Chapter Thirty-Seven
Zahra
The lights above us were sensor lights; they only turned on when we were beneath them, and as we walked through the straight hallway, I created a brick wall over my mind, reminding myself why I was there.
I hadn’t bargained for a full-blown quest, but I admitted we had come a long way—I had come a long way—and finally, I was going to do all I had set out to do from the beginning.
I could still hear the shouts, echoes, gunshots, and thuds from aboveground. It was chaos out there, and if more arms and men didn’t arrive to support the ones outside, we might as well prepare for the chaos that would be transferred here.
“I hate underground tunnels,” Dog’s voice echoed. “I’ve never been underground, but I hate it.”
“We’ve lost connection to Upper and Milk,” Devil said.
“Upper did say it might happen,” I said, looking around.
Our footsteps echoed on the metal walkway.
The smell of gas, fuel, and metal filled the area, and I allowed myself the liberty of letting out a breath.
The device in one of the soldier’s hands started beeping as we reached an intersection.
There were two hallways—one on the left and another on the right.
“The device is picking up the location of the gold from the right,” the soldier said.
“That means the flash drives are on the left side,” I said.
Devil looked toward me with a nod. “Two soldiers will accompany you, just in case.”
“Sure. I’ll grab the drives and meet you guys back there,” I said.
“Be careful,” Dog said, and I nodded.
“You too.”
“Call for the extraction team,” Devil said to one of the soldiers as he and Dog headed down to the right, and I made my way toward the left side with two soldiers following me.
I turned another corner and didn’t have to look too far to find the black box attached to the wall, alongside an alphabetical keypad and a small screen.
I looked back at both men who escorted me. “What time is it?”
One of them dropped his brow in confusion as he checked his watch.
“Twenty-nine minutes past three.”
In about a minute, I would be certain my order had reached my people on time because I shouldn’t have spotted them in the woods earlier.
They shouldn’t be here. I fucking told Vitale to call this off.
The moment I turned back to the box, a loud explosion rocked and vibrated the walls, sending cracks along the metallic ceiling as sprinkles of sand fell from above.
Inside the building, gunshots rang so loud, echoing around the space, alongside yells from men and the thuds of bodies dropping.
I took off my comm, stared at it for a long, long minute before dropping it on the ground and crunching it with my boot.
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath as I quickly pulled out my gun, removed the safety, and turned.
“I’m sorry, guys.” Their eyes widened with realization as I pulled the trigger before either of them could raise their weapons.
I shot one in the neck and the other straight to the chest, their bodies dropping as I turned to the box and typed out the password with shaking fingers—jumping slightly when another explosion rocked the building.
Footsteps rushed in my direction as I pressed enter after typing the password.
A soft clicking sounded from the box, and I rushed to pull it open.
There were six flash drive casings; only five were occupied, but the sixth was empty.
Someone’s been here before me.
I closed my eyes. “Elio,” I whispered, my stomach turning. “Goddamn it.” I snapped out of it, opening my eyes and grabbing all five casings, checking the names carved onto them. Four of those names were familiar; one wasn’t.
“Ma’am.” I turned toward the voice as the footsteps halted, and a rumble shook the ground again.
My frown turned into a glare as I stared at the man who had spoken. “Nobody got my orders? I specifically asked everyone to stand back until they heard from me!” I seethed out.
“Mr. Conti overruled it,” the man said, handing me a phone. “He’s on the line.”
I glanced at the phone before taking and pressing it to my ear. “You better have a good fucking explanation as to why you just ruined my whole plan, Vitale.”
“Is the corporation shifting base a good explanation for you?”
My heart stopped for a second. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“They know we’re on to them. Now they’re moving. We don’t have time to wait for your lover boy’s approval before we destroy these fuckers.”
“We can’t even destroy them! I didn’t find a flash drive with their name on it.”
“Impossible.”
“There were six casings; one is missing, and it’s definitely not theirs. Four of the flash drives are labeled with names of four of the most powerful families and political bodies, and get this—there’s nothing on the Marino empire. Elio’s name isn’t on any of these.”
“And the last one?”
“Something called MCSS.”
“Hold on, I’ve heard that name before or seen it somewhere in Society dealings. I’m not sure, but we should check it out. It might just be what we’re looking for.”
“All right, I have to find Devil and—”
“Ma’am, we have to leave now,” the guard said as the crack above us expanded. “This whole place is about to come down.”
“I can’t leave my friends.”
“Faizan, get it together! Before your friends, there was your mission,” Vitale’s voice rang in my ear. “Follow the guys, and get the fuck out of there so we can bring these bastards down once and for all.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
“I’ll have them call you back when I get to safety.” I ended the call. “Let’s go,” I said, brushing past the men as my mind tried to push away the fact that I was ignoring the missing drive, knowing exactly whose name was written on it.
There was smoke everywhere as we rushed back in the direction I had come.
Men were all around me, protecting me from everyone running around with stacks of gold, even as the building was on the verge of collapsing.
I couldn’t spot Devil anywhere, but as I rounded a corner, I spotted Dog on the ground, fighting off another man who was trying to aim a gun right to his head—his head that had a gash that covered half his face in blood.
I wanted to rush toward him immediately, but the men around me stopped my movement.
The small shift had Dog’s head turning a little, his gaze locking with mine as I was being ushered out; his stare dropped to the flash drives in my hands and then back to me before his brows drew down in confusion and realization.
