Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
ZAMIR
I’m staring at my uncle’s lifeless body on the ground, but the following command that comes from my mouth is even shocking to me. “This one is clear. Let’s move. We’ve got to find them!” I hope to fuck my stupid-ass dad didn’t take them with him. I know at this point he’s the only one that had reason to take Ellie. Anyone else would’ve been scared shitless of Marcello.
? * With all of our guns drawn, we head to the next cutout in the rock formation. Marcello is leading again. Vin wraps around the back side, ensuring it’s clear back there, and I follow Marcello in. I’m listening for anything, but it’s eerily quiet…
I don’t see anything unusual in this one, so we head back out and into the next. My brain is working on autopilot as we move through the motions that I know will keep us alive. This is the part that I miss—shutting my brain off and getting the mission done. I wouldn’t say I like how I’ve come to be reintroduced, but once I have Ellie and Nash back in my hands, there won’t be any stopping me from diving headfirst into this life again. And it’s looking more and more like I’m going to be putting a bullet in my dad’s skull.
The third and final cutout is the only place Nash and Ellie could be. They would’ve been here long enough for the remissness of their being here to be obvious to the eye, even if he took them with him. I see Vin step up to my side behind Cello’s other shoulder, and he tells us, “All clear in the back.”
Cello gives him a nod, and we start in, clearing the small area quickly and successfully. “Fuck!” Marcello’s yell echoes off the rock walls.
Vin’s voice breaks through the echoes, “Hold on, I think there might be something under us.” He proceeds to stomp on what I thought was just sand, but it has a more hollow sound when Vin’s boot lands each time.
Before I can think anymore, I tuck my gun in the back of my pants, crouch down, and start moving sand around, feeling for a handle or anything that would lead me to some kind of underground bunker. Marcello and Vin are doing the same. Sand is flying everywhere, and we’re all in a panic, knowing this might finally reveal where they are. But also trying to prepare myself mentally for what we could be about to see.
My hand hits what feels like a metal bracket or handle, and I yell to the guys, “I found it!” I’m dusting all the sand off that I can, trying to see which way it opens, and clearing as much as possible so it doesn’t fall onto whatever is under here.
Why, and how, did my fucking father know about this place? The bigger question being, why did he kill my uncle and run? I mentally note to check the cars and apartment for tracking devices because all this shit has been way too coincidental.
We dust off and move enough sand to see the door fully. It looks to be some kind of metal, but a lock does not even protect it. Doubt fills my body that Nash and Ellie could be in here, but Marcello starts lifting the metal hatch. Vin still has his gun drawn, as I should, but I can’t shake the fear and excitement of finally having them back with us.
I just hope they’re alive.
There’s one visible dim light hanging when the door opens, and I’m still scanning the sandy room when I see Marcello jump down into the room, completely ignoring the need for the ladder that’s attached to the hatch. Cello’s phone is going off at a sick speed with notifications, and it hits me that this is some kind of Faraday Cage that blocks out any cell or tracking devices. Now that the doors open, her tracker is sending all the notifications that should’ve been sent to Marcello’s phone while she was locked in here.
Marcello barks an order, “Vin, call Doc now!”
That’s when my head finally decides to shake out of it, and I take the leap down into the cage as well. My eyes land on Nash and Ellie leaned against the wall in front of us. They both look so weak and so fucking exhausted.
“They both have pulses, Ellie’s is a little slower than I would like… We need to get them out of here and to Doc. Now!” Marcello rambles off like he’s the next nurse of the crew.
Vin puts the stairs down, and Marcello scoops Ellie up in his arms, hustling them to the SUV. The peace that woman brings him is palpable. I can feel it from here, and it’s etched all over his face once she’s settled in his lap in the front seat.
I hear Vin before I see him come up beside me in front of a passed-out Nash. “You grab one side, I’ll grab his other.” We both bend down to cradle Nash between us. The breath I finally get to release at having him again shouldn’t make me feel better, but it does. We still don’t know if they’re going to be okay, but we at least we have them and can get them help now.
Vin’s big ass grunts out, “This is one stout fucker.” I laugh at that because he’s not lying one bit. Nash is a big boy, more specifically, a cornbread-fed country fuck.
But he’s my country fuck.
I’m glad Vin can still pull some humor out of this situation, but my head keeps returning to what we just saw. I have so many questions I need answers to, but we can find those eventually. I’m trying to piece together the events that I know happened, while cross-referencing the things Alex and my dad have said to me in passing. Nothing they say goes without meaning in my book. Like a detective who’s driving themselves mad, trying to figure out who the murderer is, but the worst part is, I already know who the murderer is.
It’s my father.
He wanted something so bad he was willing to kill his own brother… I may be an only child, but no amount of money, power, or fame would have me killing my own flesh and blood, even with the disdain I have for most of them. But I have a terrible feeling it wasn’t my uncle’s life that needed to be taken.
