23. Savage
Chapter 23
Savage
Vito walks out of the elevator and gives me and Nyx a grim smile. When he spots Bella, he drops into a crouch, throwing his hands wide.
Bella whines, her muscles tensing like she wants to rush forward, her steps becoming stiff as she struggles to hold herself back.
“Come on!” Vito calls. “You don’t want cuddles, Bella?”
Good God, he’s a fucking sadist. Poor Bella’s shivering from excitement and frustration.
“Go,” I command.
Bella shoots off like a rocket. Few men would be brave enough to stand their ground if they saw a Rottweiler the size of Bella charging toward them.
Vito not only stays where he is, he laughs when she bowls him over. And then stands and lets her paw at his chest as he ruffles her floppy ears. She’s trying to lick his face, but he’s got just enough height on her that all she can reach is his throat.
I snap my fingers, and she drops to her paws, sitting and staring up at Vito with adoring brown eyes.
Bella throws her head around to look at me, and then turns a little more to stare at Nyx as we come closer. My wife’s fingers tighten around mine, and I barely hold back a smile. She still seems convinced Bella is one second away from mauling her.
Vito cocks an eyebrow at our meshed hands.
“Get a room,” he says dryly.
“Thought you said it was urgent.” I stab my thumb back the way we came. “But if it can wait…” I halt, take a step back, and tug on Nyx’s hand.
Vito rolls his eyes, resting his back against the bronzed mirrors. He watches us with a sullen glower on his face as we step into the elevator, Bella’s claws tip-tapping on the tiles. “It is urgent. You two can fornicate later.”
“We’re married,” Nyx says bluntly. “Don’t think it’s considered fornication anymore. Where’s Andy?”
Vito shrugs. “Sleeping, I think. We had a late night.”
Nyx groans. “Please tell me you didn’t spike her drink.”
“Rude,” he mutters, but he doesn’t defend himself, which is only slightly more concerning than the fact that Andy is MIA to begin with.
The elevator door pings open. Vito leads us out, detouring toward the entertainment room. It’s one of the best places to have a clandestine conversation, what with all the soundproofing.
As soon as we’re inside, he pulls the door shut behind us and throws himself down in one of the closest chairs, pulling out his cigarettes. Nyx lets go of my hand, wandering over to the espresso machine, and Bella waits for me to nod before jumping up on the chair beside Vito’s. He gives her ears another affectionate ruffle, and she lets out a happy sigh as she sinks her head down on the oversized armchair’s armrests.
Recessed lighting casts everyone in a warm, red glow, but Bella has no trouble keeping Vito in her sights. And when Nyx knocks over something by the drinks station, Bella’s ears prick as she whips her head around to see what my wife’s up to.
“Out with it.” I take the other seat next to him, twisting to look at him instead of facing the projector screen.
Vito hesitates, widening his eyes at me as he cocks his head at Nyx. She presses something on the machine that makes it beep angrily at her, and she curses it.
“She’s family.”
Nyx’s head moves like she wants to look over at me, but she keeps her gaze trained on the machine instead. She might be pretending not to listen, but I know she’s straining for every word out of Vito’s mouth.
Vito leans forward, dropping his voice despite what I just said. “Me and Andy went to Doc’s house last night.”
My eyebrows shoot to my fucking hairline. “You did what?”
He shrugs at my stunned expression. “It’s fine, bro. She obviously didn’t off him.”
“Obviously?”
Nyx weighs in with a loud, “She’s not a killer,” thrown over her shoulder as she presses another button. The machine’s steam nozzle starts up with a loud whoosh, and she leaps back a step, stiffening like she’s ready to attack the machine with her bare hands. Even Bella sits up hurriedly, her tan eyebrows wrinkled as she stares over at Nyx with palpable concern.
“Christ,” I mutter, pushing up from my seat and striding over. “What do you want?” I ask in a low voice, trying to keep my frustration under wraps.
“Um…” She drums her fingers on the countertop. “What can it make?”
“Espresso, cappuccino, latte, mocha. Tea. Warm water with a fucking lemon in it.”
“That all?” There’s the faintest laugh in her voice, and it’s pathetic how my heart responds with a hard thump of happiness.
“This century, woman,” I say, grabbing the scruff of her neck and shaking her. “Papi’s busy.”
When I look down at her, she’s staring up at me with an indecipherable expression I’ve never seen on her face before.
“Latte?” she ventures.
I use the grip on her neck to move her aside, and she turns and crosses her arms, staring over at Vito. “Why did you go back?”
“She wanted to check the place out,” Vito says. “And I’ll have a hazelnut flat white, thanks for offering.”
Nyx puts a hand over her mouth, and I suppress a growl. Not sure when the hell I became the cartel barista, but here we are.
