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Releasing the hug, I draw back and say to Benito, “Please escort Dr. Cortese and her team outside.”
As each of them trudges past, I reach into my holster and pull out a gun, keeping it hidden at my side. The suspicious man moves in the middle of the procession with his head down and his breathing labored. As soon as he passes, I grab him by the neck and shove him against a vat.
“Who the fuck are you?” I hiss and press my gun to his temple.
“I’m Dr. Cortese’s colleague,” he replies.
“He’s our jailer,” Isabella says, her voice rising.
I tighten my grip on the man’s neck. “Search him.”
Gil and a few others move in and frisk the man, finding a gun hidden beneath his protective suit.
My phone rings, and I clench my teeth, knowing I should probably answer whoever’s calling. The only pressing situation I have right now is Emberly Kay, who should be appeased with her new phone and designer clothes. I’ve instructed the men to give her anything she wants within reason.
If her asshole ex has miraculously found a search warrant, my people have orders to take her to the basement beneath the wine cellar.
I let the call go to voicemail and the last of Isabella’s team leaves the lab, then order Gil to lay the man on a table. My phone sounds once more, and I switch off the ringer.
Turning my attention to the stranger, I say, “You’re going to tell me who you work for.”
The man gulps. “I was sent here to keep an eye on things.”
“By who?”
“He’ll kill me,” he says through panting breaths.
Nodding, I put the gun back into its holster and reach into my inside pocket for a knife. “And I’ll carve you up slowly if you don’t.”
He rears up, his face twisted with anguish, but Gil and the others pin him down. I grab hold of his ear and ease the tip of the knife between the scalp and the cartilage, using the technique Dad taught me for carving a roasted chicken.
“Stop,” he screams.
I continue slicing until his ear comes free, and the wound gushes with blood. “Who sent you?”
He breathes hard through clenched teeth, his skin so sweaty and pale I wonder if he’ll faint.
“Please,” he rasps. “He said he’d kill my family.”
My nostrils flare. I grab hold of the tip of his nose and position the knife at the edge of the nasal bone. Whoever Capello worked with to steal my meth lab is still in our organization or they’ve defected. Either way, they’re going to die.
“I can keep going all day. Now, give me a name.”
He squeezes his eyes shut. “G-Galliano.”
The word hits like a punch to the gut, and my heart sinks. Tommy Galliano isn’t just Capello’s cousin, he’s the leader of a powerful mafia family in New Jersey. Galliano probably helped Capello stab our family in the back.
If he’s involved in this, then we may have to prepare for war.
“Roman?” Benito’s voice breaks me out of my musings.
“What?” I turn to find my brother standing in the doorway with a phone.
“There’s a call for you from home. It’s urgent.”
I wipe my knife on the man’s shirt before slipping it back into my pocket. As I take the phone, I lean into the man and murmur. “When I come back, I expect you to have more information. Any more delays and I’ll slice off the body parts you actually need.”
He shudders and makes a strangled noise that tells me we’re on the same wavelength.
