Chapter 25
Behind that door was the man who arranged the hit on my life. My baby’s life. Katrina. Anthony and Angelo. All of us dodged bullets on that afternoon—literally.
I wanted to see him suffer.
I wanted him to bleed.
Beg for mercy he wasn’t deserving of.
I looked down at my belly, rubbing it, and then looked back up at the red, steel door—red symbolizing shed blood. I swallowed, working through my anxiety of facing who could’ve been my maker.
Justice was coming today.
Justice was promised in the chamber. Always and forever.
Dominic and Dino walked through the tunnel, carrying one of those fancy recliners for guests we had in each makeshift hospital room in our unit.
“Did you remember to grab me some blood?” I asked both of them, turning around to face them. After a beat, Dominic sighed.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
I stifled my laughter.
“Let’s get this in there,” Dino suggested. “I’ll run and get it for her after.” Another beat passed. “Can you get the door, Lil?”
Dino set down the chair and shoved his hand in the pocket of his jeans, phishing out the key for the chamber. He handed it to me and picked his side of the chair back up. I held the key card over a built-in sensor just above the door handle until the light flashed bright green and the latch clicked, unlocking the door. I gently pushed on the door and then immediately pulled the handle, walking backward and off to the side as I opened the door. It wasn’t a light door by any sense of the word but not impossible for me to open.
I kept my head down as Dominic and Dino entered the chamber, gathering the courage to confront Nico Nasuti. It wasn’t that I was afraid of Nico because I wasn’t. Whenever I thought of being shot at and how close it came to my son and loved ones getting injured or dying, it choked me up, especially the thought of losing my son. The bond I already felt with him was intense, and I didn’t care if I had to walk barefoot over burning coals, jump out of a window twenty stories high, or die to save him, I would do whatever it took. The thought of losing him ripped my heart out.
Walking just past the room’s threshold, I lifted my head long enough to see Nico suspended in the air far down by the back wall, his wrists bound by steel shackles that connected to a set of chains hooked to a rail. The rail was bracketed into the ceiling. He was stripped naked—marks and cuts already marring his skin. He faced the wall, straining to make noise, like he was either drugged or dazed.
Dominic loosened my grip on the door’s handle and closed it, the latch system loud as it clicked into place. He then stepped in front of me, firmly gripping my arms.
“If at any time you want to leave, just say so.”
I nodded, looking past him at one of the tables lined with tools. Just then, a loud crack of a sound, like leather striking flesh, filled the space, followed by Nico’s anguished hollering. Dino, using a long, black strap, was lashing Nico over and over until Nico sagged, letting the chains support him while blood oozed from his open wounds..
Dino angrily threw the strap off to the side, then delivered a swift kick to the back of Nico’s thigh, eliciting a pained groan from him.
“Lilith,” Dominic called, not as a command but still with enough authority to redirect my attention. “You shouldn’t be in here. You’re at risk of losing control.”
“Caving to my thirst,” I finished for him.
Was I about to put my child at risk and ultimately myself over my curiosity? Nope. Nico being a hybrid meant I had to fight even harder. If I gave into the temptation of ingesting his blood, the baby might have lived but my chances were… Grim.
“Yes,” Dominic continued. “So, if you start to feel yourself losing that control, I need you to remove yourself from the room immediately. Do you understand?”
Nodding, I cradled my belly, looking at it. I had a hell of an internal fight on my hands between suppressing my emotions and subduing my thirst. Our son was worth the fight.
Dominic let me go and turned in Dino’s direction, walking toward him and Nico. “Drop and unhook him.”
Dino walked over to the pulley system and lowered Nico to the floor.
“Let’s get him in the chair,” Dominic ordered as Dino turned the key in one of the shackles, unwrapping it from Nico’s wrist.
After he was freed, Dominic and Dino dragged Mr. Nasuti to what was the new and unused wooden chair bolted to the floor and strapped him to it by his wrists and ankles. A drain was installed underneath to catch a person’s blood, waste, and whatever other bodily fluids were spilled.
Like a lightbulb had gone off in Dino’s head, he told his brother he’d be right back and then saw himself out of the chamber.
While Dominic made his way toward one of the tables, I watched Nico squirm. His breathing subtly began to quicken while he licked his parched lips. Shifting in the chair, Nico fought against the restraints, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
As the man I loved approached the man we all wanted to decimate, a manila folder in Dominic’s hand, Nico clenched and unclenched his fist, shifting position just enough for his back to touch the chair. He waited, lips parted slightly, his bated breaths slipping through. I sensed his angst. His trepidation. We all did, and we all smelled it. Nico was in deep, but he continued putting up a bold front.
