Chapter 24

Today is the day. We”re about to finally have all the puzzle”s missing pieces. That is our sweet Natalia. She has been less than forthcoming with the information we want. I know her sister hates her, but I don’t know why. Her parents have never tried to protect her, but I have no clue why. What could she have possibly done to make her own family have such distaste for her? I feel like it takes a lot of bullying to get to where the victim wants to cut their own flesh. I want to know everything. And we will get it or all three of them will pay with their lives. We let her sister go once without getting the answers we were seeking. It won’t happen twice. Do I know how pissed she’d be if we went back on our word and killed the cunt? Yeah, but she’ll get over it when she realizes she’s better off without her. That’s not family. She doesn’t need people like that in her life. She needs us.

Dante is unusually quiet as we drive to the warehouse where the sister and parents wait for us. I turn onto the freeway and ask him, “What’s up?”

He glances at me before continuing to gaze out the window. “Nothing.”

I give him a few minutes before I press him again, “Dante. Spit it out.”

My brother glances at me with a worried expression. “Are you planning to take her from me?”

“What?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “Sharing is fine for a while, right? But people don’t do it forever. I assume eventually you’ll decide you want her to yourself.”

I chuckle loudly before rolling my eyes. “Ever heard the word polyamorous? People absolutely choose to do it forever. Aside from that, I am happy with how things are. And I’d never do that to you. You’ve got to know me better than that.”

My brother has been in love with Natalia for a long time. I don’t think she has any clue how deep his feelings run for her. But I do. While I might not be a good man, I am a good brother and I’d never hurt him like that. Stealing Natalia from him would be unforgivable.

“You’re my brother. Trust me, I’d never do that to you. I don’t think she’d go for it either. Why would you even think we would?”

He closes his eyes and throws his back against the seat. “You’ve got this pain thing. What do I have?”

I answer honestly, “Her heart.”

That’s the truth. I’ve had her body and I will have it again. I’ll take her pain and her breath when I want it. But a man like me doesn’t get a heart like Natalia’s. I don’t deserve it and I never will.

”Dante, this type of dynamic can work.” It requires open and honest communication, but it doesn’t have to be wrought with jealousy. There’s no need for it.

She’s ours. Not mine. Not yours. Ours.”

My brother groans, “Alright. I’ll get out of my head about it. I trust you.”

After they were all brought to the warehouse, my guy asked if I wanted them together or separate. My initial thought was to keep them in different rooms, but I decided against it, hoping they’ll feed on the others” fear.

I pull in behind the warehouse and park my truck, we both get out and nod to our security guy that mans the outside. The building is large and completely soundproof. There are rooms where we keep weapons and drugs, however nothing can be seen by the naked eye. Anything illegal is kept underground. Sometimes after we kill someone, Dante cleans it up and other times we bring in a cleaning crew. My brother is the most skilled out of all of us with cleaning up bloody messes. It’s a skill he had no choice but to develop when Domenic decided he would do all the grunt work. Dante is my kid brother, and I never blamed him like Domenic did. When he was shot, nobody was more horrified than Dante. When Domenic makes up his mind about something, it’s set in stone. He never backs away from a grudge. The only reason he mended things with Dante is because his wife, Giada, demanded it. She is the only person I’ve ever seen to influence my brother to do the right thing. She has turned my brother into a kinder, gentler madman. He’s still lethal, but he is a little less of an asshole. That title is only owned by me now.

We walk into the room where all three of our victims are chained. The thick metal wraps around their wrists suspended over their heads. Each of them, attached to the ceiling and with a click of a button, can be raised or lowered, painfully.

Both Dante and I take a seat in front of our captives and simply stare at them. It’s the woman that speaks first, Natalia’s mother. According to Benji, her name is Bebe Grant. She never worked outside of the home. Her job was to stay home with her children, twin daughters, Natalia and Nicole, as well as their brother, Pax.

Bebe screams like she has any power here, “Let us go!”

We both chuckle at her ridiculousness, because surely she must know that will not happen. If she leaves here alive, it will be a miracle. Horrible things have happened to our girl and once I find out what those things are, we can make them right. Set her free from the demons that enslave her.

I hold the remote in my hand and raise Bebe just enough to cause a pull in her arms, making her scream, before I lower her back to the ground.

“Tell me about Natalia as a child.”

