Chapter 26
Gio
“Son of a bitch.”
Gripping my aching head, I rolled over onto my side, only to come face-to-face with a wall of snow.
What the hell?
With a grunt, I sat up, blinking in the frigid darkness as my vision swam so badly that there were two mansions blurring together before me.
Racking my brain, which was sluggish due to the extreme cold, I tried to recall why I was outside rather than inside.
It took a minute, but eventually, memories began rushing back.
Rory and me in the kitchen.
Her teasing with me a handjob before the power went out.
Sending her to bundle up the baby while I fetched firewood.
Coming outside, grabbing an armload of wood, and then a flash of pain in my head before everything went black.
I looked around, expecting to find a large tree branch nearby. It seemed only logical that one had grown too heavily laden with snow and broken off, and that’s what had knocked me out. That had been a contributing factor in the power outage, so it made sense.
But the only wood surrounding me were the split logs meant for our fire, a light dusting of white coating them from the wind whipping around.
My fingers were stiff in my attempt to gather the wood in my arms, and I wondered just how long I’d been unconscious. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, a half hour at best, because certainly Rory would have come looking for me when I didn’t arrive in our arranged meeting spot.
Grunting with the force required to shuffle forward in waist-deep snow, I finally made it to the back door, where Cosmo was waiting, shivering and eager to be let back inside. Stomping my boots, I divested them of the powdery precipitation before crossing the threshold and sealing out the cold.
When I reached the living room, it was dark—as was to be expected—but it was alarmingly silent as well.
“Rory?” I called out but received no reply.
Cosmo barked from beside me in an attempt to get a response from my wife.
Still nothing.
Dropping the heavy load beside the fireplace, I went in search of my wife and son.
Since her destination when we’d parted had been the nursery, that was the first place I looked. Using my phone’s flashlight to guide the way, I stepped inside to find it empty, no sign of Rory or Luca.
I frowned when I saw that the basket beside the changing table was still overflowing with baby blankets. It should have been a mess. Hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find it knocked on its side, as a result of my wife’s efforts to grab as many as she could one-handed.
Something wasn’t right.
“Rory!” This time, I shouted her name, hissing when a lightning bolt seared through my skull.
Silence.
Upon further examination, I saw two sets of wet footprints marking the carpet and leading out of the room. Someone besides Rory had been in here.
Trying to keep calm, I pulled up the tracking app I’d had installed on her phone. The dot marking her location wasn’t moving, but it sure as hell didn’t place her here.
No, she was at the fucking casino.
“Motherfucker!” The obscenity was accompanied by a surge of red-hot rage.
Stabbing at my phone screen, I brought it to my ear and paced the room as I waited for the call to connect.
“Listen, I heard about the outage, it’s gonna be—”
I cut Enzo off. “They came into my goddamn house and took them!”
There was a long pause. “Who took who, Gio?”
“Who the fuck do you think?” I huffed. “Rory and the baby are gone. Her tracker puts them at the casino.”
“Okay, I’m gonna need you to slow down and give me more details. One, how did they get to the casino with two feet of snow on the roads? And two, where the hell were you that they made a clean escape?”
My hand flew to my head, tugging on my hair. “Someone got the jump on me when I went out for firewood. Woke up on my back in the snow.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, so if you’re done asking stupid questions I can’t answer, maybe we can start brainstorming how to get my family back.”
“Gio.” Enzo’s sigh sounded in my ear. “You know this is a trap, right?”
“Of course it’s a fucking trap!”
My cousin’s relief was audible. “Good. For a second there, you had me worried that you were about to go in half-cocked without a plan.”
Was now a good time to tell him that’s exactly what I intended to do?
My silence must’ve clued him in because he warned, “At the very least, you need to wait for backup.”
“There isn’t time!” My desperation boiled over. “Rory’s barely three days postpartum. Luca’s got jaundice. I can’t sit on my hands and do nothing, knowing they’re in Dario’s clutches.”
“That’s not what I’m saying—”
“You know what? If you’re not going to help me, I’ll call someone who will.”
“Gio—”
I ended the call before he could say another word, immediately dialing another number.
“Is your power out too?” Matteo asked in greeting.
“Dario took Rory and Luca to the casino. I’m going after them. Are you in?”
“Fuck,” my brother breathed out. “Yeah, I’m in. You know I’ve always got your back.”
There was a beep in my ear, and I pulled the phone away to find Dario’s contact lighting up the screen.
