Chapter Thirty-Seven

Sephie

Vitaliy had finally furnished his new house, which was Armando’s old house, and had been there for a week. He invited all of us over for dinner the day that Stephen took Armando to the nursing home, as a bit of a celebration. Like we were going to say no to that …

Battista had come back to the city the day before, so he joined us for dinner. He had information on Ricardo and the other three bosses for us, as well as more information on the police commissioner. He was proving to be quite the asset for us.

I’d never been to Vitaliy’s house when it was still Armando’s house, so this was a bit of an adventure for me. I did make sure to tell him to check all the windows on the first floor before he moved in, just in case. You can never be too careful.

Vitaliy greeted us warmly when we arrived, his smile that showed up quite often now spreading across his face when we walked in. “Malishka, I’m happy to see you,” he said, opening his arms for me.

“I’ve missed you, old man,” I said, hugging him. I turned to Battista, who had been standing next to Vitaliy. “Battista, it’s good to see you again, as well.” He took my hand, flipping it over to kiss the back of it, like normal.

“Sephie, it’s always a pleasure,” he said. He had a devious glint to his eye that made me think he wanted something.

“Out with it, Battista. Who do you need help with?” I asked.

He looked at Vitaliy, who was laughing. He didn’t say anything, but he reached into his pocket, pulling out a money clip that was holding a wad of hundred-dollar bills. He counted off five and handed them to Vitaliy, folding the rest back up and putting them back in his pocket. He turned back to me, smiling. “Another business associate I’m unsure about. They’ll be here in five days,” he said.

“Another woman?” I asked. Adrik was behind me as I greeted Vitaliy and Battista both, but he had pulled me against him when he heard Battista needed me for something.

Battista shook his head no. “Not a woman this time. This guy has been influential in Europe for years, but there’s something about him that many people don’t like. Only, no one knows why. Vitaliy has met him before, but it’s been years. He didn’t feel anything off about him then, but the feeling has persisted. You,” he said, then paused to look at Adrik and the guys, before continuing, “all of you, offer a much more detailed picture. When Ricardo goes down, I have a feeling he’s only the first domino. I would like to have those who are connected to me completely vetted before that happens.”

“She doesn’t go anywhere without all of us,” Adrik said, pulling me tighter against him.

“Nor would I want her to. I value all of your insights. I still don’t know the specifics of how you’re all connected, but I know you are. If this associate can pass this test, then I won’t need to worry about him,” Battista said.

“Let us know when and where then,” Adrik said.

The conversation turned to small talk. I asked Vitaliy for a tour of the house, since I’d never been there. He gladly obliged, taking my hand and sliding it through his arm as he walked me around the house. I could tell it made the guys slightly itchy to let me go with him alone, but they did.

“How’s Ilya working out?” I asked once we were alone.

He exhaled loudly. “Much better than the little flowers. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to despise them until they were gone. He told me his training was not where it should be, but he’s quite good already. It won’t take any time to catch him up. Most importantly, he wishes to be caught up.” He looked down at me, a sly grin on his face. “You inspired him, malishka,” he said.

“Shut up. When?”

“He saw you with Ivan. He remembers Ivan from when he was younger. He said he wished to be able to hold his own against Ivan as well as you did the other day.”

I laughed. “Ivan still takes it very easy on me, Vitaliy. He shouldn’t be that impressed.”

He clicked his tongue. “I’ve seen Ivan fight plenty of times. You made him work. You’re very fast.”

“Not as fast as I was. I’m still trying to get it back, but it’s coming.”

“Keep training like you did the other day and Ivan won’t have to hold back at all with you,” he said, patting my hand as we continued our house tour.

Once we were back with everyone else, Battista filled us in on what he’d found out about Ricardo and the other three bosses.

“We don’t know exactly when yet, but Niko and Vito are planning on returning to the city. We don’t even know exactly why they’re returning to the city, but we think it’s because the underbosses have stopped collecting the taxes in their absence. They’re running short of cash,” Battista said.

“The underbosses have been keeping very low profiles,” Ivan said. “They heard what happened to Anthony, Lorenzo, and Massimo. They’re scared.”

“They also know no one has seen Armando or Dario in months. The rumors abound about what happened to those two,” Stephen said.

“You have them both, no?” Battista asked. Adrik simply nodded his head, which kept the rest of us from saying anything further.

