Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Ifelt naked, riding my bike without my cut. But I’d give up everything for Merci. After riding to my favorite spot to sit in silence, all I wanted was to see my girl. The road blurred past on my way to the hospital.
I strode through the automatic doors and shot her a text, settling into one of the uncomfortable waiting-room chairs.
“Hurt yourself again?” a voice lilted from behind me.
I stood and hugged the woman wearing scrubs. “Nurse Lily, it’s good to see you. And no, I’m fine. Just waiting on Merci.”
Lily furrowed her brows. “She didn’t show up today.”
I crossed my arms. “The fuck you mean, she didn’t show up? It’s six. Her shift started two hours ago.”
Lily shrugged. “Dr. Patel tried to call her, but she didn’t answer. She never clocked in.”
I stormed to the door and looked into the parking lot. “That’s her truck,” I said, pointing. “She’s here.” I dialed her number, and it jumped straight to voicemail.
I charged through the automatic doors and jogged across the lot. The shattered screen of her phone shimmered against the asphalt.
I swore as I tugged my phone from the pocket of my jeans and called Merrick.
It rang three times before it went straight to voicemail.
“Motherfucker, answer your goddamn phone,” I muttered.
I called him again, and it rang once before the robotic voice directed me to leave a message. My fingers shook as I shot off a text.
Me: Merci’s missing. Answer your fucking phone.
I called again, and this time he picked up.
“The fuck you mean she’s missing?” he bellowed.
“They’re saying she never showed up to work,” I said, a panicked edge lacing my tone. “Her truck’s here, but her phone was on the ground. Smashed.”
“See if security caught anything on camera. I’ll have Linc check, too.” Merrick ended the call without uttering a goodbye.
I ran back into the waiting room and shoved a patient aside who was speaking to the receptionist. “I need to talk to your security team. Now.”
The receptionist glared at me. “Sir, you need to wait your turn. Please sit down until I call you.”
“You don’t fucking understand,” I said, my voice an octave higher. “Dr. Morris is missing. Get me your fucking head of security. Now.”
The receptionist glanced at the person standing behind me, and I turned. The warm doctor I knew to be Merci’s boss stood with her arms crossed. “Can I help you?”
“Merci’s missing. Her truck’s here, and I found this.” I held up the smashed phone. “You have cameras on the parking lot, yeah?”
Dr. Patel released a hard breath. “I knew she wouldn’t just bail on work without calling in. Follow me.”
I trailed behind the doctor as she led me to a small office. The young security guard looked up from the game he was playing on his phone. Dr. Patel quickly explained the situation.
“When did she get here?” the guard asked.
“Her shift started at four. Her truck is at the back of the lot.”
The guard clicked around in a few files before widening the recording on the screen. He backtracked until we saw Merci’s truck park. He pressed play, and silence fell across the room as we watched a man approach Merci from behind.
“It’s Dr. Rossi,” the guard said. “Nothing to worry about. They’re a couple.”
“I can assure you they’re not,” I growled.
My fists tightened as I watched the video. Luca lifted her slack body and carried her to his car. He set her in the backseat, looked around for any witnesses, and drove away. I was already storming from the room, calling Merrick, before the guard closed the clip. He answered on the first ring.
“Luca has Merci. He drugged her.” I rattled off the make and model of the car he drove, along with the plate. “We need to find her.” My voice cracked.
“We will,” Merrick assured me. “Get back here. Linc’s working on it.”
I drove like a bat out of hell to the clubhouse. Linc sat at the bar with his laptop open.
“I doubt anyone’s there, but Coast and Reaper are searching his house right now,” Merrick explained moments after I burst in.
I nodded, not sure what to say without voicing my concern that Luca would kill the woman I loved.
Thane’s meaty hand hit my shoulder. “Where’s your cut?”
My eyes flicked to Merrick’s. “You didn’t tell him?”
Merrick shrugged. “Not yet. Told Reaper.”
“Tell me what?” Thane’s gravely growl bounced off the walls in the nearly empty clubhouse.
“I’m with Merci,” I explained. “I know the rules. But I’m not giving her up. I love her. So, I gave up my cut.”
Thane shook his head. “Boy, I ought to let Merrick shoot you in the kneecaps right now.”
The president saw the world in black and white. I’d crossed a line, and I’d pay for it, if it were up to him.
“We’ll deal with that later,” Merrick gruffed. “Right now, all I care about is getting my sister back, safe and alive. And killing that motherfucker who thought he could kidnap her.”
I wouldn’t argue with Merrick out loud, but I’d be the one to end Luca. That much I knew.
