Chapter 71 Chapter 71

Chapter 71 Chapter 71
Massimo 

We comb the city for Marco. Any location where he could’ve taken mia bella ballerina. Starting with his home, we tear the place to shreds and shoot up any of his men that attempt to interfere. 

His business operation meets the same fate. Then we turn our ire to Salvatore and the D'Angelos and begin picking off whatever locations Ayanna could’ve been transported to.

Angelo is the one with a spark of genius. It’s as we’ve massacred the men at Deli that he turns to me with his head tilted and a befuddled look on his face. “What if they’ve taken her to the theater? That’s where she was signed with the dance company, right? Wouldn’t that be where Salvatore wanted her to return?”

Though I have no way of knowing if his theory is correct, it makes enough sense that I round up my crew and tell them it’s where we’re headed next.

We pull up to the Dresden Performing Arts Theater in a matter of minutes. From the moment that we do, I’m aware it’s the correct place—a long line of D'Angelos vehicles are parked in the curved valet section.

Several of his men take notice and migrate toward the stone steps of the theater. I’m holding nothing back in this moment. The fun and games are over. All chances for negotiations and civilized discussion have passed.

I hold up my semiautomatic rifle and open fire on the men. They’re sprayed with so many bullets their bodies convulse while they’re still on their feet.

The bullets running through various parts of them won’t allow anything less. Only after me and my men have shot them a dozen-odd times each do they flop to the floor in crimson pools.
We rush past them without a second glance back.

Entering through the front doors of the theater, we’re like SWAT team invading a territory in search of our perpetrator. The difference being this perpetrator happens to be even more powerful than we are.

Salvatore has to have heard the commotion outside the theater. It wouldn’t surprise me if this has been set up as some sort of elaborate trap.

I keep my eyes peeled, my weapon pointed, moving carefully through the theater lobby. Around me, my men fan out and check the different sections of the building.

Pain twinges through me. Remnants from my earlier episode. I push on from sheer willpower alone. If I die tonight, I’ll die knowing I went out in a blood-soaked massacre, taking back what’s mine.
Mia bella ballerina.

The main men who have stayed with me and not gone off to clear other parts of the building congregate outside the double doors. Angelo is at the front, waiting for my go ahead. I stride forward wearing a mask I’ve donned many times—cold, bone-chilling fury that won’t go away ’til my lust for blood and violence has been sated.

I give my nod of approval. “We’re going in.”

Angelo and another guy fling open the double doors and we spill into the theater with our weapons drawn. I enter last, coming down the center of my group of men.

Our hunch was correct. The rest of the theater might be empty, but this room couldn’t be more opposite. Salvatore’s men stand in a dutiful line on the far side of the theater. Salvatore himself is on stage. Ayanna is an arm’s length away.

He grins at the sight of us, cocks his hammer, and points his gun at Ayanna’s head. “Not so fast, Massimo. Take another step, and this gets real messy, real fast.”