Nico's head was filled with a cottony thickness, a drug induced stupor. The room was dark and quiet, quiet all except the sound of flesh impacting flesh and the resulting grunt of pain. The smell of sweat and blood was thick. Across the room he was being carefully watched, eyes noting the pain with every new blow, enjoying it with the relish that only a deep seeded need for vengeance produced.
"Nico, it could have been so good for you. All you had do was play by the rules. Play by MY rules." The deep bourbon smooth voice filled the room just as another fist impacted his face, splitting the skin above his eye, the other already closed from swelling.
"You listenin' you piece of shit?" The hard accented voice came from above him, then another blow.
"Shut the fuck up, Anthony," came from across the room again. There was the shuffling of feet in the room but Nico couldn't turn his head even if he wanted to.
"She have it?" Sala Costus turned leaning forward, arms resting on the large marble desk in front of him. Pinning the two men he generously employed. Pinning them with a deadly glare from the deep wells of his obsidian eyes, knowing the answer before they even opened their mouths. "The stripper?"
"Don't know. She left the garage with that punk Toretto. We lost him." Both the men seemed suddenly preoccupied with the buttons on their Armani jackets. "The stripper is ice. Dumped what was left in a dumpster."
Sala nodded, standing from the desk crossing in front of it. "Don't know? Lost him?" Crossing his arms over his wide chest he waited for them to give him a long list of excuses.
"He's a damn good driver, fast even when he ain't racin . But I don't think he knew we were tailing him."
"And this is your expert opinion?" he said calmly moving toward the two, arm going around the shorter of the two, a random choice. Leading him across the room he clapped the man reassuringly on the opposite shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It's not gonna matter one way or another to you." A malicious grin split his lips as he neared the large floor to ceiling window, overlooking the city.
"Yeah?"
"Of course," Sala responded right before he stepped away from the man giving him a brutal shove that sent him careening through the panes of glass to the parking area six stories below. Stepping up to the window, he took a moment to appreciate the broken body draped across a forklift below, dark blood contrasting the yellow paint of the machine. Swinging around, he pointed at the remaining man.
"Clean that fuckin mess up. Do it right. If I see so much as a hint of blood your next. I swear to Christ," he growled low and menacing. Turning on Anthony his smile returned to the that of pure joy. "Finish it."
Anthony moved toward Nico, long dark hair falling into his face, but Sala's voice stopped him. "Take him down stairs. I don't wanna hear his screaming." Then he swaggered over to where Nico was strapped to the chair. "With your last breath..." He paused, sighing, turning his head away before he leaned in to whisper in Nico's ear. "Think about my nephew. Think about Carlo. Think about how he trusted you." Sala's hand snaked out and tangled in the other man's matted hair, he snarled. "That car. Where Carlo's head was blown apart. I'm gonna find it and I'm gonna bury that little girl friend of yours in it," he promised to Nico's muffled shouts. It was too much of a temptation being this close to the target of his rage and not inflicting a small measure of pain himself, he delivered the next blow and the next.
*************************************************
Dom stepped out of the car, his mind still on the problem of the storage unit and its contents. Cam opened the passenger side door as Mia flew down the back steps of the house.
"Where've you been?" she hissed, arms crossed over her chest, her brows knitted with worry. She paused in front of Dom .
"Busy. Why?" he asked, confused, not use to facing an inquisition from his sister. He wound his arm around Cam as she moved in close beside him, still unnerved by their discovery.
Mia nodded her head in their direction, trying to be discrete. "They've been sitting over there for two hours now," she whispered, cutting her eyes between Dom and Cam.
Glancing over his shoulder, Dom noticed two suits crossing the street toward them, their dark sedan parked in Cam's drive.
"Oh shit!" Cam gasp, trembling against Dom.
"Easy," he whispered his lips near her ear, fanning his warm breath against her skin. He gently pushed her toward Mia. "Go in the house."
"But, Dom ..." Mia shook her head, on the verge of refusing.
"Go!" he growled low in warning. Turning to face the two coming up the drive toward him, he was a human barrier between them and what was his.
Cam hurried after Mia, fear holding her in its icy grip. She thought of all the things that they could want, the people they could be but no amount of imagining could prepare her for the next few moments.
"Cameron Alexander?" one of the men called over Dom's shoulder. She stopped dead in her tracks, a scared glance at Mia and she turned.
