CHAPTER FIVE

AVA'S POV

The door hadn’t even clicked shut behind me before Dante was moving. He emerged from his office, fast, his steps fast and structured not even glancing my way as he strode down the hall. 

“With me, Morales.” The command was tossed over his shoulder, expecting immediate compliance. 

My heart, still rattling from the spark in his office. Sophia Morales wouldn’t hesitate. I fell into quick steps behind him, my heels echoing, too loud, too feminine. 

“Sir? What are we–?” 

“You said you could handle my business,” he cut me off, his voice flat. “So we are going to handle it”

He led me down a flight of stairs into a part of the mansion that felt utterly different. The marble and art felt too cold, the air smelled of bleach and something else, something metallic, my stomach tightened. 

Kyle stood outside a heavy steel door, his usual clown demeanor completely absent. His face was flat, he gave Dante a slight nod as another guard spoke. “He’s not talking, boss.”

“He will,” Dante said, his tone leaving no room for argument. He looked at me, his eyes cold, like drills into my soul. “You.in here.”

Kyle opened the door. 

The room was small and brutally soundproofed. In the center, a man was tied to a metal chair. He was bruised, his lip slit and one eye was swollen shut. A Volkov wolf tattoo snarled on his forearm, ‘fuck, why was he here’ 

Dante leaned against the table littered with … tools. He crossed his arms across his chest, his gaze fixed on me. 

“Your fill says you’re persuasive, Morales. Persuade him.”

The bound man spat a glob of blood to the floor. “Go to hell, Moretti. I got nothing for you.”

Dante ignored him , his attention solely on me. “He was trying to access a data stream we intercepted. The one your friend Ricci was involved in. I want to know who he answers to in Volkov. His direct handler.”

My mouth went dry, this was another test, a kind of brutal and my type of test. I found my voice again, “You heard the man. A name makes all of these end.Your loyalty won’t put your face back together, you know.”

The prisoner laughed, a wet, ragged sound. “And who are you? His new whore? You think playing tough, in your cute leather pants is going to scare me?”

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Dante’s jaw tighten in anger. 

A rage I was also feeling burning inside me. 

I leaned down, getting in the prisoner’s space, my voice dropping into a low whisper only he could hear. “You have no idea what I could do to you, do you?”

I smirked at his silence before continuing “I’m not like any of this guys here I’m far more dangerous, for years I have been built to kill, I’m not going to persuade you, I’m going to torture you even more, I’m going to explore different level sof pain you never knew your body could take” my voice dropped lower with every syllable enough to get inside his head, I raise my hands trailing it down his arm, “First I am going to skin off this cute little tattoo off.” I mumbled taking a small dagger off the table as I looked back down at him, my brain was in kill mode, I still tried to control it. If I had tortured him too much, Dante might get the idea that I’m not just a normal assistant, but a trained ,mafia machine, I had to keep in the urge of chopping his head off. 

“I’m the best chance you have right now, if you want to walk out of here alive, but if you keep acting stubborn I will just kill you and go do some research myself, and trust me when I say this those people ‘Volkovs’ won’t even notice that you are gone. So give me a name, Now.”

His good eye blinked, and he swallowed down hard “I answer to Zaytsev, now leave me be, you creep.”

I straightened up, turning to Dante “Zaytsev.”

Dante didn't move, “He’s lying, Zaytsev only cleans Volkov’s messes. Try again”

I clenched my jaw. ‘This bastard was lying.’

I moved behind his chair, my grip on the dagger tightened, my eyes fixed on that stupid tattoo, if it was one thing I have learnt about Volkov members in all my years of training was that they cherished their tattoos even more than lives and stripping it off was a nightmare , a symbol of shame and lack of belonging, they become unidentifiable, unimportant and irrelevant. 

I caged the man in, the dagger held closely to his tattoo , “I had warned you didn’t I ? I’m going to strip you off your tattoo, and then kill you, I’m sure you know if this tattoo is gone you no longer belong in their pack, you will become a nobody. What will become of your loyalty then?”

I could see a glint of fear in his eyes, his legs trembling at the words that came out my mouth. “Okay fine, don’t do that I will tell you the truth.”

“It’s Cavallaro, it's Denis Cavallaro! We had a deal! A weapon shipment from your armory for a cut of the north side trade!”

The name hit me like a bomb. 

Cavallaro.

My father?

The world felt like it had tilted. My father wasn’t just fighting with Dante, he was in bed with Volkovs, Dante’s sworn enemies and apparently by the lies he told me they were ours too. He was playing both sides, not just Volkovs but me as well, a move so reckless it could destroy everything he built, everything that I have sworn to protect. This man had just blurted out his name in front of Dante. 

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I just stood there, my carefully constructed mask felt like it was tearing apart. 

Dante's eyes were sharp on me, all-seeing. He had watched my reaction, heard the catch in my breath.

“Cavallaro” Dante repeated the word a soft poisonous curse. He never looked away from me. “Interesting.”

He finally moved, walking towards the door. He paused, turning back at me.

“Adequate, Morales.” He said tightly. “Your lessons are now complete.”

He left me standing there, in the sterile room that reeked of blood and pure fear, with the knowledge of my own father’s betrayal. I felt like a fool, a stupid fool , all this was going on and he didn’t even tell me, and now Dante’s suspicion had probably grown wider. 

This game was getting far more dangerous than I’d prepared for.