Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
DOMINIC
I watch in poorly disguised disgust as Vito drags Maricela along the corridor and throws her into his suite.
A couple of his foot soldiers snicker and I shoot them a dark look that quells them immediately.
Maricela’s scream is cut off as the heavy door closes on her torment when the Viper slams it shut, and I take the opportunity to escape to my room and make a call to Mika.
“He’s going to kill her,” I tell him without clarification or preamble. “Someone needs to intervene.”
“It’s none of our business, Dominic,” Mika warns. “She’s his fiancée. There’s only so much we can do without crossing the line.”
I shake my head, trying to keep my cool. “I don’t believe for one second you’re okay with leaving the Viper to beat her to death, and that’s where it’s heading,” I tell my cousin in no uncertain terms. “And it’ll sure as hell be our business when we have to clean up his mess.”
There’s a deep, frustrated sigh on the other end of the line, but I don’t wait for my boss to come up with a plan. “I’m going to stop him as soon as I can work out the best way to do so. I can’t stand by and let this happen.”
“Dominic, you need to be careful…”
I cut him off. There’s nothing more to be said. I know the consequences of interfering in the affairs of my superiors, but being with Rosin, seeing what she was subjected to, what may have potentially happened to her, has changed something inside me. I’m far more sensitive to this shit now, whereas in the past, even though I knew Maricela didn’t have it so good, I minded my own business. Not anymore though.
After pacing my room while I consider my options, I decide I just need to act before it’s too late. I’ve already changed into dark sweats and a long-sleeved black tee, so I throw open the door and make my way to the Viper’s lair with a half-baked idea and even less of a backup plan.
Raising my hand to knock on the door, I’m surprised to find it isn’t closed. I push it open with caution, pausing to listen, but there’s no sound, either. Something that’s somehow even more eerie. But I can smell the metallic taint of blood. After so many years of living and breathing it, the odor is unmistakable.
Withdrawing my handgun from where it’s tucked into the back of my waistband, I slowly enter the room, calling out ahead of me. “Vito? Are you in here?”
I think I hear a small moan, so I follow the sound into the bedroom, only to find a scene of carnage in front of me. “Fuck!” I stuff my gun away, only too aware of how incriminating this is going to look to anyone who comes across me with it in my hand right now. Because Vito Rossi is lying in a pool of blood, his eyes staring lifelessly, half draped over a battered and equally unresponsive Maricela Escobar.
My brain whirls, and for a moment, I can’t think. Can’t assimilate the situation or what I should do about it.
Shit. This has all the ingredients to go really badly. As much as I’ve tried to stay below the radar, it’s no secret Vito and I haven’t seen eye to eye lately, and he hasn’t taken lightly to Mika taking me out of the equation, especially with the bad blood that’s been rearing its ugly head. Not that I’ve ever been amongst the Viper’s inner circle. And that really doesn’t help right now.
I snap out of my momentary paralysis and spring into action. First things first. I need to check if there's any life left in either of them. Kneeling beside the bed, I press my fingers to Vito's neck, searching for a pulse. Nothing. His skin is already cooling. I turn my attention to Maricela, silently praying I'm not too late. Her face is a mess of bruises and blood, but I detect a faint flutter beneath my fingertips. She's alive, barely.
"Maricela," I whisper urgently. I don’t want to touch her anywhere else, because every part of her looks broken. "Can you hear me?"
Her eyelids flutter, but she doesn't respond. I need to get her out of here, fast. But I can't just walk out carrying an unconscious, battered woman without raising suspicion. I’m also afraid moving her will exacerbate her injuries.
Mika's words echo in my head, warning me to be careful, but she needs medical attention, urgently.
I move Vito’s dead weight off her ever so slightly so she can breathe easier and rush out of the room, checking to see if the coast is clear before I hurry back to my own quarters.
As I barrel around a corner, I almost collide with Kaiden coming the other way. “Whoa!” he calls out, raising his palms to stop my forward momentum and immediately narrowing his eyes when he spies the blood I didn’t realize I was covered with. “What the fuck, man? What happened?”