“Find anything?” I asked Linc, tapping the bar beside him anxiously.
“Nothing yet.”
Fuse walked into the clubhouse, his expression grim. “Reaper called. I’m here to help.”
I paced in front of the bar, my mind slowly spiraling to a dark world without Merci. “We need to do something. Anything. He’s had her for a few hours already. We can’t just sit here and wait for something to happen. I can’t fucking lose her.”
Fuse stared at me, then shifted his eyes to Merrick and Thane with unspoken questions. Thane murmured something to Fuse, and his eyes widened.
“I told him he was playing with fire,” Fuse said under his breath.
The door flew open, and Reaper and Coast strode in, each carrying a laundry basket filled with papers.
“The bastard wasn’t at his townhouse, but we grabbed everything from his office. We’ll sort through it and see if we can figure out where he might be hiding her,” Coast explained.
We each grabbed a stack, setting aside anything with addresses or bank account information for Linc to investigate further. After an hour, the baskets were empty, and we were no closer to finding Merci.
I grabbed one and flung it across the room. “This is a waste of fucking time. He’s been escalating for weeks. I never should have listened to her when she said he’d stop. I should have killed that motherfucker when I had the chance.”
“Hey,” Merrick said, grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking them lightly. “Look at me. We’re going to find her. Merci needs you focused. Get your shit together and think. Did she talk about places they’d gone when they were together? Things Luca did? Anything?”
I sat and cradled my head in my palms. “I don’t know. Nothing I can remember.”
“Think harder.”
Linc leaned back from his computer. “Luca’s family has ties to the Mafia. How did we miss that?”
Thane tensed. “Fort Worth?”
Linc shook his head. “Manhattan.” He spun his computer around to show a grey-haired man with a wicked scar running down the length of his face. “His father is the don of Manhattan.”
“Fuck,” Merrick said, drawing out the word as he ran a hand down his face.
“I could call Fort Worth,” Reaper offered. “See if they’ve heard anything.”
Thane grimaced. “And start a war? If the Fort Worth family is loyal to New York, we’re fucked.”
“If they’re involved in taking Merci, then they’ve already started the war,” Fuse offered. “I say we put it to a vote. We get Merci back—even if the Mafia’s involved.”
Merrick nodded. “Seconded. All in favor?”
Ayes sounded around me, but I stayed silent. I wasn’t a Maverick anymore. I didn’t have a say, and I’d go to war even if they’d voted against it.
The next couple of hours were a blur. I oscillated between pacing a trench into the clubhouse floor and throwing random items across the room in a rage.
At one point, Kenna brought in food and all but forced me to eat a burrito that tasted like ash.
She hovered until I asked her to go stay with Jessa, knowing I wasn’t in any position to explain to my sister what was happening.
It was past eleven when Linc shouted across the bar. “I have something.”
We gathered around him as he spun his screen to face us. A copy of a passport reflected in our eyes. The photo was of Merci, but the name was different.
“Mia Rossi. Noted as Luca Rossi’s sister. He got her a fake passport, and it was registered on a manifest for Italy. And he has medical paperwork, basically saying she’s insane.”
Merrick swore. “He’s planning to smuggle her out of the country.”
“Where?” I asked, already heading for the door.
“Private jet out of Pearland,” Linc said.
“Hatchet, wait,” Merrick yelled. He stormed after me. “We need to make a plan. We need to gear up.”
I patted the Beretta holstered at my hip and the extra magazine in my pocket. “I have a plan. Step one, save my woman. Step two, shoot Luca in the fucking head.”
I peeled out of the driveway on my bike, the darkness swallowing me whole. The empty road allowed me to speed ahead, and I hoped I didn’t pass any cops on the way. Fuse and Reaper followed me to the airport, our snarling engines a symphony to my ears.
Merrick and Coast would be close behind after they’d hashed out some kind of operation with militaristic precision. I didn’t need that. Save Merci at any cost. That was it. That was the whole fucking plan.
We rolled into the small airport, where rich assholes stored their midlife crises. We had our weapons drawn before our kickstands hit the tarmac, parking beside a hangar that gave us a clean line of sight to the one further down, where a sleek private jet was ready to take flight.
I recognized Luca’s car from the video. Smug. Expensive. Just like him.
Rage roared through my veins when a hand clamped around my shoulder.
“She’s here,” Reaper said quietly. “Let’s pause. We need a coordinated plan of attack.”
“He could be killing her right now,” I growled, shrugging off his grip. My trigger finger twitched.