Chapter 69 Chapter Sixty Nine - Escape To Mexico

Chapter 69 Chapter Sixty Nine - Escape To Mexico
Cedric's POV

Gianni took another step toward Ray, and the air in the kitchen became suffocating.

Ray's back was flush against the door, his fingers still scrambling uselessly at the lock. His eyes were wide and white, like a cornered animal, as he looked from Gianni to Cedric and then back to Gianni.

"Please," Ray whispered. "Please, I didn't know... I didn't mean... Linda please, help me. Beg him to spare me."

Linda gave him a pitying look and averted her eyes, holding Lily firmly behind her.

"Tell him to spare me, goddamnit! You bitch! You did this! You invited him here to kill me!" Ray fumed, blaming everything on Linda as usual.

"What the hell did you just say?" 

One dark look from Gianni stopped Ray cold in his tracks, all the bluster draining out of him.

Then Gianni moved.

It happened so fast Cedric barely registered it. One second Gianni was standing in the middle of the kitchen, the next his hand was wrapped around Ray's throat, slamming him back against the door hard enough to rattle the hinges.

"Repeat that," Gianni said quietly, his voice deadly calm. "What did you just call her?"

Ray made a strangled, wheezing sound, his hands clawing uselessly at Gianni's wrist.

"Gianni—" Linda started.

"I want to hear him say it again," Gianni continued, as if she hadn't spoken. "Go on, Raymond. Tell me what you called the woman who put a roof over your worthless head."

Ray's face was turning purple. His legs kicked weakly, his hands slapping at Gianni's arm.

"Gianni, stop!" Cedric moved forward, grabbing Gianni's other arm. "You're going to kill him!"

"That's the idea," Gianni said.

"Not here. Not in front of Lily. Please."

For a long, terrible moment, Gianni didn't move. Ray's eyes were rolling back into his head, his struggles getting weaker.

Then, slowly, Gianni's fingers loosened.

Ray dropped to his knees, gasping and coughing, one hand clutching his bruised throat.

Gianni crouched down beside him, and when he spoke, his voice was eerily calm.

"Raymond. Listen very carefully, because I'm only going to explain this once."

He grabbed Ray's chin, forcing him to look up.

"That woman you just insulted? She is under my protection now. Her children are under my protection. This apartment—" He gestured around the small kitchen. "—is under my protection. Do you understand what that means?"

Ray nodded frantically, still wheezing.

"It means," Gianni continued, "that if you ever speak to her again, if you ever set foot in this building again, if you even think her name, I will know. And I will come for you."

He released Ray's chin and stood, brushing off his hands like he'd touched something dirty.

"Now. I'm going to give you a choice. You can leave this apartment right now, go downstairs, and never return. Or—"

"I'll go," Ray gasped immediately. "I'm going. I'm leaving right now. I swear I'll never come back here for as long as I live—"

“I wasn’t finished.” Gianni’s stiff smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Or you stay. I catch you again in this house, terrorising my Cedric and his family.”

“And rather than put your hands on a child, this time you can fight someone your own size.” Gianni crouched down until he was eye to eye with the snivelling man, “And I’ll tell you this, Ray Kowalski, I have never lost a fight.”

Cedric’s stomach dropped. He looked at Lily, who had gone very still behind his mother. She couldn’t speak in response to that, but clearly she’d heard it.

Meanwhile, Linda’s face drained of colour. “What?”

“This piece of shit here likes to hit little kids, a bonus to being a drunk and a gambler. Isn’t that right?”

Gianni said, still looking at Ray. “Although I don’t blame you for not noticing, after all you’re very occupied with working and worrying about your family’s survival.”

Lily pressed closer even closer to her mother, trembling with fear.

“You son of a bitch,” Linda breathed, turning on Ray. “You told me she fell. You said she tripped on the stairs!”

“It was an accident!” Ray’s voice cracked. “She wouldn’t stop sitting in front of the TV and making that goddamn noise—”

“She’s mute, you absolute bastard!”

“Do you want to find out what I do to people who hurt children, Raymond?” Gianni asked darkly, his voice dropping to a whisper so no one else would hear. “I dismember them. Then I feed their body parts to a meat grinder and make them eat it.”

