“We can never be cautious enough. Let’s go get you inside.” Dylan touched my arm and I winced. “We can take care of your wounds.”
“But we need to question Oswald.” I glanced at my arm and realized the scratches looked worse than I’d thought. My sleeve was torn and I had a bleeding cut on my arm, but it was all insignificant. We finally had Oswald and should be able to figure out where or to whom he’d given Aaron, and hopefully that would lead us to Tony too. I doubted Oswald had directly participated in kidnapping my brother.
If he didn’t know anything other than to whom he’d brought Aaron, then we could either get him to help us or tell us who was in charge so we could track that person down. Or we could contact the Ferlantes as Oswald had planned to do and arrange a fake meeting.
“Don’t worry. Jason and Michael will take care of that. Come on.” Dylan placed his hand on my back and I let him lead me back toward the house. I glanced up at the sky.
Wherever you are, Aaron, I will find you.
Chapter 16
“Did he tell you where they are?” I was in front of Jason and Michael as soon as they walked out of the dungeon. Sebastian had let us use one of the Viteris’ dungeons, which was in the basement. Marco and Dylan had been questioning other men who’d been with Oswald and were supposed to come here soon to report to us. It had been a few hours already and I wanted answers.
“No,” Michael said, dark circles under his eyes.
Jason cracked his bloody knuckles, his lips pressed into a tight line.
“What?” I gaped at Michael. “Then what did he say?”
“He refuses to talk. We need more time to break him,” Jason said.
“More time? Oh, come on. We don’t have time! Go back in there and make him talk!”
“He’s passed out,” Michael said. “We’ll try again soon, but Jason and I need a break first.”
“Yeah.” Jason looked at the blood covering his hands and shirt and headed toward the hallway, probably to find a bathroom. Marco appeared at the door just as Jason was going out.
“Marco! Please tell me you have something.” I stopped breathing as I waited for his answer.
He shook his head. “All the guys claim they know nothing and that they had no clue Oswald was a spy and working with the Ferlantes. I can’t tell if they’re all that tough and refuse to break under pressure or if the Ferlantes or Oswald told them what to say in case of being questioned, but their stories match more or less.”
“So what’s their excuse? They just wanted to get rid of Aaron, so they didn’t give a damn who was doing what?” I found that hard to believe, at least for those highly ranked. The lower ranking guys probably thought they had no choice but to agree, and they didn’t have to worry that much about what would happen; they just had to wait for the outcome.
“Oswald told them Sebastian was the right choice and presented various reasons for that, mostly convincing them that Aaron was a traitor who killed their boss and that he would be tainting Roberto’s legacy. Of course, he also told them Aaron would send them away, kill them, or change how things are because he’d ally with your family, and that was what finally swayed most of them.”
“And they believed him? Without proof?”
“They didn’t really need proof. They’ve known Oswald for a long time and he was their trusted friend who never acted against them. And Aaron didn’t really endear himself to anyone, especially after killing their friends without a reason. They won’t be loyal to someone who can kill them off whenever he pleases and suffer no consequences. If those guards had done something wrong, it would’ve been fine.”
“Aaron should’ve told them he was drugged and wasn’t able to think clearly. Maybe then none of this would’ve happened. It was all Roberto’s fault anyway.” Or maybe things would’ve played out the same, but at least more of the men would have had doubts about Sebastian, who he was, and what he’d do. They might not have reacted so rashly to get rid of Aaron, enabling Sebastian to take over easily.
“He couldn’t. They’d see it as a weakness, and we didn’t want them to get any ideas that they could find a way to control Aaron.”
“Right.” I groaned. “So what then? I guess Oswald told them Sebastian was this awesome guy who’d changed and who’d become Roberto’s friend again.”
“Yeah, something like that. He said Sebastian promised them things would be the same as under Roberto’s leadership.”
“Wonderful. But didn’t they suspect something was off when Oswald whisked Aaron away? Didn’t anyone go with him?”
