheese.
“Yeah,” I growl. “That bastard deserved to be punished for what he did to our family, for what he did to Salesi. He needed to pay.”
“See, that’s loyalty right there,” Gallo says. “You putting your ass on the line for the family, for Papa’s business interests. Not thinking about the risks to yourself, just doing what you thought was the right thing for us.”
“Loyalty or plain stupidity?” I sigh. “I think I’m leaning in the direction of stupidity.”
“I hope Salesi appreciates what you did for him and his daughter.”
“I hope his daughter appreciates what I did for her, too,” I say, a smirk lifting my lips.
“You fucking dog.” Gallo rolls his eyes. “Only you could prioritize sex over survival.”
“Yeah, see? I told you. Stupidity.”
“I hope it was worth it since your dick is going to its grave with nothing more than the memory.”
“Okay, talk like that makes me think you’re dumber than I thought.” I narrow my eyes scouting the area around me for something, anything to help me carry out the next part of my plan.
I swallow the whoop in my throat when I see the exact answer to my prayers. Salvation has fucking arrived.
“And trust me, there’s no way I’m letting us go down in flames today. Messina’s a big boy. He knew the risks and he didn’t give a shit about them when he went after us and after the Salesi family. So…”
“So what ?”
“So, we fight back.”
“Uh-huh. And that won’t be a problem since we have full use of our arms and legs.” Gallo scoffs. “You know, Papa thinks you’re a liability because you’re dangerous, but really, I think it’s because you’re fucking delusional.”
“Not delusional,” I say with a wink. “Just determined. Salesi’s daughter managed to get away by stabbing Messina’s other son in the eye.”
“Because she wasn’t tied up, I’m guessing?”
“You’re thinking about this the wrong way,” I say. “Don’t focus on what we can’t do. Remember what we can do.”
“You can’t fuck your way out of this one, Zeno.”
I smirk at him, then nod up toward the areas where the chains are looped above my head. “Do you see there the ends are nailed into the wall?”
Gallo squints, peering upward until his eyebrows fly up. “Holy shit…” he breathes.
“Yep. Stupid is what fucking stupid does.” I want to scream it out loud so I can hear the words bounce off the walls in here, but I restrain myself. Messina will find out soon enough what an idiot he is for this oversight.
Someone didn’t bother to remove the rusted nail from the side of the loop. It’s sticking right out of the wall, primed for the grabbing. All I need to do is climb up and snatch it. Then I can get the cuffs open and save the fucking day.
Determined is an understatement right now.
I left out the part about being desperate.
“How the hell are you gonna get up there?” Gallo grumbles, casting a quick glance toward the door. “You think you’re Spiderman or something?”
“Or something,” I mutter, looking around. There’s another chair a few feet away but I can’t get to it with my arms flailing in the air, and I only have so much give around my ankles. I need to get high enough up to get my hands on the nail.
Climbing obviously isn’t an option.
A scraping sound jolts me, and I twist my head around to see Gallo struggle to slide his chair toward me. His face is pinched in agony with each push and pull of the chair. He’s still too far from me, though. I can’t do a damn thing to help him get closer.
He grunts and groans, dragging himself over the uneven floor. “Jesus, this is fucking murder,” he groans.
“No, but it will be if you don’t get here fast. I’m not gonna have time to unlock myself if you move much slower,” I say in a breathless voice, straining my ears to hear if we’re about to have any surprise visitors.
A few hisses and expletives later, and he’s finally close enough that I can climb on top of him and snatch the nail. I step onto his leg and he winces. “Just do it. Hurry.”
I hoist myself up and balancing my weight on his legs, I lean closer to the wall…close enough that I can grab the nail. My fingers close around it, and just as I’m about to stick it into the lock suspending my arms in mid-air, I lose my balance. I stick out my arms, trying to regain it, and then Gallo lets out an anguished yell. The chair falls backward and Gallo crashes to the floor with me on top of him.
He lets out a savage roar and I roll off of him. Dammit! They’ll be here soon. There’s no way they didn’t hear that noise and I’m running out of?—
The door slams open, the metal cracking against the wall.
Time.
Messina stomps toward Gallo who is writhing on the floor in pain. “What the fuck happened?” he screams.
“I guess that was his way of telling you he needs to take a piss,” I say with a shrug, trying to sound flippant when my heart is actually lodged in my throat. I clutch the nail tight in my fist, but not tight enough to break the skin. I’ve got enough problems right now. I don’t need tetanus on top of them.
Messina isn’t amused.
He walks up to me and like a flash of lightning, his fist connects with my jaw. The pain shoots straight up to my eye socket, and the entire right side of my face feels like it’s engulfed in flames.
But a little anguish never keeps me down for long. I try to find the keyhole, sticking the nail in every crevice I can find. My fingers start to sweat, and the rust is the only reason why I still have somewhat of a grip on the nail right now.
Come on, come on, come on!
Still nothing.
“If you try to fuck with me, Zeno,” Messina seethes. “The agony you’ll experience will be beyond your worst nightmares.”
“Actually, your breath is causing me plenty of pain right now. I feel like you’re hissing toxic flames into my eyes. It’s really gonna get worse than that?”
Another punch shatters my nose and I let out a loud groan, the pain shooting up to my brain.
“You stupid fuck,” Messina grunts, hovering over me, waving a 9mm in my face before doing an about-face and walking over to Gallo who is still groaning on the floor. “Everything that happens from now on is all on you, Zeno. You should have been smart enough to just bend over and deal with the ass-plugging. But you decided to play superhero for your family, and now the villain is about to win and take over the goddamn universe. You won’t be able to stop it.”
The hell I won’t.
Now I have a weapon. A disease-infested one, no doubt.
“Leave him alone, Messina,” I growl. “You deal with me on this.”
That’s right. Just come a little bit closer, dickhead.
Lemme show you just how much worse it’s gonna get…for you .
Bang! Crack! Pop!
An ear-splitting roar erupts from my lips.
No!
Fuck no !