Chapter 59
“How do you want to manage this? I can look into it, but it will potentially get out we’re looking for Mercutio Mariani.”
“If I pretend I didn’t know and Alere finds out, I’ll lose even more ground than I lost yesterday.” He rubbed his forehead feeling every inch of his thirty–seven years. “However, a man has the right to discipline his son for insubordination in a meeting. My grandfather would’ve beat me within an inch of my life for openly defying him. You and I both know it Kylen.”
“There’s more
“What more?”
“You asked me to find out what happened when she was put in the holding cell. We got hold of a couple of the guys involved.” Kylen made a face. “Mariani threatened to pass her around the men.”
“What the fuck?” he was on his feet out of the chair again.
“One of them recorded it and kept if in his phones. It could be taken as Mariani trying to scare her but,” he waved to the computer, “I sent it to you. It’s um, not for the faint of heart. I’m going to guess it was day three or four of her being in this cell. He didn’t put her anywhere nice, Torq. He put her in a fucking cell which he clearly uses for interrogation.”
Torg found he couldn’t sit back in his seat as he booted up his laptop and pulled his emails open to find the file Kylen sent.
“Tito and Bastiano got a copy?”
“Yes”
“I want the names of every fucking man in this video on my desk.”
“It’s already there,” Kylen said seriously.
He hit play and watched as Edgardo Mariani moved slightly out of frame. One of the men evidently snuck his phone in because the angle was bad and the lighting was poor and the camera shook as if the man was scared.
The clip made his heart clench. She was younger, looking very much the way he remembered her, but her face was bruised, her lips dried and cracked, and she was clearly sitting in clothes she’d urinated in. She boldly looked her father in the eyes when he grabbed her by the chin.
Who did you fuck, Alcee?
I don’t know, Dan Morlani but if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.
You liked being a whore? Pucking men you don’t know. You don’t know the men in this room. Do you want to fuck them? I can make it happen. Maybe you would talk then if i let them break you?
If it makes you feel more of a man, Don Marion to threaten to rape your daughter, then do your worst
Are you asking for it?
No. I am not asking for it. I am merely pointing out the truth you are an animal for threatening to cause suck horst to a woman.
You’re a whore and you deserve to be treated like one
If you say so, Don Marian
Torq watched with incredulity when Edgardo slapped his daughter across the face, her dry lips already cracked, splitting and bleeding. Then unable to stop himself a smile pulled across Torq’s lips as she licked the blood off her lip, collected it in her mouth and spit in her father’s face.
ing the frame where he passed the video. He hit play again and watched as Edgardo Mariani “That’s my fucking girl,” he whispered his fingers tracing leveled another blow to Alcee’s face. She never spoke again in the remaining fifteen seconds of the video, but her eyes remained defiant while she stated her father down with a hatred he himself was echning in this moment. Torq looked at Rylen, he’s going to die.”
“No doubt.”
“Who does this to their own child?”
1/2
“A desperate man.” Kylen shifted his shoulders. “I’ve seen a lot of shit in my lifetime, but this is a special level of fucked up. He went from treating her like she was his golden goose to nearly killing her.” Kylen painted, “there’s a second video, I got it from the surveillance footage of their home. It’s after she found out she was pregnant. It’s the third day after she was taken from here where she was working for Tyrell. She was dragged back in front of her father at the house, and he leveled a gun to her head. Her mother does in fact stand in front of her and tells him to shoot her, he’d need to shoot through his wife. He yells and it gets pretty dramatic, but Mrs. Mariani folds herself over Alcee to protect her. When he finally fucks off, Mrs. Mariani kisses her on the forehead and tells her to run while she can. It’s my understanding it’s the last communication they ever had. She knew her husband wouldn’t kill her, but she wasn’t convinced he wouldn’t kill Alece.”
“I’m still not convinced he wouldn’t kill Alere. All this is over the fact he’s drowning in debt and doesn’t own a family business to pass onto his son. He fucked up and he’s a desperate man doing desperate things th remain relevant in a world he no longer fits into. Alcee called it yesterday when she said he was nothing more than a pimp”
“I found out more interesting things about his son’s marriages. All of them the brides families were forced to pay Mariani. I find it interesting he made your grandfather pay him for the virgin but the women he picked for his sons were given the Mariani name for a price. Mercurio’s wife was the most expensive at five hundred grand.”
“All that’s missing from this guy is a fucking low rider car which bounces and a mouthful of grill.” Torq commented angrily. “These are his fucking kids he’s using as commodities.”
Tito knocked once and came into the office and quickly closed the door behind him.
“What is it?” Torq looked at Tito knowing the expression on his face wasn’t going to be the man giving him good news.
“Corrado made a move. He sent a team after your parents.”
Torq felt his chest tighten, “my mother?”
“They’re fine. They were well guarded. His team tried to force them off the road a few moments ago, Our security has pulled them, and they will be on the next flight here. I presumed you would want them here for us to keep them safe.”
He was grateful Tito was acting quickly.
“I haven’t even told my mother about Antero yet.” He sighed and looked back at the screen and the defiance on Alcee’s face. He’d dumped a dog and a shitstorm on her yesterday. He found himself desperately hoping a mother–in–law, a father–in–law and a sister–in–law didn’t cause his woman to be spitting blood in his face and running for the hills. “At the risk of her wrath for disrupting her work for the second day–in a row, get
up
here. I’ll need to let her know we’ll be having guests for the foreseeable future.”
Alcee
As the three men exchanged glances, Torq realized unlike yesterday, he was not relishing his fiancée’s visit to his office.
What a clusterfuck
Chapter Comments
Michele Clementa
Shell be much more amenable to a situation she’s being told about ahead of time
