Chapter 9
Dante
I slammed my car door. Lucio was already waiting for me at the entrance.
“You sure he’s one of them?”
My cousin nodded. “I’m sure. We caught him in the act.”
I started to unbutton my jacket as Lucio opened the door, allowing me to walk first. “Heroin?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Two blocks from Paradiso.”
I stopped abruptly and turned to face him. “The fucker tried to make a sale around the fucking corner from our restaurant?”
Lucio crossed his arms. “That, and he was luring in a group of girls.”
“Fuckers!” I turned and stomped down the hall, tossing my jacket to the ground. With every step, I felt my anger reach new fucking heights. How dared they? Did they really think we would allow them to continue poisoning our goddamn streets?
No fucking way.
I rolled up the sleeves of my white dress shirt. “Was he alone?”
Lucio still followed. “Yes.”
“Background check?”
“Done. The guy’s a nomad. No family, no ties.”
“Good. He won’t be missed, then.”
“Not likely. He’s just a low-life fucker with shit for brains.”
I snorted. “I’m starting to think the Mancusos prefer their employees stupid.”
“Dante. There’s something else.”
I stopped and faced Lucio. “What is it?”
“The girls he tried to sell to, they were only, like, fourteen years old. The motherfucker was trying to sell to goddamn children, man.” Lucio wiped a hand down his face before roughing it through his dark brown hair. “We need to do something.”
Worry lines formed grooves on my younger cousin’s forehead. In a lot of ways, Lucio was like me. Loyal, but he relied a lot on his instincts—which was why he was here with us in Boston, and not with my uncle and his family in New York. He came to visit a few months back, and when he heard about the drug problem the Mancusos were causing, he decided to stay and help. And by help, I meant he stayed to help me…in my way.
I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Tonight we bring the flames of hell down on this son of a bitch.”
Lucio nodded, and we entered the back room of the warehouse. I smiled when I saw the scene in front of me. A motherfucker tied to a chair, his wrists bound with ropes to the tops of his thighs. My little cousin was learning. He knew what I liked.
“You know why you’re here, right?” I approached the guy, and he lifted his head, his eyes already swollen from a heavy beating at Lucio’s hand, no doubt. Lucio might be my little cousin, but when it came to size, he was my equal. The guy spent more hours working out in the gym and fighting in steel cages than I did in the goddamn bar.
He spat out some blood but said nothing.
I walked over the table set up especially for me. I scanned the objects. “It’s my understanding you have no problem selling drugs to minors.”
“I have no problems selling drugs to anyone. I ain’t forcing no one to take it. It’s their choice.”