Page 56 of Little Deer

“Shut the fuck up,” the second man hisses, grunting in pain when Lazaro slams his fist across his face.

“Talk,” Alessio orders, unmoving.

“He just said that there was something hidden in the house that he needed. Something in the north wing. That fucker, Orlando told him about it.”

“Why would Orlando tell him that? They’re on opposite sides.” Alessio pours disdain and doubt into his tone. Even a touch of impatience. It gets the man talking faster.

“O-O-Orlando is playing both sides. He doesn’t care who wins. He wants to be the one on top when it’s done. Fucker is crazy. He has all these plans and is using Marco and Giovanni to get them done. He found shit, but he knows he can’t get it himself, so he sent the information to Marco. Something about it being behind a wall, but you have to find the wall.”

“What wall? What was it that they told you to look for?”

“I-I-I don’t know. I was just told to be the distraction while Alfie looked.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Alfie roars.

“And they told you to start in that room?” Alessio continues, ignoring Alfie’s curses and struggles.

“We just were starting with any north end room. That was the one we managed to get to before you guys showed up. We had to sneak in in the chaos.”

“But you didn’t sneak in, did you?” Dante suddenly asks, tone sharp, barbed. “You had help. Who the fuck helped you?”

“The house manager,” he gasps out.

No one reacts to that. We all know he’s lying. Sofia was with the women.

“See, here’s the thing, I don’t like liars,” Alessio muses, his tone almost bored, but his eyes hold the promise of pain. “Especially when you’re trying to lie about a woman that I consider a sister. And he,” pointing at Dante, “really won’t like you trying to frame the woman he’s planning on marrying if he knows what’s good for him.” The beating is swift, sudden, and I’m surprised that Dante doesn’t try to join in. Instead, he watches, waiting.

When Alessio finishes, the man is sobbing. “She told me she was the house manager,” he pleads. “That’s what she told us. She could get us in. Just ask for the house manager in the kitchen.”

“What is her name?” Alessio demands.

“Janice.”

I look over at Dante. His eyes are narrowed. Then he glances at Nico. “The bitch that entered your office without knocking back when Sofia first started.”

“The bitch that Sofia put a gun to her head?” Nico asks, tone foreboding. Dante nods. “Get her and bring her here. The fucking bitch will pay.”

“Why her?” Alessio demands of the man.

“She’s fucking one of Marco’s men,” he rasps. “Paul something. I don’t know. I never talk to the guy. He’s a fucking idiot and thinks he’s going to be something because Marco asked him to join his side first.”

No other questions give us any results, so Lazaro kills him with one sharp twist of his neck. Alfie stares at Alessio defiantly.

“You had your fun. My turn.” Alessio glares at Dante, but he steps back with a dramatic wave of his hand.

I’ll hand it to him, once Dante gets going, he’s just as effective as the rest of us. Alonzo gives him a begrudging look of approval when he pulls out the battery and clamps it on his balls, and then a second battery to do his nipples. The man screams and jerks at the first jolt in his balls. He still doesn’t give up the information though. Not yet.

It takes Dante alternating a few times between the two, and then one short, hard jolt of both to finally get him to crack. The smell of burnt flesh fills the air.

“There’s some kind of hidden entrance and exit, but it’s locked from the inside. They…they wanted us to open it so that they can get in.”

Hidden entrance? Jesus Christ, what kind of place did they make this? I look at Nico, who narrows his eyes. Guess we know where we have to look and tear apart next.

“How did you know what to look for?”

“W-w-we didn’t. I was just told that the door was there.”

“And how did Orlando or whoever find out about this?”