Page 84 of The Devil's Den

“I am, man. Please let me g—”

“The only place you’re going is hell.” With a single bullet into his head, he stops talking.

I gather all the money, stuffing it back into the black bag beside it, taking it with me, along with the weapons.

If I can take everything from the Bianchis, I will. I’ll start with their lives. It’s time the reaper pays them a visit.

* * *

When I get to the warehouse, the last thing I expected was to join a gunfight that had already started. The only good thing about that is no one notices me. I blend well with the men here, some of them in black hoodies like me. There are two women here too, and I can see Agnelo holding one around her throat. Figures the coward would get some innocent woman involved in his war.

A man comes at me and I kick him in the stomach, dropping him with a bullet in his chest. I have no fucking time to figure out who the hell anyone is. If they come at me, they’re getting killed.

I find a spot behind a steel beam and watch the rest of the fight, waiting for my chance to get Agnelo. That’s all I’m here for. But I won’t kill him. Not yet. Not until Aida and Robby are safe.

One of the guys in the hoodie throws a man off him, his green eyes so damn bright, for one second, it’s like I’m staring at my big brother Dom. He and Enzo, they had the same colored eyes. The greenest shit you’d ever seen. Damn coincidence.

“Don’t, Jade!” another shouts, and before I realize why, a bullet fires from a tall blonde woman’s weapon, aimed at Agnelo.

“Fuck!” I groan, hoping the bastard doesn’t die. But instead, it hits the woman trapped in Agnelo’s grasp. She falls, just as Agnelo runs, pointing his pistol at the guy who now has eyes set on him.

But he won’t get him because I will. Once he kicks Agnelo’s weapon away, throwing him to the ground, he plants a foot over the asshole’s stomach.

“Finally. I get to kill you,” he tells the man who tortured Aida and me our whole lives. This is our kill though. It doesn’t belong to whoever the hell this guy is.

Without anyone noticing me, I come out, the barrel of my gun pressing into the back of the guy’s head. “Put your gun down. He’s mine.”

He snickers. “Nah, man. You must be confused.” He pivots to me in one quick motion, like he’s not afraid to die. And his eyes, they're the same color green as the other ones.

I ignore the unnerving feeling punching me in the gut, concentrating on what I need to do to find Aida.

Annoyance settles behind my eyes, and fuck, I wanna kill this guy bad. He’s smug as hell and I’d love to rearrange his face until he stops looking at me like he is right now. Like he can take me.

But something suddenly shifts, his brows bending as he focuses his entire attention on me. He stares like he’s trying to piece something together that doesn’t fit right, like when Aida and I would do those crossword puzzles she loves.

“Who the hell are you?” His question splits open the silence as his eyes grow large, as though he knows the answer to his own question. But that would be crazy. No one knows who I am. I’m a kid long forgotten, erased from history. Memories of me long vanished like I never existed at all. I matter to no one but her, and now, I’ve lost her too.

I suck in a slow inhale, and my eyes revert to the man I’m truly after. Agnelo. My gun rises toward his head.

“Ahh, there he is,” Agnelo taunts with a sneer. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Well, you found me.” My reply is calm, but inside, the wrath pounds as though trying to escape the cage I’ve built around it, needing to satiate its desire for revenge against the man who took everything from me.

Once I find her, I’ll rip him limb by limb. He’s going to know what suffering is, and he’ll die while enduring it. Sometimes, an eye for an eye is the best medicine.

“Tell me where she is,” I whisper-shout. “Where the hell did you send her?”

I tune the others out, now coming to stand around us. There are four of them in all, plus the two women.

Who the fuck are these guys?

“Tsk, tsk.” Agnelo chuckles, and even on the ground, this fuck thinks he’s got the upper hand. “You’ll never find her. Stupid kid. I told you, she’ll never be yours. When will you finally listen?”

I roar with a growl, the butt of my gun popping him right in his temple. “She’s your fucking daughter and you sold her? To who?” I know he’s not her father, but she was his daughter in every sense of the word. He was supposed to protect her. She was just a child when he stole everything from her. The least he could’ve done was keep her safe, but Agnelo is the devil, and the devil has no soul.

“Are you looking for Aida?” the guy asks, and I instantly look at him again, my pulse racing.

“How the hell do you know her? Have you seen her?”