Chapter 24
Enzo
The phone rang. Once.
I ignored it, pacing the length of the cabin, my thoughts a snarled mess of half-formed plans and bad instincts. The number was unknown but had a Texas area code. There was no fucking reason to answer, not when I had more important things to worry about.
It rang again.
And again.
How the fuck was I supposed to concentrate and come up with a plan if the phone wouldn’t stop ringing? When it rang a fourth time, I stopped, jaw tightening, and finally snatched it off the table. “Who the fuck is this?”
There was a long pause, so long I almost ended the call before a familiar voice spoke. “This is Toni,” a woman said quickly. “I work with Serenity.” The world tilted.
“Where is Ren?” I demanded. “And Matteo?”
There was another pause, the kind that told me nothing in the world would ever be right again, before she could say more.
“There was an incident,” she said carefully, in that slow voice people used on angry animals. “Mattie is here with me. He’s safe, but he’s inconsolable. Serenity was…taken.”
“Taken?” I roared, turning to Luca. The word scraped against my throat, coming out of me like something feral. “Taken by who?” I didn’t remember moving, but suddenly Luca was at my side, his sharp eyes on my face as he reached for his keys and jacket. He took the phone from my hand.
“I don’t know,” Toni answered, her voice quiet and emotional.
Luca handed me the phone and opened the cabin door, motioning to the security team that surrounded the place.
“Brady pulled all the security footage from our parking lot and the surrounding buildings. You need to get here,” she said softly but urgently. “Now.”
“We’re on our way,” I told her and ended the call. My legs didn’t even feel real as I climbed into the back of the SUV. Luca took the seat beside me while two guards sat up front. The other four followed in another black SUV as we made our way down the mountain and to Ren’s office.
My hands clenched into fists, so tight my nails dug into my palms as I thought of Ren, alone and scared. I wondered, more than once, if she was regretting the day I came back into her life.
“We’ll get her back,” Luca said quietly.
“You don’t know that,” I snapped.
He exhaled, patient even now. “I do.”
I wanted to believe him. Desperately. But belief didn’t come easily when every mile ahead stretched like a lifetime. Without Ren.
“Look, we already know who’s behind this now, so we also know he plans on using her as leverage.” Luca sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Which means she’s alive.”
That helped. A little. She was alive, for now. But would she wish she were dead by the time this was all over?
“I already reached out to Thorn, and he’s tracking him through all possible measures. He’ll reach out, likely soon.” He rubbed his palms together, his gaze locked on mine. “He’ll reach out to you. It’s only a matter of time,” he said, his words filled with certainty.
I stared out the window, watching the landscape blurring as the SUV tore up the highway toward ENS. My thoughts remained on Ren, wondering how she was holding up, but in the background, I thought about the traitor. About what I would have to do.
By the time we arrived at the ENS office, my mind and body were a riot of emotions, but outside, I was calm. Inside the building, however, was chaos.
Security vehicles lined the curb, effectively blocking the path to the front door, which was shut. The blinds were drawn on the windows, and the police were nowhere in sight. That surprised me, but I was relieved for the quiet containment.
I cataloged every detail I took in, from the security guards with wireless earpieces and guns under their jackets to the quiet hum of conversation all around me. My first priority wasn’t strategy, not yet. It was Matteo.
I spotted him immediately, his face red and blotchy and his cheeks streaked with tears. He broke from Toni the second he saw me and slammed into my legs. “They took her, Papa,” he sobbed. “They took her.”
My chest cracked open as I lifted him into my arms, holding him tight while his small body shook against me. “I’ll get her back,” I promised into his hair. “I swear.”
He clung to me like he might never let go.
Toni stepped forward gently. “Mr. DeRossi, this is my husband, Brady. He’ll get you what you need, and I’ll stay with Mattie while you look at the footage.”
I hesitated, my hands holding Matteo a little too tight.
She sighed. “He already lived through it. I don’t think he needs to see it again.” Her words were soft yet firm, and oddly caring for a boy she hardly knew.
She was, of course, right. I kissed Matteo’s temple, reluctant to let him go, but after another minute, I handed him over, watching as he went to her easily.
“Come on, Mattie. No matter how bad things get, ice cream makes them the teensiest bit better, right?”
He nodded but not nearly as enthusiastically as he usually did everything. It was the only sign he was feeling too much.
