Grayson
After I hit the third spot in the field behind the organization's Safe House to dig the rest of the money up, I make my way to the Santoro Building to pay a visit to Frank in the bunker. He’s going to fucking pay for getting Luciano and my dad killed.
“How’s captivity treating you, Frank?” I say, entering the back room of the bunker. My voice is tense and sweat drips from my forehead.
“ you have to let me go, I’ve been down here for two days with no food and barely any w–”
“Shut the fuck up.” I cut him off. “Luciano is dead. Al is dead,” my eyes bore into him .
“ I’m so sorry man this wasn’t supposed to happen!” Frank pleads.
“Save it. No more talking, it’s too late.” I pull out a flame thrower from the utility closet and begin torching Frank’s soiled jeans.
“Fuck! I’ll give you anything you want, please!” He screams, but I can barely hear him over my rage.
“Too late.” I say nonchalantly. “You’re of no use now. You brought in problems we would have never had. My family is being killed off because of you.” I’m shaking now. As Frank starts passing out from the pain, I stop the torch and start slapping his face to keep him awake.
“You’re going to feel everything that I’m feeling right now, Frank. Everything Rowan felt when she found out her mom was dead. Her mom, who you killed, you sick piece of shit.” I set the flame thrower down and grab a screw from the small metal table behind me. In one movement I grab Frank’s sweaty, tear ridden face and jab the screw into his eye, leaving it in. He screams and yanks at the chains cuffed around his wrists as if he could break free.
“Wait until she finds out what you were going to do. Or when she finds out that it was you that killed her mother. We’re going to make this fun.” I say, my breathing barely catching up to me. As much as I want to keep torturing Frank, I have to get back to the house and get Rowan. I knock Frank out with a swift punch to his temple, and begin removing his cuffs. Taking both of his hands, I tie them together with a rope, and tie the other end of the rope to a thick metal pipe on the low ceiling of the bunker. I pull the rope until his feet are just barely touching the cement floor. When he wakes up he’ll be in the worst pain he’s ever been in his entire life. And he’ll stay that way until he’s dead.
I finally get into the car with the back seat and trunk packed full with duffel bags of money. I’m covered in dirt and Frank’s blood but I won’t have time to get a change of clothes when I pick up Rowan, we have to go straight to the hangar and get on a jet to Sicily. We have estates out there under different aliases in case anything ever went down, though we never imagined it would get this bad. Rowan never chose this life, in fact, she did everything she could to stay away from what her father got her into. I am going to make sure this never touches her again. I’m going to make sure she can start a new life somewhere where she’s safe, for good.
I pull into the driveway and see one of the guards laying in a pool of blood. Fuck. All of them. I get out and draw my gun, flipping the safety off as I step over over the bodies scattered along the driveway all the way to the stairs and notice the front doors are open. Rushing into the house, I quickly move up the staircase as my eyes follow the droplets of blood on the white marble of the stairs.
“Rowan!” I call out to her
Nothing.
She’s smart, she has to be in the basement. I turn around and stumble quickly down the stairs making my way toward the thick iron door to the basement. I rush down the stairs of the basement and call out to her again.
“Rowan!”
Still. Nothing. Fuck. I tear through the house, panic driving my every step. I sprint back up the stairs to the bedroom, I didn’t check the bedroom yet she has to be there.
“Rowan!” I shout, my voice raw with desperation to find her as I burst into the bedroom. The closet door is open and all of the lights are on, but no sight of Rowan. Then I hear it– a faint, muffled sound coming from the closet. I move quickly to the inside of the large walk-in closet but I still don’t see her.
“!” I hear her muffled scream from one of the suitcases neatly stacked in the corner. I toss the smaller suitcases off and unzip the largest one at the bottom, finding Rowan curled up in the cramped space. Her face is streaked with tears and she inhales deeply, probably suffocated from being in there so long.
“!” She cries, scrambling out of the suitcase and into my arms.
“You’re okay,” I whisper, more to myself than to her. I grip her tightly, pressing my face into her hair.
“How did you..?” She pulls back slightly, just enough to look up at me.
“The guard– Maverick. He came up here when the shooting started and said I needed to get to the basement but there was no time. I told him to zip it up and stack the other suitcases on top hoping they wouldn’t think to look in there.” She says between sobs. I pull away from her and hold her shoulders, making eye contact.
“Row, you are the smartest woman I have ever fucking met. Did they come in here? Did they look for you?” I ask, my mind racing with images of what could have happened.
“Yes.” She chokes out, “Good thing I didn’t hide in the attic above the closet because they looked there too. I tried not to make a sound, I–I was so scared.” She starts crying again .
“I’m so sorry I left you, Rowan. I promise I will never leave your side again but we have to get going right now because they’ll be looking for us and we have no security right now.” I help her to her feet and throw her packed duffle over my shoulder. She follows behind me as we exit the bedroom with my gun drawn.
“You still got your pistol?” I ask her quietly.
“Yeah, it's strapped to my leg.” She responds. That’s my girl.
“Pull it out just in case, keep your arm slightly bent while you’re aiming.” I demand.
We make it to the car and start driving down the empty back road when I get a call from my mom.
“Is everything okay?” I immediately ask her.
“No. we’re in a parking garage downtown. I had Griz scope out the hangar and Conejo’s crew is staked out in front of it, so we can't take the jet.” She snaps. Of course they are. I already expected they would cover all bases.
“It’s okay, I have a backup plan. Listen Ma, they got Luciano.” I inform her. “I’m going to send you my coordinates to your backup phone in case anything is tapped. Meet me over there right away, we can’t let anyone else get hurt.” I tell her. I hang up hearing her scream through the phone and I drive straight toward the car lot where I keep spares for getaway driving. I hate that I had to tell her so abruptly but her and Laila need to know how serious this is right now.
“They killed your brother?” Rowan asks, her eyes filled with concern.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now. I’ll explain the plan once all of us are together. It’ll be easier. Don’t worry, okay?” I say gently, reaching over and slipping my hand to her exposed thigh. She nods leaning back on the headrest of her seat.