Surrender To Me

DANTE.

She looks scared for her life. As she should because I’m on the edge of doing the worst. “You better speak if you want to keep your hide.” She starts shaking. Gone is the false bravado she likes to put out. She is like a little girl lost and it almost makes me sympathetic towards her until I glance down at the bracelet on her wrist and the possibilities that came to mind as to how it could have landed there. I strengthen my resolve. I dragged her to the interrogation room without thinking about anything else except to find what happened to Corina. I should focus on that.

“I’m going to ask this once and only once. It’s your choice to tell me the truth. If you lie, and I am going to find out that you’ve lied, I will torture you, cut you up to pieces, and throw you in the dumpster.” Tears stream down her face. Good. At least she has emotions. “Where is she?”

Jesse gulps audibly. She looks away from my face to behind me. Sal, who’s standing next to Colin, came soon after, probably having seen me dragging her over here. I follow the direction of her gaze. Sal jerks in surprise, but only slightly. Anyone could have missed it, if they didn’t know Sal like I do.

“Are they intimidating you? They can do much worse than standing there. I could instruct them to break your fingers one by one until you talk. Do you want that?” She shakes her head.

“No? Good. Now, tell me why you have that bracelet on your wrist.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

She glances again at Sal. This time I notice something. It’s as if they’re communicating with each other. A new perspective dawns on me as a lot of pieces fall into place. It’s so obvious now, I should have seen it coming. I think back to the intel I got about Jesse’s sister’s medical bills and the expensive clinic she in. And a lot more than that. Which means one thing that is so obvious, but I had missed. Jesse is the thief. Not Corina, who covered for her. Without turning my attention away from Jesse, I say to Sal, “Can you bring me the pills?”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” The hesitance in his voice confirms my suspicions. “Go get the pills, Sal.”

“Sure thing, boss,” he says and leaves. I take a seat opposite Jesse. She is pretty. She reminds me of a lot of the many beautiful women in this city. Generically attractive in a boring way. “How long have you been stealing from me?”

“I never stole anything!”

“Remember what I said to you. You would be better off telling the truth.”

“I am.”

“Are you? Are you going to tell me about your relationship with Sal or are you going to lie about that too?” Shock renders her silent. She looks like she’s thinking over what her next response should be. Before she can say anything, I add, “I know a lot more about you than you realize and that boyfriend of yours, Sal, let me just say you’re not the only one. He’s not as loyal to you as you are to him. Before you put in your lot with him, know that he won’t do the same for you.” I don’t know, of course, if any of what I said is true. I bluff my way into interpreting the type of relationship they have and hope if I’m right. “I’ll ask you once again, where is she?”

She looks again beyond me to Colin and then starts crying outright. Her reaction worries me even more. What have they done to her? Corina, wherever you are, I hope you’re alright. “Jesse?”

“I swear I had nothing to do with it! I didn’t know what he was going to do!”

“What did he do?”

In between sobs, she starts her tale. “I was supposed to lure her in. That was my job. He told me it was only going to be a minor kidnapping, and you were going to pay her ransom and no one was supposed to be harmed.”

Colin jumps in. “What happened Rob?”

She looks up at him. “I’m sorry,” she says shaking her head, “No one was supposed to get hurt, and I was supposed to get Corina out of your apartment, but she refused and Rob stopped us and…”

“And what!” I could feel my blood boiling.

“I’m sorry. Sal… Sal killed him. You have to understand that he was in the way.”

“So you decide to kill him.”

“It didn’t happen like that!”

“Where is she?”

“Well, we, uhm, incapacitated her and Sal took her to

Saccone.”

“So she’s alive?”

“Yes. Or at least I think she is. It doesn’t seem like he wants to kill her.”

Relief washes over me. I could think about nothing but the worst and hearing she might still be alive calms me down a bit. But only a bit. She could still be alive because he had other, much more horrible plans for her. Then there’s Sal. His betrayal, which I had only suspected, was now confirmed. The man pretending to look for the spy is actually the spy. How could he do something like this? My vision goes red as my blood boils. Sal is one of the few people in the entire Family I trusted. His betrayal hurts more than it angers me. And for what? More money from Saccone? He had to be the spy. That was the only way it made sense. He was the only person capable of leaking the kind of information that had gone to Saccone and, at the same time, cover his tracks successfully.

