“Come let’s go. You will see.”
Tension-filled anxiety consumed me for the whole journey.
We went to the casino. The minute we turned down to the castle courtyard a lump swelled in my throat.
It swelled my throat right up and I couldn’t even swallow.
I’d been in here only once and that was when Pa was refurbishing and I had to take the fitters in. I never went inside the whole place per se, just the foyer. Not behind the doors to the actual courtyard. I wasn’t allowed beyond that point. It seemed like the rules had been bent for me today.
Something had happened indeed.
Something bad.
I wouldn’t have just been allowed down here like this.
We walked down the hallway and into a large room.
I saw Frankie first and his face was suffused with a type of sadness I couldn’t quite describe. He looked away from me.
Vinny too. Freddo did not acknowledge me at all.
Pa stood by a little balcony and crooked his finger to me.
“Come here,” he said, voice cold.
I hesitated and stopped in my tracks.
“What is this Pa? I’m not usually allowed in here.” I had to ask.
“Today is different. There are exceptions today.” He nodded and beckoned me to come to him.
I went and as I got to him I saw that the balcony overlooked something that resembled a pit.
When I heard a low groan, curiosity made me go faster than my legs.
When I beheld what was down in the pit, I screamed.
It was the instinctive response to seeing Xander attached to a metal-like structure covered in blood.
He had on his boxers That was it. He’d been stripped of his clothes and blood literally took their place. Ropes bound his arms either side to the metal, his face was a complete mess.
Behind him was a guy I’d never seen before carrying what looked like a cat of nine tails. Attached to the ends were sharp knife-like blades. It was the kind of stuff you’d see in a horror film or a nightmare.
From the look of Xander it was very clear the instruments had been used on him over and over again.
This was insane. Pa had gone fucking insane.
“Pa, what are you doing, let him go!” I wailed.
Pa just laughed. “Jia, think of this as a parting gift I’m allowing. Your cooperation means he might die a little slower than intended. As in, I won’t pop a fucking bullet in his head in front of you.”
As I looked at my father I could see the monster in him was out in full force. There was no form of humanity left in him.
But then was there ever any in him to begin with?
Could never. A person could never do this to another.
Not after yesterday when Xander asked him to protect me.
This was not what you did to a man like that.
Adrenaline pushed me to Pa and I lashed out, punching and hitting him in his chest. It did nothing. Not one damn thing because Pa was an old, tough Mafia boss and a little woman like me, with her punches, couldn’t hurt him. Couldn’t even scratch him.
He grabbed my wrists and shook me hard. I actually thought he was going to hit me but he didn’t. He kept his promise to never do that again.
I wished he would hit me though. It would have been better than the viperous sting his actions gave me.
It would have been better than the soulless look he gave me.
In that moment I abandoned all love I had for him.
He squeezed my shoulders so hard I screamed again. It was Xander’s cry that stopped him.
It was a muffled tortuous wail.
“Leave …her!” he yelled. It sounded like it took everything out of him, everything poured out of him to say those words.
Pa let go of me but took hold of my right shoulder, shoving me hard against the edge of the balcony rail. I knocked my hip into it and it hurt like a bitch.
“Look at him Jia, take a real, looooong look at him. Can you see him?” Pa taunted, shaking me.
“Yes.”
“Girl, my love for you is my weakness. I look at you and I see your mother. It’s like the living incarnation of my Gabrielle. I’m clutching at everything I have inside me not to kill you both right the fuck now. Rest assured if you were not my daughter, and if you did not mean all that you mean to me, you would be dead. I’d kill you in front of him and make him watch.”
I believed him. I truly believed him.
“What did he do?” I asked, keeping up the pretense that I knew nothing.
“As if you don’t know,” Pa screamed, shaking me harder. He shook me so hard I thought I was going to hurl.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything,” I lied.
He glared at me seething. “Traitorous girl! You’re going to look at me and lie like that? Your own father. I give my life to protect you. I have given you everything so you could have a good life. You would lie to me and hide this thief.”
I gasped. He raised his hand to hit me and I stared deep into his eyes, holding his gaze and attention. It seemed like I must have reached something inside him because his hand stopped mid-way and he hovered over my face.
Instead of hitting me, he shoved me hard into the barrier again.
“Who is he, Jia? Who is he really?” Pa asked.
“Xander Cage. Pa, why would you think I know more?” Because I was his daughter and he’d gotten used to me for a lifetime and he knew when I was telling the truth and when I was lying.
He knew I was lying now.
“Jia, don’t fuck with me.” He put his finger up in front of my face. “Don’t fucking do it or play fucking games with me now. Not now! Now is not the time for shit. This man came to steal from me, and you’ve been screwing him behind my back for weeks. I saw you myself. You must know something. You two got close, too close. There’s no way you can tell me shit about not knowing anything, so talk.”
Talk…
No. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t say anything, just like I promised Xander. I promised him I wouldn’t say anything and today I knew more than I’d known when I made the promise.
At the time I just knew he wasn’t who he said he was. I suspected he was an agent of sorts. Yesterday Balthazar gave me confirmation. I even had the name of the people he worked for. I had it all. The specs and the details, all of it. It was enough to blow things out of the water. Not just for Xander, but for people I didn’t know who were involved.
The decision lay with me.
The minute I talked Pa would kill him and all that Xander worked for would be lost.
“Talkkkkkkkkk!” Pa screamed after the long gap of silence.
“I don’t know anything.” I shook my head. “We didn’t talk about work when we were together.”
“He must have said something to you.”
“He… he said nothing. We just liked being together.”
He shook his head at me. “Well let’s see if we can jog your memory.”
Pa gave a signal and the man near Xander switched on a button. As it came on, sparks of electricity rippled through him. He screamed and screamed. The screams and the sight took me and tears poured from my eyes.
Then as if that wasn’t bad enough, the guy lashed him across his back with the whip making him scream even more. They were going to kill him.
They were.
“Stop it! Stop it,” I bawled. “Papa stop it.”