“We have eyes on all of them, so when Niko and Vito leave, we’ll be able to notify you. I’m not sure if you want to pick them up at the airport or let them come back to the city,” Battista said.

Adrik was quiet for a moment, which meant he was weighing his options. “If we let them come back to the city, it might lull them into a false sense of security. We can also see just how loyal those underbosses are going to be. My guess is not that loyal, given that they’ve all taken a vacation while the bosses have been away. Might be fun to crush them a little bit before we grab them,” Ivan said.

“What are your plans for them? Same as Armando?” Vitaliy asked.

I could feel Adrik’s anger just under the surface as he thought about what to do with Niko and Vito. Battista didn’t know about his eyes changing or Ivan’s eyes changing yet. Tonight might be the night he found out.

He looked to me, asking for my thoughts. Instead of saying anything, I just thought about Stephen breaking Niko and Vito the same way he did Armando. I saw the look on Adrik’s face that meant my eyes had changed to purple. It was half enchantment, half disappointment. He looked back at his father, nodding his head once.

“Where are you at with the mayor? That could help determine your plan for Niko and Vito,” Battista asked.

“He’s currently looking through most of what we have on Ricardo. We kept back some of it until we know for sure he’s willing to move on it. We told him we have Dr. Moretti. He was going to meet with his DA to see what they could actually charge him with. Since no one but Sephie can remember him, it’s difficult to charge him there. There’s also no evidence that he’s the one who created brawn, past what Sal’s security guy told us. I’m not turning him over if he’s going to walk free,” Adrik said.

“We checked out the DA. He’s also good. At least for now. If there’s a way to charge him, he’d be willing to do so.” Battista thought for a minute more, adding, “Perhaps we can help them find evidence that will hold up in court. Has anyone been to Sal’s house since he left?”

“No. He’s still got security there, the last time we checked. But I can’t say I wouldn’t like to go take a look to see what we could find,” Viktor said.

“How much security? Can you guys get past it?” Battista asked. “I only ask because I know Ricardo likes to keep records. If Sal has been working with him, then he will also like to keep records. What we’re looking for could very well be in his house.”

“I’ll have a team check it out in the morning,” Viktor said. “Depending on how many guys he has on the house, we might be able to get in and get out without anyone knowing.”

Misha clapped his hands together. “I love breaking and entering.”

Three days after we met with Battista, we were all on our way to break into Sal’s house in the middle of the night. He did have security on his house, but it was minimal. Our guys watching the house said the night shift would usually fall asleep, if they showed up at all, so it should be an easy endeavor to slip into the house undetected. We were only interested in his files and his office happened to be all the way at the end of the house, which made it easy for us.

We decided everyone should go, to make it easier to look through all the files in a shorter amount of time. We weren’t exactly sure how many files we were going to be looking at. Because Adrik had promised me that he was never sending me away from him again, it meant I was going to break the law with the rest of them.

I couldn’t say I was disappointed about being included in this little adventure. Any chance I could get to stick it to Sal would make me very happy.

I had strict orders to stay with Adrik or Ivan at all times. Like I would argue with that.

We left the vehicles down the block from his house and went the rest of the way on foot. The team that had scouted the house ahead of time told us where the security was supposed to be. We found them inside the house, watching TV. They clearly took their jobs very seriously.

Adrik was the one who snuck in the house, silently walking right by the security team on the couch, and unlocked the window to the office for the rest of us to come in. The security team never suspected a thing. We ran to the end of the house, two at a time, until we were all in the office. Stephen kept an eye on the hallway, Viktor kept an eye on the window, the rest of us quickly looked through files for anything we could find that would tie Dr. Moretti to the creation of brawn and/or Sal.

As I was looking through files, I felt Stephen get tense. Before he could say anything, I told Ivan and Adrik silently, “Stephen noticed something in the hallway.” Ivan was next to him immediately. Stephen signaled what he’d heard, then the two of them disappeared. We heard the faintest sounds of a quick commotion, then nothing. Then Stephen and Ivan appeared in the office once more.

“We need to hurry. They’ll eventually wonder where their buddy is and come looking for him. There’s a bedroom down the hall. We put him in the bed, hoping to buy us some time. He’s going to be sleeping for a while anyway,” Ivan said to me and Adrik. I looked at Andrei, tapping my temple. I relayed the message to him, so he could relay the message to Misha. We all continued looking without a word spoken.