Dominic opened the folder. “Make this easy, Nasuti.” He then picked up a thin stack of files out of the folder and stood in front of Nico, holding it up in front of him.
Nico’s eyes widened before his poker face returned. But the alarm bell had already sounded in his head, and he had a death-grip on the arms of the chair.
“Your compliance,” Dominic said, switching to the next photo in his hand, “lets them live.” He showed Nico another photo, holding it closer to his face. “Make a choice; tell us what we want to know, and I’ll call off my men, and just maybe, maybe I’ll show you mercy.” Dominic moved in closer to Nico, dropping his tone to a bleak level. “Or you’ll die with their blood on your hands. I have men stationed at their homes, waiting for my signal.” Dominic stepped back and stood tall, dropping his arm.
“Can I see those?” I asked Dominic. He held out the photos, so I took a step closer, grabbing them from his outstretched hand.
In the first photo, a middle-aged woman, presumably Mrs. Nasuti, was wiping her brow in her front yard. Tall with black hair teasing just past her shoulders, she wore a simple blouse and jeans with light brown gloves covering her hands, and a wheelbarrow was resting off to the side. She held a gardening hoe in her other hand, unaware of being spied on.
Switching to the next photo, a blonde circled with a red marker—decades younger—laughed with a group of girls her age, equally unaware of the danger which lurked. She emitted such innocence. A pure heart.
Shameful.
Shuffling through the rest of their surveillance photographs, the timestamps revealed these weren’t the work of Photoshop. Those most precious to such an evil man were oblivious collateral damage to their loved one’s games. They weren’t surviving this either. Too risky to our own lives and our bottom line. Was I sympathetic? To an extent. But with all Nico had done, I ultimately wanted to watch him and his remaining world burn.
Dino came back into the chamber, blood bag in hand. I gladly took it from him, thirsty, wasting no time opening it.
Taking a cigarette out of its pack, Dominic put it between his lips and gestured with his fingers for me to give him the photos as he walked toward me. I met him halfway and handed him back his leverage against Nico.
He lit his cigarette, blowing the smoke in Nico’s face. The bastard didn’t flinch.
“All I want to know is why.” Dominic gave the photos to Dino and then stood in wait, finishing what he was saying. “Why attack my family? Is this an eye for an eye thing?” He brought his hand up, moving it in a circle, pretending to try to figure out what we had already suspected. “Let me guess… You’re jealous, just like Vincent was. Am I on the right track?”
“Fuck you,” Nico gritted through his clenched jaw.
“No,” Dominic said, inhaling another hit of his cigarette. As he exhaled, he said, “Not interested.” Nico thrashed in the chair, baring his teeth like he was readying to attack had he not been confined by the leather straps. “What I am interested in is the why, Nasuti. Just give me a motive. Give me names… Then, we can discuss a deal.”
My heart was screaming at Dominic, screaming not to cut deals with gutter trash like this former DiSanti bitch. But in my head, I knew this was a tactic. He wouldn’t let Nico leave alive. So, I observed, hushing my emotional impulse.
“You think I’m stupid?”
“Uh, yeah,” Dino said.
Dominic rolled his eyes.
“I ain’t giving you shit,” Nico seethed.
“Not even to save those two women you seem to care so much about?” Dominic challenged.
“Women are off-limits; you said so yourselves. Your fucking family has prided themselves on that.”
Balancing his waning cigarette between his lips, Dominic removed his phone from the inside breast pocket of his jacket, pulling up a video and showing Nico. I moved in for a better view.
It was a video of Mrs. Nasuti bringing bags of groceries into their home. The time and date in the corner showed it was from a handful of hours ago.
For people with their kind of money, learning they lived in such an average-looking house in their neighborhood was a surprise. Then again, not everyone flaunted their wealth. I was honestly a tad envious. I loved my new home and all its luxuries, but I had days where I mourned the simpler life. Well, simpler in regard to involvement in the mafia.
Nico was expressionless.
“If you ever want to see them again,” Dominic began, inhaling another nicotine hit, “you need to start talking. I don’t hand out mercy without getting something in return.”
Nico scoffed. “They’re dead, regardless. I know how this works.”
Dominic shook his head, lowering it as he put out his cigarette with his fingertips. After tossing it, he slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket and stepped away from Nico, walking over to the table of torture tools.
