Page 44 of Taking Over the Dark

Zamir’s at my side comforting me, but I don’t need the comfort.

I want his blood.

I want his pain.

Ineedhim to suffer like we did.

Marcello is quick to get back to harming my piece of shit father for me. My sperm donor tries to dodge his knife, screaming, “Fuck, stop that hurts! I’m going to bleed out!”

“How do you think your son felt while in a goddamn bunker slowly dying? The woman I’ve loved for most of my life was in there fighting for her life.” He throws his knife back into his boot holster, and I think he’s done, but nope. He starts using my dad as his punching bag. Landing blow after blow, strategically to cause the most pain and internal damage. The sternum shot has me gripping my own chest, knowing that one hurt. Marcello lands hard blows to each of his sides, finally stopping once he hears a rib crack. Once he’s satisfied, he begins talking again, almost casually, like he didn’t just break ribs and cause internal bleeding. “I’m sure Dario has something I can cauterize these cuts. Wouldn’t want you to bleed out now, would we?”

From what I’ve been told, Vin is the one to do this, but from the looks of it, Marcello’s been missing the torturing activities.

“I do. I’ll go find it for you,” Dario answers quickly, knowing Marcello will more than likely need it.

The blood dripping down his body should bother me. I shouldn’t want Dario not to be able to find whatever he’s looking for to stop the bleeding—but I do. I whisper to Zamir, “Is it bad that I want to watch every drop of blood drain from his body?”

“Not at all. I can’t wait to take my father out, either. And that probably makes us fucked up, but we can be fucked up together.Ellie’s dad can be all ours… she’s the only one with a sane parent.” The grimace on his face has me chuckling.

I deadpan, “Instead of cock brigade, it needs to be dead father brigade.”

I look to my dad again. “Do this one thing for me, Dad. You’ve done nothing to help me… ever. I’ve fought for everything that I have tooth and nail, and here you are with the option to help your daughter and me. What’s it gonna be? Where is Willow?”

“I don’t know, Nash! He only wanted the information I had on where you both were. I gave them what they wanted. They didn’t tell me anything else.”

“I want you to know before you head down to hell. I will donate everything you have to LBGTQ+ organizations in your name. All the life insurance. All of it.” He bucks around, trying to get away, and I just keep going. “John Hayden died from unknown causes, leaving behind his bisexual son and daughter, so he decided to leave his life earnings to the organizations that helped his children understand that they were normal, and their feelings are valid.”

I turn around, sticking my hand out, asking for Marcello’s knife. “Nash, you don’t have to do this. I can do it, or anyone else besides you. You shouldn’t have to live with this haunting you,” Marcello whispers to me.

“I’m doing this, Marcello. I have to for myself. He has no more information and is nothing but a threat to my sister and me. He holds no value in our lives and has made my life a living hell. The final straw was the information on him killing my mom.” And with that, Marcello places the knife in my hand.

I step up, facing my dad for the first time in years, I’m not afraid of him or what he’s going to say to me. “You won’t do it. You’re too much of a pussy.”

“Are those the words you want to leave this hellscape with?” He only raises his eyebrows at me, not saying a word. “Have fun in your hell, Pops,” I whisper right as I slice the knife across his throat and watch as his blood pours out onto the floor.

That was more cathartic than I ever imagined it could be.

* El Pistolero - mgk

THIRTY-ONE

MARCELLO

The first thing Nash does in the morning is call their coach and explain that his dad had been found dead in his house… from some sort of revenge break-in from a previous arrest gone wrong. Dario had everything planned and in place. With John being a high-ranking officer in the police force, it couldn’t just be a simple kill and clean up. Because Dario is who he is, he was able to control which detectives responded to the “crime scene.” Having a few detectives in your pocket pays off when situations arise.

Coach gave them both the week off to rest, or longer if needed. He didn’t even question why Zamir was needed as well. I think he may have just been glad to see them really getting along now.

Noah was up all night trying to find information on Andrei and where he could have Willow and Sonny.

?*It pisses me off that I didn’t even think to look into Nash’s dad further. Him owing money to the casinos is such a danger to his family and anyone around them. And it was such a minuscule amount of money that any of us could have paid, but instead, he sold his kids over to keep up appearances with the public eye.How John managed to go that long hiding his addiction without anyone figuring it out is extremely shocking.

Before we’re all out of bed, there’s a fast couple of knocks on our door, and before we can even say come in, Dario is throwing the door open, yelling, “We’ve got a location! Gear up, and let’s go. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”

Not even ten minutes later, we’re all piling into SUV after SUV like the small army we are, with enough weapons to take down anyone in our way.

Noah is in the car with us and starts to explain what happened while we were sleeping. “We got a video from the people that have them. It was heavily encrypted, but I got into the back end of it and found the location. It’s only a couple miles from here.”

We don’t have enough time to prepare, so I ask Noah, “What are we walking into, Noah?”

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