“We’re fine,” I told her, ignoring the small lump in my throat. “Don’t wait for us. We’ll be home late. Keep Franco with you until we get back.”
“Okay,” Mia said quietly. “Dante.” I put the phone back to my ear. “Come home with Luc. I’ll keep a plate warm for you.”
The lump grew and I swallowed it. “Thanks, boss. We’ll see you later.”
After helping Luc get Angelo into the back of the car, I slipped into the driver's seat. It didn't take us long to arrive at the warehouses where our supplies were securely stored.
Angelo attempted to scarper the moment we pulled him from the car, but the ensuing scuffle tired him out and we wrestled him into the warehouse, barely glancing at the men who guarded the building for us. They knew this was business and that it didn't involve them. It wouldn't be the first time that someone had been dragged here with the aim of extracting the truth. Luc tied Angelo tightly to one of the steel beams and it took everything in me not to kick the pathetic waste of space in the ribs just to watch him squirm some more.
"You have the most fucked-up idea of what family is," Angelo rasped, head bobbing from exhaustion.
"Wehave a fucked-up idea of what family is?!" I stood in front of him and squatted down, pinching his face between my fingers. "You are the worst. You don't give a shit about family so don't start preaching."
Angelo reared his head back and spat in my face, a mixture of saliva and blood. I let go of his face, balling my hand into a fist and punching him hard so that his skull bounced off the beam behind him. He hissed in pain as I wiped the spit from my cheek.
"What did I expect from the guy that got Isa killed?" Angelo asked through gritted teeth, blood trickling from his nose and into his mouth as he spoke.
There was a heavy silence in the room before I stood up calmly and pulled out my gun. I cocked it at Angelo who suddenly looked nervous again.
"I never meant for that to happen," I said to him. Isa was the only blood relation I'd have given my all to beside my mama. She was the only one to actively keep in touch with us and visit. My beautiful baby cousin died in the crossfire and it haunted me every day. "This, though,” I gestured at him with the gun, “I'll take great pleasure in seeing the end of you by my hands." Guilt was non-existent when you had no care for the person in front of you.
"Wait!" Luc barked.
"Luc," I gritted out. He was my boss, but the fact that he kept stopping my instincts had begun to irk me.
"I said, wait," he hissed back. Reluctantly, I lowered the gun and stepped away from Angelo. "We need to know where he is." Angelo spat some blood out onto the floor. "Where is he, Angelo?" Luc asked him. Angelo shook his head. "Where's Xavier?"
I didn't want to play games with my cousin anymore. I wanted to get answers and finish this. Without a thought, I sent a shot at his foot causing Luc to jump and Angelo to scream in pain. The smell of gunpowder, blood and urine mingled in the air, but Angelo wasn't going to get out of this easily.
I expected Luc to reprimand me, but he just shot me a look before pulling a blade. He'd always had a weird affection towards knives although it'd dimmed since Mia's incident with Marco. "We've got nowhere we need to rush to, Angelo," Luc mused as he flicked out the blade and surveyed it.
"Already forgotten that pretty little wife of yours?" Angelo asked, words strained and almost incomprehensible through the immense pain he was in.
Luc's jaw tightened before lunging towards him and I pulled him back with all my strength. "Luc! He's trying to get out of this before telling us anything!" Angelo had prodded mercilessly at the only spot that could make Luc lose control, but this weasel was trying to find the fastest way out of his predicament. Death would be a quicker and less painful time than what we were about to put him through.
Luc relaxed and I let him go. He rolled his neck before moving calmly towards Angelo. When he crouched down, Angelo kicked out his good leg to try and ward Luc off. Looking around, my eyes clocked the baseball bat discarded against the wall from an old job, and I went to pick it up. "What do you want, boss?" I asked, coming back towards them.
"The kicking is an issue, don't you think?" Luc asked, getting up from the floor.
Angelo kicked out wildly. No doubt the ropes had to be cutting into his wrists and his face was swollen from the punches, but he was still fighting. I drew the bat back before taking a cracking swing at Angelo's legs and he shrieked in pain. He pulled it in towards himself, aiming weakly for some protection. I didn't ease off, enjoying the pain that was being inflicted. Only when the blood started to seep through and stain Angelo's jeans, and the sharp angle of bone could be seen, did I step away from him.
"Where is he?" Luc demanded. "I don't want to have to keep asking."
Angelo heaved. The pain and adrenaline caused his body to convulse, unsure of how to keep him going. "I don't know," he managed to get out. He wretched and a watery pool of bile splattered on the floor, causing me to curl my lip in disgust.
Luc mirrored my expression. "I'm not wasting anymore time. I’ll grab everything he has from the house and head back to ours.”
“You’re not going to hand it over to Gui?”
"Fuck it, Dante. We've been steps behind this entire time. We need to find this fucker and end it. If we can’t do it, it goes straight to Carmen. I don’t trust anyone here," Luc told me sharply. I nodded my head in agreement. Whatever the consequences, we'd deal with it, but we needed to let this come to a head. "Do what you want with him. I couldn't care less. Can't tell if he's lying or not but if he is, we’ll will find out soon enough. I don't have any use for him."
I ran my tongue over my teeth and swung the bat through the air. "Wait for me. This won't take long."
"Dante!" Angelo pleaded, and a thin smile pulled at my lips.
This would have been the conclusion whether Angelo had told us all the information or not. And somewhere inside, Angelo knew that, or he’d have given us what we asked for straight away with the hope of getting away. If he had messed with anyone else, Imighthave tried to plead his case and told him that if I ever saw his face again, he wouldn’t get a second chance. But he’d gone after the people I pledged my life to and I couldn’t let that go.
"See you in hell, cuz."
