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Yet when we pull up in front of a tiny little house in the middle of nowhere, I have to wonder if our ideas of a fun surprise are the same. “What is this all about?” I ask, looking out at the cinderblock structure before turning my body in the seat to look at Luca head-on.
“Okay.” He takes a deep breath, his gaze moving back and forth between me and my sister. “There’s somebody inside that building. You don’t have to get out of the car if you don’t want to—that is completely up to you. But you’re both well-acquainted with this person, and you both have reason to want him dead.”
I look at Deanna. She looks at me. “Is it Greg?” she whispers, her eyes wide, the color draining from her face.
Vincent pats her shoulder. “You don’t have to go in.”
“But we found him. We finally fucking found him.” Luca’s jaw is tight, his eyes hard. “I wanted to take you in and surprise you that way, but—”
“But I thought it might be a little extreme,” Vincent finishes for him, always the considerate one. “You deserve a choice.”
“Suffice it to say, he’s not leaving alive.” There’s not a shred of remorse in Luca’s voice, not that I would expect there to be any. “Jock is already in there with him They’ve gotten to know each other since yesterday, when his guys brought Greg here.”
I reach for Deanna’s hand, and she closes her fingers around mine in a death grip. “You don’t have to go in, like they said. But now at least you know he’ll never hurt anybody again. He’s not going to get away with what he did to you.”
“I’m not sure what to think,” she admits, staring out the window at the drab-looking house with its chain link fence and a lawn that’s more weeds than grass. “Where was he?”
“In Reno, if you can believe that.” Luca barks out a bitter laugh. “Let’s just say there was nobody there who wanted to help keep him hidden. He owed money to everybody in town. It’s amazing he’s lived this long.”
I believe it. There was no way he could escape gambling. “I’ll stay in here with you,” I offer, as much as I would like to get a look at him. Just one last look.
“No.” She shakes her head, resolute. “No, I want to see him. He needs to see he didn’t break me.” My eyes fill with tears that I quickly blink away as Luca opens the door, extending a hand to help us both out of the car.
There are no other cars on the street, no signs of life anywhere. I don’t even want to know why this area is so empty or how Luca knew about it. There are still things about the way he runs his family and the business that I don’t know—and I don’t know if I ever will, or if I even want to. He promised early on to always tell me everything I need to know—and the things he thinks I’d want to know—but made it clear I’ll be kept in the dark on other things if only for my safety. I can accept that, because I know he’s doing it for me and not because he wants to keep secrets.
Jock is here, applying an ice pack to his knuckles when we enter. “He’s conscious,” he grunts, casting a dirty look toward the man now slumped across a tattered old sofa flanked by a pair of guys I vaguely recognize. “Barely.”
I recognize Jock’s guys but I hardly recognize Greg. He’s put on even more weight, for one thing, and his hair is longer. But it’s more than that. It’s the fact that Jock has clearly beaten the hell out of him since he arrived.
When he sees us, he opens his mouth, and it’s nothing but a bloody mess. “Dee? Dee, you gotta help me! Tell them!”
“Who the fuck said you’re allowed to speak?” Jock kicks him, and I have the pleasure of hearing Greg cry out in agony when the blow connects with his knee cap. A kneecap that’s clearly been shot, now that I look a little more closely. I always did hear that a shot in the knee is incredibly painful. It’s not anywhere near what he deserves, but it’s a step in the right direction.
“This is for closure,” Luca tells us in a quiet voice while Greg blubbers, trying to make Deanna hear him. “And you don’t have to stay in here. But now you’ll know. He’ll never come after you again. He’ll never take anything from you, or from anyone else.”
He looks at Greg, raising his voice. “Isn’t that right, you worthless piece of shit? What’s that I heard about a working girl from Reno going missing after being seen with you? I heard the two of you used to spend a little bit of time together and she finally started complaining to her friends that you took all her money, and now nobody knows what happened to her. Isn’t that a coincidence?”
“You asshole.” Deanna’s trembling, but even a quick glance tells me it’s not fear. It’s rage. “How dare you? How dare you!”
“Dee, baby, please. It’s me, it’s Greg!”
“You almost killed me!” she rages. I reach for her, instinctively wanting to offer comfort, but she shakes me off. “You took everything I had. You took my money, you took my pride, you took my sister and all my friends. You hurt me again and again, you pathetic piece of shit. You think I would help you now? When I almost died because of you? And my sister! You fucking sold me to the mob and my sister got caught up in it. Because she cares more about me than you’ve ever cared about anyone but yourself.”
She steps up close to him, looking him over like she wants to memorize every wound. “I hate you. And whatever they do to you isn’t enough. You could lie here like this getting beaten every single day for a year, and it wouldn’t be enough. And the next time I feel sad, or lonely, or even scared, I’m going to remember the sight of you like this, and I’m going to smile, and I’m going to remember that sometimes the bad guys do get what they deserve.”
I’m absolutely breathless by the time she’s finished. Vincent’s mouth hangs open, while Luca only nods slowly. Even Jock looks impressed.
“Do you want to do anything to him?” he asks her in an offhand sort of way. She blurts out a laugh, then shakes her head.
“No. It’s enough to look at him. I don’t need to be the one to hurt him.”
“It’s up to you.” He glances at me, lifting an eyebrow, but I shake my head. I’m satisfied knowing he’s in agony. The only thing that makes me sad is knowing it’s going to end soon.
“Maybe we should get out of here now.” Luca puts an arm around my waist, but I hold up a hand to stop him before stepping up beside my sister. I want to see him, too. I want to remember the fear in his eyes.
“Goodbye, Greg,” I whisper, holding Deanna’s hand when I say it.
“You go,” she tells me, still staring down at him. Her face is a blank mask. “I’ll be out in a minute.” I don’t want to argue with her when she’s clearly working through something, so I follow Luca outside while she remains with Jock and Vincent and the soon-to-be-dead Greg.
