I watch Dante zip tie the man to the chair leisurely. Watch him pull up another chair and sit down facing him like they’re about to have a casual conversation. Watch him check his gun with movements so calm and controlled it makes my skin crawl.
Then he starts asking questions.
There’s no audio at first, but I can see his lips moving. See the man shaking his head violently. See Dante’s expression stay completely blank and emotionless.
Then Rosa reaches up and turns on the audio feed. I cover Luca’s ears and tell him to hum loudly, and thankfully he listens, humming his favorite song from the car radio.
“—don’t know what you’re talking about! We were just supposed to?—”
Dante’s hand moves faster than I can track and there’s a crack that makes me flinch. The man screams.
“Let’s try that again.” Dante’s voice is calm. Almost pleasant. “Who hired you?”
“I don’t—fuck! I don’t know. We got the job through a contractor. That’s all I know!”
Another crack and another scream that makes my stomach turn.
I watch Dante break the man’s fingers one by one, asking the same questions between each crack of bone.
“Who. Hired. You.”
“A contractor. I swear! Some guy named Marshall. He said there was a witness. Said she needed to be eliminated before she talked!”
My blood runs ice cold. A witness. That’s me. They’re hunting witnesses.
“A witness to what?” Dante’s voice doesn’t change. Doesn’t show even a flicker of emotion.
“I don’t know. Something about the Marchetti job. Something about a ledger! That’s all Marshall told us.”
The ledger? They think I know something about the ledger.
But I don’t. I don’t know anything about any ledger. I was just a girl in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What ledger?” Dante asks.
“I don’t know. Marshall just said witnesses might know where it’s hidden. Said someone’s been looking for it for years and they’re tying up loose ends.”
Tying up loose ends. That’s what Maya and Jennifer and Lisa and Carmen and Rachel were. Loose ends that got tied up with car crashes and overdoses and fires. And now I’m next.
Dante stands up and I watch him move to the man’s legs. There’s another sickening crack and the screaming gets even worse.
I have to look away for a second and press my hand over my mouth to keep from being sick.
But I force myself to look back because I need to know. Need to understand what’s happening and why these people want me dead badly enough to send a professional team.
“Last question. How did you find her?”
“Portland. We had PIs watching and waiting for her to surface. Then we got the call yesterday that she was moving. That she’d contacted someone in New York.”
They were watching me. For how long? Days? Weeks? Months?
“Who’s Marshall working for?”
“I don’t know! I swear I don’t—please! I told you everything!”
Dante pulls out his gun and presses it to the man’s head.
“Wait! Wait! There’s one more thing! Marshall said?—”
