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ChapterTwenty-Six
The small entryway was dark and empty was we moved into the house. Not a sound could be heard from where we stood. It was just as we expected.
The small foyer led into a tight hallway lined with shelves full of wine. The dust on some of the bottles gave away how long they’d been down there. They always say the older the vintage the better, but I had to wonder if some of these were way past their aging date.
A hand on Jasper’s chest stopped him from moving further down the hallway. There was someone down here. That wasn’t to be expected. I’d been positive we wouldn’t run into anyone until we reached the first floor. According to the floor plan of the house this hallway led into a small tasting room which had a small staircase that led up to the first level of the house.
There should be no reason for any guards to be down here. Either Gio was over paranoid after I killed off his right hand man, or he had something down here to protect.
Either way it was time to get to work.
Pulling the backpack off my shoulders, I pulled out the knife I’d packed into the front pocket and handed Jasper the pack. I wasn’t about to let him get blood on his hands, but we needed to take care of this guard. A few swift hand motions told Jasper to stay right the fuck where he was and to not move a damn muscle. I needed to do this quick and quiet. Any noise could alert the rest of the guards. I didn’t know if he had a mic on him or not. I couldn’t take the chance of Gio knowing I was here before I was ready.
Moving silently through the hallway, I came up behind the guard. Wrapping a hand around to clamp down over his mouth, I didn’t waste time with fancy maneuvers. I pulled the knife across his throat with a steady hand. Warm blood spilled down his front and onto my hands. I eased his body to the ground and motioned for Jasper to follow me. We needed to get out of this little hallway. There wasn’t much room to work if I needed to. The cramped space wasn’t ideal for handling men that were larger than I was. They would be able to trap me here and if they were good enough end me with a simple snap of my neck.
The tasting room was another ten yards away. A quick flick of my wrist sent the blood soaked knife I was still holding flying through the air to embed into the forehead of a guard that moved out from between the shelves and into the hallway in front of me.
Why the fuck were there so many guards down here right now?
Before going any further, Jasper stopped me. Without a word he pulled off my jacket and pushed it to the bottom of the backpack he was still carrying. I couldn’t take the chance of being weighed down by the pack now that we were coming across so many guards. I hated that he was packed up like a mule and restricted his movements. If he needed to run he’d have to drop the bags to get out of here without being caught. We were already too far from the door for him to make it with the backpack strapped to his back and the duffle bag thrown across his body.
A few more steps and we cleared the hallway moving into the tasting room. I’d expected there to be little tables and a small bar. I’d never been in a wine cellar tasting room before, but I’d seen my fair share of photos on Pinterest. All the photos seemed a little posh and over the top.
That’s not what we found as we entered the room.
A single chair sat in the middle of the room with a man strapped down, a bag over his head keeping him trapped in the dark. I was getting a little tired of this same old motif. I’d done it with Gio’s men. Nico and the boys had done it to me. Now I was finding one of Gio’s victims in the same position.
I think we all needed to come up with better torture ideas. Too many times watching old school mob movies.
Scanning the room I found it empty. At least now I knew why there were guards down here. On nimble feet I made my way across the room towards the guy. I really didn’t have time for this, and I should keep my nose out of whatever was going on here, but since I planned to kill Gio soon it seemed wrong to just leave the guy here. He might deserve whatever had been done to him, but once everyone else in the house was dead I couldn’t just leave him there to starve to death and rot. That seemed a little inhumane. I could at least put him out of his misery.
Jasper grabbed a hold of my arm. I could see the question in his eyes. Were we really going to waste time with this guy? Didn’t we have other things we needed to take care of first? We could always come back and kill him later. Pulling on my arm, I turned back towards the man.
His head might be covered in a burlap sack, but I could tell it was hanging forward. He’d either given up and was waiting to die, or he was unconscious. Blood coated the front of his light blue button up shirt and stained the beige color of his slacks. Seemed Gio had caught himself a businessman.
The sight of the man’s watch is what stopped me cold in my tracks. I couldn’t take another step forward. I suddenly understood now.
I knew that watch.
I bought that watch. I’d given it to my uncle for his birthday three years ago. Suddenly the lack of response to my messages and the unanswered phone calls made sense. The short clipped responses when I did get them. The fact that he hadn’t been home in over a month when he’d never spent that much time away from home before.
My hands shook at my side. Had he been here this whole time? I’d been home thinking the worst of him all this time, and he’d been discovered by Gio somehow and captured. I could feel the warmth of Jasper at my back, and all I wanted to do was turn around into his arms and let him make it all go away.
It was all a bad dream and Jasper would make it better. There was no way possible that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Gio could’ve discovered who my uncle was to me, and that he’d been taken hostage to be tortured for information about me.
So many thoughts were rushing through my mind.
Had Nico and the boys told Gio about me afterall? Did they tell the mafia boss about the little girl who was running around killing off their men? Had Gio connected the dots between Tony and myself?
None of that mattered. Today’s mission had just changed from an assassination to a rescue mission. I was going to get him out of here. We could always come up with another plan for another day.
With a trembling hand, I pulled the sack off my uncle’s head. I could feel the cold tears fall from my eyes and wet my cheeks as I took in his beaten and bloody face. He’d been worked over good and more than once. Just from the damage done to him, I could tell he’d been here for a long time.
Bile rose in the back of my throat as I thought about all he’d endured while waiting for me to realize he’d been taken. Not once had it even crossed my mind. If we hadn’t decided to storm the castle I never would’ve known. One day he would’ve just disappeared from my life and all I would’ve done was think the worst.
“Uncle Tony, can you hear me? You need to wake up. We have to get out of here,” I whisper shouted at him. I didn’t need to get caught now. Not when I had to get him the fuck out of this house. Jasper handed me another knife so that I could cut the zip ties from around his ankles and wrists. They were so tight they’d cut into his skin through the long sleeve of his dress shirt.
His parched cracked lips remained closed, his eyes didn’t even flutter when he slumped forward in the chair into my arms after I released the last zip tie. Feeling at his neck, I found a pulse but it was weak and thready. There was no telling if he’d been given food or water while down here, but his body was about to give out completely if I didn’t get him to a hospital soon.