“He’s calling to taunt me,” I relayed.
“Answer it. I’m headed your way.”
“But how—” My question went unanswered as the line went dead.
Staring at my phone like it was a grenade with the pin pulled, I sucked in a deep breath before hitting accept.
Into the receiver, I growled, “If you so much as hurt a single hair on either one of their heads, I’ll tie you to a chair and force you to watch while I spend weeks slicing body parts off your offspring.
I’ll go out of my way to inflict maximum pain, making them walk the thin line between life and death.
I won’t be satisfied until their screams drive you so insane that you beg me to put you out of your misery.
And then I’ll fucking laugh while denying your request, drawing out the torture for years on end. ”
Dario hummed in amusement. “Are you finished yet?”
“I haven’t even begun,” I snarled.
“Usually, in situations such as these, you might begin by asking what my demands are,” my uncle prompted.
If I weren’t so on edge, I might have snorted. “Don’t patronize me. We both know you didn’t take my wife and son in some bullshit attempt to drain my bank accounts.”
“No,” he agreed. “My ransom demands are rather . . . unorthodox, to say the least.”
It was no secret he wouldn’t be satisfied until I was six feet under.
“Why don’t you tell me why I should come down there to offer myself up on a silver platter? When by staying away, by staying alive, I’m able to keep you from seizing control? Do you think I can’t remarry? Can’t produce another son? You did.”
Arrogant laughter came down the line. “The difference between me and you, boy, is that I’ve never been foolish enough to fall in love.”
I scoffed, feigning indifference. “Love is a useless emotion. One I’ve never had the misfortune of experiencing.”
“You’ve already played your hand with that cute little threat you issued at the start of this call.”
Though I was loath to admit it, maybe Enzo had a point about going off half-cocked. If I’d kept myself in check earlier, I might have been able to make him believe that Rory and Luca meant nothing to me, that holding them hostage, threatening their lives, wouldn’t aid his quest to destroy me.
Shifting tactics, I asked, “How do I even know they’re still alive? For all I know, you could have stolen Rory’s phone after you ditched their bodies.”
“That’s fair,” Dario conceded. “Which body part would you like couriered over?”
The thought of him mutilating my wife or child made me sick to my stomach, and it took all my effort to keep my voice calm. “A finger can just as easily be severed from a corpse. It’s hardly a convincing proof of life.”
His annoyed sigh came down the line. “What else would you have me do?”
“Put Rory on the phone,” I demanded. “Now.”
“Fine,” he huffed.
Then there was the sound of shuffling in the background, before my wife’s terrified voice sounded in my ear, “Gio?”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “It’s me.”
“Th-they said they left you outside to freeze to death. I thought—” She broke off with a loud sob.
“I’m okay,” I reassured her. “I need you to tell me if they’ve hurt you.” My windpipe closed up as I tacked on “Hurt Luca.”
“No.” Her reply was shaky, unconvincing.
“Tell me the truth.”
“Promise me something, Gio.” Her tone dripped with desperation. It was as if she was making a final request. Like she didn’t believe we’d ever see each other again in this lifetime.
“Don’t do that. Don’t give up,” I all but begged. “I’m coming for you.”
“No! Promise me you’ll stay far away from the casino.”
“Are you out of your mind? No way in hell will I agree to abandon you and our son.”
“You have to.” She was openly weeping now. “If you barge in here, guns blazing, they’re going to kill you. Then they’re gonna go after Matteo and his girls. It’s too late for us, but you can save them. Please don’t let me die knowing I’ve doomed them to the same fate.”
“Rory.” My eyes slammed shut. What she was asking went against every instinct I possessed.
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you.”
Swallowing thickly, I rasped, “I’m listening.”
She sniffled. “I’m not sorry that I ran away, but it’s not for the reason you think.
It’s because if I hadn’t, I never would have learned there’s so much more to the man I married.
And I never would have realized that I love every part.
The ruthless mafia don, the protective alpha, the dominant lover, the compassionate caretaker, and my favorite of all—the one I’ve only recently gotten the opportunity to meet—the hands-on father.
Gio or John, it doesn’t matter anymore, because I love you. In all your forms.”
“I—”
But before I could utter more than that one-letter word, Dario’s voice took over again.
“Well, wasn’t that touching,” he said with a mockingly. “There’s nothing like a little end-of-life epiphany.”