“Dominic Rosini doesn’t give anyone mercy , so just fucking do it already. Shoot me, stab me, gut me; I don’t give a fuck.”
“Those are too easy,” Dominic said. Gathering something off the table, he turned around to make his way back over, something small and shiny in his hand.
“What is that?” I asked him.
As he drew closer, what he held became more visible—thin needles. Longer than a sewing needle but shorter than one found in a syringe. Taking my right hand, he placed all but two of the needles on my palm and then closed my fingers around them before guiding me closer to Nico.
Apparently, I was volunteered to assist.
Dominic stood to Nico’s left, holding one of the needles between his teeth, and silently grabbed Nico’s hand. He began forcing the first needle under his thumbnail, slowly pushing it in further. Nico cried out, writhing in pain. Dominic took the second needle from his mouth and repeated the process with the nail of Nico’s index finger.
I smiled a little inside, handing Dominic another needle.
He teased it to the tip of Nico’s middle finger. “Who’s your boss?”
We were met with silence.
Dominic began pushing the needle under that nail, eliciting a pained screech from Nico, whose breaths were fast and uneven. Fresh sweat started beading along his forehead.
“Who’s. Your. Boss?”
“Fuck you.”
I handed Dominic more needles as he finished up with Nico’s hand. He stepped over to Nico’s right, playing with the remaining needle between his fingers.
“Just give me a name, Nasuti, and I’ll stop all of it.” He lifted his head, staring at Nico. “It’s that simple.”
“Fuck. You.”
Dominic’s disheartened sigh spoke for all of us. Grabbing Nico’s pinky, he pierced Nico’s flesh with a needle and pushed it beneath that nail bed, completing the look on the rest of that hands’ fingers. Blood trickled out of each finger, dripping onto the chair’s wood, soaking into it. Taking a few steps backward, Dominic towered over Nico, expressing his approval of his work.
“It’ll take a lot more than that, asshole,” Nico muttered.
“I know,” Dominic calmly responded and then sucker-punched Nico in the face. His head flopped backward like a person experiencing extreme whiplash. Dominic punched him again in the face.
His ribs.
Stomach.
Nico choked as he coughed and fought for air, bruises slowly beginning to pop up on his face first.
“You should’ve taken the easy way,” Dominic taunted, taking out and lighting a new cigarette, but instead of enjoying it, he burned it into Nico’s flesh just under his left eye.
I brought my hand to my nose, not a fan of the scent.
Through Mr. Nasuti’s anguished groans, Dominic continued to burn him in various places. Cheek. Throat. Inside of his elbows. Two of his fingernails, his nipples, and on his penis. That last spot forced a howl out of Nico.
Dino’s sly chuckle was perfect timing. We had the bastard in front of us; we just prayed he would talk. Throw us a bone. We all knew Nico wouldn’t leave the chamber alive. It was even clearer that whoever called the shots didn’t give a fuck about Nico’s fate; otherwise, they would’ve already landed on our doorstep or gone after Dominic and his men before anyone left New York.
I thought about Anthony and Angelo, out there making sure any loose ends in New York were indeed tied. I thought about the others that were still there alongside our brothers, watching Nico’s wife and sister, waiting on any sort of command. Everyone would be home by dinner, but still… I hoped they stayed safe. Who knew the eyes watching them.
Lifting his chin at Dino, Dominic’s solidarity nod spoke of a silent mutual consensus between them. Then, Dino casually walked over to Nico and landed a brutal undercut beneath his rib cage, literally knocking the air from his lungs. Dino threw four more undercuts in that spot, springing backward on his heels with his fists up, shuffling his feet like he was a boxer in the ring.
“You ‘gon feel the pain, motherfucker,” Dino declared before punching Nico’s right eye.
As Dino beat up Nico, I wandered over to where Dominic was at the nearest tool table. He had a long, black, slender object in his hand. It reminded me of a baton, just without the attached piece at the top.
“What is that?”
He mulled it over. “A taser.” I just eyed it when he held it out to me, and when I looked back up at him, he was already staring. “Just push the button.”
“Me?” I asked, not expecting the opportunity. Dominic inched the taser closer to me. I looked back up and over at him, behind me at a slumped Nico, and back at the taser.
I could do this. Giving Dominic my empty bag of blood, I took the baton-like weapon from him and started walking towards Nico. I was surprised by how light it felt.
“Oh, shit,” Dino quipped. “Start talkin’, man, cause that fucker right there,” Dino pointed at the taser, “fuckin’ hurts.”
Nico sat slumped forward, exhausted. Weakened. No doubt feeling emasculated.
