16. Sixteen
Sixteen
Luka
I was early. I waited outside the baggage claim exit. I was near the international terminal with strict instructions to keep circling every five minutes. Ciro was easy to spot in any crowd. I thought it made him both a bad bodyguard because he drew attention, but also an asset because he was large and intimidating to most people.
The door to the backseat opened and he tossed in his bag before sliding into the front seat.
“Any updates?” he asked before his seatbelt was even buckled.
I took my foot off the brake and merged into the flow of traffic. “No.” It wasn’t the answer I wanted to give him. It was close to nine and there was still no ransom note or call. I was running out of back roads and alleys to explore. Enzo’s parents weren’t going to wait much longer.
“Where were you? How long was the flight?” I glanced at him quickly. He didn’t give me a flight number or an airline, only an exact time to circle around baggage claim.
“Working on something for the boss.” I’d never heard him refer to Amara that way before. It didn’t sound natural.
“How long were you gone?” I was willing to push this cat and mouse game as long as I could. I had seen him two days ago at Amara’s house after a long stare down. Nothing about his trip made sense to me. I didn’t think there was enough money to force Ciro away from his boss.
“Not long enough to get everything I wanted accomplished,” he grunted.
“Well, that I believe. You look like hell.” The giant’s face was pale, and his eyes slanted from too little sleep. I knew he had taken whatever flight was available, but there were still many unanswered questions.
“It seems I shouldn’t have left.” I felt his eyes on me. The stare was hard. Brutal.
“Is there something you want to say?” I taunted. “If there is, just go ahead and say it.”
“Just get me to the house. I need to pick up a few things there.”
“And take a shower?” I scrunched my nose. “You stink, Ciro. Like a man who hasn’t showered. Ever.” A quick flash of my morning Amara shower almost distracted me.
He exhaled, not interested in responding to my crass assessment.
“Just drive.”
“You do realize I didn’t want to call you.” I should have held my fucking tongue, but I couldn’t help it. Amara still wasn’t safe as long as we didn’t know who the kidnappers were. “You were the last person I wanted to ask for help.”
“That’s not really your call to make. She was almost kidnapped while she was with you. On your watch.”
I pressed the brake at a red light. I turned my head. “Is that an accusation?”
“I have my own questions.”
I shook my head. “Fucking unbelievable. You were out of town. But go ahead, big guy. Try to pin it on me.”
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been out of town.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I stared at him.
“Nothing.” He wouldn’t answer.
“Look, neither of us likes the other. We don’t have to pretend we do. Amara’s not here to make us play nice.”
“We agree on something.” He pressed his lips together. “She’s not here.” I felt him glare at me. “Where is she?” he asked.
“If you can get your head out of your ass, I’d tell you what’s going on,” I responded. “I want Enzo back here safely. For now, I’m willing to call a truce on all the other bullshit until we find him. I won’t accuse you. You don’t accuse me. Deal?”
He was hesitant. In all these years our dislike of each other had only intensified. We had common ground. I needed Ciro to stand on it with me. He didn’t seem willing, no matter my argument.
“You do realize she had a tracker.” His words were bitter. “I took it out twenty-four hours ago.”
“I know. But she wanted it out. She’s not a little kitty from the shelter. You can’t put her in danger with one of those things. It’s more dangerous for every organization family in town to be able to locate her every move if they were able to hack the coordinates. I don’t know what you were thinking.”
He huffed. “She’s in danger now because she doesn’t have it. If she hadn’t gotten away this time, I’d be able to find her no problem. Like I did last time. That’s right. I found her. I am the only one who found her,” he hissed.
The guilt hit my stomach like lead. Fuck. If Ciro ever knew I was the one who kidnapped her last time he would stop at nothing to try to kill me. He would tell Amara. He would destroy her. Us. Everything I had fought to protect. I needed to know what he had investigated from Nikoli’s abduction. Was there a full-scale hunt on his end after his partner was slaughtered? Did he care that Lorenzo Amato was killed, despite being on his deathbed.
“About that.” I waited at the stop light for the trolley crossing. Tourists hung out of the open-air windows, snapping pictures with their phones. “How does a security expert not track down the people responsible for his boss’s kidnapping?”
He didn’t miss a beat. “The house was abandoned. In bank foreclosure. There was no one to trace it back to. No one stepped in and bought it either. It’s still with the bank. I’ve watched it. I’ve had my eye on that house for four years.”
“Hmm. It just doesn’t make sense.” I had to play along. “Ever since Amara told me I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the timing. What errand did Lorenzo send you on? The man was dying, and he sent you away on his fucking deathbed? I don’t get it. Who would do that?”
Ciro grunted. “Why would I tell you that?”
“Why wouldn’t you? The man’s dead. Someone is after his daughter. You don’t see the coincidences adding up the same why I do?”
“No. I don’t.”
The trolley had passed us, and the light turned green. I stepped on the gas.
“Amara believes you’re loyal to her. I’ve always had my doubts.” I didn’t have a problem being blunt with this asshole.
“I could say the same thing about you,” he growled.
“I’m sure you have.” I smiled. “The difference is one of us will be in her life forever, and the other is a paid employee. You have no guarantees, Ciro. So, watch your fucking words, and your fucking games and help me find her assistant. Or you’ll be cut out of this equation before she steps foot in her house again. I can promise you that.”
“In her life forever?” he repeated. “You think you’re going to marry her?” It was hard over the roar of the engine to discern if I heard pain or surprise in his voice. Maybe it was a mixture of both.
“I know I am.” I pulled into the courtyard driveway. “As soon as we find out who the family is that’s playing this damn game.”
“Where are we? This isn’t the Amato compound.”
“My new place,” I explained. I stood from the car and tossed the keys to my valet. “Come on,” I directed Ciro. He seemed to be in shock. He followed me inside. “Too many people at the office and I don’t know that Amara’s place is secure.” I wasn’t willing to take him to the stables either. “I have a guest suite where you can shower.” His suitcase was in the backseat.
“Has she agreed to this?” He studied me. “To your plan about the future,” he clarified.
“To being my wife?” That was what he was stuck on? The woman I loved was in danger and Ciro was worried about Amara’s answer.
He slid the sunglasses off his face. “Did she say yes?”
I exhaled. “Ciro, focus. We have work to do first.”
“So, you haven’t asked?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I haven’t. All of this shit happened before I had the chance.”
He didn’t have to say a word. I could see the relief on his face. His forehead relaxed. Was that a grin? Bastard.
“I guess we should get started.” His tone was lighter.
I didn’t have time to dissect how he thought. Minutes were too important to waste on the inner workings of how he processed information.
“In here,” I directed him to my new office. There was a white board in the middle of the room.
“What is this?” he asked.
“I thought we could use it to get started.” I quickly jotted down a list of places where I had looked for Enzo. I stopped scribbling. “These are the places Katya has been able to cross off.” He peered at it. “She visited locations that Enzo frequents. Like I said, it’s a start.”
Ciro walked closer to the whiteboard in my office. He grabbed the eraser off the ledge and wiped down the board.
“This is shit. We’re going to have to start over.” He tossed the eraser on a table and picked up the marker. I didn’t like the possibility that Ciro’s renewed energy came from the knowledge that I hadn’t proposed to Amara yet. It fueled him somehow and that was going to be a problem for us working together.