Chapter 29 #2
“Wait, my phone,” she says, nodding back toward the chair.
I was too focused on her that I didn’t notice it was left right under her fucking chair.
Scotty grabs it, and we take off. Since the SUV is full, Dani and I ride with Ian back to our place while the other guys stay to try and gather any info they can.
When Bosco texts, letting me know they caught two of the guys running off—one was shot and killed, but the other is still alive, barely—I tell him to keep him alive until I can get there to question him and then let Ian know there’s been a change of plans.
“We’re going to your brother’s?” Dani asks, snuggled into my side.
“Yeah, they caught one of the guys, and I need to question him before he bleeds out. And I’m not ready to leave you alone yet. I know you’ll be safe at my brother’s.”
She nods in understanding and snuggles closer to me.
She’s quiet for a few minutes, and I assume she fell asleep, until she mutters, “I’m sorry, Ian.”
His eyes meet mine, his brows furrowed in confusion. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Daniella. I’m sorry for not protecting you.”
“It was my fault,” she says with a sniffle. “I walked out of the bathroom and—”
“It’s nobody’s fault.” I kiss the top of her head. “Whoever did this knew what they were doing. They came there with the intent to take you to send a message. But until we figure this out, you can’t go anywhere alone, and I’m adding another guard.”
She nods against my chest.
When we get to Dominick’s house, Peyton and Bri run over to Dani to hug her, asking if she’s okay.
Then, Lorenzo pulls her into his arms. “Dani,” he chokes out. “Fuck, this isn’t what Dad wanted for you. If you want to leave …”
I clench my fists at my sides, wanting to punch him in the face for even mentioning the idea of her leaving, but I stay where I am because if she wanted to go, I wouldn’t blame her, and as much as it would fucking suck, I wouldn’t stop her.
She pulls back and looks at Lorenzo for several seconds before her sad eyes meet mine.
And my stomach sinks. I’m afraid she’s going to tell us that she wants to leave—but not because she’ll be leaving me …
but because the thought of living without her is unfathomable.
If she says she wants to leave, I’ll go with her.
“No.” She shakes her head, coming over to my side and sliding her arms around my waist. “I don’t want to go anywhere. Everyone I care about is right here.”
“C’mon,” Peyton says to her. “Let’s get you cleaned up. The guys have stuff to take care of, so I think a girls’ night is in order.”
Dani glances up at me, silently asking me if it’s okay for her to go, and I nod once before I capture her mouth with mine for a quick kiss, needing to taste her.
When the girls are gone, Lorenzo drops onto the couch and sighs. “This whole thing is fucked.”
“Yeah,” I agree, still standing because I have too much aggression built up to sit.
Not only did I not fight tonight, but there’s a piece of shit waiting for me to grill and torture at the warehouse.
“You’re going to stay here with the girls?” I confirm.
Dominick had to go back to The Underground to deal with the police after dropping Peyton and Bri off at home and making sure Bri’s new boyfriend got home safely.
Since Dominick owns the warehouse, he’s responsible for everything that went down tonight.
Thankfully, the cameras show the gunmen coming in and going off, so we won’t be held responsible for what happened, but it still doesn’t look good.
The spectators came to The Underground to have a good time, expecting to be protected while under our roof, and instead, many of them were injured or lost their lives.
We need to figure out who the fuck is gunning for us—and soon.
“Yeah,” Lorenzo says. “I know the guards are here, but …”
“I appreciate it,” I tell him. “And I’m sure it will make Dani feel better to know you’re here as well.”
I’m about to head out when Dominick walks through the door, looking exhausted.
“How bad was it?” I ask.
“Surprisingly, not bad,” he says. “Most of the deaths were the gunmen. It’s almost as if they didn’t want to kill anyone.”
“The same way they kept Dani alive.” I nod thoughtfully. “They wanted to send a message.”
Dominick looks at me in confusion, and I tell him and Lorenzo about the call and warning.
“This shit is personal,” Dominick says with a tic of his jaw.
“Dani thinks it’s a woman,” I tell them.
Dominick whips his head around to look at me in shock. “A fucking woman?”
“Dani said the way she held herself, it felt like she was a woman. But she was under duress, so who knows?”
“Fuck,” Dominick hisses. “At this point, we can’t rule anyone out.”
“What about Hillary?” Lorenzo asks.
“Nah.” I shake my head. “She’s not smart enough to pull all this off.”
“We should still look into it,” Lorenzo insists. “She’s conniving enough, and she has it out for you guys.”
