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"Tell us what the fuck you want." There's no way I'm letting this man live today. "You have our boys. We have connections to the Antonovs. We can arrange a trade."
The man stares dead into my eyes. "I'm glad you're finally talking sense. I was starting to worry."
"I'd stop fucking around and tell us if I were you."
"My bosses want a private meeting with the Antonovs today." The man adjusts his wristwatch. "The Diavolos have put up with their shit for long enough. We know they're close. There's no way you could pull this off by yourselves."
"Like hell we couldn't."
"You couldn't." The man smiles. "We need the Antonovs here so we can take them out."
I stand firm. "The Antonovs aren't involved in this."
The man pulls out a knife and presses it to my neck. "I'll slice your fucking neck if you lie to me again, sonny. You'd better tell the truth."
"I said what I said." I attempt to knee his fucking gut, but the armed men hold me back. "They're not around here. If they were, I'd tell you."
The man drives his knife into my neck. Pain rips across my nerves, but I force myself to stay in control. Blood spurts onto my chest and falls to the floor.
"Maybe now you'll believe me." The man withdraws the knife and sets it on the table. "We don't fuck around in this warehouse."
"Did you just fucking kill my brother?" Gianluca charges the man, but the three guards hold him back.
"No." The man takes a sip of his drink. "I didn’t slice all the way through. He'll be in pain for the rest of the night, but he won't die."
"I can kill him, boss." The man behind me snarls as he rams his machine gun into my back. "Just say the word."
That's when one of our cell phones buzzes on the table.
The man directs his eyes down to the table and picks up the phone. It’s mine.
"Well, look at this." His perfect teeth send a beam of light flashing across the room. "Someone has a text from Nikolai."
"Siri," he says into my phone. "Read this text out loud."
Nikolai:We’ll pull up with the chopper the second you give us the go-ahead. We have enough fucking dynamite to take out the city
"Give us our boys and we’ll call it off." I refuse to back down.
The man smirks. "Looks like you were lying. My boss doesn't do business with liars."
33
UNNAMED BOY
Arlo takesRusty into his arms as I try to fall asleep. The man said he’d return when it was time to summon us, but he hasn't yet. I attempt to close my eyes, but I couldn't sleep if someone paid me.
I squeeze myself against the far end of the cage and urge myself to remember the events of that fateful day. Now, I distinctly recall being in a pitch-black tunnel of some sort, with gross slimy things pressing against my skin. I don't know what I was wearing, but I assume I was either naked or in boxers.
But no matter how hard I try to remember more, nothing flashes through my mind. It's like my memories of my tree fort as a boy or some of the things my captors forced me to do in these cages. They fade into mist when I think too hard.
That's when something dawns on me. Where's Ollie? I glance to my left and my right, my gaze bouncing over every cage in the room. He used to be in one of these cages close to this spot. They moved us frequently, but we always found a place next to each other.
Now that I think about it, I don't know how he pulled that off. Our captors were vicious toward everyone, but they always let us spend a little time together. They knew we were friendly, but I don't know why they let us stay friends.
I focus my attention on the cages. To my surprise, they’re all empty to my right. There are a few boys to my left, but the occupants huddle back and try not to look at us. I can’t see inside the dozens of cages across the room.
I try to make eye contact with the boys to my left. But they don’t return my gaze. After you’ve been here long enough, you learn not to speak to the new boys. Sometimes, they're not here for more than a few months. Our captors murder them if they don't obey the rules. It costs too much to make friends who might not be around tomorrow.