“No, Oswald insisted Sebastian didn’t trust them all just yet because they were still under Aaron’s command, so he only wanted to meet with Oswald. Aaron was supposed to be Oswald’s gift to Sebastian, and it looks like Oswald promised Sebastian would only convince Aaron to hand over the leadership to him. Everyone was okay with that, and they didn’t really care what happened to Aaron because they knew he wasn’t the only Viteri.”
“And when Sebastian called them here? What did he tell them? Why did they have an escape plan? Why did they run? What even happened during the meeting?” I hadn’t had time to ask because I hadn’t wanted anyone to waste precious moments explaining what had gone down instead of questioning anyone who might know where Aaron and my brother were. The guards who had been there were Marco’s friends, so he had to know.
“They all thought Sebastian was going to announce he was planning to take over, and Oswald told them Sebastian might deny or blame someone else for Aaron’s kidnapping to get the others who weren’t there when Aaron was taken and might still be supporting him to accept his leadership. He made them believe Sebastian would get rid of Aaron by faking an accident or something. Oswald just came with everyone and pretended everything was okay. He insisted they have an escape plan in case they were attacked by someone or something went wrong. They didn’t see anything weird in that.”
“And you believe them?”
Marco nodded. “Our guards told me that once everyone saw Sebastian, they weren’t nervous, but Oswald seemed to be a little twitchy. The guards were waiting to get him inside so he wouldn’t run, but when Sebastian announced he was officially their leader, Oswald apparently looked completely shocked. He was in between the crowd and was moving toward the exit, so when Sebastian started to speak about a traitor in their midst, everyone panicked because they thought he was planning to kill them all. Oswald knew the code to the door somehow, and we hadn’t had time to change it because we would’ve needed Aaron’s verification, and without it, it would’ve taken hours or days... Everyone rushed outside, and the guards couldn’t shoot because we needed them alive. They didn’t have their weapons though, but the way they rushed out of there... It was hard to see anyone. Thank God you caught Oswald, but we still have nothing.”
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I leaned on the sturdy desk that was in the middle of the room, then slammed my fist against it. “What are we going to...?” Straightening my back, I looked up at Marco. “Come with me.”
A frown creased his brow. “Where are you going?”
“To question Oswald.” Just because my brothers needed a break didn’t mean Oswald deserved one too. I supposed Dylan was still busy with the others, and my parents wouldn’t be coming here since they were out there looking for any clues about Tony’s whereabouts.
“Okay.” Marco followed me into the hallway, and after we descended the stone stairs, we ended up in a dark hallway lit up only by electric lanterns. I assumed Roberto must have insisted on those. He’d wanted this place to look like a real medieval dungeon. There were two guards in front a heavy black door. One of them was Todd, and the other one was one of my father’s most loyal guards. We couldn’t really trust many people these days.
“Open the door,” I ordered, and Todd lifted an eyebrow at me, but he obeyed.
Marco and I entered a spacious, dark, windowless room. There were plenty of what looked like torture chairs and devices scattered around, but Oswald
was hanging from a hook in the middle of the room, his feet barely touching the ground. Someone had taken off his shirt, and his face and chest were bloody, his head hanging low. It didn’t look like he was conscious.
“Should I...?” Marco asked, and I raised my finger to shush him.
“Stand over there. I’ll tell you if I need anything.” I noticed a bucket of water and picked it up, splashing its contents all over Oswald. He jerked his head, his eyes flying open, and blinked at me with a gasp.
“Where’s Aaron?” I asked, dumping the bucket on the floor, where it clattered against the cold stone. It was quite chilly in here actually, but my boiling blood would surely keep me warm.
Oswald grimaced as he laughed. “Now they sent a woman to question me? Fucking amateurs. I’ll never tell you anything. Any of you.”
“You know where he is.” I came closer, glaring at him.
“Screw you, bitch,” he spat out.