My biggest priority is getting Ellie and Nash back in good health. When I finally laid my eyes on them after what felt like lifetimes, and seeing their chests still rising and falling, I felt like I could finally breathe again. Like life was being pushed back into this soul of mine. But when Alex told me that they had been taken and Marcello thought it was me, the whole bottom of my soul opened and started to pour out of me.
Holding Nash in my arms doesn’t feel real, but it really sinks in once we get situated in the back seat where he can lean on me. We take off in a rush, not knowing how bad off Nash and Ellie are. I gently kiss the top of his head and whisper into his hair, “You’re mine, Nash. There’s no denying it after this.” I sit in the back seat as we speed to the warehouse to get them the much-needed medical attention they need.
Marcello and I are alone once again. Doc has been working on both Nash and Ellie since we carried them into his surgery room, which I guess could be a regular place to see patients, depending on their severity. All I know is that they had pulses when we found them and still did when we handed them over to Doc and his nurse, but they kicked us out, saying they needed room to work. I’m sure he didn’t want Marcello breathing down his neck. It’s bad enough we’re sitting here in Marcello’s office watching them work through the glass.
? * The extent of what dehydration can do to your body can be unimaginable. They’re still not in the clear, and it could take a day or two to get them hydrated correctly—even with the IV Haisley was able to get into them. It makes me sick thinking of them suffering like I know they did for the past sixty-six hours.
Marcello breaks my spiraling thoughts, asking me, “Why the fuck did they just leave them there?” I want to know how my father even knew about the bunker where we found Nash and Ellie, and my dead fucking Uncle, and why all of a sudden, all of this involves me. How long has he been working with the Albanian syndicate here in Vegas; did they introduce him to Igor and the skin trade? Was all this to get my attention? Get me away from Marcello? Or was it to make sure I didn’t want anything to do with his business anymore? He knows this would push me past any limit I have; he was painfully aware of my views on the skin trade.
I murmur to him, “I have no clue, Cello… my dad was a heartless bastard, but I never thought he would come out here to fuck with people I care about.” I just want to know what the fuck he’s after or if it’s just me he wants, because if it’s me, I would happily lay my head on the line to save the three of them from any more harm.
Marcello grabs my jaw, pulling my attention away from Doc as he listens to Ellie’s lungs and heart. He practically growls, “I know where your mind just went. You’re not risking yourself to save us. No hero shit, Zamir. We’re taking your family on together. You’re not alone in this, I promise. I’m going to call in backup.” I hold his gaze a little longer, truly seeing the meaning and care behind his words, and he slowly lets go of my jaw.
I turn back to look through the glass, and question Marcello, “The crew from Texas?” I’m hoping he knows I don’t want to pry, but I want the reassurance that we will handle this.
“Yeah. Ramos and his crew that’s down in Texas.”
After a few moments, Marcello says, “I never would have thought Igor would have been working with someone in Chicago, but I guess this life truly has no bounds.” It’s bad enough having to watch the people you’re around all the time, but add in the whole United States, yeah, I couldn’t do what Marcello does even if I wanted to.
I respond to Marcello, “Yeah, I don’t know how they got in contact, but they seem to have a deep root in my dad and what was my uncle…” Well, I probably will never know why my dad killed my uncle, but at least that’s one less awful man on the streets trafficking women and children. “And I’m most surprised that my dad didn’t go in and make sure they were dead before he left.” My heart swells with pride for both Nash and Ellie, somehow pulling through all of that.
Marcello grunts. “How poetic would it have been if my own partners were taken by organ failure?”
“Only your cryptic ass would think that’s poetic,” I groan because, honestly, only his mind would conclude that. I’m glazing over how he just called Ellie and Nash his partners.
We sit there in silence, watching Doc and Haisley work perfectly together, and I start to wonder how the hell this woman got into all this before I finally start to peel back the layers of what happened today.
Then I whisper to Marcello, “Joy and happiness feel expensive. They always have, and I’m afraid of being happy again. It causes nothing but pain for me and everyone around me…” All of this is my fault; all of my favorite people have been suffering at the hands of people who share blood with me. I left because of this, never wanting people I care for to suffer or be used to get a leg up.
Marcello and I share that sentiment.
He grunts a quiet, “Me too.” Not expecting the vulnerable omission, I stare at his beautiful side profile in shock. “What? You can be afraid, but I can’t?” he asks, not even taking the time to look away from Nash and Ellie.
Already shaking my head, I reply, “I didn’t say that; I’m just shocked. You always have the Billy Badass persona turned on. I don’t get to see this side of you… I like it.” When he finally looks at me, trying to hold his smile at bay, I smirk at him, throwing in a wink, and I swear to fuck, this man blushes.
Oh, how I love making big scary men blush.
“Who is Billy? And what makes him a badass?”
“It’s just a saying, Marcello.” I’m chuckling between words. I don’t think he understands how truly funny he is.
* ? Change (In the House of Flies) - Deftones
* ? Take Me Back To Eden - Sleep Token