There’s a knock on the door, alerting everyone in the room, including Jesse, who sits up straight and stares at it. Colin looks at me for what to do next. I nod. I know who it is and when Colin opens the door, it’s the person I expect. Sal walks in holding a white bottle which he places on the table and says, “I got them.” His demeanor is casual. He must think he’s still ahead of the game. He plunges his hands in his pockets and asks, “Has she said anything yet?”

“You should tell us. She says you know.”

With his hands still in his pocket, he shrugs. I scoff. If Sal thinks he can bluff his way through this, he’s lying to himself. He’s one of the most easy-to-read people I know.

“Who is she?”

“We know you two are fucking, so you can drop the act.”

There’s shock on his face that flashes only slightly. He looks down at Jesse, then back at me. “Fucked. Not fucking. I had forgotten about her. If this is about fraternizing with the employees, then I’m sorry about that. It’ll never happen again.”

“I don’t care which hole you stick your dick in, so long it’s consensual. What I do care about is what you do with that hole. The little schemes you get up to.” He glances at Jesse. I turn to her. Her gaze is pinned on Sal ever since he came back and she is looking increasingly betrayed the longer he talks. Good. It’s better if they turn on each other than stick together. “Is that all I am to you?” she says to Sal.

Sal turns to me. “Listen. I don’t know what she told you, but whatever it is, it’s a lie.”

“Who said anything about her talking?”

“Isn’t that why we’re here?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

His cool demeanor is slipping. I can tell he’s getting nervous as he shits from one foot to the other. “I would never lie to you, man. Whatever she said is bullshit. She’s just some bitch I’ve been having a fling with. And let me tell you, she can be a little cuckoo, if you know what I mean. Coming up with all sorts of things to get attention.”

Interesting. All this is like knife jabs to Jesse, who screams,

“Fuck you, Sal! You stupid piece of shit!”

“You see, she’s crazy. You know I’ve never touched any of your women.” As soon as he says the words, he cringes. He wants to take them back. Too late.

“Funny you should say that.”

Sal jumps and makes for the door but Colin is faster than him. He grabs hold of the back of his collar and pulls him back. Sal shrieks like a child as he’s dragged down to the chair. He struggles, but Colin presses all his weight on Sal’s shoulders. I move over to the other side of the desk where Jesse was sitting.

“I’m going to ask you once. Answer correctly and I might forgive you. Answer incorrectly and you won’t want to know what’s going to happen next.” Sal struggles again in his chair and Colin presses him down again. “Where is Corina?”

“Fuck you and your whore.”

“That’s the road you chose? Fine.” I take out my phone and swipe open to an app and show him the screen. His shoulders drop when he realizes what he’s looking at. “This is a live feed of your mother’s house. Tiny is on the lookout. She rarely leaves the house and always stays indoors, he says. One call and your mother is dead.” Sal’s face falls. Tiny is a ruthless hitman well known for doing depraved things to his targets. Sal knows this. He’s hired him from time to time to do hits on behalf of the family.

“You’ve been stalking my mother!” It’s a file video taken two years ago, but he doesn’t need to know that. There was no live feed and I have no idea where Tiny is. The bluff is working though, because he doesn’t seem to realize it too. “And so much more.”

“You fucker.”

“All I have to do is say the word.”

“She’s at Saccone’s place,” he blurts out. I almost want to smile, but I keep my poker face.

“Which place? His Casino? His five homes? Where?”

“The casino is where I dropped her.”

“What does he want to do with her?”

“He didn’t tell me.”

“You better hope for the sake of your mother that we’re able to find her and that she’s alive.” He stares back at me in defiance. I wonder what made him turncoat? He doesn’t look like a rat. I guess the best ones don’t. “Tell me something,” I ask him. “Why did you do it?”

“Turn on you? Nothing personal. But I don’t think you’re going to win. You’re weaker than your father and even he was defeated by Saccone.”

“I guess we’ll see about that.”

Too bad for him, he chose wrong, and he was going to pay.