Antonio

"How was it?" I looked over to Alejandro and Agustin who were beaming with an unsaid joy.

They had been in the dungeon for a whole day. After Salazar's plan came to light, we knew for sure he wasn't working without help from someone on the inside. A few of our allies were rounded up. Many of them cracked when Al pounded confessions out of them. It wasn't new for my second in command to use his fist for play and to employ people as punching bags.

I moved out from my seat, grinning faces of my brothers watching me intently. "It was good," Al said, plopping  into a chair. His left leg crossed over his right which tapped on the marble as he cleaned up his bruised knuckle with a kerchief.

Agustin sat besides him, panting like he ran all around the place. "We got some information, but not much." Defeat was a tone I could recognize from any distance and my younger one's voice carried it.

"What have we got?" 

Leaning forwards, Al picked a pen and drew doodles on a plain sheet. "That whoever we captured were only men working from the outside. There were people on the inside too. Many who haven't been caught yet and many who might be close to us." He pointed to the epicenter of his badly scribbled circles with stick figures dancing around it.

The mole among us.

"How can we find them?" I pulled the paper back, wracking my mind. There had to be way to find out who were infiltrated among us and carried our secrets to Santos and his men. Those half dead men, hanging from the dungeons weren't the actual moles. They were merely pawns, moved across the board by men who learnt our weakness. Pawns who supplied the information to our enemies. To Salazars.

Agustin straightened on his chair, tapping his chin and contemplating his next words carefully. "Maybe we can use you. Your name still scares them."

"You want me to go down and do the job which Gabriel or Mateo can do?" My knuckle rested my chin. He was known for good ideas but lately he seemed to be in a rut.

Agustin tilted his head and waved his hands in tandem. "No, I mean come along. Let them roll in fear. Maybe it would get us something, maybe not." He moved back on his chair, cracking his knuckles. "And don't tell me that you don't miss the action."

He was right. I did miss the action. The sound of ribs cracking when punching a man hanging upside down, while his pleadings bellowed through the dungeon got me hard. When dad was in command, I used to be his henchman. Any insubordination was dealt with blows so hard, I could hear the poundings of their heart when my talon like fingers would hook inside their chest.

"Or do you want our newest member to help you this time too?" Al continued, looking out at a distance and resting his arms beneath his head. When my head tilted in question and lips pursed together, he read my doubt. "I meant Val. She got the last good prey."

Agustin groaned in his seat, shifting. "Don't remind me of that. Her face was sprayed red. I still can't wipe that image off my mind."

"Why? Because lady you eyed was unaffected by blood?" Al punched him playfully. Both of them chuckled.

A ball of fire rose inside my chest. The lady he eyed. My mind tried to pacify my wildly beating heart. Alejandro meant it as a joke. They both knew, not to cross a certain line. Al had always respected Valentina as a sister but I wasn't sure of Agustin. I was also the idiot husband having pushed  Agustin towards her. She never resisted my decision and he was overjoyed to be given the opportunity to sleep with her.

But things changed since the party. Not that I had any dearth of women to please me, what irked me was the difference I felt with her. A part of me wanted to know her, talk to her. The last time I felt such heavy emotions, it was for Elena. With Val, it was a mere contract. A sham. We both knew of it. We both accepted it. But now..

With Val's attitude mirrored with mine, I felt a strange connection whenever we were together. A unseen, unspoken hold over me.

"You okay there?" Al tapped the table and I shifted back to reality. With bloodless knuckles holding the sides, I felt my heart pounding hard over my chest. 

There was a boundary which needed to be set. One, between Agustin and Valentina.

"Val is off limits from now on." I grumbled. Agustin chuckled, biting onto his rolled fist. Whatever possessiveness was buried with Elena reared its ugly head again, rushing back as words. "She is not yours to take anymore."

Towering over my brothers from across the table, I stared down Agustin. He nodded, sliding back into the chair. Unwilling to break eye contact, I shifted my focus on Al who raised his hand in acceptance.

One single head bob was all I needed. One head bob to convey, they knew what I was asking for.

Stay away from my wife. Stay away from her body, even her scent. She was mine to have and hold.

I smirked on the inside, feeling alive. I was being thawed back from my frozen state of being, resuscitated to reality.

Having considered my feelings and heart to have drifted to a state of numbness after Elena, I never fathomed a woman could invoke my repressed needs. That woman who was eyed by almost everyone for a piece. That same woman, who made me twist at night in the agony, unable to hold her, have her.

With my words and decision, I felt calmness wash over my feet and slowly cover my whole body. I was drowning in a sea, the cold saltiness washed over without suffocating me. There was no regret in moving on, as I assumed it would be in the past. I knew Elena would be happy for my decision. If I was in her place, I would be too.

A strange sensation, cold and goosebumps trailing, crept over my skin as I breathed an understanding - I wanted to move on. In the past, I clung onto the idea of betraying Elena's memories. It was her hold which halted any thought of taking another chance. The power that thought, those memories held was heavy. It was as if I was possessed by another entity.

It took Val, her blasé attitude and a night where I walked around worrying for her life more than Al's, to know she made her way into my heart. Slowly, steadily, that vixen captured my attention and my heart. 

"Antonio," Al's wrinkled forehead came to my attention. "Are you ready?"

My head bobbed automatically. Everything aside, business had to run its course. Whatever Val and I were trapped in, could be sorted later.

The dungeons echoed with shrill cries. Mateo stood next to some men who hung upside down. With our entry, he moved aside, wiping his sweaty face and removing his crimson tinted shirt which stood witness to his brutality.

