For some reason, I stopped and turned to him. “What would you do if your men die?”
“Celebrate their lives.” Marcelo gave me a sad smile. “Give to their families as well as protect them. Move forward and live my life.”
“Interesting.” I headed off.
Marcelo placed his hand on my shoulder and stopped me.
I looked back at him. “What?”
“Let my people go forward.” Marcelo gestured for three men to push ahead of us. They rushed forward. He patted my shoulder. “I’m not ready for your funeral yet.”
“Why not?”
Marcelo winked. “London hasn’t finished my green and black suit. It will be what I wear to your funeral.”
I gave him a sad smile. “After this, find a new tailor.”
“Why would I do that, when it annoys the shit out of you?”
“And you enjoy that?”
“I do.” He walked off.
His men led the way.
I called after them, “There will be stairs at the end, go up and you’ll see another painting’s doorway that will put you in the attic.”
Walking with me, Marcelo touched one of the binoculars nailed to the walls. “This is for the eyes of a painting?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s creepy.”
“Some of these are inside the confessionals.”
“No way, man. That’s a violation of people’s souls.”
“The earlier Syndicate didn’t think so. Secrets make money.”
“We’ll we have to change that. It’s a new generation. New boundaries.”
I nodded. “I’m fine with change. Currently, I’m starting to question everything.”
“Well, yeah. Leo is fucking killing everybody. One can’t help but wonder if being in the Syndicate can cause someone to go crazy.”
“Not me.” I frowned. “Never.”
“Then, shit needs to change.”
“It does.”
We made it to the stairs.
Our people rushed up.
Marcelo shook his head. “And you sure it is Leo?”
“Yes.”
“You think he could have killed his own son?”
“I don’t know anything anymore.”
When the final men went up, Marcelo followed. “How do you know about this way to the attic?”
“When Ju died, Lei would disappear for a few days at a time. So I started having some of my people follow him around. They reported that Lei had two places that he liked to vanish to. The attic of this church is one of them. There’s a lot of old memories and photos up there.”
“And the second place.”
“Chanel’s property. My spies would find him sneaking onto the property and staring up at her bedroom window. I'm sure he couldn’t see anything since it was on a higher level but still they said that he would stare for hours.”
“Who’s going to be the person that tells him that his father killed the love of his life?”
“One problem at a time. First, let’s make sure that Lei is alive.”
Men snapped open the paintings back at the top of the stairs. Up ahead, they climbed into it. The men were quiet which let me know there was no danger.
Please, keep Lei safe. I don’t want to see him dead.
Marcelo and I got to the opening and went through.
In the attic, clouds of dust rose with the scent of mildew. Paintings were sprawled here and there. Tons of boxes were stacked on top of each other.
Lei sat in the center of the room just like his father earlier in his office. His legs were folded under him. His eyes were closed. His hands balanced on his knees as his palms faced the ceiling.
Putting their guns down, my men surrounded him.
With his eyes closed, Lei spoke, “What do you want?”
Marcelo stepped closer. “We have to get you out of here.”
Lei snapped his eyes open. “Why? Any emergency with the Syndicate or Paradise or even the Four Aces, is not my problem anymore. I’m done.”
I spoke, “Parts of the church is on fire.”
“The fire will be put out. If it were a true danger, you wouldn’t be in here, Dimitri.” Lei closed his eyes.
My patience left me. “Get the fuck up!”
“Dima, calm down.” Marcelo lowered his gun. “Lei, we have fucked up shit to tell you. We don’t need to tell you in a burning church.”
“Chanel is dead. That’s enough fucked up news for this week.” Lei closed his eyes. “Leave.”
Marcelo ran his fingers through his hair.
“Lei.” I sighed. “I know who killed Chanel.”
He opened his eyes. Then, he rose fast within seconds. I never saw him unfold his legs or jump up, but he did and in a blur. He was in front of me even faster.
I gripped the gun, but didn’t raise it.
Searching my face, he stood too close in front of me. Barely an inch lay between his nose and mine. Death coated his next word. “Who?”
“We leave here first.”
He roared at me with wild eyes. “Who?!”
“You won’t like it.”
“No shit, Dima.”
“This may. . .break you.”
“And I may break you, if you don’t quickly answer.”
Marcelo got to us. “No one else is dying today.”
“I didn’t say I would kill him.” Lei smiled, but it held no warmth or humor. “I said I would break him. There’s a difference.”