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Blood, bones, muscle tissue, scraps of skin. I saw it all. How was he even still alive?
Even now, when I finally realized that this person was still alive, I was not overcome by the need to call 911.
Mafia.
No paramedics.
Only torture, violence, and death.
Whoever he was, he was down here for a reason. Was it the same reason Enzo had told me there was danger to life down here?
I stumbled back a step.
"Help me," the misshapen guy rasped, extending a hand in my direction.
I would have liked to claim that it softened my heart, but when a sight like this presented itself, there was no help. A merciless death, perhaps. But even that… one did not interfere with the torment that another brought to a man like this one.
I wouldn't interfere if Enzo was torturing. Killing. Mercilessly and unscrupulously, let a man suffer and rot alive.
Still, I wondered what would kill him first. Enzo? His physical condition? The maggots and beetles that would soon eat their way through his body?
"Merda," I muttered, my stomach still not entirely under control. It disgusted me. But it did not traumatize me.
"You shouldn't be down here."
I jerked my head around, discovering Vincenzo in the middle of the stairs, looking at me grimly.
"Why is he down here?" I asked, pointing in the direction of the half-dead man. The tremble in my voice was barely noticeable. I blamed it on the stench. Decay was not a lovely scent.
Vincenzo came down the last steps and crossed the narrow corridor until he was next to me. "Because he deserves it," was his curt reply.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it's my secret."
"Your secret is keeping people in a dungeon and letting them die a cruel death?"
His gaze shot to me. I expected anger, but he only tilted his head slightly. "Not quite. If you come upstairs with me, I'll explain."
"Why are you even here?"
He snorted. "Because a silent alarm is triggered as soon as the door is opened. And…" He interrupted himself. "For a moment, I thought he was going to get you."
So this man was dangerous.
I would have liked to take a deep breath, but the stench prevented that. I took Enzo's hand, which he casually held out to me after he had closed the door behind us.
Without comment, I followed him upstairs, handed him the key, and watched as he locked this door. Only then did he lead me outside into the fresh air.
For a brief moment, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and enjoyed that it only smelled like home out here. Not of death.
"So, will you explain?" I finally asked when he remained silent.
"Nobody knows about it except Fiero," he countered.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I'd like to know that I'm in a house with some guys rotting in the cellar."
"That man down there has committed a series of terrible crimes. The victims were children and women, so I took him out of circulation after the police failed to do so."
