Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
“What happened?” he asks quietly with sudden, chilling coldness. He looks at Xavier. “I thought I told you to supervise that buy.”
Xavier shakes his head. “There was an issue at the hotel last night. I stayed back to deal with it and sent Lance instead. You’re always telling me to delegate,” Xavier replies, his chin set stubbornly.
“What happened?” Mario asks as Gregor wrings his hands together in agitation.
“The FBI was there. Everyone was arrested, and the drugs were confiscated,” Gregor tells him. I can hear the stress in his voice, and it takes everything in me to keep my expression blank.
Mario’s face turns an alarming shade of red, his hands clenching into fists on top of the table. “What? Fuck! How?” he explodes, jumping to his feet.
Gregor shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know. Lance escaped with a bullet wound in his leg. He turned up at your place, bleeding on the front porch and muttering about a rat.”
Mario’s eyes narrow, and he turns to look at me. “Do you have anything to do with this?”
I hold my hands up in front of my body in defense. “How? I haven’t been out of your sight since the funeral. Also, why would I be dealing with the FBI?”
“Show him your phone,” he demands, waving at Colton. “I want to know if she had any incoming or outgoing messages to anyone. If you have, I won’t hesitate to take my anger out on your father.”
I swallow my anger and pull the phone out of my pocket, sliding it across the table to Colton. “I have nothing to hide. I don’t deal with the feds. I would be stupid to,” I tell him stubbornly, making sure he sees anger in my eyes at the accusations.
It’s obvious he doesn’t believe me as he starts pacing back and forth across the dining room. “So we have no drugs. Did Lance at least escape with the cash?” He turns his attention back to Gregor, who shakes his head.
“No, he was lucky to escape with his life.”
“Fuck!” Mario screams, picking up a vase of irises on the sideboard with the coffee and hurling it at the wall. The sound of shattering glass is loud in the tense atmosphere as water and flowers scatter across the floor. “Fucking fuck!”
I smother the scoff of amusement that bubbles up. So eloquent.
“It’s clean,” Colton tells Mario before holding the phone out for me, but Mario shakes his head.
“No. She doesn’t get a phone.”
I open my mouth to argue, but another goon hurries into the dining room.
I recognize him as someone I’ve seen with Mario before, but I don’t know his name.
Vienna suddenly sits up straight, her eyes shining with anxiety as the man leans in and whispers something in Mario’s ear.
I thought Mario looked angry before, but his reaction to that news is even more extreme.
His mouth drops open in shock, and his skin turns pale.
He mutters something to the man, and he shakes his head.
Color returns rapidly to Mario’s face, and he’s so red, he’s almost purple.
I wonder if he’s going to have a heart attack on the spot.
“Fuck!” This time, he whirls around and picks up the chair he was sitting in and hurls it against the wall.
The resounding sound is jarring, and Vienna jumps in her chair, putting her hand over her mouth as tears well in her eyes.
“What happened?” Xavier asks, jumping to his feet as Colton puts an arm around Vienna’s shoulders, giving her comfort. Tristan has become alarmingly pale.
Mario scrubs a hand through his thinning hair, his shoulders sagging ever so slightly as he faces them.
“The apartment that the nanny and Addison were living in burned down.” There is a small sliver of sympathy in his eyes. “It looks like it might be retaliation from the cartel. The bodies were all missing their hands.”
Vienna screams and shakes her head. “No, not my baby.”
Tristan lets out a shattering wail. “No!” Colton shakes his head, unable to compute the information, but Xavier is silent, and he looks at me with narrowed eyes before turning his attention to Mario.
“Was Addi’s body there?” he asks, and Mario bites his lip before shaking his head.
“No. It looks like she may have been taken by the cartel.”
Xavier exhales with relief, and I know he’s on to me, but he quickly hides it. “We have to get her back,” he says, and Mario shrugs.
“I’m not really sure how. They will see the raid last night as a betrayal and blame us. They will claim Addison as compensation.” Mario waves a hand like it’s none of his concern and starts pacing again. “Hopefully that will appease them for now.”
I blink, unable to comprehend the sheer depravity this man is capable of. I knew he was bad, but to not even care that a four-year-old has been taken by the cartel to be used is an all-time low.
“No, no!” Vienna wails, but he ignores her.
“You aren’t going to do anything?” I hear the shock in Tristan’s tone.
