Wrong place, Wrong time

17

Malcolm “The Smile” Fiorelli

The relief of seeing Lena being carried out of the room in the arms of Damiano’s most trusted men, is an unfamiliar but pleasant feeling. A true smile of pure joy finds my face. The real fun is about to begin, but before we let Weasel feel the wrath of The Dentist, we need some answers. The soldiers apprehending him place him down roughly on a chair. Damiano drags another chair over, to take a seat directly in front of Weasel. Isaac and Nico are seated on the edge of the desk, so I decide to go back to leaning against the wall.

“So, Weasel, let’s start out gently, shall we?” Damiano starts, getting himself comfortable. Wayne is right by his side, ready to do whatever he’ll be asked to do. “What’s your first name?”

“f**k you, I’m not telling you anything.” Weasel spits at him. Scarface nods to himself. He expected this. Almost all interrogations start out like this, which is also why I rarely do them. I don’t have the patience for nonsense, and there is nothing I hate more than someone wasting my time.

“Wayne.” Wayne nods at Damiano, simply stating his name. Wayne grabs Weasel’s injured hand and presses a thumb into his wound, making him yell out in pain.

“William! My name is f*****g William! Stop, just stop!” Efficient. Wayne releases his hand and steps back.

“Alright f*****g William, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Damiano asks. Isaac chuckles, I know he is laughing at ‘f*****g’. “Now, let’s get to the more relevant questions. Why are you running your father's trafficking ring?” Weasel scrunches his brows, seemingly confused.

“I’m not running his trafficking ring.” He laughs. Interesting, he’s not lying. Damiano looks towards me for confirmation, and I give him a nod.

“Then why is the ring still up and running?”

“Father sold the ring a week before his death.” The anger rises in Weasel again. He struggles against the soldiers who are keeping him firmly in place. “I know one of you did it!”

“He had to die.” I state. Weasel’s eyes shoot to me and he gulps. He doesn’t dare to provoke me with his disgusting words. Who’s a b***h now, huh?

“Your father has been snatching girls left and right, making the city into a shell of what it once was.” Damiano explains.

“My father didn’t take the girls. He just received them. The suppliers of girls are independent of the pimps.” Hm, I wonder who delivered Victoria to him then. It looks like Damiano is wondering the same thing. He rises from the chair and grabs Weasel by the nape of his shirt, slamming him into a nearby wall.

“Wait, wait! I’ll do whatever you want, I can help you!” Weasel pleads with him. What a pathetic little man.

“How do you know which supplier supplied a specific girl?” Damiano practically growls out. Weasel is pissing himself trying to avoid eye contact.

“I-I- don’t exactly know. I’m new to the field.” Damiano wraps a hand around his throat and squeezes. He starts to sputter and attempts to remove Damiano’s hand from his throat.

“I’m not asking you again.” Wayne hands him a gun. Weasel is trying to say something, and Damiano eases his grip, so he can breathe a little.

“System, there’s a system. I swear I don’t know the system, but I know there is one.” He heaves. “I overheard my father talk about it once, when one of the new girls tested positive for chlamydia.” Damiano releases him and Weasel drops to the floor like a bag of s**t.

“Bring him.” He orders Wayne. Wayne nods at his soldiers, and they haul Weasel out of the room.

“Oy, what about my birthday present?” Isaac whines. I pat his shoulder.

“Soon enough he’ll be all yours.” This turns his frown upside down. “Besides, you don’t kill in Canada.”

“Oh right. They’re too polite here.” He looks mortified with himself before exiting the room with Nico, and I follow right behind them. We walk down the hallway, out the door, and up the stairs. The fresh air fills my lungs and I take a long-awaited breath. There are quite a few trucks parked here, and dozens of soldiers standing around. Wayne really did bring the whole roster. I walk up next to him.

“Which truck is Lena in?” I ask. He taps his earpiece and asks his men. After receiving an answer he points to the truck with two soldiers guarding it. I should have guessed it, Isaac and Nico are already walking towards it.

“Keep Weasel far away from that one, keep him out of Lena’s sight.” I don’t care that Damiano is his boss, he’ll do as I say if he knows what’s good for him.

“Yes sir.” He walks off to coordinate the transportation. Damiano joins my side.

“Try not to scare my men half to death, will you?” He remarks, his voice dripping heavily with sarcasm. I smile and let out a little laugh. I turn my gaze back on the truck I know Lena is in.

“I’ll go check on Lena. Seems like Isaac and Nico didn’t waste any time.”

“I’ll come with you. Wayne is tying up the last loose ends, and then we're out of here.” We approach the truck, the soldiers nodding at us while stepping aside to let us enter. Isaac is seated on one of the benches, chatting away with two medics. Nico is standing close by sipping a coke.

“Where’s-“ Damiano doesn’t finish his sentence as he spots Lena. She’s asleep on Riggs’ shoulder. “How is she?”

“She hasn’t said much. Roman and Axel stitched up her thigh, and gave her something for the pain to ease her breathing. She took it like a champ but passed out right after.” I glance at the two medics, Axel and Roman. I send them a nod of appreciation.