"Bring them down," I instructed Gabriel.

Unhoisted, the men were tied onto metal chairs. Not that they needed any tying. Their battered bodies couldn't even lift up their heads. I dragged a chair close to a man, who suffered the most harm at the hands of Mateo.

Shoving a bottle of water in his mouth, force feeding grabbed his fading attention. His swollen eyes tried to widen before they gave up. His head twisted, asking me to stop. Panting he coughed water over my shirt. He heaved as remnants of water made into his windpipe.

"You ready to talk my friend?" I pulled up his head, coiling my hand in his wet hair. His lips quivered, neck turned sidewise. I dropped off my hand, turning to Gabriel.

Gabriel chanted like a parrot. "His name is Evans. He worked at the docks and helped us with the consignments. For a few days, he started charging our people and one day, one of our containers disappeared. Evans says he doesn't know how."

Hearing the allegation, Evan's pulled his head up, groaning. "I didn't know it was yours."

Classic one. A thief's standard defense.

"How about his family?" I tuned to Gabriel, waiting for his answer.

"A mother and a sister.."

"Ahh sister.. How old.." I asked, my head tilted partially towards Evan's battered face. 

"Please.." He cried out. Struggling in his chair, he tried to break free but Mateo held him down from behind. "Please don't do anything to her.."

"Oh don't worry. We don't hurt woman. We don't kill them, just a little play here and there," Al intervened. "You see, my men were very tired, interrogating you. They need some fun, some games. Your sister can help, right?"

Evans sobbed. His head dipping onto his chest. "Please don't. She is just a child," he whimpered.

I rose up from my chair, kneeling before him to match his hung head. "Hey Evans," I called out. "Look at me." He obeyed. "You don't want anything to happen to your sister and your mother right?"

He nodded again. "Please. I will tell you everything. I don't want them to know of you. I don't.." he cried, placing his forehead on mine, he whispered. "I will tell you everything, but only you."

His words reaffirmed his knowledge of things we may have missed. I waved my hands, dismissing everyone. Gabriel gagged the other two, stuffing their mouth with pieces of clothes before moving out. Evans waited for the door to draw shut. As the draft from the closing blew his wet strands, he looked up at me with his piercing gaze.

"It's Ramirez," he stuttered in his words. Unable to match my eyes, he turned looking at his fellow helpers, who struggled in their chairs. "Your father in law. He is the one who provoked some of the allies to help out in taking you down."

"What else?" I sat back on my chair, watching him wail. Valentina's image floated in my mind as he talked further.

"He was provoking us to take away shipments. I got tempted when he offered me more money. I got.." sobbing, he hung his head low. "Please forgive me, sir. I never had seen so much money. I go.. I got tempted.." he gasped for air, begging for mercy. His sobs echoed inside the empty room.

"Does Valentina Ramirez knows about this?" I had to know. I was on the brink of moving on when a ball of betrayal pushed me back to square one. Was she the traitor all along? Was I being played by her?

"I don't know sir," his chest heaved as he continued. "She never came in any meeting. I never saw her around."

Although Evan's words soothed the burn in my cheat and throat, I knew how the father and daughter were close knit. There was no chance for her, not to be aware of her father's theatrics. All along, while the daughter tried tempting me, the father was playing me. No more.

Ungagging the other two men, I stared at them blank. "Do any of you know anything else?" With wide eyes and trembling jaws, they begged for mercy, knowing quite well what my question meant.

I walked behind the man in the middle. Wrapping his gag cloth around his neck, I pulled it from behind. The noose tightened. His legs slapped against the floor and tied hands roughed up the chair for release.

"Please sir, stop it." Evans cried out. The third man tried turning his chair, chanting the same prayers. Gagged, he was unable to.

All I saw was Valentina's face at that moment as my grip tightened and the only sounds that hit my ears were gurgled. Soft whines escaped from the man's throat as his legs ceased tapping against the floor and his position shifted down the chair.

Untying his handcuffs, his dead body slid off the chair, pulled by gravity.

The other two watched their fallen friend's body in horror. I walked back in front, eying the body that sprawled on the floor. Redness from his face faded, seeping back it its usual color. His neck would wear the bruised collar like a mark of shame, a brand of betrayal.

Evans tried to stand, pulling the chair with him. "Sir," he called out as I ungagged the third man.

I was on a kill spree. Hurt played on my chest as I looked at him. "I know something about your wife." He fell back, carrying his weight back to the chair. The third man nodded in affirmation.

There was no way to believe what they would say now. Having witnessed a killing, there could make up anything to have me believe things that may not even exist. I wasn't willing to participate in the game anymore. Moving forward I saw the third man's face turned white as I straightened his gag material, tugging its ends twice. His eyes widened, knowing his fate.

"Please sir, we are telling the truth.." he dropped his head, crying. Tear drops fell on the greyish cemented floor, quickly absorbed into the ground. "Your wife doesn't know of it, but we have proof."

He looked up, eyes darting between Evans and me. "Kill us if it turns out wrong."

The man was willing to bet his life on it. Somehow it drew my attention. 

Evans continued with the directions and places while the third man narrated his knowledge. What they told me shattered my belief in family. I stood there, hearing a ringing in my ears as words fell over me, seeping into my ears and churning my cogs. It was too much to process, too much to bear.

An information that would kill Valentina. Break her apart.

~*~

Awesome Pawsome..

Let me know in the comments, your guesses on what Antonio might have heard.

What do you think? Right guess would get a shoutout in the next chapter..

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So come on, have at it..

Love

S