Page 12 of Fixate
I took off further down the hall, curious to know where she could have disappeared to. Had someone snatched her up and we missed it? Pharrell would never forgive us if something happened to her.
It might even be the thing to start a war if it wound up being our fault.
Panic began to build the deeper I went without finding her. Pharrell was right on my heels, his gun ready to take on anyone who wasn’t his spouse as we looked high and low for any sign of her.
It was only as her voice echoed in my ear that I realized she was ok.
We both breathed a sigh of relief. It turned into shock at the words she said next.
“Drop it,” she bit out to whoever she was facing.
Preacher replied, “Not happening. Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
I recognized Dante’s father’s voice as he spoke next. “You both look confused, so I’ll help paint the picture.”
“Stasia?” Dante’s voice was broken, like he couldn’t believe what was happening.
One glance at Pharrell showed his confusion too.
The only person who wasn’t startled by this revelation was me. I knew something was off with her. I would have never suspected a double cross though. Not from a woman people have said to be so smart.
As we listened, I motioned for Pharrell to follow me. It was tough to look at him while he heard the vile words spewing from the woman he trusted and the man she was having an affair with. A man he’d come to help kill.
Thankfully, Memphis jumped in to let us know he’d interfered a bit. “Alight fuckers, listen up. I cut that bitch Stasia’s line so she can’t hear me. Since she’s fucking Romano, we can’t let her know anything new.”
We could hear the sounds of smacking lips. Without being there, I could only imagine the horrible vision the pair of them made as they tried to prove a point about their adultery benefiting them in some way.
Idiots.
They had no clue the wrath that was headed their way.
“Yamamoto, you need to fucking move it. Your window of time is slipping. Preacher is two minutes away from ending the venom being spewed at Dante with a bullet to Romano’s head. Pharrell, your wife is a cunt, and she’s going to die. Sorry, not sorry. Deal with your emotions how you need to before movingto the office. Ricardo, cover Pharrell as you both make your way there. His head probably won’t be on straight after hearing that spiel of hers. Let’s fucking move people. I’m getting hangry.”
Memphis made his feelings very clear with his tirade. I wanted to laugh as much as I wanted to cringe on behalf of the man beside me.
Pharrell replied right away. “Make sure to record this, Memphis. I don’t want her fucking family coming after me for her death.”
Oh, he was angry. That much I knew.
The hard set of his jaw. The way his eyes had gone cold.
Stasia’s minutes were numbered. Whether she knew it or not, she’d fucked up big time.
“Already on it, Boss. You’ll have this shit in 4k with surround sound if you want.”
I made a mental note of Memphis’s tech skills. He’s someone I want to keep in touch with should I ever need a favor.
We rounded the corner to the main hall that connected to Romano’s office. We could hear the raised voices, both through the comms and from the echo in the hallway.
Yamamoto, who’d jumped in the fray to help us, took off in a sprint. Pharrell and I sped up to follow right as a gunshot went off.
“I fucking killed her, just like I’d love to do to you. But that honor belongs to someone else,” Preacher said in a bitter tone.
“That would be me,” Yamamoto declared as he burst into the room. We were only seconds behind him.
The next few seconds would live forever in my memory. The Yakuza leader took out his blade and carved into Romano as if he were crafting artwork. It was bloody and beautiful in a way I’d never witnessed.
As I watched, I felt an odd sense of need. Like I was supposed to be doing something but had forgotten.