“Got it,” Adrik said. He kept flipping through the file in his hands. “ Battista was right. Sal kept detailed records. This is everything on Dr. Moretti. This should be enough to put him away.”

I caught Andrei’s eye, telling him we found what we needed. We quickly exited out the window, two at a time, and left Adrik to close and lock the window behind us and once again walk right past the security team on the couch. We waited for Adrik to join us and we were back at the vehicles quickly. The entire process took just over an hour.

On the way back to the penthouse, Adrik said silently, “Having you as the go-between for Andrei, Misha, and Stephen was very helpful. We’ve never not had to talk to each other before.” He put his arm around me, pulling me to him. “And you caught on that Stephen knew something right away. That could’ve been much uglier.” He looked at me, his sexy smirk on his face. “You’re quite handy to have around. I think I’ll keep you.”

Viktor let Chen know that we had new information for the mayor once we were back at the penthouse. He knew to stop by in the morning to get it before going to the mayor’s house to get his crew started for the day.

“I think we should find a way to meet with the DA. Or at least get Andrei and Ivan to watch him and see if they can see anything on him,” Stephen said.

“I agree. I was thinking about that on the way back,” Viktor said. “I don’t know how easy it would be to meet with the DA though.”

“Maybe he needs his house renovated too,” I said, grinning.

“I think it would be a good idea to meet with the mayor in person as well, before we give him everything. What we have so far is promising, but I would feel better seeing him in person and having Sephie be able to see him speak,” Adrik said.

“We just need to be careful about who sees that happening. We don’t want Henry to catch on that we’re working with the mayor,” Ivan said.

“Well, apparently he’s not that quick since he didn’t notice that two of his police chiefs were meeting with the mayor in the same place where they met with him not two days prior,” I said. “We could meet with the mayor at the hotel and apparently no one but Mr. Turner would notice.”

Adrik chuckled. “You’re not wrong, solnishko. I’ll see if Neal can come up with a reason that we should meet with the mayor.”

“There’s that giant fundraiser for the hospital coming up in a few weeks. You usually don’t go, but maybe you should go this time. The mayor will be there, as will the DA. As will Henry,” Viktor said.

Adrik could feel my moment of panic as I thought about going to another black-tie affair. I managed to get it mostly under control before he made it across the room to me. I sighed. “If any one of you so much as walks too far away from me while we’re there, I swear on all things holy, I will kill you,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

The guys stayed silent. They could feel my turmoil. They still struggled with guilt from the last time. I felt Adrik’s arms around me as he pulled me gently to him. He ran his hand through my hair, saying, “We don’t have to go, love. I hate those functions anyway. We can find another way to meet with the mayor. I don’t want to put you through that.”

I took a deep breath. “It’s really the easiest option. It might also be the fastest option. No one will think twice about you having a conversation with the mayor if you’re there,” I said, chewing on my lip. “Aren’t you the biggest donor to the hospital anyway? They’ll be happy you’re there. The mayor should thank you for being there, which is all the more reason for you to have a conversation with him.” I looked up at him. “I’ll be okay. You and Ivan need contacts though.”

Misha and Stephen both scoffed. “Why do you always have to ruin all the fun, gazelle?” Misha asked.

We arrived at the hotel where Mr. Turner worked to meet with Battista and his associates, once again like modern-day royalty. Vitaliy was with us, as were all his guys, minus the little flowers. I watched Ilya as he was working. He fit in perfectly with Vitaliy’s other guys. He was considerably younger than the rest of them, but he knew exactly what to do, exactly when to do it. They worked together like they’d been a team for years, rather than weeks. I caught his eye as we were walking up to the front door of the hotel; he smiled broadly at me, then went right back to boss mode. It made me happy to see him happy. His light had stayed just as bright as it was since Stephen scared off the darkness hanging around him.

Vitaliy’s other guys were almost happier to be rid of the little flowers than Vitaliy was. It meant they could come to dinner with him again. Apparently the way to all of these men’s hearts was through their stomachs.

As we approached the door to the hotel, we were greeted by Mr. Turner, who was just as happy as always to see us. I stepped away from Adrik to give Mr. Turner a hug before we continued inside. Battista was waiting on us in the empty restaurant, like usual. He was standing with three men this time. I couldn’t help but feel relief when I saw there was no woman with them. While the guys were usually very serious while they were working, I heard them all laugh quietly when they felt my relief at seeing Battista standing with only men.

