Chapter 79 MICELI

The Box is more crowded than usual.

Sev stands against the far wall with Brogan Shaughnessy. Angelo is playing with his knives in front of our unwilling guest while Allessio leans against the wall directly across from him.

We've got one of the AOG soldiers strapped to a metal chair attached to the floor. We don't want it tipping in the middle of something important.

Unhinged stainless steel without seams makes for easy clean up too. Everything about The Box is designed so all DNA trace can be erased quickly.

Not that any law enforcement agency is going to find our interrogation and holding facility under the Oscuro Building.

But we don't take chances.

Which is why safeguards are taken on the extremely rare times when an outsider is brought in. Brogan Shaughnessy has no idea where he is and nothing in The Box reveals how many stories underground we are.

Allessio's murderous gaze doesn't shift from the man pretending not to be affected, but the sweat on Cleatus Jerome's brow and the pulse beating a rapid tattoo in his neck gives him away.

I move to stand in front of him without blocking Allessio's line of sight. "My friend there wants to cut you into tiny pieces for daring to touch his charge. What do you think I want?"

"I don't care what you want," Cleatus sneers.

"You will," I promise and look at Angelo. "Why don't you use one of those fancy knives and cut off Cleatus's clothes? "

Flipping a knife end over end, the Angel of Death saunters over to the AOG soldier. "Don't worry, Cleeeetus…" Angelo singsongs. "I know what I'm doing." He pauses and then grins maliciously. "If I cut you, it'll be on purpose."

"What kind of sickos are you? You want to see me naked?" Cleatus jeers.

"I want to see you dead," Allessio says with icy certainty.

I drop to my haunches so me and the militia solder are eye level. "But first you have some questions to answer."

"I'm not saying anything to you!"

Cleatus's bravado lasts until Angelo knicks his ballsac while cutting off his boxers. His screech echoes off the cold metal walls of the room.

By the time Allessio has cut off three of the AOG soldier's fingers, Cleatus is crying.

"I thought you'd be tougher, militia man. You're supposed to be trained to kill, right?"

"It doesn't take a lot to learn to kill," Angelo drawls. "But learning to accept pain is something else."

"All of this for a woman?" he demands with a sob. "Why?"

"You know who didn't cry the whole time you had her?" Disgust is written in every line of Allessio's face. "The fucking strong woman you kidnapped."

"Taking that assignment wasn't smart," Angelo says, like he's almost sympathetic. "Too bad you won't live long enough to improve your decision making skills."

"This pissant doesn't think for himself," Allessio dismisses.

I grab Cleatus's so far undamaged right hand and press my knife against the base of his forefinger.

"No, no. Please," he slobbers. "I'll tell you what you want. Just stop hurting me."

"I hope his friend holds out longer. I didn't even get to try my new clippers on his toes." Angelo's tone is not sarcastic. He sounds genuinely disappointed.

Cleatus stares at Sev's top assassin like he's a demon.

"The Angel of Death is a demon, right?" I ask of no one in particular.

"Yes, and why is that important?" Sev asks with raised brows.

"The pissant…" I like Allessio's word. "Is looking at our Angel of Death like he's a demon. It fits."

Cleatus wails.

Allessio chuckles darkly. "You've got a twisted view of the world, but yeah, it tracks, boss."

Cleatus tells us everything he knows about the AOG compound security, weapons stores and business .

The fact that it isn't a lot shows that at least someone there has a few working brain cells.

We move him to the wall manacles to serve as visual inspiration before Angelo and Allessio bring the AOG team leader in. Turns out Mordecai Jerome is Cleatus's cousin.

Our people had no trouble identifying them once we figured out which plane in the hangar they were supposed to be transporting Róise to Pennsylvania in.

They filed a flight plan. A real one with genuine names and airport destination.

The fucking arrogance. Or stupidity. I can't decide which one applies more.

