My hand finds the rosary in my pocket. The beads are smooth. Familiar.
I don’t pray. Haven’t in years. But I hold it.
“Names.”
“Give me something first. A guarantee.”
I stand. Remove my jacket. Fold it over the chair behind me. Roll up my sleeves.
Romano’s eyes track every movement. Good.
“I was going to give you a choice,” I say. “Talk now, die easy. Talk later, die hard. You chose later.”
“Wait. Just wait.”
I don’t wait.
The first finger breaks clean. The second takes more pressure.
He screams. Good acoustics down here. The concrete catches sound, holds it, lets it echo.
“Names.”
“Stefano Benedetti.” The words come out ragged. “He’s the one who approached me. Two years ago. Said they needed someone inside.”
“Who else?”
“His uncle. Flavio. He handles the money.”
I file the names away. Keep working.
The nail comes off easier than expected. Romano howls. Thrashes against his bindings.
“Who else?”
“There’s a lawyer. Downtown. Handles the paperwork for the shell companies.” He gasps. Chokes on the pain. “Fontaine. Robert Fontaine.”
More names. More connections. The rot runs deeper than we knew.
Dante upstairs. Gia fighting to keep him alive. The monitors. The machines.
My grip tightens on the pliers.
“The poison.” I pick up the pliers again. “What did you use?”
He laughs. Wet. Broken. “You think knowing will help? It’s in his blood already.”
The pliers find another finger.
“Pufferfish toxin,” he gasps. “The Benedettis source it from Japan. They added something to make it faster. I don’t know what. They never told me the full formula.”
I keep working.
“Your father was weak at the end.” Romano’s voice is different now. Spiteful. “Did you know that? Calling out for a dead woman.Lucia. Lucia.I watched him die reaching for a ghost, and I thought.”
He stops. Realizes he’s said too much.
I freeze.
