12. Savage
Chapter 12
Savage
“Why are they taking so long?” My fingers drum against the Expedition’s console as I stare over the road. The queue under The Foundry’s neon sign has doubled since we stopped here an hour ago.
“They’re supposed to be clubbing, bro.”
I scoff as I absently take the cigarette Vito offers me. I hardly smoke anymore, but my nerves are at a ten tonight. We’d agreed on the plan before we even left Nico’s guest house. But Vito had to grab the buckle of my seatbelt to stop me getting out and going after my wife twice already.
What the hell was I thinking, agreeing to this harebrained plan of hers? Sure, a lot of what Nyx said made sense. But so fucking what? I could have stormed this place with a troop of Domingo men and gotten the exact same results she’s expecting.
At least then I’d be on the offensive.
I wouldn’t be sitting here working my way through a packet of cigarettes as I wait for my wife to come back to me.
She has to come back.
I’ll lose my fucking mind if she doesn’t. And then I’ll torch this club and everything O’Brien owns to the ground.
“Try calling.”
“That’s not the plan, Savage.”
“They have a phone for a reason.”
“They also have a gun for a reason. Should they use it too?”
I growl at him, snatch at the cigarette with my lips, blow the smoke out fiercely through my nose. “Are our men still stationed at the back?”
Vito turns in his seat, a lopsided smile on his face. “What’s worrying you more? O’Brien putting a bullet in your wife, or that she climbs out the window again?”
I knew I shouldn’t have told him about Nyx’s Zen Garden escape. He’s been throwing out one-liners about it the whole day. You’d swear he wrote them down somewhere.
“They’re not going to drag a body out the front,” I tell him gruffly.
“This is a club. I don’t think they’re going to drag a body out anywhere . And don’t you think you’re being a little paranoid? It’s not like he’s expecting her to be here.”
“We don’t know that.”
He concedes with a slant of his head. “Hence the gun.”
None of this is easing the knots in my shoulders, my clenched jaw, my grinding teeth. I drag at the cigarette again, willing the throat hit to kill my anxiety.
“So, this Andy woman,” my cousin muses. “Thoughts?”
“None.” My eyes are glued to the club’s entrance.
I’m watching the bouncers, making sure they’re not getting important messages on their walkie-talkies. Something that might mean my wife’s been captured and is currently en-route to some disused warehouse somewhere for some torture and nonconsensual sex.
“I mean, she seem legit to you?”
“As legit as the daughter of my father’s mistress could be.”
Vito groans. “Bro, come on. I’m serious here.”
“We’re on a stake out. We can do this—“ I wave a hand “—whatever this is, later.”
Vito sighs, completely ignoring me as he absently smooths down his hair. “I think I like her, Savage. She’s so…sassy.”
“Christ.”
“And those eyes? So fierce. I’m starting to understand your obsession with Nyx. That kind of passion gets my dick hard.”
I don’t want to look away from the bouncers, but I’m forced to. “My wife gets your dick hard?”
Vito gives me a double take. “No, man. Andy. Andy gets my dick hard.”
“Jesus, the last thing I want to do is talk about what gets your dick hard.” My eyes jump back to the bouncers. “Now shut the hell up and text Matias. I want to make sure they’re at their posts.”
“Why wouldn’t they be?”
“Someone could have taken them out.”
“Like the mob? Or your?—”
All I have to do is hold up my index finger, and Vito cuts off with a low chuckle. I flick what’s left of my cigarette out the window without taking my eyes off the bouncers.
“It’s too quiet. I don’t like it.” My hand’s already on the door handle when Vito shows me his phone screen.
Vito
You good?
Matias
All clear
“See?”
I try to sink back in my seat, but my muscles refuse to ease up. “I should have gone in with them. I know how to blend in.”
“You?” Vito snorts. “Please. I should have gone. ‘Cept they wouldn’t let me.”
I glance at the time on the SUV’s dash. “They should have checked in with us by now. I said hourly updates, didn’t I?”
“Jesus, just chill, okay? I’m sure they’ll…”
I spot something at the entrance, and sit forward in a rush. “Is that…?”
Grabbing the binoculars wedged into the console between us, I focus them on The Foundry’s entrance. Two bulky guys are bringing someone out of the club, hands clamped around the woman’s upper arms. She’s going along willingly, if a little unsteadily.
“Fuck…” Vito murmurs. “Is that…?”
“It’s Andy.” I’m already tossing the binoculars at him. “She’s fucking alone.”
“Shit!” Vito’s got his phone out, and in the moment of crystalized silence as I take out my Beretta and check that it’s still stuffed full of ammo, I hear a faint ringing on the other side of the line as he calls to scramble our men.
I kick open the car door, already striding to the road when Vito yells out, “You can’t just barge in there!”
Fuck that.
If my wife isn’t outside those doors by the time I get there, there’ll be a mass shooting in the headlines tomorrow.