Page 45 of Sinner's Bond

“Roger,” they both reply.

“Going now,” I say.

I run toward the front corner of the building, staying low and watching for any signs of movement. I see Raf come out of the trees and run up the side of the building. I walk slowly past a closed garage door, listening for any noise coming from inside.

I stop before I reach an entry door with a glass window in it. I lean against the wall and peer through the window. It looks empty from the angle I can see.

Enzo is peering around his corner at the end of the building. He signals to me that his side is still clear. I look back from the way I came and see Raf signal that it’s still all clear on that end. I hold my fingers up, counting down. 3… 2… 1…

I kick hard at the door close to its handle and it breaks open. I scan the room. It’s dark and empty.

“Entrance clear,” I radio.

Raf and Enzo come in behind me. They begin clearing the rooms off the entrance. An office and a break room. I clear the garage. It’s all still empty. I find the door to the main warehouse. The door is unlocked. I wait for Raf and Enzo before I open the door.

Enzo enters first, Raf and I close behind him. We fan out, scanning the corners, making our way down the length of the large room, checking between each of the many shelves. There’s still nobody here. Maybe we’ve got the wrong place? But there was nothing else that fit the description in this area.

At the end of the warehouse, I see a shorter concrete wall that seems to be part of another small room or office. I slowly make my way around it and see the entrance to the room, the door wide open.

It’s a makeshift cell. A room built into the warehouse with concrete blocks and steel bars. Exactly what Elio described.

I step inside and see four bodies on the floor.

“Over here!” I yell.

I kneel and lean down to Elio, checking his neck for a pulse even though I know what I’ll find. Nothing. He’s dead. Shot in the head. He’s been dead for hours already.

“Noooo!” Enzo yells when he enters the cell.

Raf checks the other three bodies, identifying the Russians that were kidnapped at the courthouse. They’re all dead, too.

I radio Riccardo, “We found them. DOA.”

I stand up and take a step back. My foot crunches on something. When I step back, I see a faint light. The cell phone.

They shot Elio and left the phone he stole to call me. They must have caught him and knew someone was coming for him.

Enzo hoists Elio’s body over his shoulder. We leave the Russians. If I knew how to find any of the Bratva, I’d let them know where we found them.

I leave the phone. Whoever owned it might still be tracking it.

We go back through the woods, back the way we came in. When we get to the road, Riccardo opens the back of the car and waves to us that it’s clear. Enzo lays Elio gently in the back. He and Raf cover his body with a blanket.

It’s a fucking depressing ride home. None of us say anything. Somehow, it feels like I’ve let my men down, again. There’s nothing else to say right now. Nothing that can make this any better. I’ve felt almost high since last night, with the possibility of saving Elio, finding out who’s behind the attack, and being able to get our revenge. It just makes this low so much fucking worse.

Whoever did this wasn’t trying to free these men from the police. And they weren’t trying to get information out of them. Elio said they hardly even questioned them. There was no ransom demand, either.

They were just holding them. They were just pawns.

I will find out who did this. And I will avenge Elio and Tony. You don’t fuck with my family and get away with it.

21

KLEIN

It’s almost6 o’clock by the time I hear from Mateo again. He sends me a text just a little after I got home:

I’m back. Come over?

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