I grab his arm and tow him along behind me. “Are you hurt?” he asks with a hint of concern. I shake my head but don’t speak until we’re behind the relative safety of the closed doors of my suite.
Diving into the bathroom, I strip off my clothes and get cleaned up. Throwing the soiled garments under the shower to wash away the evidence.
“So, what’s the deal?” Kaiden asks from the doorway. “Because I’m supposed to be going to Vito with an update…”
I whip my head around and look at him. “Was it you?” I ask, looking him up and down. I know he’s armed; we all are. Even inside the compound, there’s nothing strange about that. You never know when something might go down, so it pays to always be prepared.
Kaiden frowns and tips his head to one side. “Was what me?”
“Vito.”
“What are you talking about, Dominic?”
I’m not sure Kaiden would admit to anything, even if he had pulled the trigger. But recent events put him right up there with a grudge. Still, I don’t want him to take the fall any more than me, since Mika and I promised to have his back.
Honor among thieves and all that.
“Do you normally report to Vito yourself, and is there a set time?” I ask him instead.
Kaiden shakes his head. “Honestly, I usually avoid the bastard as much as possible, but I was worried about Maricela…”
I purse my lips and stare at him. Maybe we’re not so different after all. “How do you normally arrange that?” I ask. “In person?”
“Nope, I just message one of his goons. They love that shit. Any opportunity to put themselves in front of him and into his good graces and they’re on it like white on rice.”
“Good, good,” I say with a distracted nod as I dig out clean clothes. “You should do that then.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asks again, and I shake my head.
“Plausible deniability. Take my word for it.”
He throws me a weird look but pulls out his phone and taps out a message.
“Now what?” he asks when he’s done.
“Now we wait. Shouldn’t take long, by all accounts.”
I’m not wrong. Barely five minutes later, there’s shouting in the corridor, and Kaiden swings around and stares at me. I hold his gaze. “What the hell did you do?” he asks in a pseudo-whisper.
“Nothing, I swear.” I hold my hands up in a placating gesture, but I’m not sure he believes me.
I guess that makes the feeling mutual.
We’re at an impasse. Both of us eyeing each other with equal measures of trust and suspicion.
The shouting in the corridor grows louder and I can make out panicked voices and hurried footsteps. Kaiden and I exchange another tense glance before he moves to crack open the door, peering out into the hallway.
"It's chaos out there," he mutters, his expression carefully blank. "Everyone's running towards Vito's suite."
“I guess we should go and investigate then,” I tell him, pulling the door open and taking off at a run, leaving him to follow, glad we won’t be arriving at the same time.
I have my handgun at the ready, because that’s what would be expected in this situation, but as I jog down the hallway, someone calls me out.
“Dominic, stand down.”
The order is loud and succinct, and I immediately stow my weapon and walk towards Ares, Mika’s right-hand man and the guy widely expected to become his consigliere when he takes over.
“Hey…”
Before I can get anything else out, Kaiden comes barreling around the corner and Ares repeats the order.
“What the hell is going on?” Kaiden demands, clearly out of patience. He goes to barge past Ares, but the big man holds him back.
“I’m sorry, you can’t go in there.”
“Jesus!” Kaiden fists both hands into his hair and bows his head. “Vito’s fucking killed her, hasn’t he?” he declares, turning around and punching the wall behind him.
“Kaiden…” I touch my hand to his shoulder, but he shrugs me off and swings back to Ares.
“No. It’s not that,” Ares tells him, glancing between the two of us, but thankfully without any whiff of suspicion.
“So, she’s okay?” Kaiden asks, his tone ripe with disbelief.
Ares palms his bald head and grimaces. “I wouldn’t say that, exactly, but she’s still alive…”
He pauses while Kaiden takes that in, then drops his bomb. “But Vito isn’t.”
“Vito isn’t?” Kaiden asks dumbly, and I’m glad he’s none the wiser, that I have his honest response to hide behind.
