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During this brief peace, I took the time to study the padlock keeping her chains together. It looked low-security. Something you’d buy for cheap at a local hardware store. Shitty. Which was good because that meant it would be easier to break open.
I bent down to examine it closer just as movement caught my eye. Whipping around, I aimed my gun at the men who stepped from the darkness. Just like last time. The Snake might have been powerful now, but they weren’t really creative.
The men surrounded us, about eight in all. If they really wanted us dead, the Snake would have sent more after the last time I’d taken his people out. But the last time, I’d had surprise on my side. This time…I was shit out of luck.
One man stepped forward, a device in his hand. It took me a moment to realize it was a cell phone. “The boss would like to speak with you.” He didn’t look or sound familiar, which made me think he wasn’t one of ours.
He held the phone out, his face expressionless. I took it hesitantly, my gun still trained on him. The screen lit up, a call already open.
“Hello?”
“It’s a shame,” a voice said from the other line, “to waste so much potential, isn’t it, Dante?”
I froze. The voice was warbled, distorted, but it sounded like a man. Though, if they were using a voice changer, it could also have been a woman. There was no way to tell.
“What do you want?” I demanded, ignoring them.
“What most people want,” the voice replied. “Power. Money. But, most importantly, recognition. You know something about that, don’t you?”
My eyes dart around the group surrounding us. All men. All who looked at least half-Italian, which told me whoever this Snake person was, they had ties to us. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” The voice sighed. “You’ve been looking for recognition your entire life. We’re similar, you and I.”
“We are nothing alike,” I spat.
“You sure about that?” I was getting tired of these fucking questions. “I killed. You killed. We’ve all killed.”
“So? I killed out of revenge. Not for power.”
“Ah, but I wasn’t talking about avenging your sweet mother, Dante.” My hand tightened around the phone. “I was talking about how you did your father’s dirty work all those years. Just for a little praise from a man who never saw your true potential.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“But I do. I know everything about you,” the voice said. “I know about your training sessions. Left in dark rooms with dead bodies for hours. Forced to torture men who didn’t follow your father’s rules when you were just a kid. You killed your first man at the age of twelve, wasn’t it? Seems a bit young. But then again, your father never wanted children. He wanted soldiers. Kings.”
“Shut the fuck up.” I was sweating now, my heart skipping beats in my chest.
“Tsk tsk. Manners.”
“What do you want with us?” I asked again. “If you wanted to just kill us, you could have several times over.”
“I don’t want you dead just yet. But I do need to take you both out of the game for a while.”
What the hell did that mean? I glanced back at Sienna. Her breath hitched, shoulders twitching slightly. Whatever drug they’d given her, she was waking up from it. I just needed to keep the voice talking. Then maybe we’d have a chance to escape.
“What game?”
“This is all a game, Dante. If you haven’t learned that by now, you will soon. The mafia runs on a very distinctive pattern. Money and contacts make you powerful. And power gets you everything. You’ve known that since you were a boy. It’s all your father would talk about.”
So, whoever this was, they knew my father well. Though anyone within a ten-foot radius of Sal would know how much he enjoyed discussing the semantics of power. Of influence.
“If you’re so powerful, why do you want to take out two whole families?” I asked.
“Ah, if you took over from your father, wouldn’t you be worried about your brother killing you to take your place?”
“Never.”
“Because he’s family. Real family. But you and Sienna are not my family. If I left you alive, you two would try and fight back. And I can’t have that.”
