Page 70 of Brutal Secrets
Sasha goes still. Then he turns to me, and we share a look. “We haven’t just pissed off the Italians. The Night Governor has his hands in this,” he grits out.
The man in the chair is a bit older—a slight paunch hangs above his waistband, and his muscles have turned to fat—but he can control his emotions. Sasha picks up the drill and starts the bit whirling, but the man in the chair just closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. No drama.
“What did Spataro want to do with the Night Governor? Why did he need a marriage?” Sasha asks.
“I dunno, man. It’s above my pay grade,” the man says. “I was just supposed to pick up the women and bring them back. I think the boss was gonna swap them for his daughter.”
I look over at Sasha. “Do we give the girl back?”
Sasha picks up the drill again. “Too late for that, I think. He’s already struck us. We back down now, we look weak.”
“Where were you going to take the singer and her kid?” I ask the man.
“Back to the boss’s penthouse. He said it would be safer that way. We wasn’t gonna hurt them.”
“That’s good.” I can hear the smile in Dima’s voice. “You’ve got a little girl, don’t you? Isabella, was it? And Chiara? Such a pretty name for a wife,” Dima adds, walking toward him. He doesn’t need to brandish a weapon. The names of this guy’s family members are sharper than any blade on the table.
The man begins to shake. “Don’t touch them. Don’t fucking touch them. Women and children should be off limits.” His voice wavers, but I cut him off before he can say anything else.
“Like my family? Or did the limits not extend to them?” I say. “We could have handled this in a civilized manner.”
The man in the chair lifts his head. “What are you going to do to my daughter? Where is Isabella?”
“Your daughter went to school today, and she came home to your lovely wife,” Dima says. “They were wondering where you’d been when I went to the house and asked for you.”
The man raises his head and glares at Dima, but he appears to come to a conclusion. He has to give us something.
“Spataro is weak. He needs this marriage. If you don’t return Alessandra to her father and she doesn’t marry the Night Governor, then the Italians will start fighting over the businesses in the US. The garbage and recycling will be first. Then the drugs and the girls. It’ll be carnage, and for no good reason.” The man pleads with us as if we can stop Spataro and the Night Governor from picking fights.
Dima picks up the gun and aims it between the man’s eyes. “Tell us everything or it’ll be your wife and kid next.”
“Spataro is getting old. He’s losing his grip, but the Night Governor is a psychopath. It won’t be great to have him in control. We respected the don, but people fear the Night Governor because he’s unpredictable.”
“We know what we need to know.” Dima lifts the gun again, but Kai’s voice stills his hand.
“Keep him alive. He could come in handy.”
Dima lowers the gun, and Sasha glances over at the power drill.
“Christ, Sasha. I thought you were trying to move in more elevated circles,” I say. “Playing with the contents of a hardware store in a shipping container isn’t exactly going to help you win friends and influence.”
Sasha cracks a grin. “It might. Depends on the people.”
As if to highlight the mess my life has become, the burner phone buzzes in my pocket.
When we come back home will you come over?
Can I come and stay at your house?
I look at the slumped man in the chair. The man whose wife and daughter we just threatened.
I cock my head at Sasha. “He’s mine.”
I walk to the chair, send a fist into his stomach, and then rain a series of blows down on his face. His cheekbone cracks against my knuckles.
“That was my kid you threatened. That was my woman!” My fists fly faster now, and his face is a bloody mess. His blood coats my knuckles before Sasha grasps my arms and pulls me back.
“If we want to leave him alive, then you’d better give it a rest,” he says.