"Yeah. That's me," she said, remaining rooted to the spot. Dom's eyes bore into her like a hot poker, trying to ignore him she shoved her hands into her back pockets.
"Miss, could we have a few minutes of your time," the same man asked, reaching into his jacket and flipping out a badge.
She shoved down the gasp she felt in her throat, schooling her features in innocent sweetness. "Sure." Walking towards them, Dom's gaze shot up a few degrees if that was even possible.
"We're sorry for intruding on your afternoon, Miss. But this morning...Well, we tried to contact you by phone and was told the number had been disconnected, so we had to contact you personally. This morning there was a body brought into the morgue." The officer gave her a few seconds to process what he was saying before he continued. She could feel Dom moving up behind her, his concerned anger quickly dissipating. "The only personal possession on the body was a wallet, there was no identification. Only a scrap of paper with your name and address." Cam began to shake uncontrollably, knowing the only person that it could be. Dom's hands rested comfortingly on her shoulders, squeezing comfortingly. "We need you to come and..."
"I'm comin with her," Dom spoke up, knowing what they wanted and how much she would need him there if what he suspected had happened. He guided her around the car. "We'll follow," he called, and the officers nodded and turned towards their car.
As Dom drove he glanced at Cam every few minutes, still shaking her eyes starring blankly ahead. "Cam."
"Hum?" She asked, not even turning to look at him.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, sure," she answered with the hollowness of emotional detatchment. "You know, it might not even be him, Dom." She shrugged, eyes ahead, barely blinking.
"Yeah, it's probably not." He cringed as he agreed with her, gut instinct telling him they were wrong, deadly wrong.
********************************************
"They were cops. They wanted her to look at a corpse." Mia cringed, clealry horrified, looking up to meet Jesse's eyes. "I felt so sorry for her. Think it really is someone she knows?"
Jesse shrugged, feeling as bad for Cam as Mia. "Probably, else they wouldn't have bothered with getting her to take a look."
"Dom went with her?" Leon asked, looking between the other two.
"Yeah, she looked pretty shook up," Mia answered, looking up as a deeper voice intruded.
"Who's pretty shook up?" Vince strode through the back door with Letty trailing behind him.
"Cameron," Mia answered, quickly explaining what she knew about the situation with the other woman, which to her frustration wasn't much. Mia noticed the gloating smile filling Letty's face. She shook her head and stood from the table.
"What's your problem?" Letty snarled.
Mia swung on her, eyes narrowed, anger radiating from her small frame. "Enough, Letty! Can't you just let it go? She's in real trouble. Someone she knows is dead. What else do you want? What'll make you feel better? Maybe if it were one of us going to identify her body?"
"Bitch!" Letty hissed, shoving from the table and stalking to the door. The back door slammed in her wake and Mia turned to Vince. "I'm sorry...But she's gotta..."
"I know. You didn't say anything I ain't been thinkin." He stood and followed out of the kitchen, knowing he would find Letty at the garage, the place she always went when she was hurting. She'd never let anyone see it but he knew what she was feeling, knew Mia's words had struck a hard blow.
*********************************************
"This way, Miss Alexander." He was pale, wearing a lab coat, pockets filled with bright blue latex gloves, the name tag read Milton Shribe. She shiver thinking of what he had to touch with those gloves, just the smell of the room alone was enough to make her nauseous. She didn't move, not an inch, as she glanced over her shoulder to where Dom stood. They had asked him to wait for her, not to distract her with his presence. He nodded his head a silent signal letting her know he would be there and that he knew she could do it. She shook her head, refusing, scared beyond reason.
"I'm not doing this. Not without him. You either let him come with me or I walk," she stuttered, her arms winding around herself, fighting her own body from head to toe. It was all too much, she couldn't take another thing much less if she had to do it alone.
"I'm sorry but..." Shribe began, only to have her turn and start to walk away. "Alright! This goes against my better judgment but FINE."
With a shaky smile she motioned for Dom to join her. Making his way across the room in record time, he asked, "What's goin on?"
"They agreed to let you come with me," she said wrapping her hand around his. "You mind?"