She looks at me first with surprise and then fear, which quickly turns to obvious hatred. “That little bitch. Is that why we’re here? I’ll kill her myself.”

Wrong fucking response. I raise her and leave her stretched painfully.

“Tell me about Natalia as a child. Be very careful. Bebe. I can cause far more pain than what you’ve experienced thus far.”

Henry Grant stares at us with the fear of a little mouse being chased by a giant cat. “She liked ballet. It was all she thought about.”

Dante says, “She grew out of that interest?”

Henry shakes his head. “No. There was an injury, and she never danced again.”

I glance at Dante when he inquires further, “What kind of injury? Exactly what happened?”

Bebe says, “She was attacked. Someone took a bat to her knees when she was practicing for her debut as a ballerina.”

I snort, “Someone Tanya Harding’d her. Who would do that?”

Body language can tell you a lot about a person. Henry glances at his daughter before hurrying his gaze elsewhere. It’s Nicole that tells us the most with that hard swallow of her throat.

“You hit your sister with a bat?” I ask, unable to mask my surprise.

She shakes her head quickly. “No, of course not.”

Dante is seconds away from attacking her, so I intervene. “I suggest you tell us the truth before my brother slices you from head to toe.”

As if I had a great idea, my brother retrieves a knife from his pocket and sits with it in his hands as he gently strokes the tip of the blade like he’s lost in the fantasy of the bloody murder he’s dying to commit.

“I had my boyfriend do it.”

My eyes dart between the three of them. “But why?”

The father attempts to shrug his shoulders as if it’s no big fucking deal. “Sibling rivalry, I guess.”

I’m familiar with sibling rivalry, but this isn’t it. This goes far deeper than that. Sibling rivalry doesn’t result in assault. Especially not something as brutal as this.

“It would appear that no one in your family likes Natalia. We don’t understand why, but we want to.”

Dante gets up and stands in front of Henry with the knife in his hand, not threatening exactly but reminding him why he should answer all questions.

“Why do you hate your daughter?” my brother asks, but of course answering isn’t optional.

“She’s not my daughter.”

I’m getting a headache from this nonsense.

“Is Nicole not your daughter, either?”

Maybe that’s it. Perhaps someone else is the biological father of these children.

He shakes his head. “Nicole is my daughter. Natalia is not.”

Back to the confusing twin thing. Two twin sisters that don’t even look like siblings. Nicole and Pax look related. Natalia looks like the adopted one out of the three of them.

I raise the mother”s arms another couple of inches, resulting in her crying out in pain exactly how I intended, “Explain.”

She begs, “Please let me down. It hur-hurts.”

Chuckling, I lower her. “Explain faster. I’m losing my patience.”

This time, she’s quick to give me what I’m looking for. “Natalia isn’t ours biologically.”

Dante rubs at his temples, mirroring my state of mind. He says, “They are twins. Twins share the same parents.”

Henry shakes his head. “They aren’t twins. There’s no blood relation between Natalia and any of us.”

That explains why Natalia looks nothing like anybody in this family. However, it doesn’t answer the biggest what the fuck question I have.

“How?”

They all glance at each other and Nicole screams, “Just tell them. If you don’t, we are all dead. Tell them why you lied. Tell them why I had to pretend she was my sister for all these years.”

I agree with Nicole because my patience is hanging on by a very thin thread. If that thread breaks, I’m going to kill all three of them before I get what I want.

I take a deep breath, attempting to steady my irritation that’s growing with every second. “Why?”

Bebe stares between Dante and me, both with wide, terrified eyes. “I took her. Henry agreed to it because he didn’t want me to go to prison. We said they were twins because we couldn’t get a birth certificate for Natalia for obvious reasons. Since Nicole was born at home, we said I had twins. It was easier. Fewer questions.”

Dante moves from Henry to Bebe and if I gave a fuck about this woman, I’d be concerned for her life right now. He holds the knife in front of her face as he screams, “You fucking kidnapped her? You aren’t even her goddamn family?”

She nods slowly as she stares at the blade only a couple of inches from her face. “Y-y-yes,” she stammers pitifully.

“I’m going to kill you so fucking slowly,” my brother says calmly. Of course, I tell him he can’t because we aren’t done yet.

“And you knew?” I ask Nicole as I point to her. She nods. “I overheard them when I was little. I could have whatever I wanted as long as I never spoke about it.”