“Not gonna lie, princess, I might’ve enjoyed watching you embarrass that woman the last time a little too much,” Ivan said silently.

Before I could answer him, Adrik responded, “Let it play out, Ivan. We both know she’s equal opportunity. If this guy deserves it, it’ll be just as glorious as the woman.” He looked down at me, smirking, as we continued the rest of the way to Battista.

“This is the first time I’ve regretted being able to hear both of your thoughts,” I said. I could hear both of them laughing in my head, but outwardly, they looked as serious as ever. They were really getting good at this.

I caught Andrei’s eye as Battista was making the introductions with Vitaliy. He let me see what he saw when he looked at the men with Battista. I felt Misha’s nausea coming on, but I couldn’t tell which one it was from right away. I just knew it was one of them who was making Misha nauseous.

“Ivan? Anything?” I asked.

“Definitely. Short guy on the end. I saw it as we walked up. It’s stepped back though,” he said.

“Same guy Andrei pointed out. Misha confirms it too.”

Stephen and I had discussed our options before we came to the hotel. If there was a situation like we had with Ilya, where the demon wasn’t necessarily attached, we would signal to him to speak to see if he could scare it away. If the demon was already attached, it was going to be slightly more complicated. We would wait to reveal who he was until a little later. Since we didn’t have much experience, we were hoping to gain some knowledge on how they would react to us.

Battista motioned for Adrik to meet his associates. He didn’t let go of me as he went to greet them. The first two men were fine when he shook their hands. The last man, the one that everyone had pointed out, made Adrik feel nauseous when he shook his hand. Because he was still touching me, I could feel what he felt.

Ivan’s bubble went up around me as I went through the line, shaking everyone’s hands as well. I wasn’t worried about our eyes changing since we now all had contacts in, but this time was different. I knew our eyes were black, even without seeing them. It felt similar to the agitation we felt around Viktor, but stronger. Our demons were itchy.

Battista took my hand, flipping it over to kiss the back of it, as he always did. As he looked up, he raised an eyebrow, silently asking if there was anything to be worried about as everyone else moved toward the table. I nodded once, discreetly. He looked almost excited as we walked to the table.

The business associates of Battista had come to the city under the guise of investing in various projects throughout the city. None of these projects were real, but Adrik, Vitaliy, and Battista discussed them as if they were. I stayed quiet, watching everyone as they talked with each other. I felt nothing bad from two associates, but I could tell the third one was watching us just as carefully as we were watching him.

Andrei caught my eye, telling me that the guy was focused on me, Adrik, and Ivan. “He knows there’s something different about you three, but he can’t figure out what.”

“Ivan told me his demon stepped back when we first got here. Can you feel it?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s the same as that woman before. Not cold, I mean. But it’s there, whether it’s in control or not. It’s definitely there.”

“I’m so impressed that you can feel that now, Bubba ,” I said, winking at him when no one was looking. “How’s Misha? Tell him to stop looking at the guy. I can feel his nausea when he does .”

Andrei coughed once to keep from laughing, then I saw him have a silent conversation with Misha. Misha caught my eye, grinning at me. Stephen was quiet, as was Viktor. Since we hadn’t figured out a way to communicate with Stephen yet, he was mostly on his own, but he could still feel what I felt. I was certain he had felt both Misha’s nausea as well as Adrik’s when it came to the one business associate we’d singled out. He was staying quiet, for now. Doing what he did best. Watching. Waiting.

The conversation shifted from business to more benign subjects. The three men were from different areas in western Europe. In an effort to keep the conversation going, I asked questions about where they were from, capitalizing on the dumb woman stereotype. They indulged me, happy to answer my questions.

“Are your demons getting itchy?” Ivan asked.

“The whole time we’ve been here,” Adrik answered.

“He’s focused on the three of us. He knows there’s something different about us, but he doesn’t know what yet. What can you see, Ivan?” I asked.

Instead of describing what he saw when he looked at the man, he pushed a snapshot to both me and Adrik. We could see the man, but we could also see the demon, just behind his face. Like a demonic shadow.

“That was impressive,” Adrik said.

“Show off,” I said, trying not to laugh.

“What are we going to do with him?” Ivan asked. It was a good question. Battista had told us he simply wanted to know if there was a reason to be wary of this man. We had plenty of reasons to be wary of him. I ended up asking Vitaliy, in Russian, if any of these men spoke Italian. He shook his head no, then looked at everyone like I had just reminded him of a funny story related to the topic they were all discussing. As he finished up his pretend story, I looked at Battista, asking him in Italian how far he wanted us to take this.

