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The man sneers at me. “You Italians think that you are so untouchable. You think you hold this city in an iron fist. But you can’t hold it forever. We’re coming for you, for your wives, for your sons and your daughters, for your entire blood-soaked family.”
“There’s just as much blood on your hands.” I click the pliers together, but to the man’s credit, he doesn’t flinch. There’s tear tracks in the blood on his face, but his expression is still defiant. “You’ve been trying for years to take over, but you can’t. This city is ours. You’re lucky you have the territory we allow you.”
I lean down, fastening the pliers over the man’s thumbnail. When he doesn’t speak again, I yank.
The scream echoes through the warehouse.
When the man can breathe again, he glares up at me. “We’re closer than you know. We’re infiltrating your upper echelon, and you don’t even know it. And you won’t, until it’s too late.”
I click the pliers together again, and he flinches. “What do you mean by that?”
Rossi clears his throat, and I rephrase, going back to the first question I asked.
“Where is Sofia Ferretti?”
“That name means nothing to me.”
I let out a long-suffering sigh, and squat down again, so that I’m eye level with Leo. He stinks of piss—hardly a surprise, after what he’s gone through tonight. “See, Leo, that’s how I know you’re bullshitting me. Because every Bratva man, from Viktor down to your lowest mongrel, knows who Sofia Ferretti is. Now she’s gone missing, and what I need to know from you iswhereshe is. And if I haven’t convinced you already that I’ll stop at nothing to find out, perhaps this will help.”
Grasping his wrist in one hand, I take the finger that’s now short a nail, and yank it backwards.
By the time Leo stops screaming, he’s soiled himself again.
I wrinkle my nose with disgust. “Do I need to break another one?”
“I don’t know who—”
The heel of my hand comes down hard on one of his balls.
“I’m tired of hearing you scream, Leo,” I say loudly, over the noise. “But what I’m more tired of is being lied to. There’s a lot of pieces I can take off of you and still leave you alive enough to show us where Sofia is. Save yourself some pain, and tell me now. Because I promise you, I will not let you die until you do.”
When the pliers fasten onto another nail, he starts to weep.
“I’ll tell you!” he shrieks. “Please, just don’t. Not another one, please—”
I stand up, tossing the pliers onto a nearby table. “Good. I was going to move on to your teeth next.”
Leo shudders. “I’ll give you the address. They’re keeping her at a hotel they own with the other girls, the ones who—”
“We know all about Viktor’s business, Leo. That’s not why we’re here tonight.” I nod at the man standing next to Rossi, my jaw tense. “Get the address, and gag and tie him. He’s coming along with us, just in case he’s still lying and we have to take a few more fingernails to get the truth.”
I turn on my heel, stalking out into the cool night air. I breathe in, and even the stink of the docks is preferable to being close to the sweating, bleeding, pissing man inside the warehouse.
Don Rossi’s footsteps come up behind me, and I turn around. “Well?”
His expression is unreadable. “If she’s in that hotel room, and still alive, you know what this means.”
“I’ll do my duty.”
“Are you sure about that? There’s always a way out, you know. You don’t have to marry this girl.”
I think of the alternative. Rossi won’t leave her alive for the Russians to try to use as leverage again. If I refuse to marry her, Sofia will be nothing more than a loose end that needs tying up. I know Don Rossi very well—he won’t flinch at that. I’m all that stands between her and two equally terrible choices: being sold by the Russians, or killed by the man who once employed her father.
The very last thing I want is a wife. But I won’t be responsible for breaking my father’s promise.
With my lips pressed tightly together, I jerk my head towards the town car, where the bound and gagged Leo is being shoved into the backseat. In the car just ahead of it, a cadre of soldiers armed to the teeth are piling in, ready to take the hotel where Sofia is being held by storm.
“Let’s go,” I say tightly, not looking at Rossi as I stride towards the car.
