Page 81 of Devil's Claim

Almost immediately Gio stiffened, tipping his head to one side. When he dared bolt through the crowd, I sighed and glanced at Navarro.

This shit definitely wasn’t getting any easier.

Where it had once been enjoyable, even that had grown sour.

Yet we trailed after him, catching both his arms before he had a chance to try to shove his way past the bouncers. They knew when to stop a guest and he wouldn’t have managed to step a single foot through the doors.

“Nice to see you too, Gio,” I told him. “I think we need to have a little discussion.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about,” Gio insisted.

“I think we do.” I clapped him on the back as we walked to the other side of the building away from the parking lot. At this time of night, other businesses were closed, their parking lots devoid of people.

“What do you want?” Gio insisted. The man was already sweating. The stench mixed with whatever cheap aftershave he’d selected.

“Patience,” I said, noticing Navarro wasn’t doing any talking. Good cop, bad cop. We’d done it before successfully.

Once we were standing in the empty lot, Navarro didn’t mince words, slamming his fist into the man’s jaw. Gio stumbled backward, clasping his hand across his mouth as he tried to keep from falling.

“What the fuck was that for?” he whined.

I moved closer, scanning the street to ensure we were alone. “You know exactly what that was for. You betrayed us and doing so comes with punishment.”

“I spent years in a fucking hell hole. I didn’t say a word. Isn’t that punishment enough?”

In my youth, the whining alone was cause for me to end the conversation with only one man left standing. However, I reminded myself this was a fancy ruse that I wasn’t certain would work. It would seem the odds were against us already.

“Not nearly enough. You fucking stole from us, Gio. But you can make it up to us.” I lifted my eyebrows to see if he understood this was his only way of remaining alive.

“How? I’ll do whatever it takes.”

I glanced at Navarro, who was already bored from the game. Neither one of us had freed our weapons. There was no reason to. If Gio was stupid enough to reach for a gun, he’d be dead within seconds.

“That’s good to hear. You’re going to get very close to your good buddy, Jamal Fassi.”

The twitch underneath his eye was slight, but I caught it.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Gio was a good liar. That’s how he’d managed to escape with the nose candy in the first place.

“Do you love your family, Gio?” Navarro asked, his voice stone cold and deadly.

“What does my family have to do with it?”

“Maybe nothing. But if you want them to live, I suggest you listen to Kruz. He’s not in an accommodating mood today and neither am I.”

Gio had the good sense to look from Navarro back in my direction. “Why hurt my fucking family? I paid my debt.”

“Not to us,” I interjected. “How well received are you inside Fassi’s organization?”

When he didn’t answer right away, I added my own incentive, pulling out my weapon and pointing the barrel at his kneecap.

His eyes flew open wide. “Okay, look. I’m nobody. Just a runner and not what you think. I check ships and logs, making sure everything is ready to go.”

“For diamonds.”

He seemed surprised I knew that. “How did you… Never mind. Yeah.”

“Why are you in Barcelona?” Navarro pressed.