Page 30 of Drowning in the Deep

Another scent mingled with that of the blood as he pissed his pants openly for all to see. Looking down, I saw the hay absorbing much of it, so I didn’t worry about my expensive leather shoes. Even when one was running through the woods at night, one had to look good.

“Please, sir, I’ll tell you anything,” he blubbered.

“All I want to know is the truth,” I said with a nonchalant shrug. “Tell me the truth, and you get to keep your ears.” Then, with the tip of the knife, I pointed at the expired Savage. “That’s what happens to liars or people who keep things from me.”

“Anything you want to know, I’ll tell you.” Tears crested his eyes as he looked up at me, pleading.

“Tell me who is in charge of this merry band of assholes,” I demanded, pointing the knife at his face.

“That guy out there with the knife in his throat,” he said quickly. “The bigger one.”

It didn’t make sense to me that the leader of the operation would be outside on guard duty, but that didn’t really tell me what I needed to know anyway. “And was he one of the guys who hit the Petrov businesses?”

“Yeah, yeah, it was him. He orchestrated it,” the man told me.

I could tell the guy on his other side, the one that was still breathing, was getting irritated. I looked at him for a moment, and he glared at me. He wasn’t the sort of guy who was going to spill anything. It looked like I’d arranged these guys in good order, even if it had been luck.

“Who was it that put you guys up to these raids? You didn’t do it of your own accord, did you?” I asked, still holding the knife steady.

“No, it was never our intention to mess with the Petrovs, not until some tall dude with a bunch of tattoos showed up and paid our boss a bunch of money to do it. That’s when he decided to start hitting your businesses.”

Ragno. It had to be fucking Ragno La Rosa.

“What was his name?” I asked, the tip of the knife slicing into his cheek.

“Um, something weird. Ragu? No, Ragno! It was Ragno La Rosa!” the man chirped.

Unable to handle it anymore, the third Latvian in line reached out and wrapped his hands around my canary’s throat. “Shut the fuck up already!” he said as he began to squeeze. “Why can’t you just die like a man instead of having to sing like a bird?”

I might’ve had the information I needed, but I didn’t appreciate chaos erupting in my prisoners. Quickly, I moved behind the third guy and wrapped my arm around his neck, pulling him up to stand in a choke hold. I placed my knife back in the sheath so I could use both arms to squeeze. “What the fuck?” I asked him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I was crushing his windpipe, so he couldn’t answer me. Next to us, still on his knees on the floor, the man who’d given me the information had his hands wrapped around his own neck, trying to breathe despite the damage done.

I had no intention of letting this bastard go until his body went limp. Turning to Nico, I asked, “You heard him, right? He named Ragno as the one who put these bastards up to it.”

“Son of a bitch,” Nico said, shaking his head. “I heard it. All of my guys heard it. We’ll make sure that the other capos know. If Ragno was behind all of this, his order had to have come from Alexander La Rosa and no one else.” He continued to fume, pacing slightly. “That dirty east coast cock cradle. I’ll tear his fucking heart out with my bare hands. I’m sorry I ever doubted you, my boy. But don’t you worry. We’re going to tell the others. We’re going to set things right.”

I was about to respond to him, to tell him I was glad he could finally see what I’d been telling him all this time was true, when I saw movement above us in the hayloft out of the corner of my eye.

As I turned to face the possible threat, shots rang out. I pulled the bastard I’d been strangling up in front of me, and three bullets slammed into his torso, one in his head. Dezzy opened fire on the man kneeling by the railing above us, hitting him several times and knocking him backward as Vin began to climb the ladder to make sure he was dead and there was no one else up there. I’d had the barn cleared before we came in, but someone must’ve done a shitty job, and this guy must’ve been one hell of a hider.

I turned to speak to Nico, and I realized I wasn’t the only one the guy had gotten a shot off on. Nico was still standing, but blood began to spill from a hole in the center of his forehead, and as I tossed the body aside and moved to him, his knees collapsed, and he went down.

I caught him before he hit the floor, lowering him carefully as his men moved around us. I wasn’t even sure if any of them had been standing close enough to have heard the confession the Latvian made. Was Nico the only one who knew for certain that Ragno was the bastard who’d paid the Savages? Was he the only one who knew Alexander La Rosa was to blame?

He sputtered a few times, gripping my arm tightly, his eyes wide, fear coursing behind his pupils. “It’s all right, Nico,” I whispered, knowing the words were a lie. “You’re going to be okay.”

His eyes were trained on my face as he sputtered again, and then, I felt his soul leave his body, his heart stopping, his last breath leaving his lungs, as he went limp on the floor.

Anger and sadness welled up inside me, not just because the one man who could confirm that Alexander La Rosa was behind this was dead, but because we’d lost another guy. And this one had been a good one, a leader, a capo, a pillar of our syndicate.

Filled with rage, I let Nico go, closing his eyes as I pulled my gun from its holster and sank two bullets into the heads of the remaining Latvians.

With one last glance at Nico, I told Dezzy, “I’m leaving. Burn it down. Burn all of it to the fucking ground.”

I still had the keys to the vehicle I’d driven in inside my pocket. I took off without another word, walking out of the barn and into the night.

I refused to cry, to be that kind of vulnerable, but all I could think about as I strode across the ground was how Nico wouldn’t get an open casket. I saw Yuri’s wife standing there crying, holding her child, and I pictured how Nico’s family would be doing the same. If it had been me, would anyone shed a tear?

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