Matteo rushed through the crowd, muttering a few excuses and cuss words, hearing the grumble and words of disapproval from everyone he hit by mistake, he didn't wanna lose the person he was following.

He had seen him from the entrance, he wasn't supposed to be here, now he was gonna answer what he was doing here. He saw him walk through the door at the other end of the hall, Matteo increased his speed, he didn't wanna lose him

Finally getting to the door he pushed it open and entered into the long hallway, wide enough to house two people, the person had just took a left turn at the far end of the hall, Matteo took long strides towards him, as he got to the turn he looked ahead and saw him going into a room, he quickened his pace and rushed towards the same room.

Looking back to be sure he wasn't walking into a trap, there was no one following him, he opened the door and walked into the room, the person's broad back was to him as the only light in the room was that of his phone and the moon light peeking through the open windows.

Matteo's eyes raked through the room, it looked like an office of some sort, a huge table close to the window, with a chair in front of it.

The person stopped typing the moment Matteo walked into the room, his shoulders squared and tensed. He slowly turned around and came face to face with Matteo.

His eyes widened and sucked in a violent breath as he quickly put his phone away, beads of sweats breaking out on his forehead. Matteo just narrowed his eyes on him, watching him for his next move.

"What are you doing here Dom"? He asked his voice sounding hard and emotionless, different from the goofy, funny voice he always used with Spade

"Uh.... I....." The huge man stuttered seeing the far away look in Matteo's eyes, he didn't expect to see him here tonight and Matteo was here then Spade was here too

He looked behind Matteo, his eyes on the door as he tried to come up with something to do quickly, he couldn't stall, not without knowing if Spade was following Matteo

Matteo already knew, he already knew that Dom was the reason they came here tonight, he was the mole, the spy. The one who stole information from Spade and gave it to the enemy

He could reach out for his gun right now and end him but they needed answers, why did he do this? And who was he working for?

Dom was already calculating his moves, thinking of how to handle this situation and come out of it alive. He reached for his gun but Matteo had already seen him, he rushed forward and tackled him to the ground, straddling him

Even with how big Dom was, Matteo still held him to the ground, both men grunted as Dom struggled to get out of Matteo's hold, with his hands frantically trying to pry Matteo's hold on his shirt, he grabbed the smaller man and turned their position, leaving him with the upper hand, he landed the first punch on Matteo, making his head hit the rug.

He groaned, he could feel the way his head suddenly became heavy and his ears had that familiar ringing, he could taste the metallic taste on his tongue.

Dom's hands wrapped around his throat as he squeezed, choking the life out of the blonde man beneath him. Matteo struggled, moving his hands frantically, desperately looking for something to break him free.

He tried to push Dom's hands away from his neck but his grip was strong, with his strength slowly evading him, he reached for his face and the man leaned away but Matteo's hands were already on his face as he clawed and scratched at Dom's face.

Both of them panting hard, as Dom hissed, Matteo's fingers found Dom's eyes and he dip his thumb into Dom's eyes making the man groan out in pain but his grip on Matteo's neck was not loosening.

Matteo didn't give up as he dug his thumbs deeper into his eyes and the man screamed in pain, as Matteo could feel the blood from where his fingers dug, and he could hear the squishing sounds as he pressed and dug deeper.

Dom's grip was loosening and this gave him the opportunity to hit away his hands from his neck, he gasped for air as he crawled from underneath him, holding his neck and coughing violently.

But he didn't have enough time as Dom was already trying to catch him back, he got up and balled his hands into a fist, before landing a punch on his face, he heard the crack sound and felt the impact his knuckles had left on the mans face.

Dom's face whipped sideways as he struggled to get up but Matteo was not letting him, as he landed another punch to his face. He groaned and coughed out blood.

Matteo wrapped his arms around his neck and choked him, holding him in a strong choke hold, Dom's hands flew up and he tried to pry Matteo's arms away but the blonde man was quite stronger as he pressed further, hearing the struggles from Dom.

He thrashed and thrashed until he the veins in his forehead grew bigger and rigid, he was slowly loosing his strength as he struggled less. His hands fell to his side as he shut his eyes and passed out.

Matteo pushed him to the ground, with a loud thud, he fell and Matteo stood straight breathing hard, his chest heaving up and down momentarily. He looked at the man in front of him and let out a deep breath before pulling the chair in the room and setting it in the middle of the room

******

Spade was lurking in the shadows of the huge hall, gently sipping from the glass he had taken from one of the servers passing by.

They had just made one of those very boring speeches that he hated so much, with fake enthusiasm, fake smiles and obviously unnecessary praises.

The only thing that had his undivided attention was the man standing on the other side of the room, looking around frantically as if searching for something, Spade was itching to go talk to him, even if it was to threaten him or taunt him about his father, just something to see him up close. To make him tick, to rile him up just as much as he riled Spade up

He kept thinking if he was the only one feeling this way towards Nate, if Nate too felt the same way The urge to annoy him, to kill him, to have him under him begging, to have him smile at him, to understand him like he tried understand math in class.

Surely he wasn't going crazy, Nate must be having these feelings too, this strange, annoying and odd obsession over him.