“How’s your leg?” I said with a smile. He was trying really hard not to move it, and his pants were soaked with blood, but he didn’t say anything, just clenched his jaw. I kicked at his wound and he roared in pain as he dangled from the chains, which were biting into his wrists.
“It doesn’t matter what you do to me,” he said after a few moments. “I can take it all, and if I don’t contact my boss in about... I don’t know... a few minutes or an hour... I can’t quite keep track of the time in here... he’ll know something’s wrong and he’ll kill your...”
He didn’t finish the sentence because I struck him in the chin, my knuckles throbbing. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he winced, but there was a small smile stretching across his lips.
“If you give me a phone, I can call him and extend Aaron’s suffering for a bit longer,” he said.
As if I’d ever let the asshole speak to his bosses. He probably had secret codes that he used when contacting the Ferlantes. “What did the Ferlantes do for you or promise to you that you’re willing to go through all of this for them?”
“You’d never understand. You betrayed your family,” he said.
“If I don’t find Aaron in time, I’m going to track down anyone you ever loved or cared about... or even just talked to nicely... and I’m going to cut their throats,” I said, just to see his reaction. There was a high chance he was doing this to protect someone either from the Ferlantes, or the Ferlantes were offering their protection to that person in exchange for Oswald’s loyalty. His face was expressionless, aside from a little gritting of teeth that could as well be from pain. Great. He was nowhere near breaking.
I walked over to a table that was filled with various things and picked up a knife, raising it so it glistened in the scarce light.
“You shouldn’t play with knives. You could hurt yourself.” Oswald chuckled.
“No, I think I’m just going to hurt you.” I strolled over to him, holding up the knife.
Oswald seemed to brace himself, and then I sliced across his chest, not too deep, but enough to make him hiss as blood surged from the wound. “How many of these do you think it takes before a person dies?” I trailed the blade down his stomach and he recoiled, but there was nowhere to go.
With his wounded leg, a broken nose, bruises, and who knows how many injuries my brothers had inflicted that I couldn’t see from the outside, he didn’t have enough strength to kick out at me or pull himself up. I ran the knife over his skin again, and I had a feeling the room had gone even colder, or maybe that coldness was coming from inside me.
“Tell me where Aaron is, and maybe I’ll stop.” I circled him, making a cut here and there, careful not to go too deep or to slash in the wrong place. The last thing I wanted was for him to bleed out too soon. But aside from a lot of moaning and crying out, he still refused to yield. I turned toward Marco. “Take his pants off,” I said.
Oswald’s eyes widened slightly, but he quickly masked whatever emotion had flashed through his eyes. Marco gave me a questioning look, but he made his way to Oswald and unbuttoned his pants, tugging them until they were pooled at Oswald’s feet. Oswald had squeezed his eyes shut when Marco had peeled the fabric off the wound on his leg.
“These too?” Marco glanced at me, and I nodded. Oswald jerked backed as his underwear joined his pants. I picked up a police baton that was on the table and pressed it against my palm, giving Oswald a wide smile. Marco stepped away as I inched closer to Oswald.
“You can’t...” Oswald started to say, but I didn’t feel like listening as long as he wasn’t saying anything about where to find Aaron and my brother. I brought the baton down on his penis with all the force of my anger and desperation, smashing at him again and again until he screamed so loudly I was sure everyone heard him. I stopped to catch my breath, gently pressing the baton against his hip, and he flinched so hard that a smile built up on my lips.
“Tell me where Aaron is,” I repeated, tracing the baton across his skin and moving behind his back. His whole body shuddered as I pressed the baton against his ass. “If you think you’re going to get a quick death, think again. It’ll be weeks or months... After all, without Aaron, there’s nothing for me to do.”
“You... wo...” he breathed.
“Oh, yes, I would.” I circled around him and stopped right in front of him so I could see the look in my eyes. “Can’t you see I’m capable of anything for the ones I love? And if you take that away from me... I know my family’s men, along with Sebastian’s and Lora Hulsey’s, will hunt down every single member of the Ferlantes until there’s nothing left, and I... I’ll have to take my anger out on someone.” I batted my eyelashes at him, and his startled gaze didn’t leave mine.
