Page 33 of De Luca: The Sinister Game

After they were all brought to the warehouse, my guy asked if I wanted them together or separate. My initial thought was to keep them in different rooms, but I decided against it, hoping they’ll feed on the others' fear.

I pull in behind the warehouse and park my truck, we both get out and nod to our security guy that mans the outside. The building is large and completely soundproof. There are rooms where we keep weapons and drugs, however nothing can be seen by the naked eye. Anything illegal is kept underground. Sometimes after we kill someone, Dante cleans it up and other times we bring in a cleaning crew. My brother is the most skilled out of all of us with cleaning up bloody messes. It’s a skill he had no choice but to develop when Domenic decided he would do all the grunt work. Dante is my kid brother, and I never blamed him like Domenic did. When he was shot, nobody was more horrified than Dante. When Domenic makes up his mind about something, it’s set in stone. He never backs away from a grudge. The only reason he mended things with Dante is because his wife, Giada, demanded it. She is the only person I’ve ever seen to influence my brother to do the right thing. She has turned my brother into a kinder, gentler madman. He’s still lethal, but he is a little less of an asshole. That title is only owned by me now.

We walk into the room where all three of our victims are chained. The thick metal wraps around their wrists suspended over their heads. Each of them, attached to the ceiling and with a click of a button, can be raised or lowered, painfully.

Both Dante and I take a seat in front of our captives and simply stare at them. It’s the woman that speaks first, Natalia’s mother. According to Benji, her name is Bebe Grant. She never worked outside of the home. Her job was to stay home with her children, twin daughters, Natalia and Nicole, as well as their brother, Pax.

Bebe screams like she has any power here, “Let us go!”

We both chuckle at her ridiculousness, because surely she must know that will not happen. If she leaves here alive, it will be a miracle. Horrible things have happened to our girl and once I find out what those things are, we can make them right. Set her free from the demons that enslave her.

I hold the remote in my hand and raise Bebe just enough to cause a pull in her arms, making her scream, before I lower her back to the ground.

“Tell me about Natalia as a child.”

She looks at me first with surprise and then fear, which quickly turns to obvious hatred. “That little bitch. Is that why we’re here? I’ll kill her myself.”

Wrong fucking response. I raise her and leave her stretched painfully.

“Tell me about Natalia as a child. Be very careful. Bebe. I can cause far more pain than what you’ve experienced thus far.”

Henry Grant stares at us with the fear of a little mouse being chased by a giant cat. “She liked ballet. It was all she thought about.”

Dante says, “She grew out of that interest?”

Henry shakes his head. “No. There was an injury, and she never danced again.”

I glance at Dante when he inquires further, “What kind of injury? Exactly what happened?”

Bebe says, “She was attacked. Someone took a bat to her knees when she was practicing for her debut as a ballerina.”

I snort, “Someone Tanya Harding’d her. Who would do that?”

Body language can tell you a lot about a person. Henry glances at his daughter before hurrying his gaze elsewhere. It’s Nicole that tells us the most with that hard swallow of her throat.

“You hit your sister with a bat?” I ask, unable to mask my surprise.

She shakes her head quickly. “No, of course not.”

Dante is seconds away from attacking her, so I intervene. “I suggest you tell us the truth before my brother slices you from head to toe.”

As if I had a great idea, my brother retrieves a knife from his pocket and sits with it in his hands as he gently strokes the tip of the blade like he’s lost in the fantasy of the bloody murder he’s dying to commit.

“I had my boyfriend do it.”

My eyes dart between the three of them. “But why?”

The father attempts to shrug his shoulders as if it’s no big fucking deal. “Sibling rivalry, I guess.”

I’m familiar with sibling rivalry, but this isn’t it. This goes far deeper than that. Sibling rivalry doesn’t result in assault. Especially not something as brutal as this.

“It would appear that no one in your family likes Natalia. We don’t understand why, but we want to.”

Dante gets up and stands in front of Henry with the knife in his hand, not threatening exactly but reminding him why he should answer all questions.

“Why do you hate your daughter?” my brother asks, but of course answering isn’t optional.

“She’s not my daughter.”

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