Page 98 of Dark Breaker

We reach Gina’s apartment and drive around the block until we find a parking spot. The four of us emerge. In case Gina is watching from upstairs, we stay close to the building wall, walking underneath the lower balconies to shield us from her view.

I approach the main entrance alone since it has a camera. I buzz her door.

It unlocks a moment later. She doesn’t say a word over the intercom.

I cover the camera with my hand and beckon to the others. They dart inside and I follow.

We take the stairs two at a time and surmount the three flights to her floor. I make straight for the door. She’s already opened it. I glance at the others and head inside.

I hear music drifting in from the bedroom. I walk straight there, and when I enter I’m hit by the stench.

I wrinkle my nose and see Gina lying naked on the bed.

Or what’s left of her.

I feel a sudden rage welling up inside me.

If the Jackal did this to Gina, what’s he done to Rosa?

If that fucker has laid so much as a finger on her, a fucking finger, I swear he’s a dead man.

I feel a prick at my neck and I catch a glimpse of a man clad in black beside me before darkness fills my vision.

* * *

When I cometo I’m tied to a chair. Next to me are Nicolo, Luciano and Massimo, roped to similar chairs. We’re in a cramped room next to a table covered in torture implements. There’s a door to our right.

“What happened?” I ask.

“The Tunisians surrounded us, forced us to surrender, and tied us up,” Nicolo replies. “They tossed us into a van and threw bags over our heads. You were unconscious the whole way.”

I nod. “One of them injected me with something inside.”

“Our brothers will find us,” Luciano says.

“How?” I ask. “We could be anywhere.”

“If you listen careful, you can occasionally hear the horn blasts of bulk carries,” he replies. “We’re at a port somewhere.”

“That doesn’t help your brothers,” I tell him.

I shake my head, trying to slough away the grogginess. I study my companions. They don’t seem injured. Yet.

“You haven’t been interrogated I take it?” I ask Massimo.

“No,” he replies. “They didn’t want you to miss out on the fun, apparently.”

I’m only awake for a few minutes before the door opens and a man clad in a military-style camo uniform enters. Bronze skin. Short-cropped hair. A bold, aquiline nose. Lips that are little more than thin lines. And skin pocked with what could best be described as shrapnel scars. It’s like a grenade blew up in his face when he was younger or something.

When he grins, I see those teeth sharpened into points.

The Jackal.

Hatred fills me.

“Why did you kill Gina?” I seethe.

“She told you too much,” he replies. “Revealing my alliances. And the candidate I support for mayor. Such behavior can’t be tolerated.”