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The car was parked, engine silenced, and Gaetano and I climbed from the vehicle. We strode the length of the laneway, coming to a stop where it met the street where the house was located. I glanced to my left to see the outline of my other two men as they slipped into the yard of the house next door to where Nikita was being held. They would scale the fence between the two properties to cover the rear while Gaetano and I found a way to breach the front.
Somehow we needed to get into the house without endangering the life of my wife. Darkness was closing in rapidly which would work to our advantage. There was no streetlight in front of the house, the nearest were two houses away in each direction, leaving our target cloaked in darkness.
Detective Forower had given me, Savastino, Mario, and his second in charge—Adelio—devices to help with our assignments. I pulled mine from a pocket and switched it to operational. They were portable technology that detected heat signatures, and therefore location, of people inside a building.
I sent a text to Savastino telling him to move in but not to enter the house. Gaetano and I kept to the shadows and avoided the streetlights as we neared our destination. Once inside the front yard, I crouch-walked to the small window of the basement where I knew Nikita was being held. Lying on my stomach, I eased forward until I could peer through the window without being seen.
Nikita hung limply, her wrists bound with rope and attached to a hook. One of Calliro's men sat on a chair nearby, studying the phone in his hand. I couldn't see anyone else, but the small window didn't give me a full view of the basement. I wondered if Calliro was stupid enough to leave only one man guarding Nikita.
Easing away from the window, I moved back to Gaetano, and after scanning the rest of the house, held up one finger. There was enough light from the window for me to see his eyebrows rise and knew he was asking the same question as me—was Calliro really that fucking stupid? One man. He'd left one man to guard the place. Surely he knew I would fucking send someone. It didn't make sense and I was struggling to believe anyone could be so stupid. Was the place booby-trapped, or did he honestly believe I wouldn't figure out where Nikita was being held?
Buzzing from the phone in my pocket drew my attention away from the puzzling.
Savastino: I have located only one in the basement.
Benvolio: Same.
Savastino: Plan?
Benvolio: Stand down. I have access via a window.
Savastino: Standing down.
I showed Gaetano the texts and he nodded before I shoved the phone back into a pocket. We both pulled our guns and crept back to the window.
While I took up position on the left, my partner shimmied on his stomach to the other side of the window. I held up three fingers that Gaetano would have no trouble seeing now we were close to the light. I dropped one finger after another while mouthing the countdown. When the last finger dropped, we moved to the centre of the window and fired. The glass broke and flew in every direction while the prick in the chair fell to the floor and lay unmoving.
I wasn’t worried about the shots being heard. This neighbourhood was criminal central, and no one turned a head at the sound of gunfire.
I texted for Savastino and Cosimo to enter the house. Gaetano and I kept our guns at the ready and the big man kicked in the front door. We stepped inside the house, staying alert.
Savastino and Cosimo came through the back door, and we met in the hallway that ran through the centre of the house from front to back.
“This way,” I barked and threw a door on my left open before jogging down the stairs with my men close behind.
My rage shot to nuclear levels when I saw the state of my wife first-hand. I held Nikita while Gaetano made quick work of slicing through the rope binding her wrists. She fell limply into my arms.
“Get a fucking blanket, Cosimo. Savastino, bring the car around,” I roared.
Gaetano lobbed the keys to Savastino, explained where to find the car, and both men left. Keeping my arms around Nikita, I kicked the chair away from the dead man and sat, holding my wife on my lap.
Minutes later Cosimo handed me a blanket and I wrapped it around Nikita’s comatose body. I was comforted by the fact her pulse was strong.
While I waited for the car, I brushed tendrils of hair off Nikita's face and my heart broke for how she must have suffered. I no longer felt dislike for the lady, somehow she had wormed her way under my skin, and I was stunned but would deal with that snippet of information later.
"Boss." Gaetano pointed to a small flashing red light in the upper corner of the room.
“Pull the disc,” I instructed Cosimo.
“Yes, Sir. Do you have any idea where we might find them?”
The cameras hadn’t been installed the last time we’d used the house so I thought about where the equipment might be located.
“Try the false wall in the master bedroom walk-in robe.”
"That's where we used to stash drugs and guns when we still used this place. It makes sense," Cosimo agreed before taking off to search.
I was caught between wanting to see how Nikita had suffered and destroying the fucking disc without seeing what had taken place.
