Chapter 28
Leo
There’s a pool of blood in the garage. Our two men are down. Single shot to the chest, entry point on the back, no exit wound in front, making me think it’s an exploding hollow point bullet that wreaked havoc to their insides, probably exploding their heart. They’d have been dead on impact. It’s the same story on the side deck, with just one body there.
At least the ones who did this were expedient. Yet, this confirms they came here with a clear purpose, an in and out grab mission. Seeing my son physically unharmed inside confirms to me that it’s a Mafia-style setup responsible for this, not some gangsters or cheap thugs. These don’t have any qualms about hurting children, whereas organized networks, if they follow just one code, it’s to never touch kids.
I rush to Hana the second I’m inside. There’s no need to pull Enzo to me because he comes into my arms willingly when he sees me enter. His little face burrows in my neck, and I clutch him tight to me, words of Italian whispering out of my lips into his ear. It doesn’t take more than a minute, I’d say, until his body grows heavy in my hold and he’s fallen asleep on my shoulder.
That’s good. He needs rest. Hopefully, by the time he wakes up, this nightmare will be over, and he might be led to forget this dark evening, to think it was all a bad dream.
I don’t want him to hear what we have to discuss, all the questions I have for Hana who is ensconced in her husband’s embrace. But when I try to unlock his arms from around my neck, I meet with strong resistance in his limbs. He’s not letting me go, even though he’s sleeping. I’m a safe space for him, and for a brief moment, this warms my heart.
All too soon, though, cold whittles its way back in. Bianca is gone. They—whoever they are—took her right under our noses, and our son was a witness to this abduction.
Hana’s crying and trying to speak at the same time. Something inside me wants to shake her so she’ll calm down and tell us what she knows. But a part of me is aware she wasn’t here when all this went down. If she had been, it’s her body we’d have come home to, her heart literally in shards like the men outside.
“Han?” Mattia’s saying. “Come on. I know you want to help us out, but you have to breathe first, okay?”
Thankfully, she nods, easing in a deep breath as she collects herself when he releases her.
“I called you as soon as I got here,” she says.
So a few minutes after five-thirty, then.
“Go on,” I urge her.
“It’s as you see. The men…Koji.” She chokes on a sob now, and Mattia pulls her in again.
“These were trained men,” Roberto Bonucci says from where he’s been sitting all this time. Mattia called him on the way, asking him to go be with Hana and Enzo. He looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, that it will be impossible for him to get back up on his feet.
“Hollow point bullets,” I say with a nod.
There’s a commotion at the door, then some men are filing into the house.
“Don Pellegrini,” Luigi says with his head bowed. “You alright?”
“Roosevelt Island was an ambush,” I tell him, and he swears.
“I should’ve checked the intel myself,” he adds.
In an ideal world, that’s what we’d have done. But I had no plans to see Bianca before seven today, which means there’s no way I could’ve been here to protect her. Had Mattia been home, he’d probably have been dead, too.
Thinking back to the lighthouse reminds me we have special cargo in the trunk of the car.
“Find Pano outside,” I tell Luigi. “We got the fucker who tried to get the drop on me.”
“On it, boss.” He’s directing his men on the way out, some assigned to cleanup, others coming with him to grab the prisoner.
“I’ll bet you it’s those fucking Albanians,” I tell Mattia. “They have Bianca.”
Roberto gasps. “But…why?”
I have no idea why Jasir Abrashi would want her now, and it’s driving me crazy, this not knowing. I’m like a caged bull with nowhere to go. The only thing keeping me grounded is the heavy weight of my son’s sleeping body in my arms.
“Bianca,” I whisper, closing my eyes as I imagine what she must be going through.
“I should’ve been home with her,” Hana says softly.
I open my eyes and stare at her. “You’d be dead, in that case.”
She pales, tears pooling in her eyes.
Her distress calls to something in me, and I soften a bit. “There’s been enough death tonight.”
On my side , I don’t add. Whoever’s responsible for taking Bianca won’t make it out alive when I get my hands on them. I’ll drag them down myself into the bowels of Hell.
Luigi pops in again.
“Boss? He won’t talk.”
“Make him,” I bite out.
He shrugs. “That’s just it. Says he knows nothing, was just given a thousand bucks to shiv you. Didn’t even know who you are, by the sound of things.”
Fuck! There’s nothing more I want than to pound the answers out of that little shit. But like what happened earlier today, I know it’s not the monster in my blood I need to feed. It’s the cold one’s rationality and cool head I need right now. And he reminds me it’s the Albanians I’m dealing with, the very ones we just wrangled a hard-won peace with. We can’t risk another war. I certainly can’t.
This will have to be played out in the field but on the terrain of diplomacy. There’s no way out of this. All the hard work I’ve done to make the Dons know not to cross me, it will be for nothing if I start a tiff with the ones we’re still warily eyeing as our enemy.