His opponent took that little opportunity to slam the gun right at the side of his head, knocking him out as another explosion rocked the building, and a loud rumbling reached my ears.
“We need to leave!”
I aimed my gun outside the circle of the men flanking me, shooting the person who’d hit Dog in the face. But there were more enemies coming, and he was lying there … vulnerable … I—
“Ma’am, we need to go now!”
My eyes stung as I looked back at Dog’s unconscious body one last time, before turning and leaving the chaos behind.
A convoy was already awaiting us as we made it out of the hole, and I was ushered into a car. My heart was pounding; my eyes burned as the vehicle moved hastily. It was a disaster. I fucked up. I left them behind when I could have helped. I chose my mission and my goal over my family.
A decision I couldn’t take back, a decision I would never be able to take back.
I prayed to God that Devil had survived and got to Dog in time before the whole place collapsed in on itself.
“Give me a phone,” I said, and a device was passed to me. I typed in Elio’s number and placed a call to him.
My chest grew tight when the first ring came through; I waited and waited and waited until the line cut. I called again, anxiety grazing the string of nerves in my body.
He didn’t answer.
I tried three more times, and on the last try, my vision blurred, and I gave up. My hands shook, and I bit my bottom lip hard to stop the tears threatening to let themselves out.
I couldn’t shake the feeling in my gut telling me how big a mistake I had made, but I hardened my mind, set my jaw, blinked away the tears, and held on.
All good things. You’re doing a good thing. This is the right thing. You’re saving lives. You’re doing the right thing.
It took two hours, but we got to a safe house, and I was handed a laptop after placing a call to Vitale.
“You better be right about this MCSS. Because I swear to God, Vitale, you’ll pay dearly if anything happens to my friends.”
I could almost see him rolling his eyes. “We don’t have time for your melodrama, Zahra; everything you have worked your ass off for is on the line, one bit of information away from being screwed to hell. The last things you should be worried about are your friends with weird names.”
I ground my teeth together. “Just letting you know,” I said as I inserted the USB drive into the laptop. Nerves racked my body as I clicked on the small icon displayed on the screen and stopped short.
“Marino Caporegime Sovereign Society?” I read aloud, my heart beating so fast against my chest.
“He’s there after all; what are they about?”
Names of different countries were labeled in different folders.
“Hold on,” I said, clicking on one of the folders marked ITALY. Tons of documents were displayed on the screen, dating back years before I was born. “Hold on…” I trailed off, squinting as I opened one of the documents dated a few years ago.
My heart stopped, something shifted, my mind drew a blank, and I wasn’t breathing.
“Faizan?”
Shipping details … bank transactions … names and numbers of children, dates of birth, birthplaces, trafficking receipts, details of newborns needed—the when and the where, details of women and men designated to houses in different cities and regions in Italy.
Names of headquarters in disguise like … like P. Deluxe Corp.
Everything … everything …
I opened and closed so many documents, my eyes burning as I read words that breezed past my head, words that hurt to read … my vision was blurry, my cheeks were wet, my hands were shaking, and my breathing was loud.
“Faizan, talk to me, what’s happening?”
Everything, every authorization, the largest funds collected from the disgusting details right in front of me, every fucking line and link of the whole damn operation went back to one person. One name.
Elio Marino.
Even to the year I was born, the year I was trafficked, down to the Handler houses and the sex slavery base; his signature gave the final authorization.
I felt faint in the head. I wanted to pass out and die and scream and vomit.
“Zahra, talk to me.”
“It’s impossible,” I whispered.
“What?”
“It’s impossible, Vit. It’s not him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The MCSS. It’s them. They run the trafficking ring and so much more. P. Deluxe is a tiny portion of how large they are. This whole thing is bigger than us, Vitale. And it says here that Elio authorizes everything, but I promise you he doesn’t know about this. He can’t know about this.”
“What?” He sounded as shocked as I was.
“I don’t believe—he would never … he doesn’t know this.”
“How does he not know about something this big?”
“I don’t know, but he wouldn’t do this.”
“You think? Zahra, I’m pretty sure every proof of his fucked-up agenda is right before you. I should have seen this coming.”
“But it’s not—”
“Open your eyes, Zahra. Would he really tell you about something so secret? Something that pertains to you? You think you know everything about Elio Marino?”
I couldn’t respond to that. My chest drew tight, and I felt so betrayed that I wanted to pull my walls down and shoot everyone trying to get in.
“I warned you. Fucking hell, Zahra, he’s been distracting you from the bigger picture. We have to act fast and act now.”
“There’s no acting now.” My voice was hard as I straightened, wiping forcefully at my cheeks. “This is big, Vitale. It’s more than we prepared for.”
“We can start by bringing down P. Deluxe.”
I tried to level my breathing as I exited out of all the documents, finding the one regarding P. Deluxe and sending the details to Vitale. “I sent you all you need. Bring it down.”
“And you?”
“I have to handle Street. I’ll call you.” I ended the call.
I had deviated, forgotten how ruthless these people could be, forgotten what had made Elio who he was. I had forgotten that he was a liar, just like me, and he was skilled at it, perfect— if not more perfect than I was.
Even after registering all this, I still needed to hear him say it. I needed the confirmation of his deceit, of his lies. I needed a reason to kill this feeling of betrayal and replace it with the hate I so badly wanted to feel.
But more than anything, I wanted to be wrong.
I needed to be wrong.