I nod in agreement, but don’t mention that I’ve had my guy check on Hillary to ensure she stays the fuck away from my best friend. She’s living in Georgia, working part-time as a waitress at some shitty breakfast joint while working her slutty body at night, trying to find her next sugar daddy.
“I think we should question the mayor again,” I tell Dominick. “He’s been linked to Anthony and Enrique.”
“You think he’s capable of all this?” Dominick questions.
“No,” I say honestly. “But if whoever did all this was working with Enrique and Anthony, there’s a chance that they’re also working with the mayor, and since he’s the only one alive, it can’t hurt to question him.”
“Where are the girls?” Dominick asks.
“Upstairs, having a girls’ night,” Lorenzo tells him.
“And Daniella?” he asks, looking at me.
“She’s okay.”
He nods. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
While Dominick drives us to the warehouse, Eddy’s on the phone, catching us up on what he found out regarding the guy we were able to catch.
The ones who died at The Underground will eventually be made public, and then Eddy can find out about them, but until then, this guy is our only link to the person who’s gunning for us.
When we walk into the warehouse, sitting in the metal chair, the same way Dani was, is one of the men who helped take Dani from The Underground.
According to Eddy, his name is Ross Ryker. He’s in his early twenties, and he has a girlfriend and baby at home. He resides in South Harbor Point and has been through a dozen jobs—he can’t seem to keep one because he’s a drug addict who refuses to get clean.
“Look,” he says the second he sees us walk in, his eyes wide with fear, telling me he knows exactly who we are.
“I didn’t know what the assignment was. A friend of mine had told me that a job became available.
It was supposed to be quick, easy cash. Get the girl and bring her to the port. If I had known it was your girl—”
Without letting him finish his sentence, I punch him in the face. The chair flies back, and he knocks his head on the concrete.
“It doesn’t fucking matter whose girl it is,” I bark, lifting the chair back up. “You took a job that involved kidnapping an innocent woman.”
I punch him again, this time in the stomach, and he gags and then throws up all over the ground.
“Please,” he begs. “I fucked up, but I needed the money.”
“Yeah, so you could buy some more drugs instead of taking care of your girlfriend and baby. I know.”
I grab him by his hair and yank his head back. “Who hired you?”
“I don’t know. I swear, I don’t know.”
“The person who was talking to the woman you had bound up—was it a man or a woman?”
He shakes his head. “I never saw him. I’m assuming a man, but he was dressed in all black with a ski mask on his face. His voice was fucked up, like a robot or some shit.”
“How did you get paid?”
“I haven’t,” he cries. “I was supposed to get it once we left, but you showed up quicker than we’d thought, and he told us he’d be in touch.”
“How?”
“Through my friend Steve. He’s the one who got me the job before—”
He clamps his mouth shut, but it’s too late.
I pull my gun out and raise it to his head, just between his eyes. “What job before? And before you think about lying, I’ll know, and I’ll kill you.”
Usually, bullshit threats like this wouldn’t work with someone who is used to them, but this guy is an amateur, pulled off the streets.
Whoever hired Ross didn’t care if he got caught because he doesn’t know anything.
He—or she—needed a job done and knew he could find desperate guys on the streets of South Harbor Point, and if they died, it’d be no skin off his back.
“The fire last year,” he admits. “He hired us to set the warehouse at the port on fire. Said it was to cause a distraction.”
I glance at Dominick, and his jaw clenches.
He obviously remembers the purpose of last year’s fire—to take us to the other side of town while Anthony was kidnapping Damien.
Which means Anthony wasn’t working alone, and it wasn’t with Enrique because whoever Anthony was working with is still very much alive.
“What else?” I ask, clicking the safety off so he knows my intent.
“Nothing, I swear. A friend of mine was hired by him to fuck up some businesses, but I had no part in that.”
I consider sparing this guy’s life, not wanting unnecessary bloodshed, but the thought of him taking my woman, scaring her and tying her up, has me putting a bullet in his skull.
He did two jobs for this guy, and with him being broke and an addict, there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t take another job.
“You got his phone?” I ask Bosco.
“Yeah.” He hands it over to me.
“Thanks. Call for a cleanup.”
I tap on his phone, but it has a password. I’ll have to get Eddy to crack it open.
Dominick and I walk out, and once we’re in the car, he says, “Whoever this is, they aren’t going to stop until they get what they came for.”
“They want Harbor Point.” I glance at him. “You willing to give it up?”
He swallows thickly and then shakes his head. “We’re in too deep. We can’t just walk away. They know this. I don’t believe they want Harbor Point.” He locks eyes with me. “I think they want a war.”