Bones (Bonetti Brothers #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BONES

Listening to my father for two hours was difficult. He even sounds weak. However, it was business as usual for him. He is exhausted, but he won’t slow down until he’s dead. I feel like a horrible son for thinking I hope it’s sooner rather than later. I’ll miss him terribly, but I hate knowing he’s in so much pain. He’ll be informing my mother and brothers later today. My poor mom is going to be devastated.

I head downstairs to find my wife, with the plan to lose myself in her. She somehow makes everything feel manageable. When I make it to the large living room I spot her shoes on the floor, but she’s not in sight. I check the kitchen and she’s not there either.

“Athena,” I call out, but there’s no response.

After going upstairs and checking the bedroom, I begin to worry. Where the fuck is she? I head to my office to look at the security cameras. My entire property is fitted with, not only cameras everywhere, but motion detectors. If she is in this house, I will find her.

I pull up the live feed on every single camera, one at a time, before I finally admit to myself that she’s not here. She left me. Everything was so great today and still, the first time I left her alone, she ran.

Sitting in my office chair, I watch the video of the living room camera that goes to the front door. Not long after my meeting would have started I spot Jimmy walking into my house, which is odd, because my staff are not allowed in my house without me giving them permission. There’s no fucking way I would have when I wasn’t around. I did when she was chained in the basement, only because somebody had to be there to give her the food she refused. A few moments later another man comes in, but I don’t recognize him. Why the fuck is he in my house? He speaks to Athena. I click on another camera, after making note of the time. I need to see her face. When I do, my blood turns to ice. I may not know who this man is, but my Butterfly does. Pure terror shows on her face. I intentionally have no sound on these devices, because if the feds come with a warrant, the things they’d hear could land me in prison for the rest of my life, and likely all the men in our family as well. Right now, I regret that, as I watch my wife get to her feet. She goes to put her shoes on, but the older man says something to her and she walks toward him. He grabs her by the back of her neck, squeezing hard, and I see fucking red. They walk out and I switch to the outside camera. She glances back at the house, and it looks like she’s staring straight into my soul. The anguish on her face is not something I’ll soon forget. It’s going to haunt me.

She turns away, and gets into the white vehicle that has farm use plates on it. The man hands Jimmy a stack of cash, and gets in and drives away with my wife inside.

Picking up my whiskey decanter, I throw it across the room and it shatters near my desk, but I ignore it.

“Fuck!”

Whoever this asshole is, he has my wife, and that means he’s a fucking dead man. And Jimmy is involved, obviously. He took money from the old man, so clearly he was paid off. That’s the very reason I’ll begin with him. Wherever you are, Butterfly. I’ll find you. If I have to kill a billion men in the process, I don’t mind. He took the one thing that is most precious to me, and for that he will fucking suffer.

I run a hand through my hair as I call each of my brothers, ordering them to get to the warehouse immediately. “Why the warehouse?” Kage was the first, but not the last, to ask. Normally I’d take Jimmy to the basement to question him, but the thought of going down there with so many memories of my wife, is more than I can bear. Fuck. I miss her.

Walking outside, I find Jimmy standing near the guard station with Eduardo. I call Stephen to take over their post, while I question both of them. While I didn’t see Eduardo on the video like I did Jimmy, those two are thick as thieves, and if one is involved the other one probably is too.

“Hand me your weapons.”

This is a skill I learned from my father. Always appear composed. Never let them see you break. Right now it’s a struggle, but I still pull it off.

They exchange worried glances, before Jimmy says, “Boss. What’s going on?”

Some people would say I’m crazy to approach two armed men like this. I am carrying, I always am, but my gun is not in my hand. As my dad would say, ‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat.’ I don’t need a weapon to kill either of them, and it would be stupid for them to pull a gun on me. They both know me well, and are aware that I could have them screaming in pain from the floor, long before they managed to fire a shot. They both hand me their .45s, and I tuck them both into the back of my waistband. There are other weapons in the guard shack, but they normally only wear one in their holsters.

“Come on. We’re going to have a chat. Warehouse. You’ll both walk in front of me, so I can keep my eyes on you.” Eduardo looks at me with fear. He has only just figured out they are in very big trouble. Maybe he is innocent, because Jimmy reeked of guilt the moment I approached them. Time will tell, I suppose.

Once we get to the large warehouse, I nod to Eduardo. “Go on. You know the code. I have trusted you for how long?”

He enters the code, and answers me, “Twenty-two years, Boss. And before that I worked for your father.”

We all walk inside and they turn to me, waiting for an order.

“Down to your underwear. ”

Jimmy stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “What?”

“Strip now. I don’t feel like patting you down, to be sure you don’t have any other weapons hidden.”