As predicted, Mordecai takes longer to break, but in the end, he tells us what we want to know. Including the names of the men inside Shaughnessy's syndicate that are on Gabriel Lion's payroll.

The mob boss is livid there are two.

"Look at the positive side." Angelo wipes the blood from his blade on Mordecai's bicep. "Only one of them managed to infiltrate the detail assigned to your estate."

Brogan's scowl says he doesn't find that too much of a consolation.

Mordecai gives a hoarse yell causing us all to look at him again.

Angelo's blade is now sticking out of the bicep he'd used to wipe it off with. He shrugs when we all look at him and pulls it out. "Guess I wasn't quite done yet."

I'm not either.

I walk over to Cleatus's form dangling from the wall.

"You tried to take my heart from my body. Now I'll take yours." I shove the blade in, piercing the organ and then twisting until it's destroyed.

Piss mixes with the blood on the floor around Mordecai.

I don't bother repeating myself. He knows why he's about to die. Angelo might be our top assassin, but today I'm dealing the killing blows to our unwilling and fucking unwanted guests.

Mordecai manages a pretty good scream before his heart stops, but it does nothing to abate my fury at the AOG and its cult leader.

I fix steely eyes on Brogan. "Gabriel dies the same way, at my hand."

The mob boss glares at me. "He killed my brother."

"That was Jed and I'll let you kill him," I offer generously.

"Take the compromise. I don't want one of my new allies killed on an op because he got in the way of my brother's knife." Sev's tone doesn't invite argument.

Brogan shows his superior thinking skills to the AOG leaders when he nods in agreement.

After Brogan interrogates and kills the rats in his mob, we turn all the information over to our capo and his team of hackers.

Less than twenty-four hours later, we have the op planned.

We use low-flying helicopters to transport our teams to Pennsylvania. No fucking flight plans.

When we get there, allies have vehicles waiting for us.

In stealth mode, we hit the compound one hour after the moon sets, taking out the perimeter guards with two snipers and the gate guards with stun-and-kill techniques.

Domenico disarms their electronic alarm and surveillance setup once he has access to the computer at the gate. There will be no digital record of the carnage tonight.

The only soldiers living in the compound were hand-picked by Gabriel Lion. They're so far up his ass, he trusts them to protect him with their lives.

Well, tonight they'll pay that price, but they won't be able to protect him. The cult leader signed his own hit order when he tried to take mi vitù away.

We have six squads of five men. Splitting into two and three-men teams, we hit the key building in the compound simultaneously. My orders are to kill all AOG soldiers on contact with the exception of Gabriel or Jed. According to their now dead men, the leader and his lieutenant should be asleep in their own beds.

But I take nothing for granted.

Allessio and two more of my men make up my team. Our target is Gabriel Lion.

Zoey wanted to be here, but she's not made yet and every soldier on this mission is. We have all killed for the mafia and tonight we do it again.

Gabriel and Hope Lion do not share a bedroom. One of my men check to confirm the old woman is asleep while Allessio and I make our way to the primary bedroom and the man I plan to kill.

Eventually.

The door and frame are reinforced steel, but the walls on either side are plaster and wood. Allessio sets a charge on the wall to the right of the door. I set one on the left.

They blow simultaneously and with nothing left to hold it in place, it takes a single coordinated kick to send the door crashing to the floor.

Gabriel sits up with a shout, but all he's going to see are the dark shadows of our outlines. We're wearing night vision goggles. He's not. And we cut the power to the house before coming inside.

When I have a tactical advantage, I make sure I keep it.

"Who are you? What do you think you are doing?" He leans over and scrabbles for something beside the bed .

"Ah, ah, ah," I admonish and shoot the reaching hand.

He screams. "What do you want? Money? Weapons? Drugs? I'll give it to you."

Finally he asks a question I'm willing to answer. "What do I want?"

"Yes. Whatever it is. Do you want a woman?" He pauses. "A virgin?"

