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Carter prowls around Drago’s back while Isabella stands off to the side with her arms wrapped around her chest. If she has any reservation as to what we’re about to do, she doesn't let it show on her face. The soft side of her, the good-hearted romantic, is no longer on display.
Barry stands off to the rear, guarding the door they came through.
“Tell us where you’ve hidden him, and this will be over soon,” Carter snaps.
Drago might be sweating, but he isn’t about to spill. He’s not the fearful type. “He’s in a place with no light and no sound. Very soon, he will not have any air left, and by the time you find him, it will be too late.”
I glare at him and open my mouth to lay down a new load of threats. Not before Isabella closes the distance between them and slams her fist into his jaw. She screams into his face, and I let her get her aggression out for a long moment before pulling her back.
She needs the blood. She needs to know Drago is suffering the way she suffers.
“Tell us where he is,” Carter repeats. He grabs Drago’s hand, wrenched behind the fat man’s back, and breaks his index finger with a quick snap. The thumb follows.
He spits blood from the side of his mouth, but if his broken bones bother him, he shows nothing but disgust. “You will never be able to find him. If you kill me, then he dies.”
“He said the same shit to me.” Isabella shakes her head. “He’s just stalling for time to give his people the opportunity to mobilize.”
“I don’t think you actually have him hidden. And if you do, then you’re not smart enough to make it somewhere we’ll never find.” I bend until we’re eye level. “This is a game to you, and you wouldn't stack the deck so completely against us that there is no chance of winning. What’s the fun in that?”
“I’ve already won,” Drago says with a snarl. “You still don’t understand.”
“Maybe you’ll talk a little easier if I find the right way to open your mouth. I don’t need you dead, Prokhor. That’s what you don’t get.” I call his bluff and shoot him in the kneecap.
Drago cries out, biting back a larger scream and squeezing his eyes shut against the pain.
“Now listen to me, you piece of shit. You fucked with the wrong people. It’s not me you have to worry about.” I straighten and cock the gun again, the next bullet ready to explode out of the chamber. “You messed with her.”
“And I am not going to rest until every single sidewalk in this city is painted with your people’s blood. Once I get my father back, I am going to hunt down everyone you love and take them down person by person. Only then will I let you die.” Isabella steps closer to me until our shoulders press together. “Ricardo’s right. You picked on the wrong family. This war is over.”
Drago seethes against the ropes keeping him contained. “You will never find him,” he repeats.
I press the muzzle of the gun between his eyebrows. “Then I wonder if you are ready to be put out of your misery early.”
Only Isabella reaching for me pauses my finger on the trigger. “Wait.” A single word, but it somehow reaches the empty, burning place inside.
“Why?” I ask, scowling at her.
She doesn’t have an answer, but she grips me tighter, and it takes everything inside of me to fight my instincts and lower the gun.
“Let me see if I can get through to him first.” She rises on the tips of her toes to whisper in my ear. “I’ll talk to him, break down his psyche because we are going to mess up if we go in there with manpower instead of intellect.”
30
ISABELLA
Ricardo’s long lashes drift down, and for a moment, I wonder if he’s going to tell me to go to hell and kill Drago anyway. A part of me wouldn’t blame him.
Eventually, he lets out a shaky breath and stares me down, his dark eyes cold and hard like pieces of coal.
He refuses to lower his weapon, but he does take a step back, keeping his aim over my shoulder while I square off against Drago.
The older man sets me with a look like a snake prepared to strike. There is nothing but cold-blooded malice in his expression. He wants us ended.
Ricardo finally turns to me without a word, towering so tall and strong, and gestures toward Drago with his chin. He’s cleared the way for me, and by god, I hope I can do this. I hope I have enough skills to get through to the man and the slight bit of compassion I might have imagined in him during our first meeting.
If it’s all a lie, then I’m wasting time, and my father is about to suffocate to death wherever Prokhor has him stashed.
Just as we’d gotten him tied, Barry had whispered in my ear that the police had been warned to stay away from this area. There is no one else close enough to hear him scream, not with the construction in the area.
