Page 40 of A Taste Of Darkness

“So, I suppose you’re wondering where the rest of our family is?” I said when clearly, but very much unfortunately, Pino refused to talk to me. “I bet you’re wondering why they haven’t stormed the building yet when they should know I’m holding you here.”

Pino closed his eyes, enjoying the moment of silence I granted him. The recordings that had been playing since he’d been captured were turned off just before I got here. While I didn’t mind torturing my cousin with them until he pleaded for their end, I wasn’t going to torture myself with them.

“They think you’ve died,” I said, which got me Pino’s ultimate attention. “Plane crash.”

“What have you done?”

Sterlie said there were fifteen of them following her, at least as far as she knew. We found the last ten, but since they weren’t my immediate family, my men killed and disposed of them rather quickly. My family wasn’t going to care about them. And it turned out they didn’t know why they were supposed to scare Sterlie.

I shrugged. “Oh, just… you know? I had my men steal your little trackers while you were still unconscious. They then put them in a plane that was scheduled to land in Palermo twelve hours later, but unfortunately, halfway through, your plane had an accident and landed in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Pino didn’t react to the news, didn’t seem surprised that I’d staged their deaths, though his eyes did fill with some more anger aimed at me.

I suppose if your family was as close as ours was expected to be, staging the death of five of them wasn’t going to get brushed under the rug as easily. One death was painful enough, five was… unforgivable.

“The pilot of the aircraft is unharmed,” I informed my cousin. “I know you’re concerned about my people’s well-being. They’re feeding you after—Oh, wait… no, they won’t. But whatever could you do to be fed?” I hummed as I pretended to think hard.

“I will not say a fucking word.”

I snapped my fingers. “That’s one idea.” I knelt down enough to put my face right in front of his. “But I don’t need you to talk, mio caro cugino, because I already know everything. I’m just keeping you here because I can.”

I knew nothing. Nobody said a fucking important word since they got here. While I had some useless information, it was nothing I could work with. None of my cousins gave me an answer to the one question I wanted answered.

Why were they suddenly looking for me, when all those years they hadn’t tried more but to send Arlo to find me?

Arlo, who’d found me within a week which he assured me they didn’t know.

Arlo, who very clearly wasn’t traveling the world to find me because he was hiding here himself.

22

TENSIONS RISE

Sterlie Adams

I tried my best not to look at Milo and I wasn’t even sure why.

He didn’t scare me, and I wasn’t mad at him either. Sure, I kind of wished he told me about what happened way earlier, but was it really his call to make? For all he knew, my family told me the truth, or at least some version of it.

It didn’t matter anyway. I was going to try my best to get those memories back, and I was only a couple more hours away from the city where shit went down. I wasn’t sure if the memories could return, but it was worth a try.

Besides, if Milo’s family was already coming for me, why not make it easy for them to find me? I always loved to hide in plain sight. It was the easiest to overlook.

About halfway on our way to Italy, I’d had it with these flight attendants asking me if I wanted some water or a snack.

I knew they were just doing their job, and I was sure Milo paid them all too well for those stupid questions, but if I wanted something, I would’ve asked for it.

Milo was typing on his laptop, answering calls, and not having a care in the world, while my brain was steaming from all the questions.

I was bored out of my mind, stuck in a tiny plane with a man who I didn’t even really know, and flight attendants that threw the question “Can I get you anything?” around like candy.

I didn’t have a single magazine to read, and even if I had, I’d be done a million times by now. Milo got me a new phone earlier, but I couldn’t play games on it because my battery ran out an hour ago. I forgot my charger at his place, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask if anyone here had a spare one.

It didn’t help that the closer we got to Italy, the more nervous I got.

So, I snapped.

“Just leave me alone, would you?!” I groaned. My hands shot up to my face, fingers pressing to my temples at the same time as my eyes closed, and I tried to take a deep breath.

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