Page 75 of Devil's Deal

I snorted. Personally, I didn’t care how much he drank, a.k.a. how many people he killed, but I worried that I’d catch him bathing in the blood of his enemies. Good God, Cory didn’t need to see how much Rocco enjoyed eliminatingthe bad guys.

Dante banged against the bathroom door. “Come on, Romeo. Cory and I are ready.”

I came out and stopped short at the sight of my boy in black jeans, a plain black Henley, and black boots. He looked like any other guy going on a covert mission. He looked ridiculous.

I plucked the keys out of Dante’s hand. “I’ll drive.”

Cory sat sullenly in the passenger seat while we picked up Rocco and all the way to our destination. Instead of trying to make him feel better, I left him to stew in his anger toward me. Better that than him fretting about what tonight would bring.

We had no idea if Emilio would be fine or not. Had they gotten him hooked on drugs? Had they been using him as a slave or a prostitute? Until we had him, we wouldn’t know the answers to any of those questions. Cory would weather any storm, but I hoped he was prepared.

Half a mile from the house in the woods, I turned off my lights and rolled up next to Frederic’s car right outside the line of sight for the windows.

“Is that him? The Penis soldier?” Rocco asked.

“Pasini,” Dante and I said at the same time.

“Yeah, yeah. I want to meet him.” He hopped out of the vehicle.

I felt like I had no control. As Cory grabbed the balaclava that Dante held out to him, I realized it was because I didn’t. “You stay in the car.”

Cory glared at me. “Fine, but can’t I just get out to say?—”

“No, boy,” I said, cutting him off. “It’s dangerous enough that you’re here. Stay in the vehicle and lock the doors.”

“You’re being a bad Daddy,” he muttered under his breath.

In other circumstances, like if I wasn’t terrified of something happening to him, I would’ve laughed. As soon as I got out, Frederic headed over to me. “I can’t believe it’s my Capo. How didn’t I know? Marchesi’s been so…normal.”

I gripped his shoulder and squeezed tight. “Because he didn’t want you to. Don’t beat yourself up.”

“That’s fucked up, man,” Rocco said. “It’s one of those keeping your enemy closer kind of situations. Here you’re thinking you’re being a good soldier. One of his men, and bam. He’s only keeping you close enough to plunge the knife into your flesh. Your soul, man.”

For fuck’s sake. If the words weren’t dramatic enough, his gleeful delivery was completely inappropriate.

“I get that. What I don’t understand is why I’m his enemy. My old Capo, the one who screwed my wife, him I would’ve understood. But Marchesi…” Frederic shook his head.

Impatiently, I took over the conversation. “No time to worry about that now. Tracker got security footage, and there should only be a few guards around. Let’s get in and out, you understand?”

Frederic and Dante, both being good soldiers, nodded. Rocco cackled, the sound both low and evil. “No problem. I don’t even need help to take three fuckers holding innocents out. An eye for an eye and all that, am I right?”

“Rocco, keep your head. If you end up dead, I’m gonna revive your ass and kill you myself.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He said whatever now, but Nico wouldtryto end me if anything happened to his kid brother. Since I had a boy to live for, that would force me to do something I’d rather not do, like hurt a Buccelli. How did my damn life get so complicated?

On silent feet, we made our way to the back of the house where there were stairs down to the bottom floor. I had no idea how he did it or where he got his information, but Tracker had turned off any alarms for the building as soon as I told him we were on our way. When I asked how he could be sure it would work, all he said was,People rely too much on remote shit. Like I had any idea what that meant.

As luck would have it, the door was triple-bolted from the outside.Sick fuckers.I guess they never figured on anyone trying to release the captives they had on the inside. I quickly unlatched them all and picked the lock on the knob, turning it.

There was one young man sitting in a chair behind a sewing machine. He looked up as I entered, and his eyes widened.

“Is there anyone down here with you?” I whispered.

He shook his head. Stepping all the way inside, I motioned Frederic through, leaving Dante and Rocco outside, armed and ready to kick ass if necessary. Our Pasini ally went through, the kid scrambled out of his chair, almost knocking the machine off the table to get to his father.

“Dad.”

As sweet as this was, we had no time for a reunion. If we could get out of here without anyone seeing us, that would be ideal. “Come on. You have any shoes?” I asked Emilio, noticing for the first time that he had on nothing but a pair of basketball shorts and a ratty old T-shirt.

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