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 “WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?!” I roared, turning around to Massimo. “YOU SAID THAT HE WOULD BE HERE, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU WASTED MY TIME COMING OUT HERE ON A FUCKING WHIM!”

I grabbed hold of him by his collar, causing his face to go beetroot red as he started struggling for air.

“I t – thought he would b – be here, Boss, please!” Massimo struggled.

“You useless piece of shit,” I snarled, letting go of him. “You’re a fucking joke.”

He began wheezing, doing his best to regather his strength, allowing oxygen to fill his windpipes again. I rolled my eyes. I was so fucking pissed off in this moment, I felt like putting a bullet straight through Massimo for the shit-show that was happening right now.

“Wait, Luca, can you hear that?” Fizz breathed, his voice dropping to barely below a whisper.

“Hear what?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

The room went eerily quiet as we all listened intently.

It was almost like we could hear somebody cough up a sob.

“We’ve got the bastard,” Sergio, another one of the men, whispered.

We made our way closer to the sound, with our guns holstered and ready, ready to make this motherfucker pay. Ready to warn him that we’d give him one more week to pay up the money, before we put a bullet between his eyes.

I took the lead, walking in front of the other men, and made my way into the bedroom. I neared closer to the bed, doing my best not to make a sound…

And the sight of what I saw…

Almost made my heart leap to my throat.

It wasn’t Tariq that was here.

It was two young children, one little boy, and one little girl, with dark hair and brown skin, and they both couldn’t have been older than three years old. They were shivering and crying as their mother held them against their chest, and their mother squeezed them, holding them close to her, promising them that she would protect them with her life.

This was the last thing I expected to fucking see.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Massimo sneered, staring down at them.

I swallowed down a lump that had caught in my throat. Their mother looked up at me with pleading eyes. This was a Muslim family, I could already tell. She was wearing an Islamic headscarf, a hijab, and she looked absolutely terrified at the sight of me. Staring into her brown eyes, it was like I was staring right into her soul. And it was like she was screaming at me to spare her and her children, even though she didn’t need to say a single word to me.

Rule number two of the Cosa Nostra.

Never let innocent people get caught in the crossfire…

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luca

She continued to stare at me, shivering. I had to stand down. This was an innocent woman and her kids, who probably had no part in her husband’s wrongdoings. I had to leave them alone.

“Ya Allah, please protect me and my children,” she whispered, weeping. “Only You are worthy of worship. Please save us, Allah…”

As she called out to her Lord, I could feel my heart twist into knots. It was a foreign feeling that I wasn’t used to. Monsters like me weren’t meant to feel anything.

Fizz had his arms folded, with an uneasy expression on his face. Fizz was Muslim too, although he wasn’t religious. Out of respect for Fizz, I knew I would have to let this go, and go and look for Tariq elsewhere.

But hell, if this Tariq bastard had set his family up to stay here, knowing that we were coming to collect…

Lord knows, I wasn’t going to spare that motherfucker any mercy when I found him. Twisted bastard, making his family face and pay the price for his dirty motherfucking deeds.

“Stand down,” Fizz hissed. “Leave them alone. Let’s get out of here.”

He made his way to the mother and his children, crouching down. “Nobody’s going to harm you. Don’t worry. You’re going to be fine.”

The mother gave him a feeble nod. “Jazakallahu Khairan,” she breathed, meaning May Allah reward you with goodness.

Fizz gave her a reassuring nod, before getting back up on his feet and joining me.