“Who?”
“H-he’s known as Smiley!” He sobbed, his body trembling uncontrollably.
“Smiley, huh?” I sneered, my finger tightening slightly on the trigger. “Where can I find this Smiley?”
He swallowed hard. “He lives in the outskirts of the city.”
I gazed intently at him, sensing the truth in his words. But how could we track him without an address? Then an idea clicked.
“Do you have Smiley’s number?” I asked Gabriel.
He nodded rapidly.
I looked at Matteo. “Grab his phone.”
Matteo wiped the blood off his blade on Gabriel’s shirt before shoving it back into his pocket. He took the phone from the desk and asked, “What’s the code?”
Gabriel rattled it off, still trembling. Matteo’s fingers flew over the screen. “Got him,” he said.
“Send him a text,” I ordered.
“What do you want it to say?”
I turned back to Gabriel, who was looking increasingly pale. “What would you normally text him?”
“It depends…but I only text him when there’s a problem,” he whispered. He was teetering on the edge of losing consciousness. His eyes fluttered shut, and Matteo slapped his face a few times.
“What kind of problem?” I pressed.
“When…one… of the girls becomes… an issue.”
He meant if the girls were overdosing. My stomach twisted at the thought of that happening to Gigi. I looked at Matteo. “Tell him three of the girls overdosed.”
Matteo shot off the text, his fingers moving quickly over the screen.
A moment later, the phone dinged.
Matteo read the message aloud. “It says he’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
Good.
And now we waited.
After briefing Luca and Lo with the additional directives, they conveyed the message to Enzo to be discreet and stay out of sight. The last thing we needed was for him and his team to fuck things up.
“We got company,” Matteo observed, his gaze fixed out the window on the approaching headlights.
I turned my attention to Gabriel, who had finally succumbed to his injuries and passed out. I joined Matteo and peered through a narrow crack in the blinds to get a better view.
The car stopped, and the headlights flickered off into the darkness. Moments later, the driver’s side door creaked open, revealing a stocky man who strode purposefully toward the trailer. He scanned his surroundings with a keen eye before pushing the door open. As he stepped inside, his gaze swept over the dimly lit room. It took him a moment to finally spot Gabriel sprawled unconscious behind the desk.
“What the fuck?” the man hissed.
In unison, Matteo and I aimed our weapons at the back of his head. I gently closed the door, prompting him to whirl around, lose his balance, and fall to the ground. “Who the fuck are you?” he shouted.
“Nico Moretti,” I replied, my voice cold and steady.
Recognition flashed across his face, followed by a grin. The asshole grinned.
