Arranged Mafia Marriage

Seb

Half an hour later, I pace the floor of the garage of the warehouse. Earlier-after making sure my wife and our daughter were safely at home, and tripling the number of guards outside our house-I marched to the car with the man who had been captured trying to break in. No way was I going to take him into the house, especially with Avery there. And while Michael has been known to interrogate men in the basement of his house, things have changed since he got married. So, we now have a safe house on the outskirts of Palermo, precisely to be used as a place where we can hold those disloyal to us and interrogate them, if needed. Which is where I brought the intruder, after alerting my brothers.

I drove to the warehouse, and as I parked, Massimo, then Luca, and Adrian arrived.

Now, I look toward where Luca glares at the intruder. The man sits on a chair, his arms and legs restrained.

“Who sent you?” Luca asks in a hard voice. “You can make this go much easier on yourself if you give up your employer.”

“And risk you killing me?” The man bares his teeth. “I think not.”

Luca buries his fist in the man’s face, and blood blooms from his nose. He slumps back in the chair, and blood splatters on his clothes and on the floor.

“Easy, fratello,” Massimo cautions him, “if you knock out all of his teeth, he won’t be able to speak.”Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“Cazzo!” Luca shakes his head, then steps back. “You’re right,” he murmurs, much to my shock. The hot-headed Luca, actually reining in his anger? Whoa, it’s as hard to believe as Elsa not mentioning The-Actor-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named in conversation for an entire day.

A-n-d, now I’m the one thinking of him, and without Elsa’s prompting. I close the distance to Luca, then grip his shoulder “May I?” I jerk my chin in the man’s direction.

“Have at him.” Luca shakes out his arm as he walks out of the circle of yellow the spotlight above casts over the man.

Outside, it’s daylight already. The sun was rising as I drove here. But here in the basement of the safe house, perpetual darkness shrouds the space.

I pause in front of the man, who glances at me from under swollen eyelids.

“Look man, we have nothing against you. We simply want to know if it was Freddie Nielsen who sent you.”

The man stiffens, before his features, once more, assume the look of boring aloofness that he’s worn since being captured.

“So, it was Freddie, eh?”

He stays still.

“Your body language gave you away. Your muscles tightened there for a second, and I caught it. So, you may as well give up the pretense.”

His gaze widens for a fraction of a second, but he still doesn’t say anything.

“What does the bastard have over you? If he’s threatening a family member, we can help you.”

The corners of his eyes tighten. Again, it’s only a minute tell, and I might have missed it, if not for the fact that I’ve been watching him so closely.

“Who is it that he is threatening? Your wife? Children?” His jaw tics and this time he glowers at me.

“I have a daughter, and I’d do anything for her, too.” I sense my brothers glancing toward me, but I keep my gaze trained on the man’s face. “It’s why I understand why you must have felt compelled to do as he asked. It’s why we’re here talking, and I haven’t shot you yet.”

The man’s throat moves as he swallows.

“Girl or boy?” I ask.

He blows out a breath then closes his eyes. “One of each.” The muscles of his shoulders bunch.

“Does Freddie have them?”

“And my wife.” He swallows.

“What did he ask you to do?” I lean forward on the balls of my feet.

He opens his eyes. “He wanted me to simply draw your attention. He wanted me to attempt to break in-”

“-knowing that you would be caught?”

“Maybe.” His forehead wrinkles. “If I got through, I had to mess up your house enough that it threw a scare into you. If I’d known you have a daughter, I would’ve… been more careful. As it is, I’m glad your security caught me before I broke in.”

I rub the back of my neck. “We need to rescue your family.”

His features slacken. “You… you’ll help me get to them?”

“Provided you help me.”

“Anything.” He straightens. “Anything you want.”

“You sure you want to join forces with a man who was sent to break into your house?” Luca asks.

“Look at him. Does he look like he’s going to hurt us further?” I ask.

“I don’t know.” Luca crosses his arms across his chest. “I’m not sure I’d trust him quite so easily.”

“What do you think?” I look the man up and down. “Can I trust you on this?”

“You can.” He glances from me to Luca. “I have everything to lose here, if I’m lying. And this is my family we’re talking about. I’d do anything to save them.”

“Do we even know where the stronzo’s taken them? Or are we going to have to track them down first?”

“I have an idea where they could be.” He turns to me. “Look, there’s no reason for you to believe me, but I think I know where he’s taken them.”

“Where?” Massimo asks.

“To my laboratory. It’s a very secure place, since I work on stuff that can be potentially life-threatening. Which means, you’ll need me to get in there.”

“If it’s that secure, could Freddie get in?” Adrian shoots back.

“He has access to the best hackers in the world. I know because I introduced him to them. Unfortunately. ” He winces. “You could also use a hacker, I suppose.” He raises a shoulder. “But it’d be a lot easier if you took me along.”

“Hold on. If he took them to the laboratory, wouldn’t there be other people there, as well?” Luca growls.

“I work alone.” He glances away, then back at us. “What I work on is top-secret and privately-financed. Not even the government knows about the kind of research I conduct.

