“Wait!” The word reverberated throughout the area, echoing Gino’s alarm until silence fell again. He tilted his head up and looked at the ceiling, not wanting to know how many more inches he’d lost to pride.
“This is your last chance, so listen carefully.”
“I keep telling you, my father…or should I say if my father had anything to do with the death of your father, he didn’t tell me anything about it.” If Gino had been able, he would’ve held his hands up in surrender to help his case.
“I believe you, Gino.”
His head snapped up, and he smiled. “You do? I mean, of course you do, since I didn’t know.”
“And since you don’t know anything, you’re just wasting my time.” Another nod of Cain’s head and Katlin yanked on the rope again.
“Wait!” Gino yelled again, even more frantic this time. The water was making him itch, and when it reached his neck, Katlin stopped.
“You don’t have many inches left, Gino, and you just said you didn’t know. Why the wait?”
“He ordered the hit after your father slapped him back out of the neighborhoods he controlled. The merchants Dalton did business with started to complain when my father’s pushers started hanging on some of the street corners. Once Dalton was finished, my father lost a handful of good men, and no amount of money on the streets helped my father find the bodies.
“One of the guys we lost was my cousin, but that’s not what motivated my father to kill your family. That was your father’s fault. Dalton wanted to send a message, and we heard it loud and clear. Problem with that was, Big Gino wasn’t about to put up with some Mick telling him his business, so he returned the favor. He hired Danny. Your cousin jumped at the chance to get back at you for giving him every shit job in your organization.”
As Gino gave the ropes one more jerk in an effort to break free, they cut deeper into his hands. “Danny still worked for Dalton back then and knew his schedule. When my father asked, he set up the time and place for the hit.”
“And my mother and brother?”
“Your brother was a hothead, which sealed his fate, and your mother was a bonus. Danny told my father with both of them gone, you’d be easier to break.”
The silence stretched as Cain balled, then relaxed, her fists. Finally, she asked, “Anything else?”
“That’s all I know, I swear it.”
“There’s something else, Gino, and the price will be steep.”
She summoned the newcomer over with a wave of her hand and waited for him to walk the length of the pool before continuing. “The information about the rest of my family was useful, but you haven’t answered for one more person.”
Cain accepted the bundle and kept it hidden from Gino’s view.
Mook’s brother, Patrick, who worked for Vincent Carlotti, stayed close.
“Marie, my sister, is who’s left, Gino, and after my talk with Stephano I don’t need to ask anything else, do I?”
“That was all Danny.”
Dragging him back a few inches shut him up.
When Katlin stopped, Gino was forced to tilt his head back to keep his face out of the slime. “If Stephano told you different, then he’s a lying bastard.”
“The lying bastard was high as a kite when I talked to him, so lying was out of the question.”
Her voice settled around him, making Gino force his head back farther in an effort to see her again.
“That’s the one redeeming factor of the shit you put on the streets. It lowers your inhibitions enough that your answers aren’t important because you don’t fear any repercussions. The high must really be euphoric enough to make you feel invincible, but all it did in the end was snap his brain and his body like a twig.”
Gino stared to the left, and Cain finally came back into limited view, since the only illumination in the dank place was moonlight. The whimper coming from the bundle in her arms made his blood run cold. “Please, God, no.”
“Funny you should say that. I remember uttering that same phrase only three times in my life.” Cain pushed the child’s blanket back. He resembled his mother, the waiflike woman in the restaurant. “I remember all three vividly since I was standing in front of a coffin each and every time.”
“Cain, he’s just a baby.” Gino glimpsed his son’s hand as a little fist came up, almost as if he were trying to entice Cain to play with him.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be much more merciful with him than you were with Marie. She was as innocent as this infant no matter how much longer she had on this earth before you stole her life in the most degrading way your twisted little brain could come up with. Her innocence didn’t stop you, did it?”
“I’m telling you, I wasn’t there.”
Cain’s intense glare made him fight harder to free his hands.
“And even if I was, what does that have to do with my son?”
With one last kiss to the baby’s forehead, Cain handed him off to Patrick. “We were raised by two very different men, but my father always tried to impress one thing upon me.”
“What, to go around and fucking kill little babies?”
“To always live my life so that my sins wouldn’t be visited on my children. Even people like us can live with honor. To have a code means we all promise to consider people like your son and my sister. When someone breaks that code of honor, though, the innocent pays the price of those actions.”
Cain nodded, and from behind Gino came a splash, then an eerie silence.
“No!” It was the last word he uttered as Katlin pulled the final couple of inches needed to get the job done.
Resigned to his fate, Gino locked eyes with his judge for one last moment before the urge to fight took over and he struggled to break free as his lungs started to feel like they would explode from trying to hold his breath. Katlin had positioned him so that just his eyes and forehead were above the water line.
As the reality of his fate dawned on Gino, Cain could see the horror in his eyes and kept looking until all movement ceased.
Then Katlin pulled him farther into the deep end and retrieved the rope she’d used. When the property was razed, Gino would either be part of the foundation, or the mystery of his disappearance would be revealed. Either way, nothing at the scene could tie Cain to his demise.
Cain slid the fourth and final ring Giovanni had made for his sons into her pocket as she strode back to the car. “You live like a slimeball all your life, Gino, and sometimes it’ll drown you.”
The jingle of the ring in her pocket assured her that she’d almost won the game. She was missing only one piece.
Chapter Forty-Three
“I know what you said, boss, but I can’t find him.”
Giovanni slammed his hands down on the desktop and glared up at his guard.
“We looked everywhere in town. We even shook down the woman he had on the side, but no one’s seen him.”
“No one just disappears into thin air. Did you go by his house?” Giovanni took his gun out of the top drawer and checked the clip.
“The only thing moving around Gino’s place is the feds parked outside. I sent Chops inside, but the place was empty. Wherever Gino went, he took the baby and packed light.”
When Giovanni stood up, he shoved the nine-millimeter into his waistband at the back. He’d wasted enough time worrying about what had happened to his sons; it was time to start doing something about it.
“The baby’s probably with those women Eris hired, since she’s too lazy to take care of my grandson herself. Come on. We’ll check out some of Gino’s contacts, then go meet with Rodolfo.”
“You got it, boss.”
“And tell the guys when they find Francis, not to let him out of their sight. That little idiot hasn’t come home for the last couple of nights, and his mother’s giving me shit about it. It’s a fine time for him to grow a pair and start venturing out on his own.”