“I’m coming in with you,” Nico says.“Pick someone else to stay out here.”
I’m about to tell him he’s hurt and should stay back, but I know that determined look on his face very well.I see it in the mirror every time I’ve decided to do something that no one has a hope in hell of talking me out of.
“Fine,” I say and tell someone else to take Nico’s place.“Let’s move now.The sooner this is done the better.”
And as we start moving silently through the darkness, the fire of revenge finally lights up in my chest.
It’s burning bright by the time we reach the first hole in the wall that I made, and Moretti never found.
Things are finally starting to go my way.I can already see Moretti’s groveling, contorted face as he begs me to spare him—which I’m sure he’ll do.But I won’t.
I will kill him quick though, so I can get back to Goldie, which is still the one thing I want to do above all others.
* * *
Everything went so smoothly.No one had found any of the holes in the brick wall I had made so we were able to enter fast, going in through four of these holes.No one heard or saw us enter the garden.No one was patrolling the garden.
Once we were in, I signaled the team out front to start throwing the smoke bombs and shooting.Then the night was rent with machine gun fire, which hid the noise we made entering the house.
I headed straight for Dante’s study with its bulletproof windows on the ground floor, figuring he’d be hiding in there, watching the attack unfold from a safe distance.Because that’s the kind of coward he is.
But the room was empty, dark, and cold, and Dante wasn’t there.
The rest of the house was strangely empty too.None of my team encountered much resistance as they ran through the house up to the machine gunners.All five of whom were dealt with in under five minutes.
The silence that followed was so absolute I thought I had gone deaf.Or was dead and didn’t know it yet.
What the fuck is happening?
I run from room to room, looking for anyone alive, looking for any sign of Dante.
“He’s not here,” Caputo says as I slap the same dead guy for the fourth time, trying to rouse him to get some answers.He sounds like he’s worried I’ve gone insane.I might very well have.
I ignore him and run to the next room over, where Nico is standing over the bleeding man at his feet.Nico’s face is as pale as the walls in this room, the blood spatter on his cheeks the only bright spots on it.
But the man at his feet is bleeding… meaning he’s still alive!I run into the room, and crouch beside the dying man, turning him over.It’s Belucci, one of the meanest guys in Moretti’s employ.Probably why he left him here to die.
I slap him across the face a few times to wake him up.He fixes his eyes on me.They’re blacker than night.
“Where is he?”
Belucci just laughs, a harsh, wheezing sound.
“Tell me,” I demand.“Now.”
The laughter continues until its just a wheeze.
“Go home, Rovina,” he finally says.“That’s where you’ll find Dante.And your pretty young lady.Or not.You might already be too late.”
That sends him laughing again, but it’s all just nearly silent wheezing.Until even that stope and the meanness fades from his eyes.
But I can still hear the curse of ruin laughing at me.That’s loud and clear.
I try to rouse him.Get him to tell me more.But he’s dead.
Now both Nico and Caputo, as well as the two Devils who had come into the room, are looking at me like they’re very worried for my sanity.They should be.Because I’m hanging onto it only by the barest thread.
If Dante has Goldie, then she’s probably already dead.Unless he’s waiting to kill her in front of me.