“I like Andy,” Nyx says, poking me as if to make sure I’m paying attention. “She’s got moxie.”
“Fascinating,” I say. “Now let Vito speak, Angel.”
My cousin clears his throat. “Andy had a look at your dad and said he should be in the hospital, but I told her it doesn’t work like that?—“
I drop the pitcher of steamed milk I’d been about to pour over the espresso in Nyx’s latte glass.
“She did what?” There’s no suppressing the anger in my voice now.
“I sent you a message,” Vito says, defensive as fuck. “Don’t you check your phone, like ever?”
I turn, but Nyx catches my arm, squeezes. “The coffee, Papi.”
When I look at her, she’s giving me big eyes, trying to communicate telepathically that I should be concentrating on making her latte, not bashing Vito’s head in with a saucer.
“Anyone who looks in my father’s general direction can tell he’s not recovering. Did she mention anything specific, or was she just stating the blatant fucking obvious?”
“She’s a trained EMT,” Vito says sulkily.
“Did you find anything at his house?” Nyx’s voice is an octave higher than usual, like she’s trying to drag our conversation from the depths of hell. I throw her a warning look as I pass her coffee over.
“It’s hot.”
She gives me an impish grin, mouthing, “Thank you, Papi.”
“It’s more what we didn’t find.” Vito blows out his cigarette so hard I can hear it with my back turned. “His medical records were gone.”
“All of them?” Nyx slurps at her coffee, and then sucks air through her lips like she burned her mouth. “That’s totally sus.”
I finish Vito’s flat white, blending in enough hazelnut syrup to give him a toothache, and take it over to him. He gives me a grateful nod for the coffee and then peers up at me like he’s expecting a backhand. Maybe it’s my expression. I probably look a little grim.
“You should have told me.”
Vito glances away. “I tried. You were kinda…busy.” His gaze cuts to Nyx, who’s slurping noisily on her coffee.
It’s my turn to look away. My jaw clenches, fingertips digging into my arms.
He’s right.
I haven’t even looked at my phone since we hauled Nyx out of The Foundry last night.
“Andy said she’s going to run some tests. See if she can figure out what’s going on. It’ll take a few days, but at least?—“
Vito cuts off at Bella’s sharp bark, and Nyx almost spills her entire cup of coffee on the floor.
There’s a loud rap on the door. Vito starts to stand, but I hold up a hand to keep him in his seat. Nyx gives me an innocent smile when I glance over at her, and I let out a rueful snort.
I have to let Vito know about my wife’s deal with O’Brien, but I’ve been putting it off, hoping I’ll come up with some ingenious plan to get us out of this mess. Until then, I have to keep an eye on Nyx to make sure she doesn’t slip away to murder a Domingo.
“Sorry for intruding, boss,” Matias says as soon as I open the door. “You weren’t answering your phone.”
I ignore Vito’s righteous huff. “What is it?”
“Got an update on Acosta.”
My mind searches diligently through its database, but before I can figure out who the hell Matias is speaking about, Vito appears at my side. “That’s one of the guys that took Nyx’s sisters, right?” he murmurs.
I hear a strangled, “What?” from Nyx and a clatter as she sets her cup down on the counter. Her hearing’s sharper than Bella’s.
Sighing, I step back and wave Matias inside. Sam is also in the hall but he turns his back to the wall, keeping watch as the door closes on silent hinges behind Matias.
“One of our halcones got the news this morning. There’s a picture…” Matias trails off, his eyes darting to Nyx.
I rumble out an impatient, “Show us.”
Reluctantly, Matias hands me his phone. I stare at a picture of a pretty young woman, late twenties. Naked. Throat slit. But what makes bile rise in my throat is how obscenely the rest of her body is mutilated. The way her torso caves in, it almost looks like?—
“Jesus, they took her organs.” Vito has a hand over his mouth.
“Fetches a good price if they keep ‘em fresh,” Matt says.
“Who is she?”
I start when I hear Nyx’s voice, and immediately shove Matias’ phone against his chest, releasing it so quickly he almost fumbles it. A sharp, internal pain pierces through me at the thought that Nyx saw such a sick, depraved thing.
Thank fuck the woman’s head was still attached in the shot. I can’t imagine what would have happened if Matias had only shown us a headless torso Nyx could have mistaken for one of her sisters.
“Tavo Acosta’s fiancée, Adriana,” Matias says.
Nyx slips her hand into mine, her eyes glued on the mountain that is Matias. Her fingernails dig into my palm, but I welcome the pain. It’s keeping me in the here and now when I’d rather be planning creative ways to end whoever was responsible for such grotesque defilement of a living, breathing, human being.
