Page 36 of Sacrifice

Miguel pulls up next to me and gets out of his car. We are meeting at an abandoned warehouse and for the first time, I'm fucking relieved to have my brother by my side.

"Hermanito.” He grabs me, pulling me into a strong hug.

"Thank you for coming." I pat his back and step away. Our family has never been too affectionate, but it seems my brother has my back in this..

"You should know I always have your back." He leans against the side of his car with his arms crossed. "I know we have been estranged in a lot of ways, but not this. Family first."

Looking at him, I quickly come to terms that I may have been the one that caused this divide in our family, a long time ago. Sighing, I nod. "Of course." That's all I can say. Hell, how do I admit I'm the fucking problem?

"Show me the footage and tell me everything you know. From there, we will see what we can do about hatching a plan to catch these assholes and save your girl."

After I tell him about Aribella and Mossimo, I show him the footage from both places. They were smart. Faces were covered in masks and hands were in gloves. Even their shoes have coverings on them at the casino. As we watch them move meticulously about, we notice they are not, in fact, trained professionals. Their guns aren't out and they don't use a single weapon until the last minute of the casino massacre.

"I won't say it's useless, but this doesn't give us much to go on, does it?" Miguel asks.

Shaking my head, I shut the laptop. "No, it doesn't."

Miguel plays with his keys deep in thought. "Alright, the families called a meeting about territory and how they wanted to vote for a new command family. Who all was there?"

"Mossimo stood in for you guys with me for our family. Talon and Bull from the Warriors were there. Our cousins, Louis, Guerror, and Z for the Falconi's."

I rack my brain trying to think. "The Bianchi's were there and so was Diego. They got into a fight in front of us, and Diego asked us to stay out of it. It would be settled at a later date. We both know that Bianchi only wants Diego's territory because he thinks he's hot shit from Italy."

Miguel laughs. It's so like our younger brother to be a hothead. "Warriors would only be involved if bigger fish agreed. They are scared of their damn shadows."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." I shiver. "The Powers were there."

I don't disagree with anything he has said. But what he says next causes me to feel a strong sense of fear. "If the Powers are involved, they would take the whole damn East and you know it. Fuck, I'm sure they would talk to us directly, though, wouldn't they?"

My brother has never shown confusion or fear in his life. I’ve seen both on his face today. I'm already upset, but now I'm nervous as fuck. "Is our family turning against us?"

At first, Miguel doesn't say anything, but then he straightens his tie and says, "Call a Domingo family meeting. It's time we weed out the bastards. Whoever doesn't show up is our first target."

Chapter Sixteen

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

I keep trying to count the blood droplets, but lost track at around twenty-five. The man they brought in after they made me talk into the camera, likes the knife—little knicks. Not enough to cut too deep, just little slashes all along my chest and stomach.

Even to myself, I sound dismissive of my situation. But it's the only way I know how to cope. Otherwise, I'd have already fainted, and I have too much adrenaline pumping through my body to faint. They might do something awful to me. Well, more horrific than what they've already done. I'm not sure I would beable to handle them using my body in even more unspeakable ways than they already have.

"You're going to talk." The man slices into the skin around my navel and the burn comes back full force.

Although the floaters in my eyes keep getting larger, I refuse to give in. Keeping my head held high, I don't say a word. It's not like I have the answers, anyway.

Slap after slap makes my cheeks heat with pain, but still, I say nothing. I'm not sure what they want from me.

"Where's the money?" I don't know. I want to smart off and ask what money, but another man comes in and whispers to the man doing the slapping.

“I don’t know,” I whisper, completely exhausted.

“You’re brother stole money from us. We want it!” The man spits at me, but I can only seem to sway between awake and wanting to faint from the pain.

"Give her the salt treatment." The growly voice says as he pulls the other man away from me.

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