If this was a debt Henry couldn’t pay, then chances were I was dealing with a hit that ordered Victor to kill them.
I got to the mental hospital. This place gave me the fucking creeps. Wigged me out and made my skin crawl.
That it was nighttime, or in the early hours of the morning, made it worse.
The hospital had been closed for over twenty years. It took the worst kind of patients, and I heard it closed because they’d practiced all manner of inhumane techniques on people. Lobotomies, torture, electrocution therapy, and fuck, just turning people into mindless zombies with all manners of medication to fuck you up.
It was the sort of place you’d expect in a horror film.
Vines grew all over the premises, all over the warning and hazard signs that said Keep Out.
I went through an opening in the gate and crept up to the nearest window.
Nothing inside.
Walking around to where the lake coursed around the property, I saw two parked cars. Black sedans, typical mobster cars.
I looked across the lake, where the building connected to another by bridge. There was a small light on in one of the windows. Not bright enough to illuminate the room. Made me think it was a candle from the flicker.
Damn it, I wished this wasn’t happening. Anybody else, and I could be more confident in the way I was going to handle this. But Victor, shit, the guy was as unpredictable as water.
I quickly called Claudius. He answered on the first ring.
“What’s up, bro?”
“I need you. Henry’s family got taken by Victor.”
“On my way. I’ll grab Maurice and the boys.” He hung up.
I proceeded with stealth and managed to get across the bridge. There were no guys outside looking out. That bothered me more than if there were, because it told me Victor didn’t need lookouts.
I got in. The stench of the place hit me hard.
There was something in the air, like chlorine or something bleachy combined with mold.
It made me want to reach for something to cover my nose to prevent me from inhaling too much of the air.
Voices echoed and came closer. I hid in the crevice of a dark corner, my hand on my piece, ready to use it.
Two men walked past me without seeing me and went straight outside.
I held my breath and pulled in another when I moved to go.
The next corridor wound down onto a lower ground floor, and raised voices, crying and screaming, resonated from the basement. I followed and stopped abruptly in my tracks, trying my hardest not to scream out.
Victor had both Henry and Lydia tied to ropes, suspended in the air.
The kids were sitting in the center of the room tied together and screaming for their parents.
Henry seemed to be trying to swing himself across to Lydia on the ropes. My voice choked up as I looked at Lydia’s foot and saw that it was missing. Blood poured from her leg, and she looked so pale. Pale like she was going to faint, but she reached for Henry every time he swung toward her.
Instinct made me want to shoot down the ropes they swung from, but instinct also got a grip of me and made me assess what I could see before taking action.
“Catch my hand, please,” Henry called to Lydia.
“I’m trying,” she replied in an agonized wail.
“Sooo entertaining,” boomed a voice from the corner. Victor, the bastard, came into view.
Him. That was who I needed to aim for, and this would be over.
But wait, what were Henry and Lydia doing?
I chanced moving closer and saw it. One of those old-fashioned-looking bombs was nestled between the children, where they sat back to back, and the wires were wrapped around the rope that bonded them together.
“Come on, Henry. All you have to do is give your wife the key, and she’ll be able to unlock the lock securing her ropes, defuse the bomb, and save your kids,” Victor chimed.
I looked at Lydia’s ropes and couldn’t see a lock.
The bomb, that was what I needed to get to. But how, and where was the detonator?
Victor wasn’t holding anything. Maybe it was in his pocket.
I couldn’t think straight. This was maddening and sickening. Lydia looked worse. Too much blood loss.
I had to move. Even if Henry got the key to her, she didn’t look like she’d be able to do anything.
I raised my gun, aimed and fired at Victor.
Fuck, the bastard moved, and the bullet simply grazed his shoulder. Or was that my nerves? I was usually a straight shot.
By the time he looked in my direction, I’d leapt over the rail and landed on the floor below.
The kids were who I was going for.
Henry would want me to save them. If I had kids, I would want my best friend to save them over me. Wife next.
Victor fired at me and missed. I ran to the kids and picked them both up.
“Well, if it isn’t Lucian Morientz,” Victor bellowed at the top of his lungs.
I didn’t stop to acknowledge him; I continued running with the kids down into a hall and left them there.
“Uncle Luc, he gave us something strange to eat,” Jack told me.
“Don’t worry, son, let me get this thing off you.”
“Uncle Luc, it’s making me feel sick,” Susanna cried, her little blond ringlets shaking as she spoke.
“Don’t worry, baby girl. I got you. I’ll get you ice cream when we get home.” Jesus Christ, the ropes were so tight. I had to abandon the ropes for the bomb.
And fuck, luck had to be a bitch. The timer said five minutes.
I managed to unravel the fucking thing but only to get a kick in my face when I turned around.
One of Victor’s lackeys. It was a burly, Hulk-ish-looking man who snarled at me. Like a bull, I rammed into him and didn’t stop moving when I made contact. We both fell over into a heap, and the guy went for me. I rounded my gun on him and fired a shot, popping him right between the eyes.