“Privately-financed, eh? By whom?” Massimo snaps.

“I don’t know.”

“He’s lying.” Luca takes a step in his direction, but Adrian grabs his shoulder.

“Hold on, bro, let’s hear him out first.”

Adrian stabs a finger at the man. “Start talking before Luca here, loses his patience and decides to shoot you, or worse, rough you up further. It’s a miracle he hasn’t lost his cool so far.”

The man pales. “It’s the truth. I get all of my directions by email from a secure server which is impossible to trace. I know because my hacker friends tried. Whoever they are, they pay me very well. Each month, the money is credited to my bank account. And no, we haven’t been able to trace that, either.”

Luca takes a step in his direction, and he leans as far back in the chair as he can. “It’s the truth. I promise you on the lives of my children.”

Luca hesitates. “If you’re lying, I’ll shove your head so far up your ass, you’ll never be able to speak again.”

Sweat beads the man’s hairline. “I’m not lying.”

Massimo blows out a breath. “So, you want to come along for the mission because, I assume, we’ll need your fingerprint or your retinal scan to gain entry into this place?”

He nods. “I specialize in weapons technology. Freddie asked me to sell him some of my patented technology.”

“But you refused?”

He nods again. “Not that it mattered. He took my drone technology, then took my family as hostage, for good measure.”

“So, the drone he used to shoot at me was designed by you.”

He seems surprised. “Shit, I didn’t know. I’m sorry about that, man.”

“Maybe it’s time you found a different way of making a living, eh?” Luca scowls at him.

Massimo, Adrian, and I exchange looks.

“Ah, Luca, considering we’re not exactly the good guys here, it might be a bit much asking him to change his occupation,” Adrian murmurs.

“Speak for yourself. As far as I’m concerned, we go out of our way to make sure we help those who come to us. If it weren’t for us, this country wouldn’t be able to function. Have you seen how corrupt the politicians are? Compared to them, we always deliver on our promises. And we get justice for those who are wronged.”

Massimo rolls his shoulders. “He has a point.”

“He fucking does,” Adrian grumbles.

“Can we get back to the issue at hand?” I squeeze the bridge of my nose. “This Freddie guy is one massive pain in the ass. Why the hell is he targeting me anyway?”

“He’s coming after you because he’s pissed at the lot of you,” the man interjects.

All of us turn in his direction.

“How the hell do you know that?” I glare at him.

“You working with him? Is that why you’re pretending to help us, so you can betray us to Freddie?” Luca closes the distance to him and grabs his collar. “If there’s something you haven’t told us, then I suggest you do so while you can still speak, stronzo!”

The man opens his mouth, and ends up choking.

“I suggest you loosen your grip on him so he can speak,” Adrian offers.

Luca must do so, for the man draws in a breath, then coughs. “I… I overheard him talking on his phone to someone.” His chin trembles. “He mentioned how the Sovranos had betrayed him by taking all of the credit for the kidnapping of the Seven, when he was the mastermind. Then, one of you infiltrated his gang, and that was a blow to his ego. He seemed very upset, and swore he wouldn’t rest until he’s killed every last one of you.”

For a moment, none of us have anything to say, until Luca breaks the silence.

“If you’re lying, I’m going to pound your face into the earth, you understand?”

“I’m not lying. In fact, I’m telling you this so you know I’m on your side. This is my family’s future at stake, and I know you guys are my only chance to save them,” the man says in a firm voice.

Luca glares at him for a few seconds more, then releases his grip on the man’s shirt.

“Cazzo.” I rub the back of my neck. “Remind me why we haven’t managed to track him down yet?”

“Maybe it’s because the lot of you have been too busy falling in love, getting married, and getting pregnant?” Luca says in a tone indicating just how good an idea he thinks that is.

“You should try it; you might find you like it,” I retort mildly.

“No thanks,” he scoffs. “Marriage is for pussies. No offense.”

“None taken.” I exchange a look with the guy in the chair, who looks vaguely amused by Luca’s outburst.

“You,” I jerk my chin in the intruder’s direction, “what’s your name?”

“Ricardo,” the man replies.

“Ricardo, I’m going to untie you,” I declare.

“You are?” he says at the same time as Luca.

I move toward Ricardo, pull a knife from my pocket, and slice through his restraints. He shakes off the ropes, and I turn to Massimo and Luca. Both of them are watching me with varying degrees of incredulity.

“You sure about this?” Massimo asks slowly.

I raise a shoulder. “I have an instinct about this; one I don’t want to ignore.”

“You’re pussy-whipped.” Luca rolls his shoulders.

“Maybe.” I half smile. “But I’ll wager this gets us to Freddie faster than anything else, and the only thing I want right now, is to shut down the bastard before he does something else to hurt one of us.”

Massimo cracks his neck. “Okay, so I guess we’re going to the fucking source to smoke this rat out.”

“We are.”

“You?” Luca stabs his finger at me. “You get back to your wife. Leave this one to Massimo, Adrian and me.”