He sighed out as he watched him take a glass and gulp down the water, that annoying girl was no longer gripping onto him arm, but she was still standing close to him and it ticked Spade off, it made him curious and at the same time somewhat angry.

He scratched his beards, sucking on his inner cheek watching them both. Nate looked bored and irritated, it's either he hated parties like this or the chatty girl was getting on his nerves Either way he looked like he needed saving.

It's not supposed to be his business, infact anything that didn't involve his mafia was not his business. But he kept getting pulled to interfere with whatever was going on with Nate.

He dropped the glass on the next available server tray and kissed his teeth before almost taking a step towards where Nate was standing, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Matteo coming back after getting lost in the crowd earlier on.

The closer he got, the more Spade noticed the speck of blood on his lower lip and the ruffle of his hair. He didn't look like he did before he disappeared, he looked distraught and disorganized

He stopped beside Spade He sighed out knowing this was not good news "There's something I need to show you" he muttered and Spade just shut his eyes before looking back at Nate, why did this happen everytime, even in a serious situation he still managed to steal a peak at the young man, something stopping him from following Matteo.

Something akin to worry. Worried at the fact that he might not see the brown eyed young man if he came back to his hall again, and since Nate hadn't exactly reached out after his ultimatum to his sister, he doubted he'd reach out to him again.

His threat about killing him really scared him, because now he was outrightly staying out of his way, just like he wanted, but now Spade wasn't so sure if he wanted Nate out of his way, if he ever even meant it when he said he wanted Nate out of his way, did he just say that to get under his skin?

He wasn't one to do things like that, to seek anyone's attention so bad, but somehow he'd been doing it with Nate without realizing it.

He sighed out and nodded to Matteo, asking him to lead the way.

They both walked through the crowd, with Matteo in front and Spade following closely behind him.

Nate sighed out as his eyes moved from man to man in the crowd, in hopes of finding something that'll distract him from the talking woman beside him, or rather someone that'll steal his attention away.

He'd only been here an hour and he was already exhausted, he would have left a while ago, but he was still trying to find Spade in the crowd, he was sure he wasn't hallucinating when he saw him earlier on, but he had suddenly disappeared into the crowd.

His bored gaze lit up when it landed on broad, sharp chiseled shoulders, walking through the crowd. He would recognize him anywhere, even from his mere shoulders. He stood taller than most men in the hall.

He seemed to be in a hurry as he hurdled past people, occasionally bumping into some while others just made way for him. From his side view, Nate could see the slight clenching of his jaw, he was headed for the smaller door on the end of the room.

He quickly dropped the glass with him, ignoring the annoying squeaky voice of his secretary, he brushed past her and entered into the crowd of people dancing slowly.

Making sure not to bump into anyone, he rushed trying to get to the door Spade had just walked into, wherever it led, he would find it, he still needed to speak to Spade about the marriage contract, and also something inside him itched, begged and clawed to have those hazel orbs laid on him. His fingers twitched with excitement at the thought of having Spade gaze at him

Spade followed Matteo closely as he led him through the hallway, down the right corner and straight in front of the door. If it were someone else, he wouldn't follow so blindly not knowing what was on the other side of the door.

But it was Matteo, the only person he trusted in this world. He would follow him without question. He had proved himself more times than he could count. Literally speaking, Matteo would lay his life down for Spade, if it ever came down to it.

He looked back at Spade as if waiting for permission to open the door, and he just nodded before Matteo turned the knob opening the door.

Both men walked in, only the sound of their shoes could be heard and the muffled sound of whoever was in the room, it was dark so Spade's eyes hadn't adjusted just yet Matteo turned on the lights making a click sound and the whole room brightened up.

There was a man tied on a chair in the middle of the room, his mouth gagged with blood on his nose, his face looked frightened as his eyes landed on Spade.

"I found him here texting someone on his phone" Matteo muttered handing Spade the phone which was on the message app, Matteo had emptied his pockets while he was passed out

Spade took the phone and looked at the screen, true to Matteo's words, he was texting someone, an unregistered number. The text he was about to send before Matteo jumped him read 'already in place for exchange'

"I also went through his other messages and found out this same person had been sending him huge amounts of money for the past 5 months" he added and Spade clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes on the man in front of him who was scared out of his wits, shaking his head and muffling cries through the gag on his mouth.

"So he's the traitor" Spade asked with his voice emotionless and dangerously low, Matteo just nodded folding his hands in front of his chest

Spade moved forward and took off the gag from his mouth, he quickly started mumbling apology words, trying to save his ass.

"I'm gonna ask you one question and I expect you to answer" Spade muttered and he just nodded frantically as tears were already blinding his vision "Good, who are you working for"? He asked looking at the man's eyes.

He looked from Spade to Matteo just standing a few feet behind Spade and started shaking his head frantically, tears dropping from his eyes.

"I can't.... I can't... I can't tell you, he's going to kill me and my family" he rushed out with shaky voice, Spade smacked his lips together getting up and looking at Matteo.

I really hate these torture scenes, but you can't have a mafia book without them 🤔🤔

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