Page 89 of Luciano

I stood directly in front of Angelo.

He was breathing hard, eyes flicking between the three of us.

But I could already tell… he was ready to give in.

“Let’s not waste time. Where are they?”

He laughed. Coughed. Spit blood. “I’ll never tell you shit.”

I nodded.

Then I jabbed my hunting knife I was holding into his forearm.

His scream echoed off the concrete walls.

Saint stepped up and slapped him hard across the face with the flat of his blade. “This isn’t even torture yet. This is encouragement. Tell us. ”

“I’m not te—” Angelo started.

I pulled my knife from his arms and slammed it down into the meatiest part of his thigh.

He shrieked.

I crouched down and whispered near his ear.

“Marco. Think very carefully. You’ don’t have to die tonight. What happens next depends on how useful you become.”

He whimpered.

“I—I don’t know where my father is.”

I said nothing.

“But my little brother—he’s in Sumter. In a safe house in the woods.”

The silence was heavier than the blood on the floor.

“You gave him up,” Brooker said, standing. “You really gave up your own baby brother and we didn’t even work that hard for it.” He sounded disgusted.

Young Russo shook his head frantically. “You made me.”

Saint spat on the floor.

“I’d die before I gave up blood.”

“That’s because you have something resembling loyalty,” I said. “He doesn’t.”

Then I put two bullets in his head.

Chapter 41

Ava

The library smelled like old leather and polished wood. It was familiar. I used to get lost in it when I still lived there, reading my life away.

I was curled up in the oversized armchair tucked near the window, trying to read but not really absorbing a word. The book was open on my lap—The Princeby Machiavelli. It was about cold, calculated men. Just like the man whose house I was in.

I didn’t like being in Luciano’s father’s house, but Luciano had insisted I stay here until things with the Russos were cleaned up instead of going back home. It wasn’t like anyone knew where we’d been. But he said it was a precaution. “Temporary.”

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