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“Yeah, well, we’ll just see about that.” He shoved the phone back into Valentina’s hand. When she punched in the numbers—to her surprise and relief—her father picked up on the first ring.
“Valentina stai bene?Are you alright?”
“Yes papa,si siamo beno.”
“Tell him I want a million cash. Five hundred for you and five hundred for that mouthy cousin of yours.” Rooster directed her.
Valentia spoke low and quick
“Papa, Salsazio è morto, Gia è con me e siamo tenuti per circa venti minuti oltre la linea statale che si dirige a nord. È una piccola cabina alla fine di una lunga strada sterrata.C'è solo un uomo qui. Ha una pistola. Il suo nome è Rooster...”
“Speak fucking English!” Rooster grabbed the cell out of her hand and slapped Valentina hard across the face. Then he hissed into the phone.
“Gianni, listen to me and listen good ‘cause I’m in no goddamn mood to play games. Sebastian Abruzzi gave me one hundred grand to kill your daughter and your niece. Gonna cost you a million for me not to do that. I’m gonna suggest you turn to your boy, Prosper, and give him all the details. Tell the old sonofabitch that he better follow my directions exact-fucking-ly or you’re gonna have two dead girls on your hands.” Rooster snarled out. “I’ll call the Saints’ clubhouse at this time tomorrow, and Prosper better be waiting by the damn phone. The bitches will be safe till then, but if I don’t get that money? I’m gonna take a nice clear video of me raping them in every goddamn hole they have. Then I’m gonna slice those pretty girls up and send you their rosy pink nipples in a gold gift box all tied up neat and tidy with a big blue ribbon.”
“You are not going to touch them,” Gianni responded flatly.
“Is that fear I hear, Gianni?” Rooster mocked him with a grin.
“Fear?” Valentina’s father paused as if in thought. “No, it’s not fear. A man in my position seldom gets to do his own killing. But for you, I will make an exception. I will slaughter you slowly, one strip of skin at a time. What you hear, my friend, is eager anticipation.”
Prosper’s phone rang just as the men were leaving the warehouse. When he saw that it was Gianni, Prosper put the cell on speaker. Hal leaned in and listened hard.
“Got you on speaker. Talk to me, G.”
“You are right about that man, Rooster. He is behind this atrocity. Valentina and Gia are being held together in a small cabin at the end of a long dirt road just about twenty minutes north of the state line. He wants a million dollars to get them back. If you will please begin to put that money together for me now, I would be most grateful. Even though I have every confidence we will find my daughter and niece before the deadline, I would like to be prepared. I’m going to have my man, Antonio, send Jules the account numbers.” Then Gianni paused for just a moment. “From what I understand, this Rooster has a critically ill mother. As distasteful as this sort of thing can be, we may have to use that to our advantage. Upon our landing, please have Jules ready to provide me with all the information he can on that situation. Pauli and I are at Lamezia Terme and will be boarding our plane within minutes. Please inform Reno that Dolly is with me.”
The tension is Reno’s face immediately relaxed at the news that his mother was safe. Diego gave him a hard slap on the back and Reno nodded his head in relief.
“Your man, the guy who drove Valentina to the hangar, where is he?” Prosper asked.
“Dead.” Gianni’s voice was grim. “I don’t know more than that.”
“He’ll pay for that too, G.” Prosper promised.
“How do you know the location of the women?” Hal growled. The muscles in his jaw clenched so tight he could barely speak.
“My daughter managed to speak to me in Italian before Rooster struck her and took the phone away,” Gianni responded with tight lipped fury.
It took every ounce of self-control that Hal had not to just start shooting shit up. The thought that Rooster had raised his filthy hands to Valentina made Hal’s body shake with deep primal rage.
“I want the kill.” Hal’s eyes blazed.
“You’re gonna have to stand in line for that, my brother.” Diego shook his head and spat out. “Motherfucker betrayed us all.”
Hal answered by pulling the 9-millimeter out of the back of his waistband—he checked the clip, the magazine, and the safety before he put the gun back in place. Then he walked over to the table and looked carefully at the lethal selection before he chose a long knife with a double razor- edged blade.
“I’m gonna take this with me.” Hal snarled out to Derringer,
“Good fucking eye, my brother.” Derringer walked over to the display and stood next to Hal. “But what we have happening here is what I call a special occasion. And special occasions mean special weaponry. I’m gonna let you have something from my private collection.”
Then Derringer rested his foot on the edge of the table, pulled up his pant leg and unstrapped a soft sheath. He pulled off the tooled, supple-casing before he handed the weapon to Hal.
“This is aJagdkommando Integral Tri-Dagger Fixed Blade Knife.—most lethal blade on the market. You stick a man with this in the right place, he’ll bleed out in seconds. You miss one of those sweet spots and the asshole ever makes it to the hospital? It’d take a goddamn team of surgeons to seal the wound and even then, they’d only have a fifty-fifty chance of making that happen. The blade is hollow so it’s nice and light. I keep the handle unscrewed for comfort, but you might want to keep it at the ready. Just make sure you clean the blade before you give it back. That sweet thing and I have a long history.”
“Appreciate it.” Hal looked at the knife, screwed the handle back on, then strapped the holster onto his ankle.
Reno, who had been busy texting Jules with the latest information on the possible exact location of the girls, reported out. “Nothing’s come up yet on real estate in upstate for any of our players yet. Jules is looking up other shit in the areas like camps, wooded lots, and town-held property. Anything that would be isolated. There’s a shit load of land that borders the state forest. No structures on it listed but that don’t necessarily mean anything.”
