Chapter 6 - The Brother's Debt
Inside the upper office of the warehouse, the smell of cordite and damp concrete hung heavy in the air.
Leo Hayes sat bound to a heavy wooden chair in the center of the room, his face swollen and bloodied, a cut over his left eye leaking dark red onto his torn dress shirt.
When the heavy steel door flew open, Leo winced, bracing for another blow.
"Leo!"
Sienna rushed past Silas and threw her arms around her brother's neck, ignoring the grime and blood covering his shirt.
Leo opened his swollen eyes, blinking in disbelief. "Sienna? What... what are you doing here? How did you find me?"
"She didn't find you, Leo," a cold, dark voice spoke from the doorway.
Damian walked into the room, stepping over the body of a fallen guard. He had removed his soaked suit jacket, wearing only his white dress shirt, which was now damp and clinging to his chest, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms to reveal dark, intricate tattoos covering his left arm.
Leo’s face drained of color as he recognized the man standing before him.
"Russo," Leo squeaked out, his voice trembling violently. "Oh God... please. I didn't mean to bring your name into this! I was going to pay the Albanians back! I just needed more time!"
Damian walked over, grabbing a steel folding chair, turning it backward, and sitting down three feet in front of Leo. He rested his forearms on the back of the chair, looking at the bruised young man with supreme contempt.
"You ran," Damian said softly. "You borrowed forty thousand dollars from a predator, failed to launch your pathetic little business venture, and when the bill came due, you packed a bag and left your twenty-year-old sister alone in Queens to face Mickey Dolan."
"I was trying to find the money!" Leo wept, shaking his head frantically. "I went to Philly to ask an old college friend for a loan! I didn't know Mickey would go after Sienna!"
"You knew," Sienna said, stepping back from him, her voice dripping with hurt and betrayal. "You knew Mickey worked Lexington Avenue. You knew I worked at the Obsidian Room. You left me there like bait so they wouldn't follow you to Pennsylvania."
"Sienna, no! That's not true!" Leo pleaded, straining against the ropes around his wrists.
"Silence," Damian commanded. The single word slammed through the room like a hammer.
Leo instantly shut his mouth, trembling violently.
"Here is what is going to happen, Leo," Damian said, leaning forward. "Your sister saved your life tonight. She used a blood-code she had no right to use, and I honored it because of your father's memory. I paid Viktor Nikolli one hundred thousand dollars to buy out your debt and clear your name."
Leo looked up, hope flickering in his bloodshot eyes. "You... you paid it? So I'm free?"
Damian laughed—a cold, short sound that made the hairs on the back of Sienna's neck stand up.
"Free?" Damian echoed. "You owe one hundred thousand dollars to the Russo syndicate now. And unlike the Albanians, I don't send loan sharks to break your fingers. I take what is owed out of your flesh."
"Please, Mr. Russo!" Leo sobbed. "I don't have that kind of money! I don't have anything!"
"I know," Damian said. He stood up, turning to Silas. "Cut him loose."
Silas pulled a combat knife from his belt, slicing through the thick ropes holding Leo to the chair. Leo collapsed onto his hands and knees, weeping onto the dirty concrete floor.
"Starting tomorrow morning," Damian declared, looking down at the broken young man, "you report to the docks at Port Newark. You will work six days a week loading cargo containers under Silas's direct supervision. Every dollar of your wage will go toward liquidating your debt. If you miss a single shift, if you attempt to leave the state, or if you speak a single word about Sienna’s presence in my home... Silas will find you, and you will spend the rest of your short life buried beneath a construction site in the Meadowlands."
"I'll do it! I'll do it!" Leo stammered, kissing the floor near Damian’s leather shoes. "I swear to God, I'll work every day!"
"Get him out of my sight," Damian told Silas.
Silas grabbed Leo by the collar, dragging him out of the room toward a waiting transport SUV.
Sienna remained standing near the window, watching her broken brother disappear down the hallway. The relief of knowing he was alive was instantly tempered by the heavy reality of what he had become—and what she now was.
Damian walked up behind her, stopping inches away. He didn't touch her, but his presence was an overwhelming heat against her back.
"Are you angry with me?" he asked quietly.
Sienna turned to face him. The tear stains on her cheeks were dry now.
"No," she said softly. "You gave him a chance to earn his life back. Mickey would have killed him. Viktor would have killed him. You gave him a path to become a man."
She reached out, her fingers gently touching the damp white cotton of his shirt over his chest. She could feel his heart beating beneath her palm—steady, slow, and powerful.
"What about me, Damian?" she asked, her hazel eyes searching his. "What is my path?"
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Damian reached up, his large, warm hand covering hers against his chest.
"Your path," he whispered, his eyes dark with a sudden, intense heat, "is at my side."
