NALEDI’S POV
“We have big news.”
I received a message from Korah and placed a callback.
“Tell me,” I said as soon as the call connected.
“Marcel did some digging into the recently exterminated packs and you were right.”
My heart was caught. “Where are you?”
The last thing I needed was to get anything concerning the case at hand leaked via phone. With my experience in the underworld, some information was better left for the ears.
“We are about to get food from the restaurant in the city.”
I nodded, “I’ll meet you there.”
The call dropped and I got dressed. I figured I was going to be late and Caellum might miss me but this was pretty important to me. And the fact I was going to return with Korah anyway would offset whatever reservations he might have had for my leaving the pack alone.
I took one of Caellum’s luxury cars to the test. Despite the looks I got from Donna who saw me pick it up, I decided it wasn’t worth my time. If only she knew. As much as it might seem I was doing her a favour, I knew this was far from that.
Although this mission to save her sister connected personally to her, I didn’t do it for her. Even though I let her mother and some others believe so. I did it for myself. I did it to fulfil my commitment to setting people free from the bondage I’d once suffered and to get back at Arturo.
It was killing two birds with one stone, Donna’s benefit just came as a bonus. I couldn’t weep of the fact that with her mother and sister free, and Arturo exposed for his schemes, there would be no reason for her to remain by Caellum’s side, or try to kill him.
Everything would be perfect if I could deliver on this one job. I could restart life with Caellum, tell him everything I did, and hope that with my stunt of saving his life and decision to love him for life, we’ll be able to move past it.
I mean, he said so himself. Everything just needed to work out perfectly.
I got to the restaurant a few minutes before they did. I was on the water when they joined me at the table, looking tensed and wearing serious faces.
“Arturo is a bitch.” Korah fumed as soon as she sat. “He deserves the worst death possible.”
“What did you find?” I asked and Marcel answered.
“We went to the exterminated packs, and carried out some on-site research.”
Confusion marred my face. “I thought the place was closed. Following the extermination.”
Just like my pack, whenever a pack was exterminated, the exterminator took possession of the land and it was normal to have the place heavily secured in case of any threats or reinforcements.
“Marcel had us glamoured into guards.”
I nodded, “So what did you find?”
“My first observation was the fact that none of the guards there belonged to us.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how the Cosa Nostra has their own men, army if you may, the ones there did not belong to us. I grew up in the Cosa Nostra, trained with the Alpha and everyone, those men are not from the Cosa Nostra.” Marcel stated assuredly.
“Then why are they there?”
“We were able to find the truth from the soldiers we were able to overpower,” Korah said, breathing fire as she recounted the situation. “Those men were deployed by Arturo. Three days after the extermination, he sent his army and they murdered the entire Cosa Nostra men in charge of watching the place, and took their place.”
My eyes bulged out of their sockets.
“Seeing they killed every single one of the men, there was none to report the news to the headquarters. The Alpha thinks everything is alright and the place is secured, meanwhile, the men were killed and another army headed by his father is in control.”
My hands shook. I couldn’t tell if it was fear or anger.
“You were spot on your assumptions. According to my findings, there is something, or someone being held in those lands. I was unable to fully get a grasp of who or what it was to avoid getting caught, but those men are not only securing those territories.”
“They are hiding someone,” I said, shaking with anger. “They probably didn’t shut down the human trade. They probably just made Caellum think they did, returned to the place and started off the business again.” My blood boiled. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but that fucker Arturo has got to be the biggest mastermind I have encountered yet.”
“We need to verify if people are being held there. We need to be sure that Flora is in there. It’ll be too risky to walk in there without knowing exactly what is in there.” Marcel said, looking right at me.
Maybe he could read my mind because I had every plan of storming in there and raising hell while at it.
“What do you suggest we do? And do not say involve Caellum because that’s not happening.”
“This is too big a risk. We need the Alpha’s help on this. Us three are not enough match for them.”
“Who says we need to be a match for them?” My brain churned out ideas on how to get around the darned thing. “We just need to get Flora.”
“And what if there are more? You said it yourself, we can’t ignore the fact that there might be more people held hostage in those lands. We can’t just leave them. Besides, how do you know which is the girl? We can’t just waltz in there.”
Marcel made a point. “What if Flora isn’t held there?”
I shook my head. “I’m willing to bet all my money on her being there. We just need to find out what she looks like, get in there, pick her up, and go expose everything to Caellum afterwards.”
“He’ll be happy to help take out his father after the evils he has done and save the others too.” I agreed with Korah.
Now all I had to do was find out what Flora looked like. A trip to the dirtiest hotel was due.