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The meeting building is dingy and disgusting, the smell of cheap weed radiating from the walls and I can already sense the bad high these men have had to experience.
Sucks for them.
With a quick and overly touchy pat-down from one of the guards at the front, I'm led right to a roped-off area where an unfamiliar face sits.
My eyes narrow in annoyance as I stare at the young boy that tries to give off the illusion of the man I came in search of. I've spent long enough staring at the man in question's face to be fooled by a wanna-be.
My jaw ticks, "Where is your boss?"
The boy meets my eye and stands to extend his hand in greeting. I merely glance at it and go back to staring at his face. He purses his lips.
"I'm Ghost's second." He says.
"That's not what I asked —"
"He's busy right now." He says, eyes squinting with a purpose. I stare at him, analyzing his words and his expressions.
"Don't interrupt me." Watching him carefully, I tilt my head at him. "Where is he?"
The feeling that settles within me isn't a good one. It's enough to make my fist clench and unclench in anticipation. I can hear one of the boys bristle in my ear before I hear Angel's voice.
He speaks loud enough for the boy to hear, "Something isn't right." No shit, fratellino.
"Preoccupied, Mr. Santino, is it?" The boy says tone low as he smirks at me.
I resist the urge to pull out one of the many guns I snuck past security. Instead, with one motion of my fingers, bullets pierce through drywall and glass to penetrate the brains of the men that patted me down along with the rest of the men under Ghost's patrol.
The boy's eyes widen as he comes to realize that he's the last one standing on his side. In the blink of an eye, before he can pull his own gun from his waistband, I take one of the knives hidden in my sleeve and throw it.
It lodges deep in his shoulder and I take the chance to exhale in frustration. He lets out a scream and I step toward him, pulling the table away so I can dig the knife deeper into his skin.
"You know," I roll my neck and turn the blade, basking in his groans of pain, "I'm doing this as a courtesy to you, Mr. Drake."
His eyes widen as he stares up at me. They always look like scared pussies when they find out I know more than I let on.
"I know everything about you, ragazzino (little boy)." I huff, pulling the blade from the hole in his skin, replacing it with my thumb. He sucks in a sharp breath as he tries to hold his screams back, "You're a scared seventeen-year-old that got into business with Ghost because you tried to steal from him and failed. He threatened your sick mother and autistic sister so you gave yourself up and started working for him. But then he still killed your family, didn't he?"
The boy twists his mouth as I take him on a stroll down memory lane.
"Four years of loyalty all for what?" I press down my thumb, sighing as blood flows down his white shirt in waves. Leaning forward, I tilt my head, "Tell me where he is and maybe I'll spare you."
•••
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"Mommy?" Jori calls as he kicks his feet in his car seat. Seated beside him, I turn trying to hide the fact that I was zoning out in thought.
It was partially excitement because this is the first chance I've had to breathe fresh air away from the house since Luca has been gone, by going out with Jori to get stuff for Christmas dinner. The other part was hope that whatever Luca set out to do was on track.
We're stopped at a red light, Antonio playing some soft music from the radio.
"Yes, baby?"
He motions to the end of his car seat and I look but see nothing, "I dropped your phone by aci—aci—"
"Accident, Jori." I help him out with the word and he nods before trying to say it himself.
"Accident." Despite the hesitation, I still praise him before leaning forward to take up the phone from the floor. On it is YouTube where he was watching CoComelon but at the top, I see Luca's name pop up.
Just as I go to press the green button, a force the size of a truck hits the security-driven vehicle leading us back home from the grocery store. My phone falls from my hand but I don't have time to care.
Before I can blink, another truck hits the car behind us. Antonio turns to us and warns us to put our heads down, but before a word can leave his mouth, the vehicle drops on the left like a tire had gone flat.
We're stuck.
I pull a quiet Jori into my lap as he curls into me.
"What's happening, mommy?"
The butt of a gun slams into Antonio's window but he was ready. He shoots the man in the head and I shield Jori's face from the sight, my body jolting from the raw sight of a dead body, blood splatters on the door and on Antonio's face. He doesn't get the chance to defend us before he's hit in the face with another gun.
He passes out, the gun falling from his grasp. Without a second thought, I reach forward and wrestle it from the same man that hit him, seeing as he must have read my mind when it came to grabbing it.
"Close your eyes and cover your ears, Jori." I call, feeling as he shifts. I shoot a bullet deadset in the man's head, on a mission to keep my son safe. The door on my side opens and without hesitation, I pull the trigger only for it to click quietly.
Shit.
"Been a while, hasn't it, baby?" His voice rings in my ear only to be cut off by the sound of another gunshot that comes from a distance.
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edit: so I tried to fix it and changed up some things that actually makes a difference with how the end will turn out, if that makes sense
