Fiery Revenge⎪✓

79

☀︎

Doing the only thing I knew I was a master of; I turned off my emotions. 

Not allowing any thought to invade my mind, nothing to distract me. I feel the shift in Xavier as he does in me, both of us staring at each other. His eyes are now two dark pools of black again, nothing reflecting in them, nothing trying to be studied or understood. He nods his head at me and we walk downstairs. 

There is no trace of Santi or Oriana, for which I'm relieved. No need for them to witness this, especially not Santi. He has already seen too much.

The entire ground of this floor is overflowed with people from the mafia, all of them are ready to fight. Looking through the front door, I spot uncountable in the front yard as well. Xavier did mention he was calling in from a lot of other bases in the country, possibly even some district leaders from the other countries. 

Grabbing the gun from my waistband, I secure the bullets and tap my pockets for more. The more seconds that pass, the thirstier for blood I become. My fingers twitch and a smirk threatens to spill onto my lips. This is why I find myself excited when we file into cars and drive towards the downtown area. 

Xavier is the driver and I sit in the passenger seat, his eyes cut to mine momentarily before he watches the road again. Deep in thought. It doesn't take long before he parks the car, all of us crawl out and I throw a nod to the three people from the backseat. We have 34 men joining us for our venture through the new entrance, the frontline. 

While waiting in the darkness for the others, a few members join Xavier and me, introducing themselves and nodding at me in respect. I reciprocate, with the awareness of them sacrificing their lives tonight. 

"Boss," One of the district leaders from California joins us. "Who will be fronting with you?"

He nods his head in my direction once, "Martinelli."

The district leader turns to me and extends his hand, "Thrilled to see what you've got. Are you concerned?"

Not grasping what his intentions are with those demeaning words, I don't accept his outstretched hand. He wouldn't walk up to a man and make that same judgment, he's only doing it because of my gender. Once again, underestimating the female population. It's annoying. 

Seven black SUVs pull up, men filing out of them in heaps and nodding in our general direction. All of us are here now. This spot is the furthest from the house, which is why I grab my phone and call Marc. 

He answers instantly, "We're positioned and ready."

"Great, three minutes," I acknowledge and hang up. 

Dialing Joseph's number, he answers on the second ring, "Ready and positioned, Roman and Owen have cleared the area already. Took down six dealers."

"Perfect," I nod my head and meet the piercing stare of Xavier. "Two minutes."

Hanging up. 

"Six are down, all of ours are ready," I tell him and he nods his head. 

Without another word uttered, all of us inch closer to the sewer in the back of the parking lot, hidden behind multiple dumpsters. It's intended to seem like a regular sewer, but it's the newly installed entrance for the rink. They needed something to hide from the Italian mafia, Owen figured it out within the first couple of hours though. 

Xavier is the first to crawl down the steps, I follow after him and land in a huge drain in three different directions. According to Owen, we need to take the one to the left of the stairs, it will guide us to the central area of the rink. 

Grabbing my gun, I ready the bullets and my eyes meet Xavier's, he smirks at me slightly and steps closer. "Are you ready, amore?" He asks me, the name falls so casually from his lips, it makes me feel some type of way. 

Nodding my head with a smirk of my own, "Lead the way, your majesty."

"You're so fucking smart-mouthed," He chuckles and caresses my cheek. 

Once all of the members are down, we position ourselves and start the path down the drain to the left. The darkness doesn't allow us much visibility, but noises from the rink are gradually growing closer. It has my heart pounding in my chest, the excitement whirring through my veins.  

Toughening my grip on the gun, my eyes catch the black ones of Xavier next to me, both of us are high on adrenaline and I give him a huge grin. Having him here is actually more fun than taking people down alone, I don't know why exactly, but it is. 

I feel quite confident in our approach, Joseph and Marc will join us down here, but from different entrances and with even more members than us. In a couple of minutes, the rink will be surrounded by the Italian mafia, leaving the dealers no alternative but to fight or die trying. 

Light meets us at the end of the drain, we inch closer and stop right before revealing ourselves. The rink is an enormous room with insanely high ceilings, in the end, there are cages with naked girls, all of them appear to be frightened. This makes my blood boil. Multiple boxing rings are placed throughout the space, most of them occupied by gruesome fights. 

Dealers are standing everywhere, hollering at either the fights or the wounded girls, desperation is dripping from this room in tidal waves. The smoke makes it hard to notice everything, but the powerful lights make it easier to decipher the dealer from the captive. This is specifically what I thought it would be, they really are living up to my stereotypical expectations. 

Idioti.

Examining the space once more, my eyes land on one man that seems familiar, and yet he doesn't. His eyes are black, shimmering with sinister satisfaction when he bites towards a girl in a cage. This man is familiar because of his appearances in my nightmares, he is familiar because of the brand on his arm that Giovanni mentioned to me before he died, he is familiar because he is the killer of my entire family. 

He is familiar because he is Carlos Romano.