Alec

Silence.

I looked to Marc with my heart in my throat.

"You're a brave cookie, I'll give you that."

I smiled. "You're the one who said I'm a lot like me uncle."

Marco snorted then glanced out to the floor and pointed to the centre of it.

"He died there."

I looked to where he pointed and I expected to see something, a stain of blood or something but there was nothing.

"Why come back here if he died here?"

Marco chuckled. "Darkness is the only place I own in Ireland, I don't own any other property so it made sense to come here."

I was surprised.

"You own this place?"

Marco shrugged. "I bought it the last time I was here, this place has character."

"Your nephew died here, who gives a fuck about character?"

Marco smiled. "You're correct about Trent dying here but you're mistaken if you think his death meant anything to me. He meant nothing to me in life, he means even less in death."

That was foul.

"You're horrible."

Marco leaned back and gazed at me with a cheerful expression. "You don't get anywhere in my world when you have people you care about. Take your uncle for example; he has his wife, daughter, sister, and you. Any one of you could be used against him if the right people knew about you."

He was trying to scare me.

And it was working.

I wouldn't let him know that.

"It's a good thing you will be dead before you snitch."

Marco's expression darkened as he reached over the table and belted me across the face with a solid object.

I cried out in pain.

"I've had enough of your smart fucking mouth, you little whore. One more word and I'm using the primary function of this gun on your pretty face. Do you understand?"

I whimpered as I pulled my hand away from my stinging eyebrow and spotted blood. I then looked at Marco's hand and saw the gun he smacked me with.

"Do. You. Understand?" Marco snarled.

I nodded my head and pressed my hand against my eyebrow.

God it hurt.

I didn't know which pain to focus on, the one in my eyebrow or the one in my cheek.

"Good girl, now tell me, do you know where Dante is?"

I shook my head.

"Don't lie to me."

I whimpered. "I'm not lyin', the last time I seen Dante was back in the Bahamas."

"Alec never mentioned his whereabouts to you?"

I sniffled. "No, today is the first time I've spoken to Alec since I came home. I have no idea where Dante is or could be. I don't know anythin'."

Marco watched me with interest.

"You're either a really good liar, or you're telling me the truth."

I whimpered as blood escaped the cut on my eyebrow even though I had pressure on it.

"I'm tellin' the truth."

Marco pointed his gun at me and I screamed with fright.

"I'm tellin' the truth, I swear. Please, don't shoot me."

Marco sighed and lowered his gun.

He looked passed me.

"Bring the other two out here."

I heard footsteps then a few minutes later I could hear Alec and Bronagh.

"Keela?"

"I'm here." I turned and looked to Alec when he all but ran in my direction.

Marco pointed his gun at Alec.

"Not so fast Romeo, sit in the middle of the floor with your brother's bitch."

Alec did as ordered but he did it while looking at me. His mouth formed a tight line when he seen me cradle my face.

"Are you okay?"

I turned to him fully and he widened his eyes when me saw the blood.

"It depends on what you mean by okay."

My attempt to lighten up the situation with his own words didn't work.

Alec stared at me. "Are you okay?"

I tried to be strong, but I broke down and shook my head.

I felt dizzy and my face was so sore.

Alec cut his eyes to Marco.

"She is defenceless you asshole."

Marco snorted. "She wasn't defenceless. Her mouth was her weapon, trust me."

Alec stewed as he looked to me then back to Marco. I could sense he wanted to come to me, but he couldn't and he hated it.

"Why are you doing this?"

Marco growled, "Because you convinced Dante to leave and go start a new life. He was my top earner after you left. All of my businesses took profit loses when you and your fucking brothers jumped ship. I was steadily building everything back up and now Dante is gone. Where is he?"

Alec look pessimistic and that worried me.

"He asked me what my life was like since I left and I told him the truth, it was, and is, fucking great. I didn't convince him of anything. If he left, he did so on his own free will."

Marco wasn't happy, he wasn't happy at all.

"You don't have free will when you work for me," Marco growled.

Alec kept eye contact with Marco. "Then where is Dante?"

Marco snapped, "Tell me here is he! I'm not going to ask you again, boy!"

My already pounding heart kicked into overdrive.

"I'm telling you the truth, I don't know where he is."

Marco lifted his gun and pointed it at Alec.

"I don't have time for bullshit."

"No, please, no!" I screamed.

"Tell me where he is or I'm going to kill your boyfriend."

Oh God!

"Please," I screamed.

"You bastard, don't bring her into this, she only met Dante once!"

I watched in slow motion as Marco rolled his hand over the top of the slide of the gun and cocked it back.

He was going to shoot Alec.

"Plane lists!" I screamed.

Marco paused what he was doing and looked at me.

"What?"

"You could check the outgoing flights from the Bahamas from two days ago. Dante would have to use his passport so his real name will be on a flight list."

Marco looked at me for a moment then smiled.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Because you're a fucking psychopath maybe?

"Toby, run a search of all outgoing flights from the Bahamas from Thursday of last week."

"On it, boss."

I knew that voice.

Toby was the man who struck me and pulled me by the hair.

I stored that information and visibly relaxed when Marco lowered his gun, but my panic started all over again when Marco's focus switched to Bronagh. I noticed Bronagh had a dark red mark on her cheek, it looked very similar to mine.

"Nice to see you again."

"And you Marco, it's a pleasure as always."

Marco chortled.

I didn't know what their history was so I kept quiet. My head was hurting bad so I lowered it until it rested it on the table.

"Keela?"

I heard Alec’s voice, but it took a minute for me to lift my head and look at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I lightly shook my head. "Me head hurts," I said as I pulled my hand away from my eyebrow then put it back, "and the bleedin' won't stop."

Alec paled then looked at Marco.

"Marco, let me see to her cut. She is bleeding."

Marco looked down at me and waved Alec over as he turned back to Bronagh.

"Still dating Nico?"

Bronagh nodded. "Yep, we're still goin' strong."

"I'm happy for you both."

Bronagh snorted. "Yeah, I bet you are."

"Is my boy still fighting?"

"Yeah, but not for money, just for fun."

I tried to focus on the conversation but my focus switched to Alec when he moved into the booth next to me and lifted me head up off the table.