Page 146 of Betrayed in the Dark
As I take a step toward the others, a black SUV pulls up outside. The driver exits the vehicle and presses a button on the side of the car. The whole door slowly slides open, revealing a ramp that extends to the ground. Enzio descends, making his way toward us.
“I hope you haven’t changed your mind. We were just about to have some fun,” Vin remarks with a slight frown.
Enzio shakes his head. “No, I just came by to thank you personally.” He slants his head to the side, looking around Mauro at his father and brother. “Have they been up there long?”
I shake my head. “They’ve been chained to the corner of the room while they’ve been here, awaiting their endings, which we’ve decided is today. So, they were strung up like piñatas this morning in order for us to give them a proper farewell.”
“Good,” Enzio affirms. Mauro hands him a folder—the one containing all the key documents that Adolfo was forced to sign at gunpoint, transferring the rights of Manacorda Enterprises to Enzio. “Thank you.” He flips through the pages, his eyes brightening. “You don’t know what this means.”
Alex approaches, looking better than he did a few days ago but still a bit somber. “I’m sorry about your sister.”
Enzio lowers his chin. “Father never believed in mental health, and I fear over the years, with no treatment or care, she only became worse. I guess I never realized how bad it was, though. I blame myself for not checking in on her regularly.” He regards Alex. “Did she suffer?”
“No,” he answers firmly. “It was a clean shot.”
“Then that’s all I could have asked for.”
Mumbling breaks out behind us, and we turn to see Alastor and Adolfo moving around. Mauro rips the tape off Alastor’s face.
“Enzio!” he screams. “You have to help us. They’re psychotic. All of them!”
Enzio merely watches them with boredom in his eyes. “I’m afraid everything they are about to do to you is rightfully deserved.”
Alastor’s eyes widen. “But you’re my brother!”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Enzio starts. “You were never a brother to me. Not in the way one should be. And when youleave this Earth, you will leave me as a stranger. Nothing more.” He peers around at all of us. “I’ll take my leave now. If you need anything in the future, I am in your debt.” He returns to his vehicle, and we watch as it disappears past the gates.
We all turn toward the two monsters hanging in the center of the room, our eyes narrowing in on them.
“What do you want?” Alastor asks, with terror laced in his voice. “Money? I have lots of it! Just name a number!”
A laugh escapes me. Dark and consuming. It’s always about money with him.
I take a few steps until I stand directly in front of him. Fury builds inside me like a forest fire that can’t be extinguished. It only grows stronger and more deadly by the second. “You think I want money after everything you put Madeleine through? After everything you put me through?”
I hear metal grinding against the floor and look behind me to see Mauro dragging a baseball bat behind him—a special one designed with nails sticking out all over it.
We’re not using it today.
But it’s sure entertaining to let them think that we are.
“No. No. No!” Alastor wails. “Wait! Wait! We can talk about this!”
“You want to talk?” I ask while cracking my knuckles. “Then let’s talk.” I pace before him. “Your sister planted the seed in your tiny idiotic head about having me kidnapped. Once you did some digging and located where I was, you followed through with the plan by reaching out to your charming cousins, the Vasilievs, for assistance. Their men took me. Killed the men in my unit. Tortured me. And finally, you freed me only after Madeleine agreed to marry you. You then threatened to have me killed if Madeleine should renege on her verbal contract with you.” I look around the room at the Alarie brothers. “Am I forgetting anything?”
Leo scrunches his face and shakes his head. “Nope, think that covers everything.”
I face Alastor, watching as he swallows hard, sweat dribbling down his temple. “It was the only way.” He trembles against the chains. “You have to understand, my father saw me as weak, and I needed Madeleine to gain—”
“She is not a pawn in your fucked-up family’s chess game! She is my goddamn wife!” My words echo across the space, thundering between every floorboard and ceiling beam. “You meticulously planned everything like the snake you are, all to get what you wanted: power. You knew your sister struggled with mental health, yet you exploited that to your advantage, indifferent to the consequences, as long as it tore me and Madeleine apart.”
“I-I never told her to—”
I get in his face, gripping him by the collar of his shirt. “You will pay foreverythingyou did to her. Everything you put her through. And everything shelostbecause of you.”
Adolfo mumbles into the tape, so Alex walks up to him and rips it off.
“I have nothing to do with any of this!” he yells.
