Page 86 of The Devil's Den

“He’s been with me this whole time,” Agnelo interrupts. “Isn’t that right, kid?”

“Tell me where she is!” I roar. That’s what matters now. Aida and Robby.

“You’re like a sad, little puppy.” He narrows his eyes with a harsh squint, trying to sit up but some other guy I don’t know pushes him back down. “She’s long gone by now. Probably in a different country.”

I let out a deep-chested growl, forcing the muzzle of the pistol to my own forehead.

She can’t be gone!

“Good luck finding her by yourself,” Agnelo tosses. “But if you want a shot at saving her, well, you’re going to have to take me out of here before your brothers end your chance of ever getting to her in time.”

Did you actually think I’d leave you here? Believe me, the stuff I’ll do to you will be far worse than whatever my brothers are capable of.

“Matteo, please,” Dom pleads. “Let us help you. Don’t fucking listen to him. All he ever does is lie.”

But I ignore him.

“Goddamn, Matteo. We’re your brothers.” Dante clasps me on the shoulder, but I shove it away. “We’ll help you find her.”

“I have no brothers.” I pierce him with a deadpan look. The words slip out before I have a chance to realize if I even mean them. But after so long of being alone, knowing I had no family who loved me enough to fight for me, I can’t pretend we’re family now. “The best thing you can do is forget you ever saw me. I’m still dead where it matters.”

I draw my gun at the one holding Agnelo down. “Tell your friend to move,” I tell Dom. “Agnelo is coming with me.”

With Dom’s permission, the guy steps back, letting Agnelo get up. I gradually edge toward him, clasping my arm around the back of his neck, the barrel of the gun against his temple.

When I drag him away, Enzo yells, “Wait! Don’t go. We love you, man. We never would’ve given up finding you if we knew you were alive.”

I jerk back at that confession, the weight of it slamming into me, my legs growing heavy. Unable to move. To breathe. They thought I…I was dead? I glance at each one of them.

My brothers.

And though that little boy inside me wants so badly to stay, to know the truth, the man I am now, he wants to save the love of his life more than he wants his family.

“I’m sorry.” Dom’s voice wavers. His expression is as broken as my heart, cracked to the very bone.

With one last glimpse at them, I bolt out of there, knowing if I stay another moment, I won’t be able to hold on to the mask of fury that’s keeping me from remembering how much I still love them.

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

MATTEO

“Tell me where they are!”I slam a fist into his stomach, both of us now back in that basement I wasted away in for years.

“I don’t know.” He coughs out blood, keeling over, his hands holding on to his midsection. It’s been half a fucking day since we’ve been here, and he’s not told me one damn thing, even with a bullet in his thigh. I don’t know how much more I can hurt him without completely killing him. If he dies, so does she.

I dangle the set of keys I got from his wallet on my index finger. There are probably over twenty keys here. I could only imagine what each one is for, how many damn prisons they can open, hostages they can let out. When he still doesn’t answer, I land a punch to his jaw.

“Don’t fucking lie to me. I’ll shoot every one of your limbs until you tell me.” He groans, the chain he once used on me, now cutting into his own wrist.

“Goddamn it.” He palms his face. “I think you broke something.”

“Start talking or I start breaking all your bones.” A sneer slithers to my mouth as I kneel over to grab his shirt in my fist, glaring into the eyes of the devil, unable to wait until I send him back to hell.

I right myself, readying to slam him with another punch to his face.

“I gotta tell you, kid.” He moves his chin side to side with his hand. “I’m proud of you. Look how far you’ve come. It’s too bad after all is said and done, Iwillhave to kill you. I’m sure you understand.”

I give him a sinister smile, and my face nears his until only a hand separates us. “You don’t get it, do you? You’re gonna die. I’ll kill you, and I’ll enjoy it. And she and I, we’ll make a life together and we’ll put everything you’ve done behind us while you’re rotting away.”

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