The following morning, Omari, Snyder, Paz, and Selena were at the scene on the road where the clash had happened, and they couldn't believe their eyes.“So.. Hold on, let me get this straight... On one side, one side of the car, there's a lot of blood, broken glass, spent bullets, blah blah... And then, on the other side... There's not even a shard of glass... How the fuck es something like that even happen?”Paz was confused and trying to get answers from her compatriots, even though none of them had any for her.“It makes little sense, and there are no CCTV cameras around like at the restaurant... And even if there were, looking at the lighting system and pattern of this area, it would surely have been too dark to make out any faces or sense of the images we would have seen,” Selena added.“So.. What have we been able to get from the car?” Omari asked, determined to get something, at least, from, the entire outing.“Well... There's a wallet in the car... Probably belongs to whoever

“Where is she, you traitorous bastard?”The stony silence from Gio further incensed Don Fabrizio and caused him to nod his head towards the man with the whip, and this enforcer duly thrashed down on Gio's back with the nail-embedded whip.“Arrghhhhhh!!!”The screams from Gio's lips filled the room as he felt his flesh being ripped into by the nails and thumbtacks that had been strategically fitted into the whip to make each stroke ten times as painful as it would have been with an ordinary whip.He was chained, his two hands high above his head, and his legs just above the ground, making it very difficult for him to breathe and increase the pain because his frame was overstretched.He had been whipped well over a hundred times, and his bloodied back was a testament to this.This torture had gone on for the past three hours, and it had continued because Gio had refused to disclose Mercedes’ location.“Why do you punish yourself so much, boy? This is a woman that means nothing to you! S

Upstairs at the hospital, there was chaos and fear; no one could leave, either with the elevators or the staircase, because the gunfire they'd been hearing had been going on downstairs and by the gate, in the same area where they were supposed to escape from. The gunfire had gone on for about thirty minutes and even when it ceased, they didn't dare to even attempt to step out.The only thing they could do was panic.The nurses and doctors who would normally be the ones telling patients to 'calm down’ were now the ones who were near tears. Everyone was now following their religious inclinations; the Pentecostals were praying to God/Jesus, the Catholics were praying to Mary, the Muslims were beseeching Allah, and the traditionalists were shedding tears of hopelessness to their gods.Gabi was probably the most panicky of the entire bunch, and not just because he had learned that Mercedes had given birth, but because he wasn't built for such high-pressure situations. He was sweaty and unc

“Gabi, can you stop acting like a girl and be a man, for God's sake?”“Hey, I'm doing this for you, quit acting like you won't wince if I went any harder,” came the response.Ruby was sitting before Gabi as he tried to clean up her face which had been messed up by her fight with Les Latinas De La Muerte at the hospital, and her face was so fucked up that it scared Gabi to Ben touch it, even with the tissue, for fear that he would hurt her or further damage her. This fear had made him keep dabbing softly and inefficiently at her face instead of wiping the blood away, and Ruby had tolerated him enough.Mercedes, sitting in the same room as them, breastfeeding Junior, looked on and smiled at them, shaking her head.She'd gotten her joy back due to two major things; one, the birth of Junior, her long-awaited bundle of joy, and two, the promise her aunt, Aylla Pedro, had made to her when he said she would try to help Gio gain his freedom again.And so, feeling good again, she was able to c

“Have you ever, at any time at all, and I mean any quantity at all, been involved in the sale of drugs to clients at the club?” “No, I haven't.” “Have you ever seen drug sales going down at the club?” “No, I have not..” “Have you ever been asked to transport drugs from any location to the other by the club management?” “No, I have not..” “Have you ever hidden any drugs in your underwear or-” “What kind of stupid question is that?” Mercedes had been taken from the airport, along with Ruby and Gabi, down to a local police station where she was being questioned by Freddy, the lackadaisical, lazy, and disinterested agent. She was distressed, and it seemed her baby could also feel her tension because he hadn't stopped crying since. She was trying to pat his back and calm him down while answering the questions she'd been asked when she'd gotten sick of it. “Listen, ma'am, I'm just doing my job.. I have to ask questions, even the uncomfortable ones, because you are a major