I lay a hand on his shoulder and squeeze, playing like Vito was the father figure to Kaiden he was supposed to be. “I think what Ares is trying to say is Vito is dead,” I say quietly.
Kaiden's eyes widen in shock, his mouth falling open. "Dead? How... what happened?"
His shock is so real, he doesn’t even turn a suspicious eye my way, although I’m not stupid enough to believe he won’t call me on it when things have sunk in and he’s thinking more clearly.
Ares shakes his head grimly. "We're still piecing it together. Maricela's in bad shape, unconscious. The medics are working on stabilizing her now."
I keep my face carefully neutral, not wanting to reveal that I'd already seen the gruesome scene. "Any ideas on what went down?" I ask, trying to sound appropriately concerned yet curious.
"Too early to say for certain," Ares replies. "But it looks like things got out of hand between them. Maricela may have fought back in self-defense."
Kaiden runs a hand through his hair, looking distressed. "Jesus Christ. I knew he was rough with her, but I never thought..."
"None of us did," I lie smoothly, patting his shoulder. "This is going to cause a shitstorm."
Ares nods gravely. "That's putting it mildly. Mika's on his way here to deal with the fallout. In the meantime, we need to keep this contained until we know for certain what happened here. I don’t want unfounded rumors swirling around. This is going to have enough of an impact without that.”
Moments later, Mika arrives and he’s not alone. My uncle, Mika’s father, Don Salvatore himself, is with him. I shouldn’t be surprised. Vito was his brother, after all.
Mika gives both Kaiden and me a long look, undoubtedly remembering my earlier call and Kaiden’s admission in the warehouse, probably wondering if either of us are to blame.
Ares steps to one side and Sal barges into the room. A moment later, Vito and Salvatore’s sister, Therese, comes hurrying along with a white-coated doctor by her side. While Ares apparently sent everyone else away before I got here, he seems content to let us stay outside the door… possibly in deference to Kaiden’s relationship with Vito.
Maricela must have finally regained consciousness, because Sal’s blustering, angry voice reaches us where we stand, and all three of us cringe. “Was it you, girl? Did you shoot my brother?”
“Really, father?” It’s Mika who comes to Maricela’s defense. “She was out cold, beaten bloody and virtually pinned beneath him. Never mind that there was no gun at the scene. How do you imagine she killed Vito?”
The Don simply grunts in response.
“It could have been anybody,” Mika continues. “I already told you, father. Vito’s been out of control. He’s been moving on other territories behind our back. Siccing the feds on us with that ridiculous vendetta that saw him abducting the Duke of Buckingham’s fiancée in the UK, murdering a woman associated with one of the heads of the Irish mob. Never mind kidnapping their goddamn sister! I told you he was a liability. Looks like he finally got his comeuppance.”
“Did you see anything, woman?” It sounds like Salvatore is changing tactics, but I can’t help but breathe a silent sigh of relief that Maricela is out of the firing line.
“You won’t get any information by frightening the poor girl to death,” I hear Therese admonish.
Then, for the first time, I hear Maricela’s voice and strain to hear what she says.
“Th-there was someone…” she croaks, her voice raspy and almost inaudible.
I freeze where I am, wondering if she was aware of me when I went in there, after all.
“Who was it?” Salvatore demands, and I hold my breath, wondering if I’m about to be given away. Thankfully, Kaiden and Ares are also straining to hear, so neither of them witness my momentary lapse before I pull myself back together.
“I-I don’t know… It was a-a woman. She wore a red d-dress, and her heels tapped on the floor. She had a gun… with a silencer, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before.”
All three of us in the hallway startle, straighten up, and look at each other in shock.
What the fuck?
“Knowing Vito, it was probably some hooker he invited over,” Mika replies, a sneer in his voice.
“Mika!” Therese admonishes with a hint of censure.
“Check through all the video footage,” the Don orders.
“I’ll do it personally,” Mika reassures his father.
And now I know I’m fucked, because whatever else the footage shows, it only covers the hallway, and it’ll also show me going in and out of there with a gun in my hand.