27. Matteo

27

MATTEO

L ight assaulted Matteo's eyes as cool night air rushed in to replace the stench of sweat and stale air.

Matteo took in a deep lungful of the welcomed fresh air.

God, that felt good .

He lay there for a moment, staring up at the peaceful night sky. The moon was out, and several small stars flickered as if welcoming him to the next chapter of his never-ending nightmare.

It was only a few short nights ago that he was staring up at these same stars, searching for solace and thinking of his parents. Tonight, as he stared up at these same stars, he thought only of his family. The crazy, pain-in-the-ass guys waiting for him back at the chateau, wondering when he was going to return home. What he wouldn't do for another family breakfast or another birthday celebration.

Matteo tried to move, but his wrists were tied together. He wondered how long he had been trapped inside the human-sized coffin.

The air smelled rank. It was a mixture of dead fish and cold, salty ocean air. He must be at a port somewhere. Considering he had no idea how long he had been kept in the crate, he couldn't venture a guess as to where they were.

" Andiamo ," a pissed-off-looking Italian ordered, offering Matteo his hand to help him get out of the crate.

Matteo took it, pulling himself up and out of the— yup, body-sized coffin—or crate if one were being literal.

Where were they?

Taking in his surroundings, he felt his stomach drop.

They were in a shipping port.

All around him, dangerous-looking men were opening shipping containers and escorting people out of them. Men, women, and children. They all funneled out, two at a time.

One woman screamed as the man next to her collapsed and was repeatedly kicked by a man holding an assault rifle.

Were these people being trafficked ?

Matteo had read that in addition to the human sex trade, there was also a demand for human trafficking for slavery. People were told that there were work opportunities in a foreign country and provided assistance with smuggling them across borders. People came willingly, hoping to build a better life for themselves in this new country. However, once they arrived in their destination country, they quickly discovered that they were actually being sold into slavery.

Their captors would take their travel documents and any money that they might be carrying, then force them to work eighteen to twenty hours a day in order to "pay off" the debt that they incurred while being smuggled into the country.

It was a tragic story. Monsters taking advantage of the less fortunate and making money off the backs of migrant workers.

Every article Matteo read on the subject only made him want to find these monsters and exact his own form of justice on their treacherous asses. Perhaps Chase and his boss had it right. Monsters, such as the evil men listed in the Book of Sin, didn't deserve the luxury of living.

Watching the troves of families being torn apart and separated into different holding pens made Matteo see red. When he was done with Edwin, he was going to end these fuckers. He just had to figure out how to break himself free.

"Walk," another man, also holding an assault rifle, ordered, jamming the tip of the gun into Matteo's back.

He followed his armed escorts into an old brick building that looked like it had been built in the early nineteen hundreds. The windows were thick with grime, and the paint on the doors was stripped almost completely bare.

"Here. Sit," the man said in a thick Italian accent.

Since when did Edwin have the money or the intelligence to set up an operation of this magnitude?

Yes, the kid was semi-smart, but he never had the resources or connections to pull off something like this. There was something else going on here.

"Faster," another man barked in Italian, pushing down on Matteo's shoulders, causing him to fall into the seat before him.

Okay, this asshole was the first to get a bullet in the face whenever he got free .

"Ah, it's about time you arrived. Sorry about the travel arrangements. I know how much you love extra legroom."

Matteo looked up just in time to see Edwin step out of the shadows. Always like a cockroach.

"No worries. I found it cozy, like being wrapped in a tight wooden hug."

Edwin smirked.

"It's so great to see you after all these years, M," Edwin added, coming to a stop right in front of Matteo.

"Don't call me that. Only my friends are allowed to use that nickname. To you, it's Mr. Sabarino." Matteo loved watching the anger flash across Edwin's face. Nothing annoyed the man more than being talked down to.

"Now, now, M. There was a time when you and I were close. Very close. Closer than most men are when together," Edwin noted. The left side of his lip turned upward slightly in amusement.

This kid was nothing in the grand scheme of things. A little boy trying to make it big in a world he didn't understand. Edwin had taken advantage of Matteo's kindness and stolen information he hoped to use to get rich quickly, but at the end of the day, Edwin was just a boy, hoping that someone would take him seriously.

"Once again, you're living in your own little fantasy world, Eddie ." Matteo knew how much Edwin hated being called by the childish name. The last time someone at the club called him by that name, Edwin had given the dancer a black eye. "We were friendly, that's all. You wished that we were more, but we never were."

Anger flared once again. Matteo had just enough time to tense his jaw before Edwin's fist connected with his face.

Matteo chuckled.

"Still so sensitive. That's why I never had you working the floor. You don't have the heart or self-control to separate your feelings from business. And that's why you will always fail in life. You're ruled by your emotions, not by your head."

Judging by the pissed-off look on Edwin's face, Matteo knew that he was getting under the young man's skin.

Good. Pissed-off people make mistakes. He just needed this idiot to make one so he could escape.

"Really. We'll see how in control you are when you learn the truth."

Truth? What truth?

"You know, I always envied you. Your style, your money, your lifestyle. It was all so… intoxicating. I just had to have it. I figured the easiest way would have been to make you fall in love with me, then marry me. But after you made it clear you had no interest in pursuing a romantic relationship with me, I decided it was up to me to make my own money."

"Which was why you created the Book of Sin ," Matteo jumped in.

" Book of Sin ?" Edwin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Matteo shook his head. "Yeah, that's what we've been calling your little journal."

