Page 90 of Dangerous Deception

Going public is the only way to find justice, not just for people who have lost loved ones, but for anyone else who might even be remotely sick from the water.

Once I get Adelina back, we’re moving.

Pascal calls an hour later, barks out an address at me, and then hangs up.

Showtime.

The warehouse Pascalorders me to rests against the river. Several cars litter the parking lot without a man in sight. I arrive alone as he requested and send a single text to Vito wishing him luck. Then I head inside.

The air stinks of dust and lingering chemical preservatives from when this was part of a larger fishing operation. It’s abandoned now, and my footsteps on the stone floor echo like the distant beats of a drum.

Maybe I’ll die here.

Maybe Pascal will force me to live out the end of my days in some dark, dank cell while he crushes everything he built. Not that it matters.

All I need is to get close to him. Once I get my hands around his neck, I’ll force Adelina’s location out of him and then I will kill him.

I walk deeper into the warehouse, fighting to hide my limp from the wound on my thigh, and just past an overturned stack of shelving, I find Pascal.

He stands alone underneath a light that darkens the shadows around him, visibly unarmed. I’m not stupid enough to believe that he is, or that he’s here alone, but I’ll play his little game for a moment.

“Pascal.” Announcing myself feels moot when my footsteps act like a countdown to my demise, but I’m surprisingly calm. Finally facing him after all this time and everything he’s done, I anticipated being overcome with rage, but my heart maintains a steady beat for some reason.

For now.

“Raffaele.” He smirks coldly at me. “You’re late.”

“Hardly.” I don’t even look at my watch. “You must be losing the knack for time in your old age.”

“I’ll still outlive you.” His eyes narrow. “Did you come alone?”

“Is it overconfidence or stupidity that makes you ask that?” I stop a few feet away from him, scanning as much of the dark surroundings as I can in my peripheral. Making out anything in the shadows is tough, so I remain on high alert.

Pascal’s eyes narrow to slits. “Always so cocky,” he snaps at me. “An arrogant waste of space right until the end.”

“Is that how you will justify this?” I ask casually. “You can’t understand why I’m standing here, willing to do anything I need to in order to get my wife back.”

“Oh, I understand it.” He snorts. “You’re blinded.”

“No. I’m focused. Not that you would ever understand, given how you were more than happy to let your actions poison your own wife. Did you tell Adelina? Did you tell her how you killed her mother?”

Pascal shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “She understood.”

“Did she?” Irritation begins to warm my blood. “Did she understand how her mother’s cancer treatment was hindered by the toxic shit she kept drinking? Did she understand how her father’s greed has led to hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths from poisoning, all written off as drugs because he was payingthe right people? How her father isn’t some grand Italian Mafia king, but an Irish rat in disguise?”

“How dare you,” Pascal growls. “How dare you insult my heritage!”

“Your heritage shriveled up the second you took a dime from those Irish scumbags. It died the second you put the life of your loved ones, and every family you were supposed to protect, at risk for some quick cash.”

“Coming from the butcher who killed his way to the top?” Pascal scoffs, tossing his head. “You have no right to judge me, you coward.”

“Yes, I killed a lot of people. I wiped entire families off the map. But I killed men who stole from me. I killed families involved in the slave trade. I killed those who made their money off the backs of exploiting young boys and girls. And I killed those who betrayed me after I showed them kindness and brought them up with me. But you know what I never did?” I take a step forward. “I never stuck my thumb in slave auctions and nearly let someone I love be assaulted and sold off.”

“She never would have been sold!” Pascal yells suddenly. “It was just a way to lure you there so we could kill you!”

“You traumatized your own daughter, and for what? Two pathetic assassins who were so focused on getting their dicks wet that they forgot their main mission? Because if that’s who you hired to kill me? I’m fucking offended.”

“So offended that you fled the country,” Pascal sneers. “The great Raffaele turning tail and running.”

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