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Rachel felt the color drain from her face and she became nauseated. She’d waited all this time and had never known the truth about what had happened to her father. She thought she’d prepared herself for the worst, but she’d sorely miscalculated.
Angelo flipped the knife in his hand and kept his eyes steady on hers. “Come now, Rachel. Don’t disappoint me. Aren’t you going to ask what happened to him? Aren’t you the least bit curious to know how he died?”
Rachel bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from screaming out loud. NO! she wanted to yell. She didn’t want to know what had happened to her father. But the reasonable side of her brain told her she needed the closure. Needed to be able to finally lay her father to rest.
“What did you do to him?” she finally asked.
Angelo smiled at her and continued tossing his knife in the air, end over end, so Rachel was almost hypnotized by the motion.
“I paid Carrie to bring me Dom and the original list that he’d handed over to Agent Culver. She brought me Dom as I’d asked, but unfortunately the list was nowhere to be found. No one seems to know what happened to it, but I have my own theories. Carrie was a greedy young woman, and she probably thought having her own copy might come in useful at some point. I couldn’t blame her really. It’s exactly why I wanted the list for myself. I let the transgression slide because I still had need of her inside the FBI. It’s not as easy to bribe law enforcement as it used to be, and Carrie did have her uses.”
Angelo tossed his knife to the other hand, and Rachel noticed the guards at Angelo’s back were beginning to get antsy. Maybe they weren’t as comfortable with a sociopathic boss as they liked to think.
“I’m on the list, you know,” Angelo said. “Imagine how you’d feel if your own brother was going to turn you in. I couldn’t let it happen, and the other families agreed with me. Everyone was so sad to get rid of Dom.”
Anger flooded Angelo’s face and he continued to toss the knife, round and round, only he hadn’t noticed how tight he was gripping the blade each time he caught it. Blood dripped steadily down his wrist and onto the floor. “Everyone loved Dom like he was Santa Claus. People aren’t afraid of Santa Claus. He was ruining us all.”
Rachel jerked against the cuffs around her wrists, but found they were cinched tight. Angelo was losing control quickly and she’d already decided she wasn’t going to go down easy. She wouldn’t just sit quietly and wait for him to slice her throat. It just wasn’t in her nature.
“Dom was a pathetic excuse for a man. I brought him to this very building and sat him just as you are now. I didn’t give him the easy way out like I did with your friend here,” he said, pushing Carrie’s body over with the tip of his shoe so her gaping throat was exposed. “He didn’t even have the decency to take it like a man when I started to work on him. He begged and pleaded the whole time, crying like a little girl, for me to stay away from you. I, of course, would have been glad to accommodate a dying man’s last wishes, but then I found out he’d sent you a little surprise in the mail. I can admit I got a little overzealous with your father. He didn’t last nearly as long as I’d have liked him to. Sometimes I forget my own strength and cut a little too deep.”
Angelo looked down at his hand and noticed the blood for the first time. “See what I mean,” he said, holding his palm up for her to see.
The guards at Dom’s back were moving toward the elevator, each of them talking on their headsets, repeating the same command for each station to check in. Angelo didn’t notice. He was in his own world.
Rachel wiggled her ankles and tried desperately to loosen the rope at her feet. She’d stopped watching the flipping knife and her gaze followed the two guards around the room. They pressed the button for the elevator, but it never arrived, so they split up and went to each side of the floor where the emergency exit stairs were located.
A hard slap brought Rachel’s attention back to Angelo, bringing a moan of pain to her lips. He’d hit the same cheek as Carrie had earlier and blood dribbled down her chin. She breathed through her nose to fight the nausea and couldn’t find the strength to groan when Angelo yanked her up by the hair so she was looking him in the face.
“I haven’t finished my story yet,” he said. “You’re being very rude. Now, where was I?”
Rachel didn’t make the mistake of taking her eyes off him again.
“Oh, yes. I had just killed your father. It’s a moment I’ll always remember. And now I have you in exactly the same spot. Ironic, isn’t it?”
“What did you do with him?” Rachel was barely able to get the question out. Her face was swollen to the point where her mouth would only open so far and talking was difficult.
“What did I do with him?” Angelo laughed. “I’m not completely heartless. He was my brother after all. I gave him a decent burial. Last spring I had the most beautiful crop of roses bloom in my gardens. I like to think it’s because Dom is such good fertilizer.”
Tears coursed down Rachel’s cheeks and she could tell her uncle was finished grandstanding. Her end had come.
“Are you ready, Rachel?” he asked softly. “I’ll try not to make it over too soon.” The knife was back in his hand in the blink of an eye, but the chaos at the stairwell finally got his attention. Four men dressed in black, with their faces painted to match, burst through the doors. Rachel recognized Jax and the tears started falling faster. The fighting at the stairs was intense, and the guards put up a struggle that would have evened things up considerably if the numbers had been the same.
Angelo didn’t waste time trying to save the lives of his bodyguards. He moved slowly behind Rachel and took her by the hair.
The guards were both face down on the floor and the four men in black were the only ones left standing. They each had their weapons pointed to the ground so as not to put Rachel in the line of fire.
“Congratulations, gentlemen. You’ve found me. But I won’t be taken down alone. She’ll die one way or the other.”
The blade of the knife bit into her skin and she held back a whimper of pain. She closed her eyes tightly and thought of Shane—about the last night they’d spent together and the lifetime they’d never get to see.
Glass shattered from across the room and she was left with no time to react. One minute she was praying for a quick death and the next her killer lay crumpled on the ground behind her. She was frozen in shock, and the reality of what had happened didn’t begin to set in until Jax came over and began to untie her.
“Oh, God,” she said, choking on a sob. “Shane?” She grabbed Jax’s arm as soon as her hands were free. “He’s still alive?”
“Alive and well,” he assured her. “But I’d give him another couple of minutes before he makes it over here. He’s not as young as he used to be.”
Rachel laughed through her tears. “I need to see him. Don’t let anyone take me away until I see him.”
