It's been a week since I met with Mr. Iero and that he told me about his plan. I can't wait to obtain more leads from Solazzo. And there are very few ways to be sure to obtain what you want from a man like him...

Every time I wake up in Solazzo's large bed, I feel like somebody else. Only a few months ago, I was just an unknown journalist who was working hard for a journal. But I was happy and satisfied. How did I become a mafia leader's companion? How did I land in his arms...

"Did you sleep well, doll?" Solazzo cooes. Feeling his warm breath on my neck, I groan softly and snuggle closer to him.

"I didn't... Something kept me awake all night long. And now, I hurt all over..." I grin against his chest.

"Ah, my prince. You'd better get used to that." He pinches my ear a little. "I can give you so much more."

My perseverance is paying off. Solazzo is getting much more gentle and open with me. Mr. Iero's deadline is getting closer and I must act soon. But what Solazzo told me about D'Avanzo is still on my mind, and I can't bring myself to do anything. Solazzo trusts me more and more, but I still haven't found anything yet...

While I am thinking, Solazzo stand sup from the bed. As he is buttoning up his shirt, he leans in to kiss me. "I have business to deal with, baby. I am taking you to a French restaurant for lunch."

Solazzo interrupts himself for a moment.

"Don't go back to the Sparrow Hall. Wait for me here," he tells me. I try not to look too hyped or surprised. It's the first time that Solazzo is leaving me alone in his mansion; I feel a shiver run through me. Repressing my excitement, I nod at him shyly.

Solazzo gathers the necessary then leaves soon after. I discreetly look around myself before leaving the bedroom to explore the mansion. Besides the housekeeper, I am alone in here. That's such a rare occasion. I must find evidence. Hm, where to start?

The office is where he works. That will be a good start!

I sneak into Solazzo's office, feeling my heart beat hard. I see my reflection in the large mirror I come across and glance at myself. Look what you've become, Gerard. You are the same outside. Are you still the same inside?

I consider the question quickly and reckon that I have been doing quite well so far. I hope that curiosity won't kill the cat, but the end of the saying is often forgotten, and goes: 'satisfaction brought it back'.
I have been through tough situations, but often from risk that I was willing to take. I can't help but to think that it's all worth it, and this thought makes it all more bearable.

I enter the office, which is a mess. It's even covered in a thin layer of dust. It looks like no one is doing the cleaning here. Why isn't the housekeeper cleaning here?

I search the office, starting with the desk, then the shelves, beneath the table, and the couch. I poke at the globe to see if it's hollow. Nothing...

I am worn out and I collapse on Solazzo's large, leather armchair before the desk. I didn't manage to make the most out of this unique opportunity... He must have put the important documents under locked key. Why would he leave them on the desk?

I look at this desk frustratedly. It's made of sequoia, with a lamp, a phone, a notebook, a fountain pen, and a Bible. The Bible seems old. The cover is frayed and the pages are yellowish from age. Out of curiosity and maybe an ounce of boredom, I extend my hand and grab it. I open the Bible.

"Why are so many corners folded like that..." I mumble softly. Solazzo, are you really that pious? Isn't this kind of ironic?" My jaw clutches when I recall how he murdered this man in cold blood at the restaurant.

I skim through the pages. What kind of parts could a cold-blooded murderer enjoy? The first folded page has a note written in pencil besides the text, which reads 'P.M.'

A verse is underlined. 'By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat, until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made of dust, and to dust you will return.'

I go to the next page and see 'J. B' written on the side. There is another verse that is underlined. 'So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Each day has enough trouble on its own'.

Then, a verse with the mention 'M.T' next to it : 'And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.'. A fourth, fifth, sixth one... There are more than ten pages annotated like that. As I keep skimming through the pages, I notice that some pages have been folded, then unfolded in the corners.

Besides the initials, there is nothing specifically striking. It seems like a normal Bible. I close it and carefully set it back in its place.

I go back to the bedroom and stays here, waiting for Solazzo's return. After a while, the housekeeper knocks on the door to indicate me that he is back and waiting for me in his car. I don't dare to leave him waiting, so I quickly put on something more decent and leave the mansion.

I get inside the car, but Solazzo is silent. He throws a cold glare at me. His gaze gets hooked on me and I start having the goosebumps. His odd demeanor is making me nervous. Did I do something that made him suspicious? Wasn't he in a good mood this morning?

