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luca
She continued to stare at me, shivering. I had to stand down. This was an innocent woman and her kids, who probably had no part in her husband's wrongdoings. I had to leave them alone.
"Ya Allah, please protect me and my children," she whispered, weeping. "Only You are worthy of worship. Please save us, Allah..."
As she called out to her Lord, I could feel my heart twist into knots. It was a foreign feeling that I wasn't used to. Monsters like me weren't meant to feel anything.
Fizz had his arms folded, with an uneasy expression on his face. Fizz was Muslim too, although he wasn't religious. Out of respect for Fizz, I knew I would have to let this go, and go and look for Tariq elsewhere.
But hell, if this Tariq bastard had set his family up to stay here, knowing that we were coming to collect...
Lord knows, I wasn't going to spare that motherfucker any mercy when I found him. Twisted bastard, making his family face and pay the price for his dirty motherfucking deeds.
"Stand down," Fizz hissed. "Leave them alone. Let's get out of here."
He made his way to the mother and his children, crouching down. "Nobody's going to harm you. Don't worry. You're going to be fine."
The mother gave him a feeble nod. "Jazakallahu Khairan," she breathed, meaning May Allah reward you with goodness.
Fizz gave her a reassuring nod, before getting back up on his feet and joining me.
"Come on, let's go." I nodded towards Massimo, Sergio and the other men.
"What, we're just going to go after coming all this way?" Sergio snarled. "Aren't we going to make that motherfucker pay?"
"You said yourself feds are trailing the place, so we need to get the fuck out of here anyway," I shot back, pissed off that they had the audacity to argue back to me. They were my men. They had to follow my fucking orders.
"I checked the window, there's no cop cars," Massimo snarled. "We're staying here until the job's finished. Nobody makes a fool out of us and lives to tell the fucking story!"
"I said stand the fuck down, Massimo!" I roared. "No innocents, remember! This is just a poor woman and her fucking kids, Tariq isn't here! There's nothing we can fucking do!"
"Know your fucking place, Massimo," Fizz seethed, narrowing his eyes, as he shot Massimo a warning look, meaning that he meant business.
This only riled up Massimo even more.
"Fuck it, Massimo," Sergio sighed. "Let's get out of here."
"Good man, Sergio," I sighed. "Tomorrow, I want you to work on the security control system with Leonardo, cross-search Tariq's face and see if he comes up on any security cameras. We'll have a better chance of finding him that way."
"Understood, Boss," Sergio nodded.
We made our way to the door, ready to make our way out of the apartment, after a wasted fucking trip, and wasted fucking time.
"Thank you, Allah," came the mother's sobs, as she continued to pray to God, as we continued to make our way out. "I'm eternally in Your debt."
"One second, Boss, I need a piss," said Lorenzo, another one of my men.
I rolled my eyes agitatedly, stopping at the door. "Fine, hurry the fuck up then, Lorenzo."
Lorenzo nodded, darting towards the bathroom.
"What a day," Fizz sighed.
I narrowed my eyes, as my eyes scanned the room. Lorenzo had just gone to the toilet, Sergio was standing next to Fizz, all of my men were here...
Except one.
Where the fuck had Massimo gone?