“Her ribs are messed up, but we won’t know the extent of damage until we get her to our medical facility. Nothing else seems broken, the rest is superficial damage.” One of them elaborates. Noted.

“Switch with us.” I leave no room for discussion as I watch Riggs and whoever the hell the other guy is hesitate. I want to be here when she wakes up. I don’t want her to think we abandoned her. A look from Damiano has them convinced, and they carefully move, so we can replace them as her support. They help place her head softly against my arm, and she moves to make herself comfortable, but doesn’t awake. Wayne enters the truck shortly after, meaning everything is done, and we’re finally set to go. I feel the truck start moving, indicating the beginning of our long journey back to America. Nico takes a seat on the bench next to Isaac. Wayne occupies his other side along with the medics, Riggs and the other guy who was helping Lena. Isaac sends me a grin before switching his attention to Damiano.

Damiano “Scarface” Capone

“Always knew you were a true softie under all that anger.” Isaac says, briefly sending a glance towards Lena. I’m about to throw back an insult when Lena starts to twitch in her sleep. We all stay quiet and observe her.

“Please.” She starts begging. Her brows scrunch in discontent. “Stop!” She suddenly yells out and launches herself off the bench. Malcolm and Isaac are fast in action, and catch her before she lands on the floor. She fights and struggles against their hold as best as she can. Her breathing is turning labored again, her ribs most likely incredibly sore. I don’t know what to do in this moment. I feel my anger rising to the surface, not because of Lena freaking out, but because of what the fuckfaces probably did to her. She reminds me so much of my sister, Victoria. I loved my sister to death, our family was destroyed when they took her. I can’t imagine what they did to her, what they’ve done to countless girls and women. One thing is sure though, we’ll make them pay.

Lena continues to struggle, while the medics and Wayne have jumped in to help Malcolm and Isaac restrain her to prevent her from further injuring herself.

“Lena!” A powerful bark from Malcolm stops her frantic fighting. Her eyes are wide open, and she is breathing quickly and superficially. Her eyes water a fraction.

“Smallchair? Wha-?” He cups her face.

“Breathe, sweetheart. We’re not in the basement anymore. Weasel is gone, you’re safe.” He continues to provide her with comforting words, until she looks like she has calmed down enough to realize she’s free. Her eyes well up with tears, and she lets out a sob, even though she looks like she’s desperately trying to keep it in. The tears are coming on strong now. I’ve never been great with crying girls, not even my sister. I trust Malcolm, Isaac or anyone else present in this truck to handle this.

“We need to go get him.” Lena hiccups between sobs. Malcolm is still cupping her face, wiping her tears as they fall.

“Who, sweetheart?”

“The man. He had no eyes.” She shuts her eyes, as if she can see him right in front of her. “He- he had no fingers left.” Malcolm looks at Wayne for confirmation. If there was a dude in the basement with no fingers or eyeballs, Wayne would know about it. He gives an almost unnoticeable nod to confirm it. Christ. Malcolm pulls her close to his chest, and hooks one of his arms under her legs. He lifts her off the floor with the help from the others, who immediately follow his cue wordlessly. He places himself back down on the bench next to me with her on his lap. He tucks her head into his neck and cradles her, almost like a child. Her sobs continue and he encourages her to let it out. I lift her legs onto my lap and place a hand on her knee, I don’t even know if it f*****g helps or not.

“His family, what if his family is missing him?” She lifts her head from Malcom’s neck and sends him a look of pure devastation.

“We’ve got him, don’t worry sweetheart. We’ve got him.” She nods frantically in appreciation.

“Thank you.” Malcolm tucks her head back into his neck while she continues to thank him. She’s clutching her ribs and I signal for the medics to do something. They immediately get to work and provide her with more painkillers. They quickly enter her system, and she seems to relax more now. Nico and Isaac have been watching the whole ordeal tensely. After what seems like forever, she suddenly turns silent.

“She’s asleep, tired herself out.” Malcolm informs us, looking more relaxed.

“She’ll be okay, Nico. We’ll make sure of it.” Isaac tells Nico, who still hasn’t untensed and is keeping a watchful eye on her. I agree with Isaac, we’ll make sure she’s okay.

“The job is far from over, Wayne.” He looks at me and sends me a grin.

“Didn’t think otherwise, Capo.” Cheeky fucker.

“Was there really a guy without fingers and eyeballs?” Axel asks, one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah.” Wayne answers him. “He was there for a while, the decomposition was bad.” She never mentioned anything about the body, but she also didn’t want to tell us what they did to her.

“Weasel didn’t do that. No f*****g way.” I ponder out loud.

“I think you’re right. “ Malcolm agrees. “There’s much more to this than we first anticipated.” Isaac smiles sinisterly at Malcolm’s conclusion, loving the unsolved mystery already.

“My birthday keeps on getting better and better. Please leave Weasel to us when you’re done with him.” He nudges Nico to loosen him up. “You get first round. Time to show everything you’ve learned.” This does the trick for Nico, he finally shows a millimeter of smirk. Creepy fuckers.