Chapter 70. No Way Back

The air stank of bleach and blood.

Rico’s wrists burned under the wire cuffs, skin rubbed raw, knuckles split open. His face was swollen, one eye nearly shut. Gianni was a heap on the floor, his chest barely moving. The third guy wasn’t moving at all anymore.

Rico sat there breathing shallowly, tasting iron. He’d been hit enough times to know when a man was about to die, and Gianni had reached that point.

One of Maurizio’s men crouched in front of him, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “You talk yet?”

Rico spat blood onto the concrete. “Get fucked.”

The next punch drove the air from his lungs. He folded forward, coughing, then straightened again with a grin that cost him. “You kill me, you get nothing. Tell your boss that.”

Gianni’s scream tore through the room. He yelled he didn’t know where Ezio was—and the answer came as a gunshot. His body went still.

Rico froze, pulse pounding. Gianni’s blood crept in a slow river ac