Chapter 29

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By the time we had reached the hospital they had been transported to, two had already been confirmed dead. I squeezed Lorenzo's hand in an attempt to comfort him, as we sat and waited for the chief medical examiner to return. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire before it could spread. Unfortunately, for our friends, they weren't so lucky.

After we waited for what felt like an eternity, the chief medical examiner approached us. "It took us some time to identify the bodies, but we can confirm that the two victims are Donny Caruso and Gabriel Mancini."

Lorenzo cursed, experiencing both a feeling of heartache that he had lost two of his men and relieved that his bestfriend Javier hadn't been one of them.

"And what of Javier D'Angelo?" I asked.

"The Doctor treating him informed me that he's currently in room 216."

Thanking the chief medical examiner, we took the elevator up to the second floor and raced to the room where Javier was being kept. His left shoulder down to his hand was covered in gauze, a couple of scraps and bruises marking his face.

"Javi!" I damn near jumped into his arms.

"Ow!" I let go immediately, an apology following suit. He chuckled, smiling as if he weren't currently bandaged up like a mummy. "Doc says I should be out of here in a day or two. They just want to monitor me for a bit."

I looked over at Lorenzo, who was still standing in the doorway. He hadn't moved an inch from where he stood, unable to look at his friend. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice low, frail, and filled with guilt. "You wouldn't have gotten hurt if I had kept my temper under control."

"It's not your fault, Enzo. Cosimo provoked you. You had every right to do what you did to that asshole. Your mother would be proud of you for sticking up for her and your wife. Hell, I'm proud of you."

My phone went off in my pocket, so I left the room to answer it and give them some time to talk alone. Pressing the phone up to my ear, I filled Marcellius in on everything that had happened so far. "Javi's a little banged up, but he'll be alright. Enzo's in the room talking to him now."

"That's good to hear."

"Yeah, it is. How's everything on your end?"

"Cesare's got his eyes on Cosimo as we speak. He's just waiting for the command to take him out."

"Where is he right now?" My phone buzzed a second later.

"I just sent you the details of his location. I'm assuming you want to kill him yourself?"

"Yep."

****

I lied to Lorenzo and told him that I was heading back to the house to pick up some clothes for Javier when really I left to go meet up with Cesare. "What is he doing?" I asked my brother, staring at Cosimo through the scope of my sniper Artemis.

Cesare closed his briefcase containing his own sniper and shrugged. "He's been on the phone for the last hour. Aloi's trying to hack into his phone so we can figure what he's saying and to who. I have a feeling this is far from over."

As soon as Cesare said that, gunshots were going off. My brother was hit in his chest and leg, bleeding out on the concrete floor of the warehouse we were hiding in.

I whipped around to see two men with guns aimed at the two of us. I looked to Cesare, who could barely keep his eyes open. "Cesare!" I called his name, lightly smacking his face to keep him from slipping into unconsciousness.

He didn't respond.

Tears blurred my vision as I reached for my gun, only to have it snatched from my hands and tossed far out of reach by one of the two men who ambushed us. Struggling against the man trying to grab me, I punched and kicked, using every defense tactic Lorenzo taught me to fight off my attackers.

I kicked one in the face and broke the arm of the other, rushing over to my brother's side. His eyes were closed, the color slowly draining from his face. "Cesare," I cried. He still didn't respond. "Damn it! I swear if you die on me..."

I couldn't stop my hands from shaking as I retrieved my phone from my pocket and quickly dialed Marcellius. He answered immediately, hearing me sniffle through the phone. "What's wrong, Roe?"

"W-We were attacked. And Cesare was s-shot and he's... he's not waking up."

"I'm on my-"

My phone was smacked out of my hands, Marcellius' voice being heard from a distant. "Rosalie? What happened? Rosalie talk to me!"

"Mar-" Something hard hit me in my head and I collapsed to the ground, my brother's voice the last thing I heard before darkness consumed me.

****

I woke up, my head throbbing and my vision still blurry. It took awhile for my eyes to adjust. But when my vision eventually returned, Cosimo was standing before me, a tablet in one hand and a jumper cable in the other.

I looked down, noticing I was dangling inches off the ground wearing nothing but my underwear. I slowly looked up, feeling a pain shoot through the tips of my fingers and down my arms. I was hanging almost a foot off the ground, chains chaffing the skin around my wrists.

All that surrounded me was a dark room and a table where a lamp sat as my only source of light. I brought my attention back to Cosimo, my body still weak from the blow to my head.

I eyed the two men who attacked me standing behind Cosimo, their guns drawn and their finger on the trigger just in case I cause them any trouble.

My eyes flickered back to Cosimo, who was typing something into a tablet, a robotic type voice overpowering the ringing in my ears. "Did you really think you could just come into my restaurant, assassinate my men, cut out of my tongue, and I won't seek vengeance?"

The old man roughly grabbed my chin and I spit in his face, shouting, "a fanabla(Go to hell)!"

He struck my face with the back of his hand, causing my head to jerk to one side and the taste of blood to fill my mouth. Blood dripped down my nose, the pain so strong that I almost didn't feel it.

One of the men still standing alert dialed a number from their phone and handed it to his boss. Lorenzo's voice boomed into the phone. "Ti ammazzo(I'll kill you)!"

"Enzo!" I sobbed.

His voice softened. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" I could hear it in his voice that he was trying to hide his fear in order to stay strong for the both of us.

But I wasn't worried. I knew he would come for me.

Cosimo typed something else into his tablet, the robotic voice echoing throughout the cold, dimly lit room. "She won't be for long." He poked and prodded me with the jumper cable, and I shrieked, the burning feel of electricity surging through me causing me to jerk violently.

"Rosalie!" Cosimo hung up, before Lorenzo could say anything more and continued his attack on my body with the jumper cable.

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