I wanted to hurt him.
Bad.
I wanted to brutalize him—make him feel the same panic and fear I did when I was being shot at. When I thought we were going to die. My son stirred in my belly, making me remember how scared I was that something would happen to him.
My mood changed. My aura. I wasn’t apprehensive. Not anymore. As my smirk snuck across my lips, I adjusted my hold on the taser and rested my thumb on the button. With my shoulders back, head held high, I moved toward Nico, holding out the taser.
“Hey,” I said.
Nico grunted, barely lifting his head. I pushed the button. The taser gave off a buzzing sound, which got Nico’s attention.
I jabbed the head of the taser into the deeply bruised spot under his ribs and pressed its button.
Immediately, he stiffened and sat up straighter, his whole body rigid as he absorbed every ounce of the voltage coursing through him. He couldn’t speak, only grit his teeth in agony. Drool spilled from between his teeth, dribbling off his lips and past his chin.
“Lilith.”
Ignoring Dominic for a handful more seconds, I reluctantly lifted my finger off the button and stepped back. Nico slumped forward, hanging his head, his breathing slowing and evening out.
“Who’s callin’ the shots?” Dino asked. “You ain’t doing anyone any favors. You’re not going out a martyr, and I’d bet your sister and your wife would smack you into fucking submission if they knew just how much you hold their lives in your fuckin’ hands.”
Lifting his head, Nico snapped at Dino, baring his teeth as he shouted, “I don’t care! Do it; kill them. Whether it’s you assholes or him that kills them, they don’t got much longer!”
“Him?” Dominic pondered out loud, cutting through the moment of silence. “Now we’re finally getting somewhere.” He placed his hand on the small of my back. I turned around, staring into his eyes that told me he’d had enough and was running out of patience. “Sit down and relax. You did good.”
I smiled softly, nodding. I handed him the taser and let Dino help me over to the recliner, making sure I was comfortable after helping me take a seat.
“A name, Nasuti,” Dominic pressed, fed-up, holding the taser like he was ready to put Nico through another round.
Head tipped back, exhaling a drawn-out, defeated breath, Nico said, “What’s the point?”
As the voltage ripped through him again, he arched off the chair, curling his toes.
I couldn’t begin to imagine how painful it was to be electrocuted.
Good.
“How many volts?” I asked Dino just as Dominic laid off round two.
“Nine mil,” he answered.
I widened my eyes. Nine million!? Holy fuck.
“I refer to ‘em as the industrial version of tasers. Way more fun and way more damage,” Dino explained, almost as if he were gloating.
Dino was correct… That was fun.
“I can do this all day, Nasuti,” Dominic said. When he pushed the button on the taser, Nico flinched at the hum of electricity.
“Fuck—”
Nico made a noise of fear as Dominic thrust the taser forward like he was about to tango with it for round three.
“Alright! Alright,” Nico said, caving. “Jesus fucking Christ… I’ll fucking give you a goddamn name. Alright!?”
I flinched when he was unexpectedly tazed again. It lasted a few seconds. I gave Dominic a what-the-hell look, but he didn’t notice. Taser still in his hand, he stood with both hands behind him in wait.
“What was that for?” I asked him.
Without taking his eyes off his target, Dominic said, “Just had to be sure.”
“Don’t fucking shock me again, and I’ll fucking tell you.”
The damage was taking its toll on Nico. I wanted him to endure more. After the names, after the details… I wanted him to suffer until his final breath.
“His name, Nasuti,” Dominic bellowed, at the end of his own rope.
“Dante… Dante Vitis.”
The name didn’t ring any bells with me.
“Why is that name so fucking familiar?” Dino pondered.
“Because he worked with us.”
I swallowed, my throat tighter. How many of them made it out of that slaughter alive? Surely not that many, right?
“How many of his men are still alive?” I thought out loud.
“A few of us,” Nico divulged.
“How many?” Dino asked.
“Just us and Frankie Belfi… And Brendon Marks.”
“Who pulls the strings?” Dominic dug.
Nico slowly lifted his head, glaring at his captor as best as he could. “What?”
“The puppeteer. Who is it?”
“I just fucking told you!”
“Dante’s slow, and the others were too low in Vincent’s chain to carry any real power. None of them, not even you, could arrange and execute a formidable plan that clean. You’re all pawns, otherwise you’d still be ghosts. So, I’ll ask you again—who. Is. It?”
“I’d rather be dead,” Nico scoffed.
