Chapter 78
LUCA
My cell phone buzzed across my desk, lighting up with Aiden Wellington’s name. With an annoyed groan, I tapped the button to send him to voicemail. Our newly minted Knight only called to complain about an issue with a job, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his shit.
I thought we had broken him over the past nine months. When I’d admitted him into our organization, after enduring the nine circles of Hell during his Initiation, I had expected him to stop being a thorn in my side.
No such luck.
He left a voicemail, then called again, grating on my last fucking nerve.
What the fuck does he want?
I opened my desk drawer and dropped the phone inside. The phone vibrated again. His insistence piqued my interest, but I had more important business to deal with—like saving his sister’s life.
I leaned back in my chair, resting my dress shoe on my knee as the vein in my neck pulsed. The men on the other line were grinding my ass into the pavement for one fucking favor. Now that everyone in the criminal underworld knew I had a weakness, those motherfuckers were out for blood.
Bastian and Damian sat in leather armchairs across from my desk, listening to the heads of each crime family offer suggestions about our issue with the Albanians. We were on a secure line that the FBI could not touch. I never made a habit of speaking over the phone, but these were desperate times.
“I will pay ten million dollars to whoever brings me the heads of the fucking Albanians,” I shouted into the speakerphone on my desk.
“Ten plus a free shipment, no questions asked,” Vince Alteri said sternly.
Vince was the boss of the Alteri crime family in New York. The Mafia Don had given me the best deal of the bunch. While everyone else was content with raking my ass over hot coals, I respected him for throwing me a bone.
“Done.” I loosened my tie, already feeling ten million dollars lighter. “As for the bounty on my fiancée’s head, I will pay triple to make it go away.”
Alex hadn’t accepted my proposal yet, but word had already spread that we were getting married. Money ruled my world, and my family had tons of it. A few million here and there meant nothing if it kept my girl safe.
“You know the rules, Luca,” Stefano Marchese said.
He was an old friend of my father who ran a small operation from his mansion on the Long Island Sound.
“The man who set the bounty has to lift it,” I growled. “Yes, I know. And if I could locate the motherfucker, I would force him to cancel the contract.”
“Let us handle the Albanians,” Vince Alteri said.
“I need assurances,” I countered.
“I will tell my men to ignore the bounty for Alexandrea,” Vince promised. “You have my word.”
I tapped my platinum and onyx serpent ring on the desk to steady my nerves. “Stefano?”
“Agreed.”
Three of the other four men on the phone muttered similar responses.
“The Basiles are in town,” Enzo Conte boomed. “I expect Arlo and our Sicilian friends to grace us with their presence this weekend.”
Enzo had influence and power over the men on the phone.
“All of my family will be there,” I told Enzo.
My father had insisted I handle this matter without his intervention. Not like I needed his help. But an old-school m afioso like Enzo would only speak to the head of the family, even though I was about to assume the position.
In my father’s eyes, my marriage to Alex was a step in the right direction. Finally, the plans he had laid out for me were falling into place. But until I held the title, men like Enzo would not consider me on the same level. And I needed his help.
“There’s one more matter of concern,” I told them. “We received a call from Conor O’Shea. Someone kidnapped his daughter Rhiannon after adding her to the Il Circo auction.”
Rhiannon O’Shea was the only daughter of an Irish Mob boss and Sonny’s cousin.
Marcello had a love-hate relationship with the girl and saw her occasionally.
Because of his friendship with Sonny and our relationship with the Irish, Marcello wouldn’t tell anyone about her.
I was the only person who knew about his side piece.
With all the shit we had going on, I hadn’t had the chance to tell Marcello about Rhiannon.
I wasn’t even sure if he would care. That bitch and her father had blackmailed my family for something Marcello had done in the past. Rhiannon could be the fuck toy of a sick motherfucker at the auction for all I cared.
She was my brother’s fuck buddy, but I could tell there was something more between them. Marcello hadn’t spoken to her after Alex returned to Devil’s Creek. That was how I knew he was falling for Alex. Besides Rhiannon, Alex was the only woman Marcello had kept around for more than a night.
“What do you want from us?” Vince asked.
“O’Shea is desperate to get his daughter back. This is an opportunity to force his hand with the CIRA.”
It was also a chance for my family to get revenge.
O’Shea was lucky we let him live this long.
