“I don’t care what you like,” I whisper.
“You’re full of fire. I like that.” He stands. “But we will break you and I don’t care what we have to do to make that happen. You need to know I need that gem. If you tell me, I won’t hurt you, but if you don’t, you’re useless. We’ll be back later.”
They leave me alone, slamming the door behind them and a shaky breath escapes me while I freeze from not being clothed.
I’ll die before I give up that gem and it isn’t because I want it.
It’s because I know if Ari has it, he’ll make damn sure Bianchi never sees it again, and that’s what I truly want.
Chapter Thirty
Ari
Twenty-four hours have gone by without her, and they are the hardest hours of my life. I’ve combed every inch of this city and she’s nowhere to be found. I have the men looking in the woods, every business, every restaurant, interrogating anyone we come across to see if they have any information.
Right now, I’m in Amor, pressing a gun against one of Bianchi’s men. Gunshots ring out, my men killing everyone in who gets in their way. The strippers run out of the club screaming and Matias pours gasoline over the stages.
“Where is she?” I sneer, pressing the gun harder against his temple.
“I don’t know.” He falls to his knees, spit trembling down his chin as he sobs for his life. “I don’t know. Honestly. I’m only a runner. He doesn’t tell me things. I only push the drugs. That’s it. I swear, I swear. Please, I have a baby on the way. Please.” He hangs his head, squeezing his eyes shut as he waits for me to pull the trigger.
Fuck.
I wouldn’t have cared about his sob story if Rosie hadn’t come into the picture. She might be pregnant with my child too.
I lift him by the shirt and shove him to Matias. “He is coming with us.”
“I found the bartender!” Gianni says, lifting up a man I can hardly recognize.
He’s been beaten to a pulp and left for dead.
Every step Gianni takes, the bartender’s feet drag.
“Is he alive?”
“Barely,” he answers me. “He needs a doctor.”
I’d have left him for dead too if Rosie hadn’t asked for him. “I thought they killed him.”
“Looks like they changed their minds,” Gianni says just as Matias strikes a match.
He tosses it onto the stage, igniting the gasoline. Wild flames grow, dancing sinfully and wrapping around the silver poles mimicking the limber legs and arms of strippers.
“Let’s go. Nothing is left for us here,” I say, leaving the bodies to burn.
The cops are already outside when we stroll out of the building, luckily, they are cops that work for me.
“Officer Strickland,” I nod, opening the door for Gianni to help our bartender inside.
“That man needs a doctor,” he informs.
“And I’ll get him one.”
He sighs, hands on his hips as he stares at the burning building. “I’ll take care of this.”
“I know you will. Your brother’s care is in my hands after all,” I remind him.
His brother is set up in a VIP suite at the hospital, getting the best cancer treatment there is from a doctor I flew in for him. Strickland and I go way back, so we work well together.