Page 73 of The Broker

Andreas, the fucking coward, is cowering in the basement. He puts up his hands the moment we burst in. “Don’t shoot!” he yells. “I’m unarmed.”

My temper snaps. I slam him against the wall, my forearm pressing into his neck and restricting his breathing. “You fucking traitor,” I growl. He tries to kick free, and I hammer a punch into his gut. He goes down, his breath coming in short gasps. “You betrayed your oath of loyalty.” I aim a vicious kick at his face. “And you took a child.”

“Why’d you do it, Andreas?” Leo asks tightly. “Why did you turn traitor?”

Andreas gets to his feet slowly, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “I was hurt,” he spits out. “All summer, I couldn’t work. I was worried about money.”

“Worried about money?” Leo sounds apoplectic with rage. “The padrino paid you. All summer long.”

“And how long would he have kept paying me? Forever? If I got hurt on a job, would the padrino take care of me for the rest of my life?” An ugly sneer covers his face. “I don’t think so. I did what I had to do.”

“Let me guess. You did something unsanctioned, and Revenant found out and used it as leverage.” The fucking piece of shit. “Where’s the girl, Andreas?”

A defiant look fills his face. “I don’t know anything.”

I pull a knife from the inside of my jacket. “This is a filleting knife,” I tell him. “I like it for delicate work. I could torture you, Andreas. Take my time and fill every waking moment of your existence with pain. But I’m not going to. I don’t have the time for that.”

I drive the knife into his body, just under his right ribcage.

“I hit your liver,” I tell him conversationally as shock blooms in his eyes. “Luckily for you, your odds of survival are pretty good.” I hold my burner phone just out of reach. “If you get to a hospital, that is.”

He gasps in pain, clutching at his side. “I wouldn’t pull out the blade if I were you,” I continue. “It’s helping to slow the blood loss. Did you know the human body can lose between two and four liters of blood before it goes into shock? A wound like yours will take ten to fifteen minutes.”

I toss the phone into the far corner of the basement. Valentina is standing behind me, her eyes wide and staring. She’s looking at me like she’s seeing me—truly seeing me—for the first time. I feel an acute sense of foreboding and focus on the task at hand. “You have two options, Andreas. If you persist in your defiance, I’ll stand here for the next fifteen minutes and watch you bleed out on this cold, concrete floor. Then, when your sister returns from her overnight trip to Milan tomorrow morning, she’ll discover your body in her basement.”

“Option two is to answer my question, and I’ll kick that phone toward you. If we find Angelica unhurt, I might even let you leave Europe alive.” I can’t allow myself to picture my niece being harmed because I will not be able to function. “I’m going to ask the question one more time. Where is the girl?”

He stares at me, exhaling hatred and pain. But he’s not ready to die today. “He took her from me thirty minutes ago.”

“This guy?” Valentina pushes forward and thrusts her phone to his face. She’s got a photo of Neil Smith on it. “Is this the guy who took Angelica?”

“Yes.”

“Where did he take her?”

Andreas coughs a mouthful of blood. “The farmhouse.”

“The farmhouse,” Valentina repeats. “The one where I got the computer?” Andreas nods, and she continues, her voice disbelieving, “But we know where it is. Why would he reuse the same farmhouse?”

“Because he’s an arrogant fuck who thinks he is the smartest person in the room,” I say grimly. “He’s about to find out he isn’t.”

I pull out my gun and point it at Andreas. His eyes widen, and I see the precise moment when he realizes he’s going to die. “You said I could walk out of here—” he starts to say.

“I lied.” I shoot him at point-blank range between his eyes, ignoring Valentina’s gasp of horror, and then turn around. “Let’s go. Our work here is done.”

37

DANTE

We drive to the farmhouse. It’s a dark, starless night, the moon obstructed by thick clouds, the air heavy with the feeling of an oncoming storm.

Valentina’s still sitting next to me, and she’s still holding my hand. She saw me kill Andreas but hasn’t said a word. She’s either waiting for a better time or, more likely, just thinking of Angelica.

It’s been two and a half hours since my niece was taken. Almost two hours since Revenant made his demand for money. He’s going to call her again any minute now. Is he at the farmhouse? Is Angelica?

The building is dark and silent. I pull to a stop and cut the engine. “You want me to wait in the car?” Valentina asks, her fingers picking at the straps of her backpack.

Angelica might be in there, and Valentina looks like she’s hanging on by a thread. But I don’t want to leave her alone.

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