Chapter 29
Matteo
“Remember, he’s fast, but you’re faster.
” Lucian holds my face in his hands, giving me his final words of wisdom, like he always does before I go out there.
“Keep your head in the game. Your girl is taken care of, and she won’t be happy if you fuck up your pretty face or get knocked out because you’re too busy worrying about—”
Lucian’s words are cut off by the sound of gunfire, and I immediately go to grab my gun, only I don’t have it because I’m about to fight.
I run over to where the guards are, and Scotty already has my gun for me.
“Boss, this isn’t good,” Maxim, another one of my men, yells out. “There are several gunmen shooting up the place. They took out security and ambushed their way in.”
My thoughts go to Dani, and with my gun in hand, I rush out of the locker room and into the chaos that has ensued. People are screaming and running every which way. Gunshots are being fired. It’s a fucking bloodbath.
“We need to get you out of here,” Scotty shouts over the pandemonium.
“I need to find Dani.”
“Ian will handle her. You’ll never find her in this mess. The police are already on their way. They must’ve been tipped off.”
“I can’t fucking leave her,” I yell back, my body trembling with fear.
“You’ll never make it out alive,” Lucian argues.
“He’s right,” Scotty agrees. “There’s an entire team of men working to take down the shooters. Let’s go out back. We’ll get you safely to the car, and then we can get in touch with Ian and your family.”
Fuck!
My family is here. Dominick, Peyton, Bri, and Lorenzo are all here to watch the fight … along with Dani. They could be anywhere, any of them hurt and needing medical attention. But Scotty is right. I’ll never be able to find them out there, and the chances of me surviving are slim.
We take the back exit and manage to make it to Scotty’s SUV without issue, the five of us piling in. The place is a fucking war zone. People are making a run for it, and cars are hightailing it out of there. Blue and red lights appear, and Scotty takes off before they can stop us.
Before I can call Ian, my phone rings with a call from him.
“Where are you?” I bark out.
“I lost her,” he hisses, his breathing heavy. “Shit went sideways so fucking quick. One minute, she was going into the bathroom, and then—fuck!—she was gone. I traced her phone, and I think someone has her.”
“How the fuck do you know that?” I ask, feeling like I’m living in a goddamn nightmare.
“She’s heading southeast. There’s no way she would’ve left on her own. And in what vehicle?”
“Maxim, get ahold of my brother.”
“Already did,” he says. “They’re all safe and on their way home.”
I sigh in relief, but it’s short-lived when he adds, “But Dani isn’t with them.”
“Fuck!” I punch the air. “I’m pulling up her location now.”
I send it to Bosco, another one of my men, who’s sitting in the front seat, and he puts it on the screen so Scotty knows where to go.
“I think it’s taking her to the port,” Scotty notes.
I watch the dot for a few seconds and then tell Ian I’ll call him right back. If her phone is moving, maybe it’s all a misunderstanding, and she has her phone on her and is okay.
It rings once, twice, and then the call connects.
“Dani,” I breathe. “Where are you? I—”
“Sorry,” a weird, robotic-sounding voice comes over the line—a voice distorter. “Dani can’t come to the phone right now. She’s a little … tied up at the moment.”
“If you fucking—”
“What?” the voice says with a maniacal laugh. “Touch her? What are you going to do? Did you do anything when I set your warehouse on fire last year? How about when I ransacked all the businesses in South Harbor Point that were under your protection? Or when I had you arrested for money laundering?”
Another laugh, and a chill races down my spine.
“What did you do when I had your little gym shut down? Not a damn thing. And I’m only getting started.
I tried to do this the easy way. I gave you plenty of warnings, but you didn’t listen.
You and your family think you’re invincible, but you’re not, and now, I’m done playing games.
” A cackle comes through the line. “Or maybe I’ve only just begun. ”
“What do you want?” I ask calmly, not wanting to piss off whoever this is until I have Dani safe and away from this person. Then, it’s game on.
“I want what’s owed to my family.”
“And what’s that?” I bite out, feeling like I’m playing a horrible game of whack-a-mole.
First Anthony, then Enrique. Now whoever the fuck this is. Every time we whack a fucker, another one pops up.
“Harbor Point.”
A mirthless chuckle bursts from my lips before I can stop it. “I can’t give you an entire fucking city.”
“Oh, you will,” the voice says slowly. “Or I’ll dismantle your world, piece by piece, until there’s nothing left for you here. Give me Harbor Point, or I’ll be forced to take it.”