Damn fucktard.
He slumped in a heap, blood spurting from his head.
I proceeded back to the room, the bomb in hand.
Victor stood by Lydia and Henry.
“Luc, just take the kids and go,” Henry wailed.
Lydia looked like she was gone.
“Yes, Luc, try and take the kids and go.” Victor smiled, then did the vilest thing by licking the blood that now dripped from Lydia’s foot. “I need more iron-filled blood, I think,” he announced, and just like that, he shot her straight in her heart.
Henry screamed and looked at me. He was about to say something, but Victor shot him in his head. Killing him.
Killing my best friend.
I dropped the fucking bomb and ran to get the kids.
I would have at the very least two minutes to get out of here, and I was a few seconds ahead of Victor.
When I got to the kids, the first thing I noticed was that they looked pale and limp.
Shit. What did he give them to eat?
I gathered them up anyway, slinging them both over my shoulder. The notion caused Susanna to throw up.
“You won’t make it,” called Victor from behind us in a singsong voice.
Something sharp and stinging ripped through my arm. He shot me.
It wouldn’t stop me though. I ran with the kids out to an exit. It led out to the lake. I ran as far away as I could and put the kids down by a tree.
“Kids, stay down. Please,” I begged them.
Obediently, they lay on the ground, terror on their little faces.
When Victor fired more shots our way, I sprang into action.
He was standing in the doorframe, now waving his gun at me and laughing.
I propelled myself forward and fired at him, missing when he jumped out of the way.
“Too slow, mobster boy, or should I call you Raphael’s lapdog?”
I was mindful of the time. That bomb would go off any minute now. Any minute. Either I had to end him now or le
t the bomb do it.
“Fuck you. Come and face me like a man and stop this shit.”
“With pleasure. I’ll come and face you with pleasure,” Victor snarled.
He’d killed Henry and Lydia. God, if only I’d gotten here sooner, I could have saved them. I couldn’t believe the horror of what I was facing. And the kids. What was I going to tell them? I wasn’t going to be a hero and fight him like the man I challenged him to be. I had the kids to worry about. I had to get them out of here and to the nearest hospital.
As soon as Victor took his next step, I whipped out my gun and shot him several times right in his chest. The bullets knocked him back and caused him to fall back inside the building. At the same time, the bomb went off. Just like I’d hoped. The blast was so strong it swallowed up the area where Victor had fallen, and fire bellowed all around it like an inferno.
I’d jumped back managing to shield myself from it all, but the heat burned my skin.
I looked back at the rumble of walls falling and crumbling around the fire but wasted no more time looking. The kids. I had to get to them. I ran back to where I’d left them, thanking God I’d managed to get them to safety. I couldn’t even grieve for Henry or Lydia. Couldn’t think about what had happened not even five minutes ago.
I held back on my thanks to God, however, when I saw Jack had slumped, seeming lifeless.
And… there was froth at his mouth.
“Jack.” When I touched him, his body was clammy and cold. And there was no pulse.
Susanna was whimpering, and then she passed out.
Fuck, it had to be poison. Victor gave my kids poison.
“Jack, Susanna.” I cried, grabbing them both, but they were lost to me.
I tried everything to revive them, but to no avail. Even after Claudius came with the boys, I still tried.
Paramedics came with an ambulance, confirming their deaths, and even then, I wouldn’t believe it. I refused.
It couldn’t be that I lost them. Just like that, they were gone. A whole family that were like my own.
A whole family that I loved. Each and every one of them.
Henry, his wife, and his babies.
My babies.
It left a hole inside my soul that changed me forever.
Chapter 19
Amelia
My nerves…
My nerves and my heart stilled.
Luc told me. He told me what had happened the night Henry and his family were murdered by Victor.
God, what evil.
What evil.
I knew we were up against a complete psycho, but hearing all that happened really brought it home to me and opened my eyes.
I could see now why Luc behaved the way he did. Why he feared for me, why he said what he said.
That he had to kill Victor when he next saw him. That he would cut off his head.
Wow. Déjà vu was certainly doing a number on me.
He sounded like someone else I knew. Like my father. But this was worse.
This was the man I… this was the man I loved.
I loved him, and I didn’t want there to be any form of darkness in him.
That darkness, however, didn’t come from being a mobster or living a life of crime.
It didn’t come from wanting to change, or not wanting to change.
I knew it came from a place of fear. A place of primal instinct that would make anyone protect their loved ones.
It was normal. It was human. I couldn’t blame him for that.
I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way, especially when I would do the same.
We’d sat on the bedroom floor on the soft plush carpet for hours, wrapped in the sheet from the bed.
I’d listened to him talk, telling me the story. I’d expressed how sorry I was that it all happened, and then we kind of drifted into a dead silence.
Luc looked worried beyond measure.
“You know, it’s not the same thing.” I broke the silence.
He’d been resting his head on the edge of the bedframe and lifted it to regard me.
“What’s not the same, doll?”
