Page 44 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

WEST

I sat down beside Nico in the dingy basement room of a building on the edge of the Alfieri Estate. I would have been worried I was the one about to be tortured, but we weren’t alone.

A suited beta security guard sat in shackles, flanked by two stone-faced guards who were dressed in slightly higher-quality clothing. I assumed they were Nico’s personal guards.

“We found the traitor.” Nico gestured to the shackled man. “And I’m curious—how would you choose to get information out of him? I would have asked Mercer, but it seems you were the enforcer. You’re more like me than Mercer is.”

Was that a good thing?

I cleared my throat. If it was a good thing, this was the one area where I could impress her parents. Since this asshole had been stalking Talia and reporting on her to Benjamin, I didn’t have any remorse over torturing him.

“Has he been cooperative so far?” I asked.

“Not at all.”

“Then I’d show him the downsides of his choices.”

Nico lit up a cigar, the smoke creating a hazy cloud around his head. “Get started.”

His personal guards didn’t move. He must mean me. I stood up, cracking my knuckles. “My methods aren’t exactly refined, sir.”

“Refinement isn’t important. Your commitment to my daughter is.”

So, this was a test. Not surprising.

He puffed on his cigar. “Would you kill for her, West? Would you die for her?”

“Whatever is necessary.”

“Prove it.”

Alright then. Beating this guy to a pulp was step one of earning the crazy one’s favour. I’d take one for the team and try to convince him to like us.

I stepped up to the captive man, grabbing his chin and lifting his head. His gaze was full of vitriol, a disdain so strong I almost recoiled.

He wouldn’t talk easily.

“Last chance,” I warned him anyway.

He jerked his head from my grip, spitting in my direction. “Fuck you, Alfieri cunts. You’ll kill me before I say a damn thing to you.”

Not likely. If my tactic of beating him didn’t work, I was sure Nico had a backup plan involving removing his testicles or plucking out his eyes.

He wasn’t some highly trained spy, and no normal human could stand up in the face of that kind of sadistic torture.

“Got any brass knuckles handy?” I asked one of Nico’s guards. “Easier on the hands.”

They looked to Nico, who nodded. “Over there.”

I slid the brass knuckles onto each hand, clenching my fists until I got them positioned right. The captive was spouting more obscenities as I took my time getting ready. It wasn’t that I needed the time—I could have clocked him in the nose immediately after Nico gave the order.

The longer I waited, the more he would sweat.

This was an interrogation, so we wanted him sweating. I was more used to bar brawls and teaching lessons to thugs, but there had been a few instances I’d made it hurt a little extra.

Like the men who took Violet.

Once she was safely with us again, every man who’d lived through her extraction had been given a long, torturous death.

“You’re going to answer his questions,” I said coldly, staring him down. “One way or another. Stand him up.”

Nico’s guys hauled him to his feet, hanging his shackled hands from a hook in his ceiling. His feet dangled, only his toes touching the ground.

I landed a quick uppercut to his torso, hearing the satisfying crack of a rib breaking.

He thrashed like an angry fish on his hook, and I grinned.

This was really fucking cathartic.

I’d rather people stay the hell away from my omega, but if they insisted on trying to screw her over, I’d do this to all of them. The man wasn’t about to talk yet—he hadn’t realized how much pain he could be put through here.

Another punch landed, breaking another rib.

Then I kicked him in the stomach, laughing at his bloodcurdling scream.

“Enjoying yourself?” Nico asked.

I coughed, wiping sweat off my brow with the back of my hand and trying to calm down my adrenaline rush. “Not too much. Don’t worry. I know we don’t want a broken rib puncturing anything fatal.”

He blew a smoke ring into the air, then held out a cigar case to me. “Want one?”

I shook my head. I had a feeling Talia wouldn’t be happy with me smoking.

He shrugged. “Your loss. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself, by the way. I’m not going to fault you for it, as long as you keep this energy for my daughter’s enemies and not her.”

“I would never hit Talia,” I said vehemently.

“I believe you.” Nico pointed to the lower half of the traitor’s body. “Keep going on him. Land a few good blows to the legs. Maybe a kneecap, if he doesn’t start fucking talking.”

“Got it.”

I followed instructions, letting out every bit of my anger on the man in front of me. The world was unjust and unfair. It had dealt my sister and my mate shit hands, and I couldn’t fix that, but I could fix this.

He would talk.

By the time I surfaced from my rage again, he was pleading for me to stop. I smirked at him, pressing my brass knuckles against his broken ribs. “Knew you’d open up eventually.”

