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Ezra is waiting outside, and he doesn’t look happy. Lee turns to Donovan and says, “if there’s a higher power you believe in, I’d start praying to them right about now.”
Tears shine in Donovan’s eyes, but he doesn’t let them fall as he exits the car. As soon as he steps out, Ezra punches him in the face. Donovan falls to the ground with a thud, grunting and swearing.
“Take him to the basement,” Ezra growls. Lee and I hoist him up between us as we make our way inside. “And keep him quiet. I don’t want him to scare Maya.”
I grunt as I drag the man along beside me. I don’t know much about Maya, but Ezra told us about the first time she’d ever seen what he does in the basement, and how she’s avoided it ever since. Anyone with a weak mind or an innocent soul wouldn’t be able to stomach the kinds of things we do for a living.
“Vic!” Ezra shouts. Victor comes running downstairs, pulling on a shirt as he does. I swear, the bastard is always walking around half naked.
When he sees who we’ve got in between us, his face lights up. I think this is the happiest I’ve ever seen him.
“Hell yeah,” he says quietly, murder in his eyes. He pulls his brass knuckles out of his pocket and slips them over his fingers. Donovan gulps audibly at the sight of the four of us surrounding him. He knows he won’t be walking back out of this house tonight.
“Can you stand?” I ask him. When he nods, Lee and I shove him away from us. “Then lead the way.”
For a split second, I think Donovan is going to try to make a run for the front door, which is still wide open, but Dante steps through the threshold and flashes his gun at him. Even if he did run, he’d be on the ground with a bullet in his leg in half a second.
Accepting his fate, he turns and begins the walk to the basement. Luckily, the way to the basement is on the opposite side of the house, so we won’t disturb Maya.
Why do I care about disturbing her? I don’t even like her. She makes Ezra weak, and we need him to stay focused on taking down Dom Carlo’s crew.
“You just couldn’t leave her alone, could you?” Donovan asks, accusation filling his tone. We reach the end of the stairs that descend to the lowest level of the house. I push past him to open the door that leads to the torture room.
“I’d watch your mouth if I were you,” I warn him.
Ezra comes to stand right behind him. Donovan turns around and levels him with a look. He’s a couple inches shorter than Ezra, and not as in shape as the rest of us, so it’s pretty ballsy of him to go toe-to-toe with our leader.
“How did you know it was me?” he asks, seeming resigned to his fate.
Ezra takes a step closer to Donovan. “I’m not as stupid as you believe me to be,” he says, voice cold as death.
He shakes his head. “That’s where you’re wrong, brother. You’re brilliant. I couldn’t possibly work for you all these years and think otherwise.”
“You must, since you thought it wise to bite the hand that feeds you,” Ezra says with deathly calm.
“I had my reasons for doing what I did,” Donovan seethes, getting right in Ezra’s face. I grab a fistful of his shirt and tug him backwards. “Working with Dom was preferable to a life spent in debt to you. I needed a way out, and Maya happened to be the out I needed.”
Ezra jabs a finger at Donovan. “You don’t mention her fucking name.”
Donovan smirks, the bastard. “Hit a nerve?”
I grab his shoulder. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
Before Ezra has a chance to pummel the guy, I grab him by the scruff of his collar and shove him into the basement. He falls to the cold, hard ground with a thud and curses us as he nurses his scraped knee.
Vic is the last to enter the room, and he kicks the door shut with his booted foot.
“Let’s have a little fun, shall we?”
INTERLUDE #2
JAYDEN BEGINS
Eighteen years old
“HYUNGJAE!!!”
Flicking the lighter closed, I stuff it into my pocket and stand watching as the house I grew up in goes up in flames. Black smoke billows out of every window, doorway, crack, and crevice it can to seek a way out.