Rolling his eyes, Dominic prodded Nico’s stomach with the head of the taser and put him through his longest round so far. Nico’s face reddened. His body clenched as he made tight, strained sounds. The moment it stopped, he gasped, his chest heaving as if life was blown back into his bruised and battered body.
“Son of a bitch,” Nico breathed as he stabilized himself.
“You’re in too deep,” Dominic reminded him. “Even if I did let you go, your grave’s already dug. Whether it’s one of us or your boss, it’s over. Do the right thing, Nasuti. Save your family.”
Scoffing, Nico said, “You can’t save them. No one fucking can.” He looked down at himself. “He’ll find them. He finds everyone.”
A tense silence hung in the air for far too long for my comfort.
“His name is Vladislav… Vladislav Aleski. He controls all of Russia with an iron fist.”
My stomach dropped. My heart raced. I got out of the chair as fast as I could in a panic, standing close to Dominic. Loosely hugging myself, I shakily asked Nico, “What does he want?”
Turning his head toward me as he talked, Nico explained, “Your savior over there took out one of Vladislav’s biggest suppliers of young girls—cost him close to a billion. With that much of a hole in his profits… Yeah, he’s pissed.”
It couldn’t be. Oh, my God, it couldn’t be. How did we not see it? Dominic was wrong; Vladislav wasn’t done with us just because he killed Hector. No, he wanted more. More blood on his hands. Our blood.
“We all got hits?” Dino wondered. Nico nodded. “How much?”
“Twenty million… Each.”
This couldn’t be happening. Fuck. My palms moistened with sweat.
The rest of us looked at each other. We knew this mess was too big for just us to clean. Could the other families help us? Would they be enough? I paced, my throat parched.
“Call it off,” I blurted out of panic.
Nico’s cheshire grin made my blood run colder.
“I can’t.” He looked at Dominic. “ You’re the ones that seem to be in too deep.”
“Who can?” Dominic asked. When Nico stayed silent, Dominic backhanded him hard enough, I was surprised it didn’t break his neck. “Who!?”
Spitting out blood, Nico said, “Sweet talk Dante for that because I don’t fucking know.”
Dino threw his hands in the air, walking away aimlessly. “Great.” His arms flopped back down at his sides. “Another fucking goose chase.”
“He can’t be far, Santiago.” Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling hard.
“Why don’t you talk to Luigi,” Nico suggested, his smirk returning.
We all froze, rooted where we stood.
Luigi… Our Luigi?
”Excuse me?” Dominic questioned as if trying to grasp what we all clearly heard. “Luigi Filippo?”
Nico Nasuti’s silence was our answer.
“What about him,” I demanded as a statement rather than a question, clenching my jaw and flexing my fingers into tight fists at my sides. I approached Nico, ready to go off. Memories of my threatening incidents replayed while I thought about the shootout. Nico had goons he paid to scare me and put everyone on edge. They tried—and failed—to throw our family completely off course.
“You wanna reach Dante, don't you?”
“But why would I talk to Luigi…” Dominic said. His thoughts trailed off, coming to a grim realization.
“Those strange men,” I said, turning and facing Dominic, beating him to it. “That attack… It wasn’t a coincidence. They knew where I would be. When. Someone had to tell these guys. Someone who knew our schedules.” Thinking back to the days of the incidents, Luigi worked every single one. That still didn’t exactly explain the other missing puzzle piece. “But how would he know? He’s a housekeeper—well, our chef, too, but… I mean, it’s cliche that a maid knows all, but?—”
“There’s someone else,” Dino interrupted, talking his thought out loud.
“Don’t ask me,” Nico interjected, cutting us all off at the pass. “I only know what they want me to know.”
Dominic swiftly fished out his gun from inside his jacket, aimed it at Nico, and then shot him execution style. The silencer lessened the noise, and the padding on the back wall absorbed the bullet.
Blood streamed from the hole burned through Nico Nasuti’s head.
“There’s another mole,” Dominic said as he lowered his arm, holding his gun at his side. As he talked, he looked back and forth between me and Dino. The rage in his eyes as they turned red spoke volumes to his hurt and betrayal and how badly he likely wanted to tear Luigi apart. “Someone else who has ties to Vladislav and wants to bring us down.”
Emotional over our new, greater threat, I swallowed away tears that wanted to spill out, hurriedly wiping away the little bit that did escape.
“How do we find him?”
Our eyes locked. “We start with Filippo.” He turned toward Dino. “And call Angelo.” Dominic walked away. “Tell him he’s in charge of disposing the bodies.”