"Sweetie... You look upset. Did something happen?" I ask softly. Solazzo looks at me, his eyes burning with anger.

"Do you remember going anywhere last Friday, Arthur?" He glares at me.

"I..."

Last Friday, I pretended to go to the Delos hairdresser to find Mr. Iero. Did he find out about my relationship with Mr. Iero? Cold sweat is giving me the shivers.

"What's the matter, baby? Do you need me to refresh your memory?" Solazzo scowls. If he had discovered anything about Mr. Iero, he wouldn't be so calm.

"What do you mean, bear?" I pout innocently.

"Don't play dumb with me! No boy will fool me! Who did you meet with last Friday? Tell me!"

...Is he talking about Patrick?

"Honey, I... I saw Patrick that day..." I quickly say before deciding that it's a bad idea. "But I didn't want to!"

"Keep going."

"Patrick told me... He told me that he still had feelings for me and that he wanted me to leave with him. Or else... Or else he'd go to my hometown and tell everyone that I'm a showboy in New York." I let out some sobbing , pretending to be upset by this whole challenge. I never thought I would manage to cry on order, but perhaps I am just truly on edge.

I look at Solazzo with teary eyes and I notice that his expression softened.

"Is it true, my bunny?" He peers at me suspiciously.

"How...How can you believe that I am lying to you?" I sniffle.

A smile appears on the other man's face. "We will find out soon."

Solazzo drives us to an abandoned factory, in an isolated place. The inside is sinister : a rusty chimney, waste on the ground, spiderweb, and old car frames covered in dust. The windows are without glass, like gaping holes ready to swallow whole any careless passer-by.

Solazzo stops the car in an empty space. A black car is parked. At Solazzo's arrival, three men hurry out of the car. "Boss, you're here," one of them says.

Solazzo waves his hand and the men go open the car's trunk. They extract out of it another man with his hands tied. There is a dirty bag covering his head. He is dragged to Solazzo, tripping on the way. Then he is forced on his knees before us.

"You weren't lying, right?" Solazzo asks me with a nasty smile.

"Of course not, bear," I answer, disconcerted by this show.

"Good." Solazzo is smiling but his eyes are cold. He walks to the man and abruptly takes the bag off his head. Who... Him? What!

The face looking at me is bloody and bludgeoned, but I can still recognize Patrick. His puffy eyes shine when he sees me. I see him struggle against his restrains, I see the blood dripping on his face, near his eyes, and I start trembling in despair.

"What's wrong, baby?" Solazzo takes his hand out of his pocket, wraps it around my waist and pats my hip. "This is the human waste who tried to blackmail you. Don't be scared, he can't hurt you anymore."

Solazzo is insane! What is he going to do?

I whimper and press myself against him, pretending to be terrified. "I don't like blood... Angie, let's leave..."

Solazzo frowns. "He sold you, and now you are going to reply in kind! Tell me, how do you want to make him pay?" He grabs Patrick by his hair and tugs his head up. "You can kick him, or slap him, or... have some takeout meat. I will help you cut it into pieces, my love."

I don't need to act to look horrified and upset. My gaze is hooked on poor Patrick who is looking away. "I... I have never hurt anyone... I-I wouldn't..."

Solazzo's hold on my waist turns into a vice grip and I wince.

"Even when you are facing the man who sold and threatened you?"

Not knowing what to do to help Patrick, I can only shake my head.

"I wasn't expecting my doll to have such a big heart," Solazzo comments, though he clearly doesn't mean it as a compliment, judging by the way his jaw clenches on his cigar.

Solazzo brutally grabs my chin and raises it to look at me in the eye. "How to trust you!"

What should I do? If I don't hurt Patrick, Solazzo will not trust me. But how could I possibly hurt Patrick...

"Let me go, boss, and I will never see Arthur again! I swear!" Patrick begs. His desperate voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

Solazzo looks at him and gives him a brutal kick. "Shut up!"

Patrick heavily falls on the ground, his face twisting in pain.

"You are right, Arthur. A sweet boy like you shouldn't be exposed to such an uncivilized behavior. We must do things cleanly."

I try to probe his eyes. "Cleanly?"

