Beauty And Her Beast

28 - The Play Is Set

"We know, because you're a nutcase," Freddy agreed and before Rico could respond, Rowan had jumped to his defense for him and told Freddy to shut up.

And he did.

Rowan wasn't in charge here but everyone knew Rico could handle anyone talking about him, but if Freddy said something smart or rude to Rowan, the man would die a slow and painful death.

It was ridiculous really.

"Like I was saying," Rico growled, shooting a convincing warning glare in Freddy's direction, "studying Daniel himself nothing came up but information I already knew. But then I studied Sammy's mother-"

"Why? Hasn't she been dead for years?"

"God dammit Freddy if you interupt me one more time I'm fucking shooting you! Can you understand that or you wanna ask another question?!"

Even though Ray was sick of these two going back and forth and wasting time, he couldn't help but smirk. Freddy was a "fancy man" so to speak and he liked being in charge, being the one to lead. But everyone knew Rico would die and go to hell before he let someone take control of any situation he was involved in. And unlike Freddy who liked to keep up the image of a sophisticated criminal, Rico was crazy enough to just start killing people if he got annoyed.

"Rico continue," Ray spoke for the first time since Vincent's name was even mentioned.

Still glaring, Rico huffed before pulling the files open and pointing to a sheet of paper.

"I started studying Sammy's mother Victoria and figured out she was crazy as hell. Her worst trait though was jealousy. I already knew Daniel wasn't faithful and so did she apparently. Daniel messed with a lot of women but one of his favorites was a woman named Amani. Some could even say he loved her. Well, Victoria began to get annoyed and one night Amani's car just happened to fly off a bridge. Sammy's mother did it. She was jealous that Daniel spent so much time with this other woman so the crazy butch tried to erase her from the picture. What she didn't realize though was that Amani was pregnant when she flew off the bridge. Doctors saved the baby, but Amani died just five minutes after they took Vincent."

"Does Daniel know?" Rowan asked, a frown on her face.

Rico shuffled through the files again and slid another piece of paper across the table. It was another photo only this time it was of Drita Vino, Daniel's mother and Sammy's grandmother. Ray knew it was an old photo because Dita had passed years ago, but in the picture she was still very much alive and was walking with a little boy who was about two years old holding onto her hand.

"When Daniel found out he knew he couldn't just bring the kid home, Sammy's mother would kill him, but you know how Daniel is when it comes to having kids, especially sons."

"So he pawnned his first born off to his mother. I remember this. Everyone kept asking where she got this baby from and she just said she found him on the streets and decided she wanted to take care of him," Freddy mumbled.

"After Drita died Vincent was already old enough to take care of himself but it's like when she died, he did too. Anything, any information about him ever even existing disappeared. To this day these are the only two photos I could get of him. It made me curious though. Apart from blood Vincent really had no ties to the outfit, so why couldn't he just grow up using a new name and live a normal life? Why was he hiding? It didn't sit well with me so I kept digging and, one day when I came home, Vincent was there."

"Wait so he came to you?"

Rico nodded. "I thought he was gonna kill me or something but instead he just asked me to stop. He said he knew who he was and where he came from, but it was better for everyone if he just stayed gone. I asked more questions, he refused to answer, and then he left. When he was leaving though, one of my guards he'd managed to slip by glared at him and he completely lost his shit. He slaughtered all twelve of the men I had on duty that night. He didn't even have a weapon on him but he beat them all until there was damn near nothing left to recognize them by. And he did it all with a smile."