Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Matteo
I take the stairs two at a time, my hand gripping the banister. I need to check on her, need to see for myself that she's still safe in that room where I left her.
My bedroom door is standing open when I reach the top of the stairs.
The sight stops me cold for a heartbeat before my legs start moving again, faster now because that door should be closed and locked.
I told Romeo to keep it that way until I came back personally.
My shoes hit the marble floor and the sound echoes too loud in the quiet hallway as I run toward the opening.
"Alessia?" I push through the doorway and my eyes sweep the room in seconds, taking in the rumpled bed where she was sitting earlier. Everything looks exactly as it should except for the one thing that matters. "Alessia!"
She's not here.
I check the bathroom even though instinct already tells me it's pointless. The light is off and the towels hang neatly on their racks. There's no steam on the mirror or any sign someone's been in here recently.
My chest tightens as I turn back to the bedroom, trying to make sense of what I'm seeing because this doesn't add up with the orders I gave Romeo this morning.
My phone is out and I'm dialing Romeo's number before I finish the thought. It rings three times and goes to voicemail. I try again because maybe the signal dropped or his phone glitched, but I get the same result and now my heart is pounding hard enough that I can feel it in my throat.
Romeo doesn't let his phone die on duty. He knows better than that, knows being unreachable when you're guarding something important is unacceptable in my organization and will get him killed.
I try Marco next and get the same result—straight to voicemail, no ringing, just the automated message telling me the number I'm trying to reach is unavailable.
Both phones dead at the same time, both guards missing along with Alessia, and the sick feeling in my gut is getting worse with every second that passes.
A younger guard—Antonio—rounds the corner and stops short when he sees me, his eyes going wide like he knows something's very wrong and he's about to be in the middle of it.
"Don Romano, I was just coming to find you—"
"Where is she?" I cut him off because I don't have time for explanations or excuses, I need to know where Alessia is and I need to know right now. "Where's Alessia?"
His throat works as he swallows, and I can see sweat beading at his temples even though the hallway isn't warm. "She had breakfast with Signorina Isabella in the sitting room this morning, but—"
The sitting room. She was in the sitting room having breakfast when I specifically told Romeo and Marco that she was not to leave this bedroom, that she was to stay here where I could control who had access to her and what they might do.
"I told Romeo she was not to leave this room." My voice comes out dangerously quiet, and the guard takes a step back. "I gave explicit orders that she was to stay here until I personally came to get her. So why was she having breakfast in the sitting room?"
"I don't know, sir. I wasn't on this detail, I was stationed downstairs and I only came up because—"
"Where is she now?" I step closer to him, and he backs up until his shoulders hit the wall behind him with a soft thump. "Where's Alessia, where's Romeo, and where the fuck is Marco?"
"That's what I was coming to tell you." His voice shakes slightly, and I can smell the fear on him mixed with the standard-issue cologne all my guards seem to wear.
"They're gone. All three of them. Signorina Isabella came back from her phone call and found the sitting room empty except for the breakfast dishes, and when she asked the guards downstairs where everyone went, nobody knew.
We've been searching the estate for the past twenty minutes but there's no sign of any of them. Signorina Isabella is panicking."
I don’t waste another second. I’m already moving through the hallways, my mind racing through possibilities and scenarios, trying to figure out how this happened under my own roof with my own men supposedly protecting her.
The sitting room is on the second floor with windows overlooking the garden, and I can smell coffee and pastries before we even reach the doorway. The guard gestures inside without entering himself, probably smart enough to know I want space to process whatever I'm about to find.
The breakfast setup is still there on the small table by the windows but there’s nothing here to help me find Alessia.
Romeo and Marco were supposed to be guarding her.
They were supposed to keep her in the bedroom where she'd be safe, where I could control access and make sure nothing like this happened.
Instead, they let her go to breakfast, probably walked her down here themselves, and then disappeared along with her.
Which means at least one of them might be involved and I'd bet every fucking thing I own that it's Marco.
A white envelope sits propped against the coffee pot, and I grab it because I know what this is before I even tear it open. The paper is expensive and my name is written across the front in handwriting I don't recognize.
I rip it open and pull out the single sheet inside:
Don Romano,
I believe we have something to discuss regarding your recent acquisition.
I'm sure you've noticed by now that your new bride is no longer enjoying your hospitality.