He suddenly grabbed hold of Ray’s right hand and pulled all the fingers backwards so fast and with so much force that they snapped and broke.

“Fuck!” Ray screamed in pain, his face going red as he cried and gasped desperately, snot dripping down his nose and onto his lips. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Fuck!”

“Don’t apologise to me, futtuo codardo. Apologise to them!”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Lily. I never should’ve hurt you!” Ray groaned in pain.

But Gianni did not look convinced. Gianni’s hand moved to his waistband, and Cedric saw the glint of metal.

“Gianni, no—”

“Relax.” Gianni pulled out his phone instead, but his eyes stayed fixed on Ray. “I’m just making a call.”

He spoke rapid Italian into the phone, and Cedric caught enough to understand: ”The man leaving the building. Grey shirt, stinks of beer and piss. Don’t let him get far.”

Ray must have understood too, because his face went even whiter.

“Please,” he raised both his hands in surrender. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll never hurt anyone again! I’ll leave town, I’ll move to a different state! A different country!” 

He choked out another pathetic cough, “I’ll go to Mexico!”

“I don’t give a shit where you go, just make sure you never come back. " You have thirty seconds,” Gianni said softly, pocketing his phone. “And Raymond? Run fast. My men downstairs enjoy a good chase.”

Ray didn’t need to be told twice.

He yanked the door open with shaking hands and practically fell through it, his footsteps thundering down the stairs like he was being chased by demons.

Which, Cedric supposed, he was.

The door slammed shut.

Silence filled the kitchen.

Linda stood frozen, one hand pressed to her mouth, still reeling from the shock. 

Lily was trembling behind her, but when she looked at Gianni now, there was something different in her eyes. This time instead of fear and distrust, she looked amazed.

Gianni turned around, calmly brushing off his sleeves as though he'd just taken out the trash.

"Well," Linda said faintly. "That was... that was..."

"Long overdue," Cedric finished.

His mother looked at him, then at Gianni, then back at Cedric. A complicated expression moved across her face, relief and a desperate sort of hope all tangled up together.

Then Lily did something unexpected.

She let go of their mother's hand and walked slowly across the kitchen toward Gianni.

Everyone froze.

She stopped in front of him, this enormous dangerous man who'd just threatened to dismember her stepfather, and looked up at him with those big, solemn eyes.

Her hands moved in precise, careful signs.

Thank you.

Gianni stared down at her, and for just a second, a vulnerable look flickered across his face. He crouched down to her level and signed back, slowly, and a little clumsily, but understandable: You're safe now.

Cedric's throat tightened with emotion. He hadn't known Gianni could sign. Had he learned it? For Lily?

"You're staying for dinner," Linda said suddenly, her voice thick with held-back tears. "Both of you. I'm not asking."

"Mom, it was so nice catching up with you again but... we really should..."

Cedric had already realised that he needed to choose between staying here comfortable with his family and rushing back to the estate to find out what exactly Dante had invited him to secretly discuss.

If his instincts were correct, then it was crucial to the mission that he found out who M was, and what information Dante had for him.

Not to mention there was also the matter of finally getting in contact with Marcus at the station and revealing everything he'd managed to learn so far.

Which he would do behind Gianni’s back, of course.

Linda's eyes grew wet and she sniffled. "I'm just an old woman, Ceddy. What else can I possibly give your Gianni for helping us finally get rid of that..."

"Old? Come on Mom, you're barely even forty." Cedric laughed, leaning down to kiss his mother on the cheek and wipe the tears from her face. "Don't be dramatic."

Her voice firmed up, taking on that tone that had gotten Cedric through homework and breakups and everything else. "You're staying. That's final."

Gianni glanced at Cedric, one eyebrow raised slightly. "We were only making a short visit—"

Cedric shrugged helplessly. "You don't say no to her when she uses that voice. Trust me, I've been hit upside the head enough times to have figured that out."

"Thirty minutes," Gianni said to Linda. "Then we really do need to leave."

"Forty-five," Linda countered. "And you'll eat every bite. Please, let me do this for you."

Lily nodded enthusiastically, signing: Please stay.

The corner of Gianni's mouth twitched. His eyes found Cedric's, and something unspoken passed between them.

"Deal," Gianni said finally.