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I grabbed the box and hoisted it up onto the lid of the trash bin next to the door. Harmless, probably, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone got their kicks out of blowing shit up in my bar.
I pulled out my knife and flipped it open.
“Are you sure that thing’s not going to explode?” Leo asked, looking at the box.
“No.” I shrugged. “Is that a problem?”
“Not really, but I think Ella would prefer it if I brought my ass home in one piece, that’s all.”
“See, I told you.” I shook my head, smiling. “Too many rules when it comes to dating.”
I cut through the tape on the box and opened the lid.
No explosives, but what was inside made my breath catch in my throat—not a feat that happened often.
“What is it?”
“You happen to know Gabe Costa’s phone number?” I asked, staring down into the box.
Gabe Costa, brother to the don of the Costa family, had turned himself into some kind of vigilante hero.
“Si, why?”
I reached into the box and pulled out a handful of photos. “Either someone’s trying to get me hooked on some lightweight torture porn, or I’ve got something here that might be right up Costa’s alley.”
I held out the handful of pictures. Photos of men and women, shackled, clothing torn, covered in bruises. I didn’t recognize a single one of them. A few of the photos had no people in them at all, just stone walls, concrete floors.
“Fuck,” Leo cursed under his breath, looking through the stack.
There had to be at least a thousand pictures in the box.
He gave me Costa’s number, and I typed it into my phone. It rang too many goddamned times before hitting voicemail.
“It’s Brute Hastings, a friend of Leo’s,” I explained. “I think I’ve stumbled into something that ventures into your territory—the kind of thing you do. I’d appreciate it if you got in touch, my friend.” I left my phone number and hung up.
“It’s always something, isn’t it?” Leo said, shaking his head. “Any idea who left this present here for you?”
“Fuck if I know.” I’d maybe garnered a reputation for setting shit on fire, including evil assholes who were just begging to burn. But this? “I’ll go through them, see if anyone jumps out at me.”
“Do you want some help?” he offered. “That’s a lot of nasty shit to go through.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Go on and get home to our girl. I’ve got this.” Because who wouldn’t love to spend their night going through this shit?
“All right,amico.If you change your mind, you know where to find me,” he said, heading for his car.
“Give Ella my best, my friend.”
Leo laughed. “I’ll give hermybest,” he said, waggling his brows. “You’re on your own,amico.”
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath.
“You know you love me, Brute,” he called right before he got in his car and closed the door.
Admittedly, Leo was a difficult man to hate.
I waved, then grabbed the box and opened the bar’s back door. Inside, I headed for the small office across from the storeroom and dropped the box on the ancient desk.
“Let’s figure out what you were doing on my back door,” I said to the box as I opened it up and grabbed another handful of photos from inside.