Without skipping a beat, he answered me quickly in Italian and then followed Vitaliy’s lead, making up a reason for me to be speaking Italian to him. None of them were any the wiser.

“He said he wants him exposed; however we need to make that happen. He said the other two know enough that they won’t freak out,” I told Ivan and Adrik.

“We need to ditch the contacts, then,” Ivan said.

“Agreed,” Adrik responded.

I leaned over, whispering to Adrik, “Would you gentlemen like to escort me to the restroom?” He stood up, extending his hand to me. He looked at Ivan, who stood up with us as well. He excused us, walking toward the back of the restaurant. I gave Andrei a quick update as we were leaving.

They surprised me by coming into the women’s bathroom with me. I couldn’t help but laugh at them. “This is some weird porn fantasy right here,” I said, walking to the sink so I could take my contacts out.

Ivan groaned when he took his out. “I understand why your eyes have been so itchy, princess. I do not want to wear these things any longer than I absolutely have to.”

“You do get used to them,” I said. “But I still don’t like wearing them for extended periods.”

We all looked at each other, our eyes turning black immediately. We couldn’t keep from laughing at each other.

“I think we unlocked a new level. I’ve never noticed my demon get this itchy before when we’ve been around another demon. I don’t know what that means,” Adrik said. “It kind of worries me.”

I thought for a minute, trying to get a sense of what was going on. “I don’t think we’re the ones who should be worried about it. I think they’re trying to help us more as each new thing happens. It feels like mine is trying to tell me something,” I said.

“New level for sure,” Ivan said, grinning at me. “So, what’s the plan for this dude?”

“From what you’ve seen, he’s pretty much consumed by the demon, right?” I asked Ivan.

“Yeah. When they’re like the face behind the face, that’s when they’re running the show,” Ivan said.

I looked at Adrik. He had the same thought I did. “There’s only one solution then,” he said.

“Stephen,” we all said at the same time.

“He’s going to be so happy,” I said, laughing as we left the bathroom.

When we got back to the table, the conversation was still flowing. Everyone noticed as we came back, but we didn’t interrupt anything. As we sat down, I told both Ivan and Adrik to either close their eyes or look down. I turned toward Stephen, who was sitting beside me, and flashed him my demon eyes. He knew that meant his services were going to be needed shortly.

We’d discussed Stephen’s gift before coming to the hotel. Before, we had personal experiences to use as fuel for him to break the person. This person was a complete stranger, so we weren’t sure how that would work. It was Misha who came up with the idea for how to make it work.

“Once the decision is made, I can look back through the person’s life and pick out times when they’ve done evil things. You and Andrei can look through their head and do the same. I can send everything I have to Andrei, he can send it to you, you give it to Stephen. Boss can give him ‘fuck you’ juice like before while Ivan makes sure you’re protected,” Misha had said the night before as we were discussing it.

I gave the green light to both Misha and Andrei to start collecting information. They’d both been working on being more subtle with their gifts. It was harder to tell when they were using them now. The glazed-over look was much less noticeable.

As the three of us looked into this man’s life, none of us were prepared for what we found. Adrik and Ivan both felt my extreme nausea, which was compounded with both Misha’s and Andrei’s nausea as they saw what I saw.

“What’s happening, love? You feel terrible,” Adrik asked.

“I’m going to need to wash my brain after this. This man is beyond disgusting,” I told them. “You might not need to help Stephen. This one is going to hit very close to home for him. It’s going to send him into a rage.”

The man had a very long history of taking advantage of little boys in the worst way possible. We collected enough of his memories that Stephen would have plenty to use. I told Andrei and Misha to stop, mostly because I couldn’t handle the nausea any longer.

“I need to warn Stephen,” I said. “ But we need to find a way to provoke him so everyone can see.”

While they tried to come up with a strategy to provoke the man, I leaned over to Stephen. I was very careful not to touch him yet. I whispered in his ear, in Russian, “Yoden, I need to warn you. This one is going to be difficult for you because of what he’s done. It hits very close to home for you. If you want to sit this one out, we can find another way.”

Before I could stop him, he grabbed my hand. He managed to control himself as he took everything we’d gotten from that guy’s life. It only took a few seconds. He looked at me, saying, “There’s absolutely no way in hell I would sit this one out.”