Eduardo is the first to comply, probably because he has known me the longest. He knows if someone refuses an order, how that turns out for them. Not well. I expect my men to do as they’re told, no matter what. I pay them well. They are treated with respect. I’ve written checks to Eduardo’s daughter’s private school since she was six years old. That wasn’t part of his pay, it was extra, because I don’t want my men to struggle financially. People who fail to make ends meet do stupid fucking things. This is my way of preventing that. My foot soldiers never worry about that shit. They know if they come to me with a problem, I’ll find a way to fix it. I’m a good boss. Yet when someone fucks with myself, or my family, that all evaporates in the blink of an eye. They will be treated in a hostile manner like any other enemy.

“Kneel.”

Both men get to their knees, both of them wearing a fearful expression.

“Jimmy, let’s start with you. I have reviewed the camera footage from earlier today. I want to know who the fuck the man was that you let into my house. The same one who handed you a stack of cash. And WHERE THE FUCK IS MY WIFE?”

My voice booms in the empty warehouse, and the shock in Eduardo’s eyes tells me he knows nothing about this. Until I find my wife, he is not going anywhere though.

I crack my knuckles, getting the attention of both of my men. They know what happens next.

“She isn’t what you think she is,” Jimmy says, with disgust dripping from his tongue.

I fold my arms over my chest. “Enlighten me. ”

Without turning around, I know my brothers are here. Reaper starts chuckling when he sees my men on their knees, wearing nothing except white cotton briefs.

“Tell me I get to kill someone,” he says in a sick voice that would give a normal person chills down their spine. I glance over at him, and Kage puts his hand on his shoulder. “Down, boy. Bones wants information first.”

Psycho walks over to Jimmy, and pets his hair as he stares down at him. “Did you do something bad, Jimmy?”

Jesus Christ. Obviously, I should’ve called Kage, and left the other two murderous lunatics out of this.

“Jimmy was going to inform me on the reasons why he says my wife is not what I think she is.”

Psycho yanks his head back by a tight grip of his dark hair. “It’s not polite to not look at someone when they’re talking to you. Now speak.”

His bottom lip trembles before he speaks. “I bet she didn’t tell you about her special relationship with her father.”

I glare at him. “Tell me what the fuck you know. Stop with the games.”

“Her dad fucks her and she likes it. Disgusting, isn’t it?”

The pain in my chest feels like it could swallow me whole. Who does this to their own child? Poor Athena. Is this true? Is this why my Butterfly is so guarded?

“How did you come to get this information?”

“Let me go, and I’ll tell you everything.”

All three of my brothers laugh in unison, because anybody that knows me knows there will be no walking away from this. With my wife being taken from me, it only cements that fact.

“You’re not going anywhere, now spill.”

“I needed money, so I took another job. He was looking for his missing daughter. Princess, he called her, was everything to him.”

That’s what Manny called her .

He shrugs his shoulders like it’s no big deal, until Psycho pulls his hair so hard, he squeals like a stuck pig.

“When I told him I knew where she was, he offered me half a million dollars. I couldn’t refuse it, because my little brother is in trouble with the law.”

I shake my head, because had he come to me and asked for help, I would have given it to him. Now he’s going to die. And who knows what will happen to his brother?

“Where is she?”

Jimmy glares at me. “Probably at his house in New Haven, Connecticut.”

“Address, Jimmy.”

He doesn’t reply until Psycho pulls out his knife and holds it to his throat, then suddenly he wants to answer, “1604 Brighton Avenue.”

“Psycho, let him go.”

My brother immediately lets him go, and he coughs as he gasps for air. But we aren’t done.

“Reaper, have at it. Make it quick. We’re going to get my wife.”

With a kick to his face, he falls onto his back screaming, and I feel regretful. I wish we had more time, it’s sad really.

Reaper grabs his throat and squeezes hard, and looks down at him. I’ve seen this show before, but I’ve never enjoyed it as much as I do right now.

“The eyes are the window to the soul. Open your eyes. There’s nothing more beautiful than watching a life leave its body. Don’t cry, it only blurs the beauty. Do you see Jesus yet?”

He chuckles softly, and it’s clear that my brother enjoys every second of this.

“Tell him pure evil said hi.”

Releasing his grip on his throat, he checks his pulse. “He’s dead.”

I glance at Eduardo. “Kage, chain him up. ”

He goes out to his truck and comes back with chains, and secures Eduardo to a pillar. I gaze at Eduardo, who looks like he’s trying to process everything that has happened.

“I didn’t know.”

I nod. “I mostly believe you. For now, you’ll stay put. If you manage to get free and escape, I will kill you. Your innocence won’t matter.”

He shakes his head. “I understand, Boss. I’ll be here when you return, and for what it’s worth, I hope you find her and I hope she’s okay. Even though Mrs. Bonetti shot me, she’s a good woman, and doesn’t deserve the things Jimmy said.”