Chapter 3 #2
I had to keep my face neutral as I gazed into his soulless eyes. I suppressed my fury, caging it like a beast. I’d waited so damn long to meet this piece of shit.
“Don’t go flinging that name around so openly unless you want to end up with a bullet in your skull. What business are you looking for exactly?”
“I’m looking to place a bet on a puledro in the next race. I heard Ettore was the man who could get me into the parade ring.”
He rubbed his thick, stubbled jaw as he studied me. Of course, we weren’t discussing horse racing. We were talking about underground illegal fighting, but not with grown men. With boys. Some as young as eight.
“We can’t talk about this here. Come with me.”
I followed him to the back of the bar and into a dingy cellar filled with barrels and beer. He leaned against one and lit a cigar.
“How did you find me? No one has known me as Ettore for nearly ten years.”
“You knew my father, Francesco Aiani. You did business with him in the past. He always said that you found the best boys for fights.”
“Aiani?” he scoffed, shaking his head. “I remember that fat fucker.” He looked me up and down appreciatively.
“You have your mother’s looks. I’m retired, though.
I don’t do business in the underground anymore, but seeing as Francesco was an old friend, I’ll give you the name of someone who does.
” He took another slow drag, puffing smoke in my face. “But it will cost you.”
I threw my bag of money on top of a crate and opened it, grabbing two thousand from the pile and shoving it into his chest.
“Vito Neryal. Tell him Grim sent you. He has four boys; two of them are fighting tomorrow, so bet on Nix. He’s the dark horse. Scrappy. He’ll win you millions.”
“Grazie.” I turned away from him, only to stop at the door. Taking out another two thousand, I held the bundles of cash in my hand and tilted my head. “Your boys… they didn’t just fight for you, no?”
His dark eyes flashed with malice as he smirked.
Rage bubbled inside me when I saw the sick memories running through his mind.
“They’d do anything you wanted them to if the price was right.
Vito isn’t your man for that. But I can get you what you’re looking for.
One thousand for an hour. Five thousand for the night. ”
And there it was—the sick truth lurking beneath the facade. I grabbed another three thousand and slammed the money onto the barrel. He grinned, showing gold-plated canines.
“Meet me out back in one hour. I’ll have a boy for you.” He held out his hand, and I shook it, feeling my skin crawl with the urge to pull out my gun and shove it down his throat. But unlike the others, I wouldn’t kill this one. There was someone who needed it more.
I walked back outside and got into the car, telling my men to drive for an hour until it was time to pull up in the dark, abandoned car park behind the bar.
An hour on the dot, the back door swung open and Ettore shoved a young boy, who couldn’t have been older than fourteen, towards us.
I noticed the boy’s nose was bleeding, and his hands were tied behind his back with cable ties. Clearly, he’d put up a fight.
“Be good and please this gentleman, or I’ll see to it that Rozzy sleeps in my bed tonight,” Ettore hissed through his teeth into the boy’s ear.
The boy reluctantly stepped forward as I opened my car door for him.
He climbed in, and I slammed the door shut, nodding at the scumbag before walking around to the other side.
“I’ll bring him back in three hours.”
“Enjoy,” Ettore shouted before heading back inside.
The moment the car began pulling away, I grabbed the boy’s arms, pulled out my knife, and cut him free. He rubbed his wrists, glaring at me but clearly retreating into a darker part of his mind so he wouldn’t have to face what he thought I was about to do.
“Relax, I’m not going to touch you.”
“Then who is? Them?” he growled, nodding his head towards my men driving the car.
“No one will touch you.” Leaning forward, I pulled a bottle of water from the built-in fridge and handed it to him. “What’s your name?”
“Mica.”
“You won’t be going back there, Mica.”
Panic flashed in his eyes. “My brother. I have to go back. He has my brother! Please, I have to go back!”
“We will save your brother too,” I said, rubbing my jaw as I examined the poor kid from head to toe.
He was filthy, and his clothes were too small for him.
Ettore may have stayed out of the fighting scene, making him harder to find, but clearly, he couldn’t stay away from human trafficking or child prostitution. “Does he have any others?”
He shook his head.
“Where is he keeping your brother?”
“He lives in the blue house on the corner down the street from the bar. He keeps us locked in his basement.”
Fucking asshole.
“Do you have a family, Mica?”
He cast his eyes down to his lap and shook his head. “Only my brother.”
The car stopped at the port, and I glanced out the window to see the small fishing boat, two of my men, the boat’s captain, and Yanna, the woman from the children’s home in my city.
“Mica, can you see that lady?”
He peered out the window, trembling. “Si.”
“She’s a friend of mine. A good person. You can trust her. She will take you and your brother to my city, where you will be safe and well cared for in a children’s home. I will fund your and your brother’s welfare and education until you are eighteen.”
His lips parted. “But… what will we have to do for you?”
I exhaled and leaned forward so he could look into my eyes and see how genuine I was. “Nothing. I want nothing from you or your brother. Only that you stay safe and don’t try to run, can you promise me that?”
He nodded slowly, and the car door opened. Yanna smiled at me as she wrapped her arm around the boy’s shoulders and led him towards the boat. He paused and looked back.
“My brother, Rozzy,” he said again, still unsure if he could trust me, but what other choice did he have?
“He will be with you very soon. The boat won’t leave without him. You have my word.”
“Thank you, Signor.” He closed his mouth and then opened it again, as if he wanted to ask another question but wasn’t sure if he should.
“Si?”
“W-why are you helping us?”
A memory of Finn’s face after he’d told me about his past flashed through my mind. The pain, the shame, and the darkness.
“Because someone once helped save someone I love from the same circumstances, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”
A small smile appeared on his lips, and he carried on walking towards the boat with Yanna. The car door slid shut, and I nodded to my men to take me to the blue house on the corner of the street.
Tugging out the black balaclava masks I had hidden under the seat, I threw two to my men and placed the third over my head, only allowing my blue eyes to show.
“You grab the boy. Try not to scare him. Leave Ettore to me.”