I followed Brady down the short hall and into the same conference room Ren had put me in the last time I was here with her.
The small room was buzzing with activity.
In the corner, I spotted Damien with his big leg resting on a chair, the pant leg cut open and a thick bandage wrapped around his thigh. Blood had soaked through already.
“I’m sorry, Boss,” he groaned when he tried to get to his feet. “They took me out with a clean shot through my thigh.” His head hung low, eyes filled with anguish.
“You did your job,” I assured him. I was upset, but they’d taken out the only protection to make their job easier. “I appreciate that.”
Brady cleared his throat and pointed to the projector screen on the wall. “I have the footage queued up.”
I nodded once and turned my gaze to the wall. I held my breath and waited, but watching it was worse than I expected.
Ren froze and looked around, clocking the danger first. I watched with my heart in my throat since I already knew how the video would end, as she dropped down to Matteo’s level.
She spoke in a serious tone to him, and he nodded that he understood.
Seconds later, she was ripped from my son, shouting for him to run, which he did.
She fought like hell even though she knew she couldn’t win. The exact moment she saw that Matteo was safe, the fight went out of her.
“She’s brave as fuck,” Luca muttered. “And smart.”
“And missing,” I said flatly.
Brady pulled up another feed. “I tracked the van with one of the surveillance drones I’m testing. They took a right at this T-intersection.”
“That’s a fucking business park,” Luca growled.
“It is,” Brady agreed, using a laser to point at the buildings. “But there are only two suitable buildings. This one used to be a porn studio, and this one is a hay storage facility. The only two with working electricity and water.”
I heard Luca on the phone in the corner, using his do as I say tone with whoever was on the other end of that call.
“The studio is my best guess because it has lots of room, still has furniture in it, and has working bathrooms. Plus, lots of places to hide.”
Looking at those images and listening to Brady lay it all out while Luca prepared for war, I couldn’t escape the truth I hadn’t wanted to believe for weeks now.
I knew who this traitor was because he was my own fucking flesh and blood.
This was the part of the job my own father hadn’t lived long enough to prepare me for: what to do when the enemy was one of your own.
I knew what the code said needed to be done in circumstances such as this. I knew what was expected, but knowing it didn’t make this shit any easier. “Thanks,” I grunted to Brady and pulled out my phone, exiting the conference room before I sought refuge in Ren’s office.
It smelled like her. It looked the same as it had last time I was here, except there was no Ren. I pulled out my phone and dialed the one person in the world who could guide me over this hurdle.
“Lorenzo.” Aunt Valentina’s voice was calm and full of warmth as it always was, still slightly accented as though she hadn’t lived in California for all but ten of her sixty-three years. “You have a traitor among your ranks.”
I froze. How did she know? “I do,” I answered slowly, hesitantly.
“Lena is here with me,” she said as if that answered everything. “I guess that means my son is the one who created this mess?”
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “It seems so.”
Silence stretched between us, a lifetime of familial love, professional guidance, and traditions.
“You know what you have to do,” she said finally. “We cannot tolerate betrayal.”
I knew that. I didn’t need her to tell me that, yet the sense of relief I felt was palpable. “He is your son.”
“He stopped being my son when he chose to work against this family,” she replied.
“I have given up much in my life for this organization, Lorenzo. I set aside my own hopes and dreams, I married a man my father chose, and I built a different life than I had imagined. I will not allow those sacrifices to be for nothing.”
I swallowed hard, unsure what to say in the face of such brutal honesty.
Valentina sighed heavily, the only sign this wasn’t as easy for her as it sounded. “Are you calling me for absolution, Lorenzo,” she asked, “or permission?”
I didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know,” I said at last. But that was a lie, or maybe the truth just scared me too much to admit. “He took someone who matters to me,” I answered instead. “She put herself between Matteo and danger.” The words hurt as they left my mouth.
Valentina was quiet for so long I thought maybe she’d ended the call. “The girl you gave up for your family?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “I have to get her back.”
“Then do what needs to be done, Lorenzo. You are the head of this family. Your word is the law.” The call ended abruptly, my aunt’s words echoing in my head on a loop.
Aunt Valentina was right. I was the head of this organization. My word was the final one, and doubt or hesitation would only cause more pain.
David had taken the woman I love.
He would have to pay for that, whatever the cost. And I was the one who got to decide the cost.