She's currently enjoying mine instead, and I assure you she's being treated with all the care appropriate to a member of the Moretti family.
If you want to see her again, you'll come alone to the address below. No weapons, no backup, no clever plans. Just you, me, and a conversation between reasonable men about how we resolve this situation.
You have until midnight. After that, I can't guarantee Alessia's continued good health.
—Don Emilio Moretti
P.S. Don't bother trying to trace her location through your usual methods. By the time you figure out where she is, it will be far too late.
The address is written at the bottom—some warehouse in the industrial district, probably chosen specifically because it's isolated.
He wants me alone and unarmed, which means he's planning to kill me the second I walk through whatever door he's chosen for this meeting. But none of that matters because he has Alessia, and I'm going to get her back regardless of what it costs me.
My phone is already in my hand, and I'm dialing Enzo because I need my Brotherhood here now.
"Matteo?" He answers on the first ring.
"Get to the estate immediately. Bring Luca, Rafael, and Dante. Alessia's been taken."
"We're ten minutes out." I can hear him relaying orders to whoever's nearby, voices overlapping in the background. "Don't do anything until we get there."
My phone buzzes with a message from an unknown number, and my thumb hovers over it for a second because I know this is going to be bad. I know that Emilio wouldn't send me something unless it was meant to hurt. But I open it anyway because I need to see what he's done to her.
The image shows Alessia sitting in a chair with her wrists bound to the armrests.
Her head is down like she's either unconscious or too drugged to hold it up properly, and there's a bruise forming on her cheekbone that makes rage flood through me so hot and immediate I have to grip the phone tighter to keep from throwing it against the wall.
Below the photo, a message: Tick tock, Don Romano. The clock is running, and your bride is getting tired of waiting.
Footsteps echo in the hallway, multiple sets moving fast, and my Brotherhood pours into the sitting room looking alert and ready for violence.
Enzo's eyes go immediately to the letter still clutched in my hand, and Luca scans the room like he's looking for threats even though the danger has already come and gone.
"Tell us what happened," Luca says, and I can hear the control he's forcing into his voice, the way he's trying to stay calm when I know he wants to start breaking things.
“Moretti has Alessia, she’s been taken.”
"Her guards?" Rafael asks, and I can see his hand moving toward where his gun usually sits even though he's not armed right now.
"Both guards are gone, both phones are dead, and I'm betting that son of a bitch Marco is the traitor we've been looking for." My jaw clenches so hard I can feel my teeth grinding together.
Enzo finishes reading the letter and looks up at me with an expression I've only seen a handful of times in all the years we've worked together. "He wants you alone and unarmed. This is a trap, Matteo.”
"I know," I say, and my voice comes out steadier than I expected when everything inside me is screaming to get in a car and drive to that warehouse right now. "But he has Alessia, which means I don't have a choice. I'm going."
"Like hell you're going in there alone," Luca says, and he steps forward with his hands clenched into fists like he's ready to physically stop me if I try to leave without them. "We're not letting you walk into a death trap just because some Moretti bastard wrote you a threatening letter."
"So we go in smart," Enzo says, and I can see his mind already working through possibilities, angles we can exploit. "You walk in the front door alone like he wants, and we position ourselves around the perimeter. The second anything goes wrong, we breach and extract you both."
"And if he has snipers watching the building?
If he's got men positioned specifically to watch for backup?
" I shake my head because I've already thought through all of this, already played out every scenario where we try to be clever and it gets Alessia killed.
"He's not stupid, Enzo. He knows how we operate.
He'll be watching for exactly that kind of play. "
"Then what's your plan?" Rafael asks, and there's frustration in his voice because he's the kind of man who solves problems by hitting them until they stop being problems. "Just walk in there and hope he doesn't shoot you on sight?"
"My plan is to do whatever the fuck it takes to get Alessia out alive.
" The words come out hard and final, and I can see from their faces that they understand I mean it, that I'm willing to trade my life for hers if that's what it comes down to.
"If that means walking into Emilio's trap unarmed and alone, then that's what I'm doing. "
"You know this is exactly what he wants," Dante says quietly. "He's counting on you being emotional about Alessia, counting on you doing something reckless because you care about her. The second you walk through that warehouse door, you're giving him everything he needs to end you."
"I know." I meet his gaze without flinching, and I watch understanding dawn in his expression. "But I'm going anyway."