Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Chapter 76
Zola
“Calm down, everybody. Stop crying my dear Zola,” Ugo advised calmly.
I took a deep breath and looked at him.
He smiled in a friendly fashion and turned to Dante. “Here’s the deal. You are both going to die. There is no getting away from that, but how Zola dies will be decided by you, Dante. Will she have a quick death? Or would you prefer to watch her suffer the slow agonizing death of being hacked piece by piece? I see you didn’t like her chair being kicked so I should warn you now the cutting process could go on for hours.”
I gasped with fear. Dante’s head was bent so I couldn’t see his expression, but I could imagine it being contorted with impotent fury.
“The way to spare her excruciating pain is to simply tell me where my son is being held. Or … I start hacking her to death.”
I felt my soul crumble further into pieces as an odd silence fell upon the room. It was so quiet I could hear my heart racing and my blood pounding in my ears.
One of the men came forward and I was able to see what was in his hands and I felt dizzy with fear. It was a machete, but I had never seen any blade look dirtier or more rusted than what he held in his hand.
Ugo took the weapon and admired it with the glee of a child, and for the first time, I could see just how wicked of a person he truly was.
“It's blunt,” he said, “as blunt as it can be, so I can only imagine just how long it's going to take to hack even one of your delicate limbs off, and we have so many body parts to go. This could be a long night and an interesting one too.”
I knew he meant every word he said. I knew then we were both going to die. Let him have his son. Perhaps he would let us die in each other’s arms. I told Dante once that I would go anywhere with him, and really meant it. We would hold hands and go together …
Then I heard a familiar voice. A voice I would never forget as long as I lived. Tommy. He was not looking at me but at Ugo. He looked subservient and respectful. I couldn't stop myself from turning toward Dante in shock, but he was staring at Tommy, his face white and blank with pain, shock, and betrayal.
Ugo lifted his gaze to settle it upon me, and then he handed the blade over to Tommy. "Why don't you start the show? Nothing too drastic. Maybe a finger. He needs to know we mean business."
Tommy looked at me. I frowned at him in disbelief. I couldn't believe what he was about to do.
"Hold onto her chair," he told a man who was standing in the corner.
“Wait,” Dante screamed.
But the machete had already swung and hacked into the side of the neck of the man behind my chair. I couldn’t even scream as the blood gushed out and splattered all over me and Tommy. Calmly he reached up and wiped the blood off of his face in irritation. The other men in the room were frozen with astonishment.
"Fuck, this blade's blunt."
Ugo shot up to his feet. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he bellowed.
Wordlessly, Tommy swung the blade. It struck Ugo’s shocked face with an awful clang. His face split into two. Bleeding profusely, he fell to the floor.
"The feds are never to be trusted," Tommy said with annoyance as he kept his foot pressed down on Ugo's neck. Underneath Tommy’s shoe Ugo struggled, writhed, and slipped around in his own blood … like a dying fish. He made strange gurgling noises in his throat, and then he became still.
"I gave them information about all of this on a fucking platter,” Tommy continued, “and they still couldn’t get their damn act together.” He took his foot off and looked at Ugo’s still body. “Should have done this years ago. Fucking asshole.”
“Quick, free me," Dante urged.
Chaos was breaking outside as men began to shout and hurry toward the room. Tommy moved swiftly to lock the door, and they began to bang on it.
“Tommy,” a man yelled from the other side. "What the hell is going on? Open this fucking door now.”
Tommy sliced through Dante’s zip ties then he quickly cut through my binds too. “We don’t have much time. They’ll shoot the door down soon.”
Dante came to me and held me close. “Where’s Giotto?”
“I’ve got him,” Tommy said. “He’s safe.”
Something akin to the sliver of a smile curved the corners of his mouth. “I thought you’d betrayed me.”
“I gave you my word, and my word is always good. If I didn’t appear to betray you, there would have been no way in hell to get you out of this mess.”