The Ferlantes didn’t know Lora would be joining in, now did they? And with the Viteris men being led by Sebastian... Maybe Oswald had expected Sebastian to kill all of Roberto’s men to make sure they weren’t traitors, but if that didn’t happen and we all banded together... The Ferlantes were done. There was no way for Oswald to warn them about it. They couldn’t have foreseen Lora going against her sister, or Sebastian accepting to work with us or being able to take over just like that without proof of Aaron’s death or anything that granted him authority over everything the Viteris had.
“You poor thing...” I placed my hand on his bruised cheek, making him flinch. “You’ll suffer here and the Ferlantes will fall. If I’m in the mood, I might bring you a video or a head of someone you care about. What do you say? Since you don’t want to tell me anything and we’ll be spending a lot of time here together... I should try to get to know as much of you as possible.” I glanced at the baton. As I disappeared from view, Oswald tugged at his restraints despite the pain. Impressive. He still wouldn’t break.
“Marco,” I said. “I have an idea. Do you think we can get that drug Roberto used on Aaron and give it to this guy? He wouldn’t even know he was talking to us and would tell us everything.” I gave Marco a sign to agree with me and hoped he wouldn’t say that giving some drug to Oswald now would more likely kill him or make him even more obstinate in his decision to keep quiet. Maybe there was something that could cause hallucinations or confusion, but that could take time and we’d have to be very careful. Besides, he could give us the wrong information if he was under the influence of something.
“Um, yeah.” Marco watched me carefully. “Should I go get it?”
“Yeah, but wait... that drug takes only half an hour to take effect. I doubt the Ferlantes will panic that much over Oswald being gone, and we still have a few hours before our deadline to get Tony back expires, right? We can have some more fun with him... The more pain he’s in, the better.”
“No...” Oswald whispered, and I was sure that at this point he wasn’t able to tell if we really had such a drug or not. He was barely staying conscious, let alone anything else.
“Come here and hold him. I think he’s going to like this...” I prodded Oswald with the baton, then lowered it to his ass crack. “You know, Oswald, I won’t blame you if you scream
your head off, because this is going to hurt like a bitch, and I really don’t have any lube...”
“No!” Oswald cried. “God. No.”
“He already likes the idea,” I said to Marco, who gripped Oswald’s waist to keep him from thrashing.
“No....”
I pushed the baton harder against his ass. He had to know there was no way out of this, and if he thought we had some drug that could get him to babble out who knows what... Maybe he’d finally talk and save himself. He had to know we’d go rescue Aaron and Tony immediately and would give him a reprieve, or maybe even a quick death.
“Please,” his voice was barely audible.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
“Yes, but don’t... don’t...”
I lowered the baton and came to face him. “This better be good or I...”
“He’s... in the... Paytons’ area,” Oswald choked out. “Aaron.... he’s... at Gale Payton’s house.”
“Which one?” The Paytons probably had multiple houses. “What about my brother? Is he there too?”
“At number... four. Yes...”
“If you’re lying...”
“I’m... not...”
I dropped the baton on the floor, rushed for the door, and broke into a run. We had to locate that house, and the Paytons and Ferlantes wouldn’t know what hit them until it was too late.
Chapter 17
The preparations for the rescue mission had passed in a blur. It hadn’t been hard to locate the house Oswald had mentioned, but if we wanted to attack and get Aaron and Tony in time, we had to act fast, and there had been no time to check whether Oswald was telling the truth or not. We’d simply gathered all our allies together and decided to surprise attack them.
“They’ll probably see us coming,” Michael said as he holstered another gun. He, Marco, a few other guys, and I were crammed in the SUV that was racing across the city toward the Paytons’ area. “Or their guards will alert them of our presence. If they have a lockdown protocol...”
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