Page 38 of Labria

The lady nods and Nicco rips the duct tape from her lips. Her mouth hung open and she gasps for air. Her terrified eyes drift downward to the gun on the floor.

“Hey, don’t worry about that. Look at me.” Her eyes peered back up at my brother. “Do you know who I am?”

She shook her head up and down. “Yes, yes, I think so.” Her tiny voice shook as her fear poured from her lips.

I noticed she didn’t have much of an accent for a person born in the Philippines. This could be the wrong person. That was my first thought, but I hoped I was wrong. We didn’t have time for mistakes.

This woman’s hair was dyed a sort of orange shade of blonde, but she was clearly part Asian. The photographs of her were with black hair.

“Tell me. Who do you think I am?”

“A Bregoli. The Bregoli.”

“I am the Don, Dominicco Bregoli, have you heard of me?” Nicco stood over her.

“Yes.” She gave a winded one-word answer.

“And who are you?” Nicco asked.

“Marie Ignacio.”

“The Marie Ignacio born in the Philippines?”

“Yes.”

“The Marie Ignacio, with a brother named Tom.”

The room fell silent. Our captive’s eyes opened wide. We waited for an answer. We waited for the answer.

“Yes, Tom is my brother, but I don’t know where he is.”

“I didn’t ask you that.” Nicco casually barked.

“I’m sorry, I, I—”

“Only answer the questions I ask you.” Nicco removed his special Glock 9 from the small of his back, but he didn’t point it at Marie. “Where are your children?”

“My kids don’t have anything to do with this.”

Nicco took a step forward. He was so close to Marie I could no longer see her face. I shifted my tough guy stance to the left so I could regain my view of the frightened woman.

“You, are going to upset me if you don’t answer the questions that I ask you.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

Nicco forcefully grabbed her chin. He lifted it until her head was uncomfortably arched up to give him all her attention. “Where are your children?”

“In, in Wisconsin.” She mumbled through a trembling voice.

“Who has them?”

“No one. No one. They are alone.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

“Where exactly?”

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