“Changing. Changing is different to doing what you have to.”
“I should want to call the cops though, right?” He smirked. “You did.”
“That was different. I am a cop, and I didn’t know the extent of what you’d been through with Victor. A person like that can’t be reasoned with.”
He straightened and reached for my chin. “Doll, tell me this. If he walks into the room right now, would you think it reasonable for me to pull my gun out and shoot him? Just like that, no questions, no actions, or even if he was asking for forgiveness.”
I looked at him long and hard, wondering what to say. I didn’t think I could do it. It was killing out of context.
“I…”
“You wouldn’t. I know you wouldn’t, but I would do it because I know what he’s capable of, Amelia. I couldn’t save those kids. They were like my own. Their parents were killed, building blown up, Victor supposedly dead, and I still lost them. The bastard had no intention of allowing anyone to live that night, but yet he gave a mother hope that she could save her children with his sick game.”
I nodded, understanding. “Luc, I’m not going to understand the way you feel because it didn’t happen to me. I wasn’t there. I couldn’t kill him on sight, but I would understand if you did. There would be no question of why if you did it.”
“I should go after him. I can’t risk him getting you. I can’t feel that way again. Doomed and helpless. That is not me, and I live the way I do so that I don’t have to be this useless person.”
“I get it.”
“I don’t want you to judge me for it, though, or think that I wouldn’t change for you. I would do anything for you.”
Hearing that moved me to him. I shuffled into his lap and slipped my arms around his neck.
“This is what I want. Do what you think is right.” I reached for his jaw and stroked it. “I know you, and I don’t need to question you or your actions. If you promise me that you’ll always do what you think is right, then I’ll know it was the right thing to do.”
That was it, our compromise. My compromise.
Me meeting the point at which I could understand him, understand everything. I could understand and separate this vision I had of what mobsters were.
This wasn’t him being a… criminal. It was him trying to protect me, doing what he thought was best to protect me from a madman.
No mistake about it, Victor was a madman and deserved to be stopped, to be put down for what he did.
It wasn’t just Henry and his family, although it was enough. Victor killed Cole too.
Cole had such a promising future, and it was over in a few days. I would never forgive myself for his death. I had self-blame too.
If Cole hadn’t known me, if Cole hadn’t helped me the way he always had, Victor and his men wouldn’t have gotten to him.
This was war, and sometimes in war there were no sides to choose. It was action. Doing whatever achieved the best result.
When I looked at Luc, my heart lifted, grabbing on to hope.
Look at me, I’d found love. I felt what Millicent described. The knowing and value of true love.
Had to be true love because I’d never felt this way about anyone, and there was that feeling again. Of knowing it would only be with him.
“I appreciate that, Amelia,” he breathed, pressing his forehead to mine.
“I love you.” I could say it so freely now.
He smiled at me. “I love you. I’m not going to get tired of saying that.”
“Me neither.” I shook my head. When his smile turned into that sexy smirk and he ran his hands over the hard nub of my nipple as it brushed against his chest, I knew what was coming next.
Morning was just about to break. We should at least get back to bed to catch some sleep before we set out to make the plans I knew we had to and get back into
serious mode.
But that wasn’t happening any time soon.
When Luc and I were together, it was this crazy passion fest where we belonged to each other and answered only to the call of need.
The pissed-off-as-hell look Dad gave me as Luc and I entered the garden reminded me of the summer before I left home, when I’d taken his car and driven to a party.
Never made it to the party though. I’d crashed into the front of a boutique on Main Street.
He’d grounded me for the whole summer, casting a dark cloud over my social life. The expression he sported on his face now was perhaps ten times worse.
It had just gone past lunchtime, and we’d found out on arrival that Claudius and Marcus had gathered in the garden with my father to wait for us. Dad had quite rightly called a meeting to make plans to go to the facility.
Millicent said everyone had been waiting for at least two hours.
What made matters worse was that Dad had clearly arranged the seats so that Luc and I wouldn’t be sitting together. We came out here with Luc holding my hand like he always did only to be separated like we were a bunch of teenagers.
I had to sit between Dad and Marcus, and Luc next to Claudius, who had a bright conspirator smile on his face.
This was my first time meeting with Marcus in God knew how long, and I didn’t need the embarrassment. I’d seen him a few times when I was so young, the memories were all foggy.
Claudius chuckled, drawing my attention to him. I knew from the other day, though, that he was the kind of guy to point out the obvious and embarrass you even more. It amused him.
“That good, huh?” He smirked.
Luc looked at him with fierce eyes. “What was that good?” he challenged.
I thought that Luc would have known his brother better and not taunt him.
“The sex,” Claudius replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
I’d never seen Luc blush before, and I knew I must have gone bright red. My cheeks heated up the minute he said that.
I glanced at Marcus to see that he was already looking at me. He looked just like Luc, or rather Luc really looked like him. The younger version. Same piercing blue eyes. Same prominent, clear-cut sculptured features.
Mafia Scars (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 2) Page 17
