Page 117 of Merciless Monster

I throw the phone against the wall. The glass shatters into a thousand pieces.

Bruno is the first to speak.

“Leave the room,” he says to the men, who don’t need to be told twice.

“What happened, Boss?” he asks as soon as we’re alone.”

“That fucking halfwit you sent with to watch over Mia has managed to lose her. Fuck!”

Arnold comes running into the office.

“What’s happening? Why are you shouting?”

He’s ashen when I tell him what’s going on.

“I knew I should have gone with her. I knew it!” he says as he sinks down onto the chair.

“Okay, I’ll go and meet with Lician, Bruno says. It doesn’t matter if they see us now. It’s too late now for hide and seek.”

“I’m coming,” I say.

“No, please, Dante. Wait here for me. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything. I swear.”

“I want you to put a bullet in Lucian’s head!” I bark.

“Mia wouldn’t want that, Boss. I’ll find her. Lucian and I will find her.”

I’m seething with rage.

“You won’t kill one of your own, Dante,” Arnold say, as if he’s giving me an order.

I’m not used to taking orders from anyone. Especially not civilians like Arnold. People like him don’t understand what it’s like in my world. I have to uphold my mob boss image. If I go soft on anyone word gets around and I may as well walk around with a target on my back—strap a fucking bull’s eye to my designer shirt and fire the starter’s pistol.

But I love Mia, and I respect Arnold, so I bite my tongue.

“Arnold, you don’t understand how this works,” is all I say.

“I understand plenty. I don’t care what you did in your past, Dante. But if you want to be with my daughter and grandson, you had better damn well know that I won;t stand for this kind of violence.”

He has a look in his eyes that tells me he means business.

“I hope you understand what I’m telling you,” he says.

“Would you feel different about the man who has taken her? What if I told you I was planning on wiping him from the face of the earth?”

“At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, I’d say that he is a different matter altogether.”

“I’m glad we agree on that,” I say firmly.

“Some people are just bad, Dante, and the world is a better place without them. But those people are few and far between.”

“In your world, perhaps.”

“I choose to live in my world, Dante. I told you that you’ll have to decide if this is the world you want to live in. One thing I can tell you for certain, is that my daughter and grandson have no place in that world.”

What is he telling me? Will he stand in our way if I asked Mia to marry when this is over?

A sudden idea interrupts my thinking. It’s like someone just switched on a lightbulb.

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