“I’m serious, Doe.”
“I know. And it’s scaring me. You’re scaring me.”
His grip on my arm tightened, lifting my shoulders. “Never be scared. Never show fear.”
I searched his face, wishing it wasn’t hidden behind the shadows of darkness. I wanted to see him clearly, to look at his face to find some sort of clue as to what was going on.
“Remember,” he started as he dragged his thumb down my lips, “I saidoutsideof the bedroom.”
Someone cleared his throat behind us.
Antonio stilled, and I saw Lucio standing a few feet away. “You ready?” he asked, and I noticed the blood on his shirt. My heart pounded against my ribs so hard it felt like it was about to rip from my chest.
Antonio took a step back and held out his hand. “Do not doubt your instincts.”
The way he stared at me, his eyes shining in the dark, he seemed excited…proud. Almost as if he had been waiting for whatever was about to happen for a very long time. But what? What was about to happen?
Cautiously, I placed one foot in front of the other. I did feel safe with Antonio, always. But there was this prickle of warning at the back of my neck, crawling down my spine. The further we walked, the more humid it became, the air making my skin feel clammy. The air felt stuffy, dusty, and I struggled to take one satisfying breath. Clearly, this warehouse wasn’t well ventilated, or maybe it was just abandoned and nobody cared about fucking fresh air.
We passed about six or seven men, each standing with their guns in hand.
I stepped closer to Antonio, needing to feel him. He had become my greatest source of security. Being near him, close to him, made me feel safe. Untouchable.
As we rounded the corner, I balked at the scene in front of me. It was a man, locked inside a steel cage, naked and filthy. The cage was small enough for him to be seated on a chair, his arms bound behind his back, ankles tied together.
“Antonio, what is this?”
Without stopping, he clutched my hand tighter, and only when we came within three feet of the cage did he finally answer. “Doe, meet Renato Da Silva.”
“I don’t understand.” I looked at him in question, my mind spinning with nothing but incoherent thoughts.
Antonio started to walk slowly, step by step, pacing around the steel cage, never taking his eyes off Renato. “He was there.”
“Where?”
“In your house. In your home.” More pacing. “While you were hiding beneath your bed, hearing your mother’s pleas, her screams—”
My heart thudded against my ribs, the memory causing my lungs to tighten.
“—this man was in your house, along with the other three men.”
I shook my head. “No. No. That can’t be right.”
“Your supposed angel,” he said it with a sneer, “let this one go. I’m not exactly sure why this one got a free pass, but the man who killed the other three men decided this one deserved to live.” Antonio stopped, looking straight at Renato with nothing but hate.
I narrowed my eyes when I turned to look at the man caged in behind the steel. “Why would you—”
“Don’t bother, Doe. The fucker doesn’t talk.” He looked my way. “I cut out his tongue.” He glanced back at Renato. “And then I had it stitched up again so the bastard doesn’t bleed to death.”
In shock, my feet feeling like they had been cemented to the floor, all I could do was stare at the man sitting in front of me. One would think the mere thought of a severed tongue would make my stomach turn, but it didn’t. I felt…nothing.
The lamp that hung from the ceiling cast a light over the cage, the gold specks in Renato’s green eyes illuminated, yet there was no mistaking the fear. The panic. The pain. Just like I felt the night my mother was murdered.
“Tell me,” I said to Antonio without tearing my gaze from Renato. “Tell me everything.”
Antonio stepped in beside me, his tall frame and heavy presence shielding me, strengthening me. “For some reason, the man who killed the other men let this one go. I don’t know why. Probably an associate or close relative. What I do know is,” he pointed towards the cage, “this motherfucker right here was the one who slit your mother’s throat.”
Red. That was all I saw.