"Fair enough. I guess it kind of is a book of sin. People's darkest secrets and weaknesses, all documented in the pages of one tiny black book." Edwin began pacing the room. He looked agitated.

Around the room, guards were posted, all watching their interaction.

"My plan was to sell pieces of information to criminals and high-powered politicians looking to blackmail their enemies, but that fuckhead Irish prick stole the book from me one night while I was trying to negotiate a deal with him."

Matteo remembered hearing that the journal used to belong to an Irish gangster named Seamus before it was given to Marc and Chase. Criminals stealing from criminals. How poetic.

Edwin glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Matteo was still listening. Once he confirmed that he was, he continued.

"After that, I spent another eight months trying to recreate the information contained in that journal. I hoped that once I was done, I could continue with my plan. I regretted not making a copy of your files, but with all those security measures you had on your laptop, I didn't want to alert you to my activities. So, pen and paper it was."

"Once again, no creativity," Matteo taunted.

A creepy smirk spread over Edwin's face like he was about to drop a bomb on Matteo's head.

What the heck was the little shit hiding?

"It was creativity that helped me realize my mistake. I was looking to make small amounts of money over an extended period until I finally got rich. Then I found it. That one piece of information that had been so subtle, I almost missed it."

Matteo felt his palms begin to sweat. What had Edwin discovered?

"Ares's love for you."

Those chilling four words made Matteo's heart stop in his chest. What did Ares have to do with this?

"I knew that the two of you knew each other, but I didn't realize just how close you really were until I started looking into your backgrounds. That was when a certain criminal family reached out to me, making me realize just how short-sighted I was actually being."

Who had Edwin been talking to? It appeared that someone else was the brains behind this elaborate operation. Of course they were.

"You ever heard of the Zitti crime family?"

Yes, he had.

The Zitti family had a reputation for being ruthless and well-connected. From what he remembered, they mostly dealt in gun trafficking and narcotics. They were pretty powerful about ten or twelve years ago.

"Well, as it turns out, they apparently knew your parents."

Matteo froze. His parents?

Edwin smirked. He knew he had hit a nerve bringing up Matteo's parents.

"It appears that your parents were going to help fund a lucrative deal that would have cut the Zittis out of the gun trafficking business in Europe and make a thirsty, ambitious little mongrel the new god of war in Europe."

What? His parents were never in the gun trade. Yes, they had a few hands in illegal narcotics, but nothing as dangerous as gun trafficking. The only person he could think of who was also into guns was… Ares.

"Ahhh, now I see the wheels in your head turning," Edwin taunted. "Starting to make all those connections, are ya? Want me to go on?"

Matteo sat there trying to make sense of what the man was saying. Were these just the ramblings of a desperate man hoping to create dissent and confusion by telling lies and providing misdirection? Or was there truth to the things he was saying?

"I'll take your silence as confirmation to proceed. As it turned out, when the Zitti family found out about your parents' deal with Ares, they put a hit out on your parents. Ares was supposed to die in that plane explosion as well, but the lucky bastard decided not to leave Italy at the last moment, which ended up saving his life."

Matteo felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He couldn't breathe. His parents had been murdered? And Ares had known the truth about their deaths this whole time?

Glaring up at the little asshole playing gangster, Matteo wanted to beat the prick's face in with his bare hands.

"So, that's why you needed the Zittis? Couldn't catch me on your own?" Matteo gave the little bitch a verbal smackdown.

Edwin didn't like that. He drew back his arm and punched Matteo in the face once again.

Blood leaked from Matteo's split lip. He didn't care. The copper taste in his mouth only added to the pleasure he felt digging into Edwin's incompetence. Once again, a child trying to play with the big boys.

"We decided to kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Use you as bait."

"Bait? For what?"

"Mr. Zitti was kind enough to offer me a buttload of cash if I helped him capture Ares. Apparently, he's been trying to murder the man for years but can't seem to get close to the slippery snake."

Matteo's stomach dropped. This wasn't about him at all.

"Knowing that Ares is crazy, stupidly in love with you, I figured he would do anything if he knew that you had been kidnapped. Originally, I was going to take you to Spain and lure Ares out into the open, but apparently, that plan went to shit. Who knew that the little perve was stalking you himself." Edwin shrugged like it was old news.

"Anyway, now that you are finally here, we figured we would continue with the original plan and let the old man come to us." Edwin said, taking a step back and revealing a dark figure standing behind him.

Massimo Zitti.

"Right now, an associate of Mr. Zitti's is letting the news slip of your location. It will only be a matter of time before Ares hears and comes running to save you. At which point, Mr. Zitti and his crew will take out the competition and take over everything that belongs to Ares. And me? I'll be a rich fucker, kicking it back on a beach somewhere. See? Creativity."

"That's never going to work."

"Why not? It's worked before. Ares is too stupid to know when he's being played. One little phone call and he was rushing your parents on his plane and sending them off to their deaths. He never stopped to think about where that information had come from."

Matteo had no idea what Edwin was talking about, and at this point, he really didn't care. He was only worried about Ares coming to his rescue, guns ablazing.

"It's never going to work," Matteo repeated, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.

Massimo stood in the shadows, looking like a hyena about to move in on its prey. The question was which of them was actually his prey—Matteo or Edwin? It wasn't very often that crime families left witnesses, especially ones who knew too many of their secrets.

Matteo's eyes drifted back to the smiling idiot. He wondered if Edwin realized that his days were numbered.