“I have more important things to worry about now. Our drug supply is dreadfully low. I need to increase production so we can flood the streets with our product. I need a steady supply of cash.” He turns a calculating look on me.
“You said with the help of your father and Carla, I could have my biometrics programmed into the Russo network.”
My heart starts to race, and I have to block out the sheer despair coming from the other three to concentrate. This is what we needed, and I am not going to fail now.
“Yes,” I reply hesitantly, not wanting to seem too eager. “With both of them, it could be possible.”
“Gregor, get them here,” Mario orders, and Gregor frowns.
“Is that a good idea? The Russo network went into hiding. We haven’t been able to root them out yet. By bringing Stefano here, we are giving them a chance to rescue him.”
“They don’t know he’s alive,” Xavier points out, and the other three just stare at him in shock, like they can’t believe he isn’t upset about Addi.
Comprehension suddenly dawns on Colton’s face, and he whispers something in Vienna’s ear.
Her head shoots up, and she glares at me, but I don’t acknowledge it, because Mario’s attention is on me.
Tristan’s face is blank, like he’s shut down completely.
I hope they will all forgive me for not warning them, but it isn’t like I’ve really had a chance to.
Fucking secrets. I hope this one doesn’t mess everything up again.
“The cook and butler do, and we can’t find them anywhere,” Gregor argues, and Mario scoffs.
“Please, the domestic help is hardly going to be a problem. They probably escaped back to Europe on the first flight out.” He chuckles darkly. “No loyalty shown there at all.” He smirks at me, and I grit my teeth, stopping myself from replying to the dig.
Thank goodness he has no idea that they are not just domestic help, but integral cogs in the Russo machine.
“Get them here today,” he tells Gregor and the goon who still stands by the doorway.
Fuck, I need them to wait a couple more days to retrieve them.
I can’t have them returning my father and aunt to wherever they’ve been stashed before the wedding.
Before I can come up with some kind of excuse, Gregor shakes his head.
“We can’t. The FBI is going to have eyes on us for at least a few days, so we need to play it cool. We also need to bail out the rest of our crew before they can start pressuring them for information. That needs to be a priority.”
“And don’t forget my wedding rehearsal dinner tomorrow night,” Stacey chimes in.
She’s been looking entirely too pleased with how upset everyone is.
“At least we don’t have to worry about the stupid kid anymore.
We will soon have a blood Maricuso baby to be your heir, and I’m sure it will be a boy.
” I don’t know what Stacey’s smoking, but she’s fucking delusional as she puts her hand on Tristan’s arm.
He doesn’t even shrug it off, like he’s completely checked out. Fuck.
Mario growls. “Fine, get the lawyers on it, but I want them here by Tuesday at the latest,” he orders Gregor, who nods, looking slightly relieved.
That gives us two days to get a plan in motion.
I can’t hold off on sharing everything with the others, but we need a safe place we can talk.
Actually, maybe I have an even better idea.
“I think I can probably help you with your drug issue too,” I say, feigning reluctance, and Mario’s eyebrows shoot up and his eyes shine with interest.
“I remembered we have a warehouse a few hours north. If you allow me to use the helicopter, I can show the boys where it is and organize for it to be transported.”
He narrows his eyes. “Why can’t you just tell them where it is?”
“I could, but they will still need my biometrics to get into the warehouse. We haven’t been able to program yours in yet,” I point out, relieved that is the case.
Mario frowns and grunts. “Fine, go. Take an inventory and let me know how many trucks to send,” he orders Xavier, who nods. “And for God’s sake, shut up, girl. You’re giving me a headache,” he screams at Vienna, who still sobs loudly.
“Can we take her with us today? It might help distract her from her loss,” Colton asks flatly, and this finally gets a reaction from Tristan.
“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” He pushes his chair back violently, and it tumbles over. “It’s like neither of you care that our daughter has been taken. Instead of all this bullshit, we should be figuring out how to get her back,” he screams, gesturing wildly.
“Enough!” Mario shouts and slams his hands down on the table. “That is enough. The girl is gone. There is nothing to be done about it now. I can’t go up against the cartel while I’m in the middle of taking over the Russo empire. I don’t have the manpower.”
Tristan’s mouth twists in an ugly grimace. “Well, I guess you have nothing to hold over us now. I’m not doing any of your dirty work anymore.” He turns his back on Mario and walks away.