Page 68 of End It All

I examined the lock itself. The thing wasn't fancy, in fact, it was cheap. That was good for me. I didn't bother working on the keypad. Instead, I took out a pocket knife and cut around it until the thing popped out. As soon as I severed the wires, the screen blinked out, and I grinned.

"Piece of cake."

I popped open the safe and yanked out the papers that were buried inside. Thank God it was nowhere near as sturdy as the one in Benito's office. After glancing over everything for a few minutes, I knew they were the right ones. The documents wereall about the Vitales. Newspaper articles, finance reports, police statements.

Someone was watching them very closely.

I slipped everything into my bag before I decided to take a look around. These people didn't look rich; their house was nothing if not an ordinary suburban one, but tucked in the back of drawers and closets were some pretty nice pieces of jewelry. Apparently, they couldn't resist the good life. We had that in common.

"Hey!"

I jumped and dropped the watch I had been examining. Just like that, I was staring at a man that was twice my size, both in height and weight. He looked as if he could fold me in half and crush me. As he reached inside of his jacket, however, I got the feeling I was going to get a bullet between the eyes first.

"Who the fuck are you?" he asked, his Italian accent thick.

"Nobody!"

I turned on my heels and ran back the way I came. As soon as I did, there was another man standing there, staring at me as if I had two heads.Shit, shit, shit!Yeah, this was not going to plan. I swallowed thickly before I reminded myself to stay calm, to think about the rooms I had just seen. An idea formed in my head, and I ran for the stairs.

"Stop him!"

"I'm going!"

The sound of heavy footsteps pursuing me made my heart squeeze in my chest. I dove into the bathroom and slammed the door before I threw the lock. The sound of a meaty fist jiggling and tugging at the doorknob almost made me shit my pants. Instead, I dropped down and started looking for what I needed. They weren't going to be so nice after a while. And if they got ahold of me, I doubted things would end as simply as a bullet wound. They would want to know who I was, what I was doingthere. I'd watched way too many movies to know that I wouldn't survive a single moment of torture. I would roll over so fast, it would be impressive. And then what? Benito and the rest of my brother's really would kill me.

"The little shit locked the door!"

I grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a bath towel. Dropping it in front of the door, I doused the cheap looking black fabric until it was soaking wet. I took out my lighter, but I wasn't stupid enough to get anywhere near that and light it. Instead, I found a little bowl of cotton balls and a container of vaseline.

Perfect!

"Shoot the fucking lock!"

Yep, I was all out of time. I sat a handful of vaseline covered cotton balls on the floor, lit them, and stared for a second mesmerized by the flame that roared to life. For a moment, I was transfixed. There was always something so soothing about fire.

A gunshot and the smell of gunpowder snapped me back to reality. I kicked the wad of vaseline soaked cotton balls and watched as the towel went up in flames quickly.

"You smell that? Is something on fire?"

"Shit, that's smoke. What the hell is he doing in there?"

I grinned as I opened the window. The wind that rushed in only fueled the flames, but that wasn't my problem. I climbed out and carefully made my way around until I could drop down to the roof over the garage. It was low enough, I could jump down, right?

Staring at it, I contemplated my next move when someone hissed at me from the darkness. "The fuck are you doing up there?"

Giancarlo looked truly confused. A grin tugged at my lips. Being able to confuse a guy like him felt like some kind of accomplishment. Paolo appeared beside him.

"Get the hell down from there," Paolo added.

"I'm trying to," I groaned. "It's really high up."

The sound of sirens pierced the air. They were still a ways away, but pretty soon they would be right on top of us.

"Someone called the damn fire department," Gin groaned. "Look what you did!"

"I didn't have a choice! They were going to kill me."

He waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, crybaby. Jump!"