And he would only continue to breathe until we bled him dry.
Conor O’Shea strong-armed my father into making deals that didn’t suit our interests, all because of what Marcello had done to save the ungrateful dickhead’s daughter.
It was time the Irish paid for their sins.
Enzo said, “Arrange for O’Shea to visit my home this weekend with Arlo.”
“I will let my father know.”
“I’ll have an update on the Albanians in the next twenty-four hours,” Vince said and hung up.
The other men hung up afterward, leaving me feeling like I was sitting there with my dick in my hand.
My mistakes were costing me a fortune. And if I didn’t find the men who wanted Alex in time, they would take something more valuable than my money.
Without Alex, I would become someone unrecognizable.
I would turn into the man my father had groomed me to become.
She was the only reason I hadn’t turned into a full-blown psychopath.
I struggled with rage and bloodlust every single day.
“That went well,” Damian deadpanned.
“I feel like I’ve just had a simultaneous root canal and colonoscopy.” I raked a hand through my hair. “Fuck, that was brutal. I will owe favors to the Five Families for the next decade.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Bastian said.
Some of our family’s power came from the help of our associates. I hated that we needed them to find the Albanians and whoever was vying for the bounty on Alex’s head. But none of our attempts to locate the bastards had proven successful.
A loud beep pierced through the silence. I glanced at the security monitors on the wall beside my desk, shaking my head at the sight of Aiden Wellington on my doorstep. Two guards gripped his shoulders with force. Determined to get inside, Aiden thrashed in their arms, desperate to break free.
“Find out what he wants,” I told my brothers.
Aiden banged on the front door as they rose from their chairs, screaming at the camera. I clicked the sound button on the remote.
“They took Alex!” Aiden slammed his fist into the door. “Open up, Salvatore!”
My jaw dropped at his words. A rush of heat shot down my arms, anger pumping through my veins.
What the fuck is he talking about?
Alex was one floor below me with Marcello. I never had a reason to doubt my brother. He’d always been trustworthy, but I had to see for myself.
I stood in front of the screens and found Alex’s bedroom.
A dim light cast a shadow across the room.
Marcello slept in the armchair by the window, slumping his head to the side.
Alex should have been in bed, working on a new Devil sketch.
But her bed was empty, the sketchpad on the comforter, the sheets untouched.
I hit the button on the wall. “Let him in,” I told the guards.
The men stepped to the side, opening the front door for Aiden, who gave them a nasty scowl. I flew past Damian and Bastian, down two flights of stairs to pry the story out of Aiden. My heart raced so fast I could hardly catch my breath. She had to be somewhere in this fucking house.
I stopped in front of the ballroom doors.
Out of breath, Aiden slumped against the wall, his blond curls all over the place. Sweat slid down his forehead and cheeks. He looked as if he’d run to my house.
“Where the fuck is she?”
“My sister,” Aiden choked out, shoving a hand through his sweaty hair. “She came to see me. I tried to explain. She ran into town and… A black van. Someone took her.”
A cold shiver crept down my back, burrowing deep in my bones. I grabbed Aiden by the collar of his shirt, his face inches from mine, my body trembling with fear. For the first time in years, I was afraid of something. If we couldn’t find the Albanians, how would we locate Alex?
“Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single fucking detail.”
I released Aiden and shoved him into the wall, where he crumbled like a laundry sack on the floor.
“Alex knocked on the door. We got into a fight. She said she never wanted to see any of us again. Then she took off down the street. I was so close…” He blew out a deep breath, holding his hand over his heart. “I almost had her. But they were faster.”
I moved my hands to my hips, glaring at him. “A black van? What kind?”
He blinked a few times, then rubbed his eyes. “Mercedes.”
I straightened my tie, attempting to still my nerves. “Did you see the men?”
“Dark hair, olive skin. The driver had a beard. I couldn’t see the men in the back. There were at least two of them. I only saw their arms. One had a tattoo.”
“What did it look like?”
“Black.” He sank his teeth into his lip as he thought it over. “I don’t know. It was dark. Everything happened so fast.”
“Was it a sleeve of skulls?”
He rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know, maybe.”
Cal Kurti was the oldest son of an Albanian crime boss. On his right forearm, he had a full-sleeve tattoo of a boneyard. It was the last thing I saw before waking up in my hotel room in Berat.