10. Dion
10
DION
T he rumble of my Ducati sends a surge of adrenaline through my body as I pull out of my garage. The concrete beneath my wheels rushes past as I lean into a sharp turn.
Navigating through the familiar streets of my neighborhood, I head toward our main warehouse in the Lower District of Old Cebrene .
The engine growls with each twist of the throttle, propelling me forward into the cool evening air. Yet , amidst the exhilaration, my mind keeps drifting back to smooth, blonde hair, soft moans in my ears, and a laugh I can’t get out of my head.
Ahead , the lights of the warehouse flicker into view, casting a glow against the darkening sky and bringing me back to the present.
As I approach the building, I slow down, pulling up to the entrance. The gates open with a metallic groan, allowing me access into the maze of shipping containers. The industrial surroundings are a stark contrast to the softness of Aria’s presence in my memories. I have to get the fuck over her. But how can I ?
She left a mark on me. I took her virginity . She gave me a sacred part of herself, and the still fresh memory of her legs wrapped around my waist makes me want to punch a hole through a wall. I even found out where she does hot yoga and waited for her outside of the studio a few days ago. I had to see her. I needed to see her.
I park my bike in a secluded corner and remove my helmet, running a hand through my short hair.
When I make my way inside, I’m greeted by Leon , cigarette in hand.
“ Kalispéra , afentikó .”
“ Ti nea echís ?”
“ The crates arrived about an hour ago. The guys picked them up from the port earlier today. There are a couple missing.”
For fuck’s sake. We’ve been dealing with a slew of our containers going AWOL lately. It’s been driving me and Evander nuts trying to figure out who’s been stealing from us.
“ I think you should see this,” Leon adds, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket.
When he hands it to me, I unfold it and find a message scribbled in red ink.
I know who you are. Go near her again and you’ll get what’s coming to you.
Ti sto diáolo?
I stare at the piece of paper clenched tightly in my hand. It’s the second time in the past two weeks that I’ve received a threatening note. The first one made me raise a brow. It said: You think you’re untouchable, but everyone has a weakness.
I’d crumpled it up and tossed it aside, thinking it was just some petty gang shit. There’s always drama in the metropolis, and I’ve never been one to get involved.
But now, this one. Anger simmers beneath my skin as I reread the words scrawled across the paper.
“ We found it in an empty crate. It was addressed to you,” Leon explains.
Who could this be? I assume the ‘her’ the message refers to is Aria .
I clench my jaw, fists tightening around the note until it crumples in my grip. Has someone been following me? Who the fuck has the nerve to threaten me like this?
Enough is enough. It’s time to find out who’s behind these notes and put an end to it once and for all.
I stuff it in my pocket. “ Don’t tell a fucking soul about this, Leon ,” I threaten, and he lifts his hands up.
“ I didn’t see a thing.”
“ Good . Gather as much information as you can regarding the missing crates and reach out to our contact at the port. I’ll talk to Xan .”
I turn on my heels and head to the office. When I walk in, Xander is sitting at the desk, staring at the computer. He nods in my direction.
“ What are you up to?” I ask, sitting in the seat in front of him.
“ I’m looking into the cameras at the port. I believe the perpetrators were able to steal from us right before we got there for pick-up.”
Xander is our in-house hacker. He works with a team, but when we need to get something done quickly, he’s the man for the job. He’s also been my best friend ever since we met twenty-one years ago.
I was twelve when he stumbled upon our door, beaten and bloody. Ignatius had been warned by the guards that a young boy was trying to get through the gates, and when they let him in, we were shocked to find him in terrible shape. His face was swollen with a black eye and a busted lip, and his legs were covered in scrapes.
Turns out, his father had beaten him up so badly in a drunken stupor that he ran away, not stopping until he found help. He cut through the woods and came across Ignatius’s estate in the middle of the night.
The only thing I vividly remember was his smell. It was foul.
As he was running through the forest, he’d gotten sprayed by a skunk. Evan and I have never stopped giving him shit about that.
Ignatius had ushered him into the house and asked Helen to clean him up. She had bathed him in a mixture of dish soap, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide.
Evander was fast asleep at the time, and when he woke up the next morning, he almost beat the shit out of Xander when he found him sleeping on the couch. The memory still makes us laugh.
Xander finally looks up at me from the monitor and must notice my unease. “ What’s going on?”
I pull the note out of my pocket and throw it at him. “ Someone addressed this to me in one of the crates.”
He quickly peruses it. “ Do you have any idea who could be targeting you?”
I shrug my shoulders. “ My only guess would be Philip Kastellanos .”
Aria’s father is a known enemy of ours. Given his relation to Peter Kouvalakis , he’s on our shit list. They’re both involved in some shady shit that we’re trying to uncover, and I expect he wouldn’t be too happy if his daughter started seeing someone like me.
When I dropped Aria off the morning after our little encounter, I hadn’t noticed anyone watching us from the house. Then again, he has guards and cameras all over the property, so I’m sure if he was, he hastily figured out my identity.
“ Is this the first time you’ve received a threat?” Xander asks. He’s aware of what happened with Aria that night.
I bring my attention back to him and shake my head. “ This is the second one.”
Xander’s eyes widen in shock, his usually easygoing demeanor replaced by concern and frustration. “ Why the fuck didn’t you say anything before?”
I shrug again. “ I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily.”
“ Could it be her fiancé?”
I debate my answer. “ Not sure. But I haven’t looked into the fucker yet. I don’t even know his name.”
Xander takes another look at the note and throws it back to me. “ I’ll investigate. We’ll get to the bottom of this. If someone left something in one of the crates, I’m bound to find footage.”
I let him type away for several minutes, watching him get completely engrossed in the task, and then he speaks up. “ I found something. Come look.”
He really is the best hacker in the city.
A spark of stress ignites inside me as I walk over to him and face the monitors. His finger hovers over the play button, and anticipation tingles through my veins like a live wire as we watch the grainy footage.
The silhouette of a man moves stealthily across the dock, shrouded in darkness. His movements are calculated as he skirts around the edge of the cargo ship.
The man’s form disappears briefly behind a stack of crates, only to reemerge moments later, clutching a piece of paper. He slips between two containers, his figure illuminated momentarily by the dim glow of a nearby light. I lean closer to the monitor, my eyes straining to catch any distinguishing features.
“ Pause the video,” I say, and Xander freezes the footage with a quick flick of his fingers. The image stutters to a halt as the man hunches over a crate.
I squint, zooming in, desperate for even the faintest glimpse of his face. But his features are obscured by shadows cast by the surrounding cargo.
Frustration gnaws at me as I rewind and play back the footage. “ I can’t fucking see a thing,” I complain, pounding my fist on the desk. I want to find this motherfucker and pay him a little visit for threatening me. Xander releases the pause button, allowing the scene to continue.
The perpetrator pries open a seam and tucks the note inside.
As he retreats into the shadows once more, my mind races with questions. Who is he? It can’t be Philip himself, so who did he send to do his dirty work? And if it’s not Philip’s doing, who else could it be?
“ There’s one thing we know for sure,” Xander says, breaking the quiet of the room. “ This isn’t linked to the thefts, since they were done at different times.”
“ Call Evan and tell him about the missing crates. But don’t mention the note.”
Xander nods.
I hate keeping secrets from my brother. We’ve always shared everything. But this time, telling him about the situation I’m in will only serve as a distraction, pulling his attention from what’s truly important.
Avenging Ignatius .