Page 21 of His Solace

“No,Nicolais crazy. Posy is perfection,” Natale comments and continues to walk ahead of us while laughing.

“What’s going on?” I ask, stopping Domino from following Natale, with a hand on his arm.

Sighing, he stares up at the sky with his hands on his hips. “Nicola is a fucking handful. The girl is determined to drive me insane.” I remain silent; he knew this when he met her. “She wants more kids. She wants to travel. She wants…”

“What?” I ask when he pauses for too long.

“She wants to help Papa.”Ah, the family business.

“You’re afraid she’ll get hurt.” Since meeting Nicola, our Papa has dedicated a lot of time to finding lost children.

“I’m afraid she’ll terrorize the country and get herself locked up again.” Dom finally looks at me, and I see the stark fear in his eyes as he confesses, “She won’t last in prison again.” Despite her previous incarceration taking place in a juvenile center, she went through hell. I understand his concern.

“Compromise with her.” He gives me a look that says that’s not possible with his woman. “Tell her, for every child she saves, she has to give you one. No searching while pregnant.”

“She’s the one who wants the kids. She’d only be getting what she wants.”

I laugh at him. “No, Dom. You want her knocked up just as much. Besides, you know Papa would never allow anything to happen to her. And who says you can’t be there with her? Mama would kill to have those babies around more often.”

“So she can spoil them even more?” Shaking his head, Dom looks at me. “If marrying Isabel is what you really want, you know I’ll support you.”

“I know.” Seeing Natale waiting at the building where Father Cassio is being held, I nod towards him. “I think he’s impatient.”

“Posy and Gia have tamed him in ways I never thought I’d see.”

Chuckling, we head over. “He’s a hard one to crack,” I tell Natale. I wasn’t pleased I had to cause so much damage to the asshole simply to discover where his men were hiding Isabel.

“Those are the best ones.” Natale’s sadistic grin promises worse than I have yet to deliver to the religious man. “Father Cassio!” his voice booms as we enter and close the door.

“Santi’s going to be pissed he missed this,” Dom mutters next to me.

“Bria and Bella Marino, where are they?”

Maso and Donato have spent the last day searching and finding half a dozen children from the files so far, but these twins that Isabel mentioned haven’t been identified yet. And what’s worse is there is no information on who bought them. Which makes me wonder if they weren’t killed instead of sold.

“I don’t–” Natale cuts him off with a whip across his chest. His scream echoes around the room, but with the soundproof walls, nobody else will hear him. “Don’t act stupid, Father. We know you orchestrated every kidnapping, every sale, and everything in between. We have people looking for each child that ever came into your care. You won’t know relief until we have the answers we’re looking for.”

“I don’t know,” he hisses, drool dripping from his mouth to mix with his piss on the ground.

“Father.” I kneel in front of him, a pair of clippers in my hand again. “Do you remember last time?” He whimpers as his gaze lands on the tool I hold. “Think about it; tell us where the girls are.”

“I need a minute.” His breathing grows heavy as he leans his head back to recall. “It was so long ago.” The answer further ignites the “kid” killer’s rage as he draws the whip across Cassio’s thighs three times in quick succession. “Okay, okay. There was a set of brothers from Malta. They wanted to keep everything off the books. They each took a girl. I don’t know where exactly, other than they were last located in Malta.”

Domino leaves to call our brothers. They’ve been in Rome searching for the girls, but clearly, they’re on the wrong path. “Who else is involved in this, Cassio? What other churches are stealing and selling young girls?” I know there must be more. There always is.

“There are six more churches. Hundreds of children.” Staring into his eyes, I search for the truth, and for once, I believe the man. He gives a list of parishes involved and the names of every person helping from each.

“I’ll call Santi. Everyone should be here.” Walking out, I contact my brother, leaving Natale with the priest. I have no doubt the kid will finish the man off. A death he’s earned.

“Yeah?” Santi answers on the first ring.

“Time to come to Catania. We’ve got work to do.”

“We’ll be there tonight.”

* * *

Isabel

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