Andrei caught my eye, after he’d watched Stephen take everything from me. His face clearly showed concern for Stephen. He pushed his thoughts to me, telling me he’d figured out another piece to the puzzle. He suddenly realized that Viktor was here to help us as much as he was to help others. He could help us fix ourselves after we’d had to witness the evil this man had done over his lifetime. None of us wanted this hanging onto us any longer than absolutely necessary.

I told Andrei he was a fucking genius.

“Stephen is ready, whenever we are. I’m not sure he’s going to need help, but I think you should be ready, just in case. I can feel him smoldering beside me right now. He’s usually very cold, but he feels like you do normally right now,” I told Adrik.

“I can feel him through you. I know that feeling from him. He’ll handle this one on his own,” Adrik said.

Once again, I spoke to Battista in Italian, telling him we needed a way to provoke this man to anger so we could expose him. He nodded, expertly shifting the conversation exactly in the direction we needed. Since Lorenzo had been killed, many of his human trafficking networks throughout Europe had been exposed. There were a few very high-profile people who had been caught having connections to Lorenzo, meaning they were partaking in the particular services that Lorenzo was providing. Battista must’ve had his suspicions about this man before today, as I couldn’t see him bringing this subject up otherwise.

The man started to get uncomfortable as we all discussed the matter. He started to sweat when Battista had asked if he’d known one of the people who was currently in police custody for being connected to Lorenzo. Nothing had been outright proven yet, but speculation as to this person’s guilt was running rampant throughout Europe. The man before us decided that coming to the defense of an accused human trafficker and pedophile was his best option.

It was exactly what we needed.

The conversation got heated on his end, but he wasn’t angry per se. He was scared. Scared of the same fate. Scared of being exposed.

I felt my anger rise to the surface and I finally let it happen, not caring one bit that my eyes were now black. Adrik’s and Ivan’s eyes were also now black. We watched him squirm in his seat once he saw it. Ivan shared what he could see with me and Adrik. The demon was clearly agitated. I glanced at Stephen, who finally spoke.

“I mean no disrespect, sir , but people are generally only accused of such heinous acts when they’ve actually participated in such heinous acts,” he said. I’d never heard Stephen take that tone with anyone before. It was like he was mocking him. In the most menacing way possible. If I didn’t know Stephen already, it would’ve sent chills down my spine.

Ivan was still sharing what he could see as Stephen revealed himself. We watched this man lose complete control. His demon was now angry and took over, switching his eyes to black as well. The man tried to get up, but Stephen stood up quickly. Stephen was across the table from him, but it looked like Stephen had grabbed him and shoved him back into his seat, without Stephen touching him. The man didn’t move after that. His body was completely paralyzed, but Stephen had only barely begun breaking him. He could still talk; he could still see.

Stephen was skipping ahead to advanced levels of control already.

The demon started trying to talk his way out of it, making sick excuses, promising power, promising whatever we wanted. Surprisingly, Stephen let him talk for a few minutes. He glanced at Battista and his associates. Battista didn’t look quite as shocked as his other two associates. He’d definitely had his suspicions before today about this man.

Finally, Stephen had enough. I felt his anger level go through the roof as we watched the man’s light behind his eyes go out. He finally stopped talking as Stephen gave everything back to him that he’d done to his victims. All the pain, all the trauma, all the suffering he’d caused was now given back to him all at once, effectively breaking his psyche.

Adrik’s anger was definitely not needed in this instance. Stephen had plenty of his own this time. Once he was finished, his anger disappeared and he went back to feeling his normal, colder-than-any-human-should-be self. He sat back down and took a sip of water like this was a normal fucking Tuesday.

“Vlad is going to be so impressed with your portfolio, Yoden,” I whispered to him, in Russian.

He laughed quietly.

I looked at Battista and his associates, who were still somewhat shocked at what they’d just witnessed. “You all heard him tell you everything you needed to know about him in his own words. He was consumed by his demon. He has been for a very long time. He did very bad things to very innocent people and now he’ll be made to suffer for that for the rest of his body’s life.”

“He’s going to stay like that until he dies?” one of Battista’s associates asked. I nodded my head, explaining what we’d done.

Battista turned to the man, saying, “This is why we’re all so willing to help them get Ricardo De Luca. Do you understand now? And more importantly, are you willing to help?”

It became clear in that moment why Battista had set this up today. It wasn’t for his benefit, but for ours.