Page 101 of The Pawn
“Your son betrayed the family.”
He sighs. He understands.
“Bring him upstairs.”
Jet unlocks the shackles that bind him, and we head up to my office. Angelo limps and leans heavily on Jet. Several soldiers follow them.
“Get everyone ready. Once I have a location, we move,” I tell the soldier who’s taken the lead now that Enzo isn’t here. Now that Enzo is the enemy.
“Your computer,” Angelo says as Jet deposits him on the sofa. He clutches his leg.
I carry my laptop over.
Angelo’s eyes go to the bottle of whiskey. I pour him one and watch him drink it like water. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath in.
I grip a handful of hair and tug his head backward. “Show me where the fuck he is. Now.”
“Easy,” Jet says, hand on my forearm. “If he’s dead he can’t tell you anything.”
I step back and force my fists into my pockets. I pace and watch over my uncle’s shoulder as he hits a series of keys on my laptop. A site opens up. It’s one I’ve never been to, never heard of.
“Your father and I have been using this system for a long time,” he tells me as he enters password after password until finally, a window opens. He widens it soit fills the screen, a satellite map with blinking lights. A lot of them in various colors.
I lean closer. It’s Devil’s Peak. My house is where most of those lights are, although, when I zoom out, I see Seth’s location. See the lights of the men there. I count them. I left six men behind, but there are eight lights.
“Why eight?”
“Each SUV has one installed. Each cell phone.” He continues to type, and the map zooms out, the world turns. “You moved Vivi.” He looks up at me. I did. I moved them to a location Angelo did not know about because at some point in this nightmare of my life, I knew in my heart I couldn’t trust anyone. So maybe it’s not my instincts that are off. Maybe it’s my head. My heart. “You didn’t think I knew. You didn’t trust me. I didn’t hurt her or Gage. I would never hurt them.”
“But Enzo would,” It’s a statement of fact and Angelo doesn’t deny it.
“How long? How long has he hated me?” I start, but stop. Shake my head. That doesn’t matter. Not right now. “Where’s Enzo?”
“He did it to punish me, Cassian. Not you.”
“I don’t care. I don’t give a fuck! Show me where the fuck he took her!”
Angelo punches keys and the world turns again. I see a single blinking light standing still. A single blinking light on a stretch of land I know. A place with more bones beneath its earth than even the cemetery that is my backyard.
35
ALLEGRA
Enzo’s words echo.
Cassian will die.
He or Malek will kill Cassian in front of my eyes.
I watch Enzo as he strings me up, but I keep silent. There’s nothing else to say. There will be no negotiating with him. No conscience to speak to.
Cassian can take on Malek. No matter the circumstances, Cassian will be victorious against Malek. I know that, but this, the way he’s set this up? I know there will be a cost.
But Enzo? The look in his eyes. His determination? It’s different to Malek’s hate. This is closer to home. This is blood.
Enzo keeps hold of my bound arms with one hand and wraps the other arm around my waist to lift me up. He loops the ropes binding my wrists around the hook someone has affixed to the beam and slowly releases me. Assoon as he does and I’m suspended by my wrists, I feel it. I feel the pain of my own weight in my arms, my shoulders, my wrist.
“Lovely,” Malek says, walking a few feet from me and taking out his phone. “Now strip her.”