"You sick fuck." Allessio shoots Gabriel's kneecap.

Which elicits louder screaming, now accompanied by sobs.

"Sorry, boss," Allessio apologizes. "I know the kill is yours, but I've got sisters."

"Should have shot him in the fucking groin," my other guy says.

"Good idea." I aim and shoot right between Gabriel's legs.

"Good shot, boss," Allessio approves.

"Well, he's not a moving target." Unless you count writhing in pain.

A woman shrieks from the hallway, "Take your filthy hands off me. Let me go to my husband!"

My soldier drags her over the rubble of the walls and into the room, but doesn't let her go.

I grab her throat and squeeze. "Silence!"

She stops squawking, but glares up at me in the darkened room.

"Did you know?" I ask her.

She presses her lips tightly together.

I squeeze her throat tighter, cutting off her air. I count to ten in my head. Slowly.

And then I loosen my hold so she can speak. "Did you know that your husband had your son-in-law killed?"

"Gabriel wouldn't do that. Murder is a sin and he's a God-fearing man."

She's either deluded, or as big of a liar as her husband. I'm going with the latter.

"Help me, Mary-Hope," Gabriel sobs. "I'm dying."

Not yet, he's not. But soon.

"I need to call an ambulance," Mary-Hope says. "I can smell the blood in here. What did you do to him? Someone turn on a light."

I ignore the orders and her question to ask one of my own. "Did you know that Gabriel planned to kidnap Róise and give her to a man old enough to be her grandfather?"

"Jedidiah is a good man."

"Like your husband?" Derision drips from Allessio's voice.

"So, you knew?" I ask.

"It's not kidnapping when she belongs here. To us."

Not with us, but to us.

"You're as vile as your husband." Disgusted, I drop my hand from her throat and turn away. "Take her back to her room and watch her. "

My soldier obeys, ignoring Mary-Hope's loud protests.

My plan tonight is not to kill the women in this cult.

Just Gabriel Lion and his little army. The women who have lived under his tyranny have been punished enough. But the temptation to end Mary-Hope is damn near overwhelming.

My plans for her are already in place though. Because she's not her husband's unwitting accomplice.

She helped him build the cult into what it is and bartered her daughters away for the sake of her husband's greed.

With cooperation from an FBI agent on our payroll, Mary-Hope Lion will be under investigation for her part in Gabriel's criminal enterprises starting tomorrow.

Except for a couple about to be frozen by the FBI, Domenico is draining the AOG and Lion's personal bank accounts tonight.

Mary-Hope will be destitute before morning and in prison by the end of the year.

Like my father always said, those of us who know how to operate outside the law are fucking aware of how to use it against our enemies.

"Are you ready to die, Gabriel?" I approach the sobbing man on the bed.

"No. No. I don't want to die. Call an ambulance."

"If I was going to call anyone, it would be the morgue. But when I'm done here, there won't be enough of you left to identify, much less bury." I shove my blade straight into his heart. "I am going to raze your compound to the ground and it will look like you fucking fanatics did it to yourself. Too bad you keep so much magnesium-based ammunition around."

Not as much as will be burning in the blaze that will turn him and his men to ash, destroying their legacy to their very fucking DNA. But the traces of it left after the fire will be attributed to the munitions in the building that's about to explode with a bunch of AOG soldiers in it.

"Too bad you won't be around to see your army destroyed." I twist the knife. "But you can die knowing there will be nothing left of you or the AOG by morning."

I make good on my word. By the time I'm done, the entire compound is blown up or burning, with just enough evidence left for the FBI to issue arrest warrants for men that no longer exist.

Their wives and children still have their bank accounts and twelve hours to get the hell out of Dodge.

I'm not a fucking social worker, but I don't make the innocent pay for the sins of the guilty .

Róise is going to be thrilled. Brogan is bringing her aunt and cousins back to Long Island with him.

Better him than me.