The phone call cuts off, and I slam my fist into the door.
Someone is gunning for us, and if they’re telling the truth and they did everything they listed, they’re fucking cunning.
And whoever they are, they don’t want us to know because they used a voice distorter, which means it could literally be anyone.
“They’ve stopped at the port,” Scotty says.
“We have men working there,” I point out, dialing Francis’s number—he’s the nighttime port manager.
“Sir, I was just about to call you,” he says. “The electricity went out, and the backup generator isn’t working. I don’t know what’s going on. I just did a check a couple of weeks ago.”
I shake my head because I know exactly what’s going on.
“I’ll be there soon. Stay where you are, and if you notice anything suspicious, don’t react.”
I don’t know what this person is capable of, and while the men at the port are damn good workers, I’m not about to put Dani’s life in their hands.
I text my brother to let him know shit’s going down and I’ll explain once I can, but not to do anything unless I give him the green light.
We pull up to the port, and since the electricity is out, it’s pitch-black. The fence is partially opened, either from someone manually opening it or it was in the middle of opening or closing when the electricity went out.
“She’s somewhere near the warehouse,” I say as Scotty pulls up to the side and parks. “The priority is Dani.”
While I’d like to catch whoever the fuck is doing this, my main goal is to get Dani back alive.
I glance at Lucian, hating that he’s part of this, but glad he got in the SUV with me so I know he’s safe from whatever is going down at The Underground.
“Stay here.”
I love the man like the father I never had, and I’m not risking his life.
“Matteo …” he hisses, but I shake my head, refusing to let him finish his thought.
He wants to help me get my woman back. And I appreciate that more than he’ll ever know. But while he’s one of the best fighters I’ve ever faced, I’ve never even seen him hold a gun. And I don’t need to be looking out for him while my focus needs to be on getting Dani back.
Scotty leaves the vehicle running, and we get out quietly, going in separate directions since we have no idea what to expect. My men have been trained for shit like this, but every time, it’s something different, and you can’t predict what’s going to happen.
The pathway is dark, but I don’t use my flashlight, not wanting to tip anyone off.
I follow it around until I’m standing near the blinking dot, and it hits me—what if she’s not with her phone?
The thought causes my heart to lurch in my chest, but I push it aside.
She has to be here. And if she’s not, I’ll find her, wherever she is.
I’ll burn down this entire fucking city until I find her.
And then I’m never fucking letting her out of my sight again.
I stop and look around, trying to figure out where the hell she could be. And then my eyes land on the rows of cargo containers.
The sound of one of the doors closing reverberates through the otherwise quiet night, and my gaze meets Abram, another one of my men. We nod in understanding and then run toward where the sound came from.
My other guys must’ve heard it as well because I can see a couple of them closing in on the container. It’s hard to see shit, but a gun going off pierces the quiet.
I rush over, hoping like hell this is the right one.
With my hand on the lock, I’m ready to open it, praying this isn’t a setup, when Ian calls out, “Boss.”
I glance at him in confusion and then remember he has her location so he must’ve followed it the same way I did.
“Let me,” he says. “She was my responsibility.”
Before I can argue, he pulls the lever up and swings the door open. We all point our guns, ready to shoot, only we’re met with silence.
I click the flashlight on my phone and there, sitting in the middle of the container, is none other than Dani. She’s tied to a chair, her mouth gagged, her eyes wide in fear.
I rush over to her while my men stand guard, making sure we’re protected.
“Fuck, baby,” I choke out when I notice she’s sporting a bloody lip.
I pull the rag out of her mouth, and she releases a sob of relief.
Using my pocketknife, I cut off the rope to release her hands and then feet, and then I lift her into my arms, hugging her tightly and inhaling her sweet scent. She recently switched to her own body wash, and while I miss my scent on her, the smell of vanilla and Dani is just as addictive.
“Are you okay?” I murmur.
“Yes,” she cries. “They didn’t do anything to me.”
I pull back and run my thumb across her bloody lip.
“Well, she punched me once,” she says, “knocking me out, but that was it.”
Wait … did she just say …
“She?”
“I couldn’t see her, and she was dressed like the rest of them—in all black and combat boots with a black ski mask—but something about the way she held herself … I don’t know. She just felt like a woman.”
Interesting …
“Let’s get you out of here,” I tell her, carrying her out of the container.