Solazzo takes something from his waist and puts it in my hands. The cold metal freezes me to the bone. The gun feels so heavy in my hand.

I look at Solazzo in disbelief. He gives me a small nod.

"That's for doing things cleanly."

My eyes widen. "You... You want me to kill him?"

"I certainly don't want you to shoot yourself with that." Solazzo smiles, shrugging.

I limply hold the gun in hand, my eyes looking in Patrick's direction; he went back on his knees. Even though his face is swollen, he is looking at me calmly.

"Angelo..." I breathe out, my eyes still on poor Patrick. "He abandoned me and lied to me, but..."

"He doesn't deserve to die?" Solazzo finishes my sentence gravely. "But that's not all he's done." His face is full of rage, he is seething. "He is a spy sent by Frank Iero. That man is a traitor! Kill him!"

I hold the gun firmly, but I can't bring myself to pull the trigger. Solazzo knows that Patrick works for Mr. Iero. I have no doubt that Solazzo will kill him no matter what. But is Patrick got exposed, what about me? Does he know about me, too?

"Come on, let's get it over with! Do you need a kid to do the job for you?!" Patrick snarls at Solazzo and his voice once again brings me back to reality. My heart breaks when I realize that he knows he is done. His lips are pinched and defiant, but his eyes are full of resignation.

Patrick resumes aggressively, and I wonder if he is still acting or if he truly loathes Solazzo. "I spoilt everything because of this boy. If he hadn't been there, you would've stayed clueless, you poor idio-"

Solazzo's men interrupt his tirade by beating him up savagely.

"Kill him, Arthur, or you are dying with him!" Solazzo shouts at me as I witness the whole scene, shocked and powerless.

"Go ahead! Go ahead, you bastards!" Patrick yells between two kicks in the ribs. The beating stops and I look at him, dumbfounded. His face is bloody, but he looks at me straight in the eye...

I understand what Patrick is trying to tell me. His cover is blown, but mine isn't. If I don't shoot, we are both going to die.

I resign myself, but my hands are shaking when I point the gun at the bloody man on the ground. Patrick peers at me and smiles in relief. I close my eyes, making a couple of tears that had welled roll down, and I pull the trigger.

The noise makes me jump, and I find myself unable to open my eyes right away. I turn away first not to see Patrick when I open them.

"Good job, my sweet Arthur."

The only thing I am focusing on is not to cry, because that would be suspicious from Solazzo's point of view. The latter seems satisfied of me. His mad rage is replaced by a smile. He tells his men to clean it up and takes me by the waist. He is almost prancing as we leave the place.

"Not only was he a cheating bastard, but he is a traitor as well. If anyone ever tries to intimidate you from now on, you tell me, alright, little dove? I promise that their death with be so much worse than Patrick."

I hear Solazzo as some background noise while he leads me to the car. My gaze is empty and wandering, my mind is completely blank as if all flows of thoughts were blocked by an impassable damn.

"That will become a habit, now that you are with me. Take this as a training," Solazzo tells me. His mood considerably improved after he got rid of the spy that Mr. Iero had sent. He is quite talkative on the way back to his home.

He explains to me all the methods that he uses to deal with the members of the mafia. And maybe because I had mentioned D'Avanzo, he starts talking about D'Avanzo. I now know everything that happened between D'Avanzo and him, and how D'Avanzo died.

Solazzo says that someone once paid him to kill a police officer and that he sent D'Avanzo to do the job. Apparently, the police officer had done things that threatened a VIP's interests. I connect the dots in my mind. That police officer was George Taylor, Emily's father, the one on the picture I found.

D'Avanzo didn't keep his tongue about the case and Solazzo made him disappear. I manage to figure out D'Avanzo's death... but what about Emily's daughter? What happened to her? That is still a mystery, though I suppose that she got abducted to be brought to one of Solazzo's brothels. Maybe that's why George Taylor, her grandfather, started to investigate.

The car keeps running, heading for the Sparrow Hall. I lay my head on the window, drained. Solazzo trusts me now, and I obtained important information, but I am feeling no satisfaction. My heart is squeezing as though a cage was constricting it permanently. I am feeling an unbearable pain.

A man named Patrick will be forgotten in this vacant lot. A place that I will never visit again.

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