"No." He pulled her close and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Let's get it over with." They followed into a stark white room. Stainless steel tables took up the center of the room, and beyond that were rows of hinged doors. Knowing what was behind them it took all of her self control not to bolt, even with Dom at her side. But just when she was sure she couldn't look at the tray that was being slid from the drawer Dom's thumb began caressing the back of her hand in comforting little circles. She didn't know just when or where the two detectives came from but they were their standing in the background near the morgue assistant.
"Do you know him, Miss Alexander?" she heard them ask. Taking a deep breath she lowered her eyes and immediately bile rose in her throat. She shoved backwards and collided with Dom.
Dom's hands shot to her shoulders holding in place, knowing she would be running if not for him. All he wanted to do in that moment was hold her and spare her this.
"Ma'am?"
She nodded her head slowly her eyes riveted to the reality of death in front of her, gray skin covered a body brutalized to such an extent it was hard to tell where one wound ended an another began.
"Can you tell us his name, Miss...Cameron," one of the detectives asked.
"Nicola Iovanni."
"Do you have any idea..."
Her eyes traveled his body coming to rest in horrified fascination just below his wrists. "Wh...Wh...Where are his...His hands?" she whispered, shaking so badly her teeth began to chatter.
"Excuse me?" The detective moved closer trying to hear her.
"WHERE ARE HIS HANDS?"
The morgue assistant spoke up then. "They weren't found with the body, Miss."
She nodded, taking a step closer to Nico's body. "What happened to him?"
"We haven't proceeded to the autopsy yet but you can pick up a copy of the report in a week." Shribe gave her the standard line, deciding he had enough of standing there dealing with the deceased's family or friend, whatever the woman was.
"FUCKIN TELL ME!" she screamed, pulling out of Dom's grasp, hands balled at her sides. "I wanna know what they did to him!" The detectives moved forward ready to intervene if need be, but the assistant held up his hand.
"All right, Miss. It's not pretty but from preliminary examination and blood samples the man was first inject with a large dose of amphetamines. This most likely was done while he was restrained. Then it appears..."
"How do you know that?" she asked, needing every scap of information she could gain.
"See here? The cuts. It was probably something metal." His gloved hand moved upwards on Nico's arm. "The bruising there? It was the injection site. Probably a couple of hours before he expired."
"I don't understand." She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. "Why the Amphetamines if they were going to kill him?"
Dom stepped up behind her, for the first time really looking at the man ... the man that had been so important to Cam, now dead. He was no stranger to death in general but this was all together something new. The body looked mauled, mutilated. Someone didn't just want Nico dead, they wanted to send a message. Costus.
He tilted his head, thinking, the reason never crossing his mind before that moment. "The only reason there would be for that is to prolong...To... Well, to torture him longer. He would be totally oblivious to the pain, quieter victim. And it does appear that he was restrained for sometime, possibly days. "
A surreal calm settled over her as she continued to question the assistant, knowing he wasn't the official word on Nico's death but that he knew enough to provide her with the information she wanted. Then there was dealing with the questions leveled at her. The detectives moved in for the kill, hurling question after question at her.
***********************************************
Dom paced in his room. Cam hadn't said a word since they left the morgue. He could feel her pulling away into herself and it scared him more than the drugs, the cops, hell even Costus. He could deal with anything but her silent acceptance and he decided to try talking to her again. Down the hall he stopped in front of the bathroom door, hearing the shower inside. Turning the knob he slipped inside, the warm moist air instantly clinging to his skin.
"Cameron, we gotta..."
"Dom." Her voice was a strangled plea of need, pushing the blue plastic shower curtain away. He stared for a moment watching water roll along her slight curves, pool at her belly button and soaking the down thatch of auburn curls between her thighs. Whipping his shirt over his head he tossed it to the cool linoleum, the rest of his clothes were quick to follow. He stepped under the stream of water with her, folding her in his thick muscled arms.
"Oh god, Dom. I keep thinking about what they did to him. His hands. Why the fuck did they do that?" She buried her face against his slick chest. "I'm scared."
"I know." he pulled her tighter, feeling her sobs now and he gave a relieved sigh. "Promise me something, Cam."
"What?" she hiccupped, another sob logging in her throat.
"I don't want you going back over to your place. I want you to stay here with me and Mia." His finger went under her chin and pulled her face up to meet his eyes. "Promise me that."
"I promise, Dom." She gave him a weak smile, but it was short lived and she was soon sobbing again. Dom held her there in the warm cascade of water, held her until the water was cold and they began to chill despite their combine body heat.