I shouldn’t have let her go. I never should’ve let her walk.
Cap, damn it, where are you?
I slipped along the side of the building. I stood near the back door and listened. It was covered in plywood, but the wood wasn’t nailed down. I moved it aside, inch by inch, and slipped past.
It was dark. Pitch dark. I stayed crouched right on the edge of the back room and let my eyes adjust. When I could see, vague shapes sprouted in the gloom. Stacks of boxes. Cardboard boxes. Some of them piled onto industrial racks. I ran my fingers across the boxes then peered inside of one. A microwave oven. I smiled to myself.
So Balestra was running the same sort of shit as Falsone. Probably took over the jobs right where the Falsone guys left off. Fucking Balestra. Stole an empire. Ruined lives.
I moved deeper. There was nobody and nothing. If Rod worked this place, he wasn’t there. I’d have to get a better sense of the structure and plan an assault for later. Rod would die. My revenge wasn’t finished.
Something creaked nearby. I went still, listening. I pulled the baton out really slow and held its comforting weight in my hand.
Another creak. Motion.
I extended the baton as the lights came on and I realized my mistake.
They were fucking blinding. I’d adjusted to darkness, and now it was bright. I swung the baton wildly, not sure who was coming. Someone hit me in the back of the head with what felt like a baseball bat. I grunted and fell to a knee. I swung out and hit a vague shape. Some guy cursed. Someone else hit me again. Knocked me sideways, but I staggered up, tackled a vague blurry shape. Grabbed hair and rammed a head against a wall. The guy grunted and someone else hit me.
Pain blossomed. My ears pounded. I was caught. Cornered. It was a fucking ambush. A goddamn trap and I’d walked right into it. Too distracted thinking about Cap to see it. I knew this would happen. Didn’t change my situation.
I had two options. Fight my way out or die.
I swung the baton. I was a monster. I raged and screamed and took blow after blow. I breathed hard, not sure why they weren’t shooting. Maybe Balestra wanted it to last. Maybe he wanted me alive. Good luck with that. The guys weren’t talking. It was eerily quiet, except for the moans of the guy I’d bashed. He might be mostly dead.
My baton connected with a knee. Connected with a shoulder. I took another baseball bat to the face and dropped back, slamming into the rack. My eyes adjusted, and I saw four guys. One slumped on the ground, holding his bloody face. I recognized two still standing. Rod on the left. Rolando on the right. A guy I didn’t know between them, small and with dark eyes and dark hair. A cartel guy, probably.
I waved the baton wildly. I was dizzy and barely stayed on my feet.
“Give it up,” Rolando said. “Drop it, Mal. It’s finished. You’re done.”
“Fuck you,” I said and spit on the ground. “Come at me, you little pansy fucks.”
“Should we just shoot him?” Rod asked. “Finish this shit?”
“Balestra wants him alive,” Rolando said, grimacing. “I’ve got my fucking orders. Drop the weapon, Mal. Stop fighting.”
I roared and charged. Fuck him and fuck them.
I got two steps before Rolando dropped me with a blow to the chin. His bat connected and I went down hard. Bounced off the floor and knocked over a stack of boxes.
I groaned, blinking. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t move. Was Cap safe? Was she okay?
“Should’ve went easy, Mal,” Rolando said, standing over me. “This is going to hurt.”
I shouldn’t have let Cap walk away.
He brought the bat down, and everything went black.
Chapter 26
Capri
I couldn’t turn my phone back on. I knew I should, but I couldn’t.
I kept seeing Mal’s face. The hurt and the anger mixed with something else. A hunger he couldn’t hide, even after finding out that I got his best friend killed. He still needed me and it was terrifying, that unyielding, ceaseless want. I’d never been the center of a man’s attention like that before and it terrified me to see the way it drove Mal to the extremes of his personality.
I wanted him the same way, and I knew I was a hypocrite, but I panicked. I freaked out. I lost it and embarrassed myself, and now I couldn’t turn the stupid phone on, even though Mal was out there killing himself to find Rod and end this revenge.
I stretched on my bed and stared at the ceiling. It was early in the morning, a full day after I’d screamed at him in the park. I was so ashamed and I couldn’t bring myself to do anything but stay there swaddled in sheets. He must’ve thought I was such a nightmare. Probably didn’t want anything to do with me.