“You goddamn bastards.” He groaned, trying to curl in on himself. “He paid me, OK? Benji paid me two and a half years ago to get a job here. I’ve always hated you Alfieri assholes anyway, so it was a good gig.”

Fuck. I’d assumed Benjamin had bribed a guard to turn traitor recently. If this guy had come in here already bought and paid for by the man, Emilia would have to go back way further on those background checks.

“Why do you hate the Alfieris?” I asked.

“Elitist designation assholes.” He spat blood at my feet, glaring daggers at me.

Anti-designation sentiments weren’t that common in Banfield—except inside the O’Connor family. They were well known for hating alphas and omegas. Their influence had spilled over to certain parts of Medley Island.

“Benji O’Connor is an alpha too. Why isn’t he an elitist asshole?”

“He’s helping the beta population come out from under the thumb of alphas.”

I snorted a laugh.

I shouldn’t be surprised Benjamin had conned this man—he’d conned Talia for years. I’d never met him, but I imagined he was slick and unshakeable when he was wearing his mask.

That’s all it was, though. A con. I guaranteed Benjamin didn’t give a shit about betas. The bastard only cared about himself, and he was probably furious his family wasn’t at the top of the O’Connor ladder.

Stepping back from the captive, I slipped off the brass knuckles and shook out my hands. They were sore as fuck and covered in his blood, but I’d be fine with a few hours and a long, hot shower.

“You’ll know better what specifics to ask about,” I nodded to Nico and his guards. “I’ve asked what I wanted to know.”

Nico’s guards took over. They asked the tactical questions like how he was communicating with Benjamin, what information he’d been given, and if there were other rats running around the Alfieri Estate that he knew about.

He was very forthcoming, after the convincing I’d done.

Even told us he suspected someone else was giving out information to the O’Connors besides him, meaning the Alfieris didn’t just have a single rat.

They had a rat problem, and they’d need to start setting out poison.

Nico flew into a rage, tossing the metal chairs around the room and creating a symphony of screeching and crashing. I wanted to throw things right along with him, but I’d gotten out enough frustration during the beating that I managed to restrain myself.

When he was done, sweat-drenched and panting, he went back to his cigar and took a long drag. “Don’t tell my daughter about the tantrum I just threw.”

“‘Course not.”

I’d be telling my packmates, just so they knew how volatile he was. We had to be really goddamn cautious around that guy. But Talia? No, she knew the loving, affectionate side of her father. She didn’t need to know how he acted when he was on the job.

Same as how she didn’t need to know I’d laughed while torturing someone.

“Need any more help with this?” I asked.

The captive’s breathing was quick and shallow, his pupils blown wide as he stared at Nico. You’d have thought he would know how the mafia boss would react after all this time in his employment, but sometimes you couldn’t teach idiots anything.

They had to learn by doing.

Unluckily, what this idiot had done was going to get him killed.

“No, go back to my daughter. Keep her by your side at all times. We don’t know who the other traitors could be. Jurah will probably dismiss all nonessential staff, but we can’t get rid of the guards.”

Nico glared at the captive guard with enough intensity that I would have felt sorry for the man if he’d done anything other than wrong my omega.

“And take this.” He tossed a small black flip phone at me. “Secure burner. All our numbers are pre-programmed. Use it if you run into trouble.”

I flipped it open, checked the contacts, and nodded. “Got it.”

Leaving the basement room, I walked past two more of Nico’s guys upstairs and out into the afternoon air. It was cloudy, bordering on gloomy, with a breeze blowing through.

I followed a path back in the direction of the main house, walking at a brisk pace to shake off the cold. I couldn’t wait to get back to Talia and warm myself up with a hot shower and her body wrapped around mine in the nest.

Something caught my eye, though, as I walked past Audrey Alfieri’s personal garden. A curtain of silver hair, a woman rushing between the flower beds.

“Violet?” I called out.

Violet startled at my voice, spinning around. She stared at me with wide eyes, her phone clutched in her hand. I kept on toward her.

“West. Um… I was just coming to find you,” she said tentatively.

I glanced around, but there was no one else in this area of the garden. It was only my sister, rattled and anxious. Approaching her, I put my hand on the small of her back and began to lead her back to the house.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” I said. “It isn’t safe right now.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” She stopped short, and I stopped with her.

“What is it?”

“I either fucked up really bad, or found information that we desperately needed,” she blurted out. “Unless it’s a trap, I know where Benji O’Connor is right now.”