Matias clears his throat and pockets his phone. “Word is he broke something that wasn’t his, and Adriana paid the price.”
“What’s this got to do with my sisters?” Nyx says in a tight voice.
“Dunno.” Matias glances at her, but his eyes swing back to me almost immediately. “Acosta’s missing, but everyone seems pretty happy about it.”
“Why?” Vito’s fingers are still over his mouth, muffling his words.
“He’s a pedo.”
Nyx lets out a low whining sound, like something a wounded animal would make. I grab her and crush her against my chest, keeping her still when she resists, my head bowing over hers to kiss her hair.
Vito and Matias leave the room, calling Bella to follow them out, but all my attention is on subduing my wife as she thrashes against me.
“Easy,” I murmur against her hair. “Easy, Angel.”
She thumps a fist against my pec. Then again. Again. Until she’s pummeling my chest, a scream of rage erupting from her.
I don’t know how long I stand there, absorbing her anguish and fury, but when it’s over, I wish she’d never stopped.
The feel of her shuddering in my arms, the sound of her broken sobs…they’re infinitely worse.
“Shit, that was rough, bro.” Vito runs a hand through his hair, giving me an awkward, sympathetic smile as I step out of my bedroom. “How’s she holding up?”
“Worse than you’d think.”
Her legs gave way back in the entertainment room. I had to carry her upstairs and lay her down, and she put up as much resistance as a mannequin.
I reluctantly lock my bedroom door, sighing when I turn back and see Vito’s confused expression. “We need to talk,” I mumble, heading down the hallway.
“You mean you’re finally going to tell me what the fuck happened at that club with Nyx? My imagination’s been going wild.”
“There’s not much to tell. Nyx only gave me the highlights.”
“Jesus.” He laughs, but there’s no humor in the sound.
His room is a few doors down the hall. He opens the door and walks through, taking off his shoes and tossing them toward his closet. His room is larger than mine, with a flat screen in the living area and a fully stocked mini bar. There’s even a balcony looking out over the villa’s estate, and he heads straight for it, lighting a cigarette on the way.
I remember a very brief conversation we had many years back when we were picking our rooms. He asked which one I wanted and I told him I didn’t give a fuck, as long as it had an en-suite bathroom and wasn’t anywhere near Sergio or my father.
It’s been the kind of morning where I fight the urge to pour myself a stiff drink, but I join Vito outside and click my fingers at him for a cigarette instead. He obliges, lighting it for me before passing it over.
We lean our arms on the balcony’s railing. The sun is still climbing, and the cool breeze sifting through the air brings the scent of hibiscus and honeysuckle with it.
“She made a deal with O’Brien,” I say. “He’ll give her back her sisters if she kills Sergio.”
Vito lets out a low chuckle. “Fuck me.” He hangs his head between his hands for a beat before straightening. “That’s why you locked her in.”
I tilt my head. “She thinks she’d be doing the world a favor.”
“Not even gonna argue. But can you imagine the backlash from Colombia? If she thinks her sisters are in danger now…” He snorts.
“What the fuck do I do, Vito?” I clean ash from my cigarette with an angry flick of my thumb.
Vito is quiet as he takes a drag. “I’m sure she got proof of life, or she wouldn’t have made the deal. O’Brien’s holed up somewhere with those girls.
“He gave her ten days to deliver.”
“Then we just have to look harder.”
I let out a dry chuckle, take another drag. Smoke peppers my words. “You know how in movies, whenever there’s a car chase, one of them can always go a little faster? As if they wouldn’t have the pedal pressed to the fucking floor from the word go?”
Vito’s only reply is a world-weary sigh.
“O’Brien’s a fucking ghost,” I mutter. “Now I have to keep my wife under lock and key and hope we find him before he sells her sisters.” I dip my head, massaging my thumbs over the aching pressure point between my brows.
“Sells?” Vito asks quietly, turning to look at me.
“That’s what he told her.” I let out a disgusted grunt as we lock eyes. “Probably the only reason those girls are still alive.”
We both turn back to the view. There’s a guy on a John Deere lawn mower making his way over the expanse of lawn between the villa and the distant dock where a little dinghy bobs up and down on the water.
Vito snaps his fingers, flicking away his cigarette. “If we can’t catch him, maybe we can head him off. There’s one place he’s bound to be in a few days.”
I stare at him as his words hit home, my chest growing tight. “The auction?”
Vito shrugs. “Think you can keep Nyx from offing my dad long enough for us to find out when and where it’s happening?”
“Sure.” I give him a bleak smile. “Just find me a pair of handcuffs.”
Vito smiles, and I wish he hadn’t. “Leopard print, or pink fur?”