“Make sure he stays alive,” I tell Luigi. “I’m gonna need him.”
“Boss.” He nods and leaves.
I turn to Mattia, trying to disentangle Enzo from around my neck. He’s fast asleep now, and I manage to pry him away, cradling him in my arms as I hand him over to my best friend. But Mattia shakes his head.
“Keep him safe for me,” I say with a frown.
“You’re not going out without me. She’s my sister.”
An echo of the time we went after a man who we thought had hurt Bianca reverberates in my mind. Today, we’re on a similar mission, going to confront another Abrashi brother. How did I ever think he wouldn’t accompany me?
So I nod, my gaze then landing on Roberto. I don’t like the man one whit, but Enzo is also his grandson, sangre . He’ll be safe with him. I take the child to him and place him in his lap.
He lifts tear-clouded eyes to me as he gently clutches the boy to him. “Bring her home, Leo. I can’t lose her again.”
Neither can I. Soundlessly, I acquiesce.
“Do whatever you have to.”
His voice is hard this time, and I know what he means. Death will cross my path again very soon, but I have no plans for it to win against me.
Mattia’s squeezing Hana tight, then he releases her and comes up to me. I exchange a nod with her, then we’re on our way. Luigi’s men on cleanup duty will stay back, the others joining us as we set out.
“Dispatch a small crew to all the Albanian hubs in The Bronx,” I tell my enforcer. “Wait for my go-ahead to breach.”
“Boss.” He’s on the phone next, swiftly arranging for soldiers.
“What’s the plan?” Mattia asks.
I sneak in a breath, using it to tamp down the anger trying to fire my blood and take over. I can’t let it, though. I need to keep my wits about me right now. Bianca matters, as does the need to keep the peace.
“We’re going to see Daku,” I say.
“The head of the Albanian council?”
“Yes. He lives on the edge of Scarsdale and The Bronx. The package is for him.”
The little piece of shit we nabbed is back in the trunk. I want his people to know what I’m about to embark on is not an unprovoked assault.
I keep my piece and hold myself together for the thirty minutes’ drive it takes us to reach a modest house on the outside periphery of Scarsdale.
Mattia’s by my side as I alight, and duty and conventions bide I’m the one to knock on the door. This is a somewhat-social visit.
The man who opens is small in stature, with a hooked nose and kind eyes behind rimless glasses. They boggle a little when he sees me standing there.
“Don Pellegrini,” he says, a question as much as there’s awe in his tone. Or is that fear?
I incline my head in greeting. “Mr. Daku. My apologies for disrupting your evening.”
He swallows hard. “Anything I can do for you?”
“I’m sorry to bring business to your doorstep.”
He waves me off with a tight smile.
I point to the car, Luigi taking it as the sign to open the trunk.
“I have something of yours, I believe.”
Daku frowns. “Really? May I?”
“Be my guest,” I say, showing him the way with my hand.
His eyes grow wide when he encounters the trussed-up man in the space. He says something in Albanian, which none of us understands. Luigi’s hand is going to his back; I stay his movement to get his gun with a soft shake of my head.
Mattia removes the gag on the young man’s face, and the two Albanians confer in their mother tongue. Daku then turns to me.
“He is Albanian, but he is not one of ours.”
My eyes narrow on him. “This man tried to shiv me earlier, and that was a distraction so a group could abduct the mother of my child in the meantime. Your council has nothing to do with this?”
His hand goes to his heart. “I assure you we do not! In fact, we will help. How can we help?”
He sounds genuinely perplexed as well as outraged. No one wants to see the hard-earned peace we’ve brokered shattered again and this soon.
“I have men posted outside all the hangouts your mob frequents. They won’t hurt anyone, but they need to look,” I say.
“Go ahead. You have my permission.”
I’ve hardly turned to Luigi when he’s already on his phone, typing out the order to go in but not make waves.
“Don Pellegrini, I am deeply sorry and deeply ashamed of what is happening to you.” Daku hangs his head in shame. “May I offer you and your men coffee?”
“It would be an honor, Mr. Daku.”
There’s nothing I can do other than wait right now, and the last thing I want or need is to offend our host. I’ve already implied he might be behind a heinous act, so it’s best now to smooth things over. I’m also holding on to the idea it is Abrashi until I have proof. Mattia and I follow him inside to the kitchen. Mrs. Daku is there, concern in her eyes. Her husband confers with her in hushed tones, then she is welcoming us into her home.
We sit at the kitchen table, cups of strong Turkish coffee placed before us. Daku takes a tray out to the men. We don’t make small talk, each of us quietly sipping our drink, until Luigi knocks on the back door.
He shakes his head when I catch his eye.
So the crews have come up with nothing inside the usual Albanian haunts. My hand is itching to slam the cup down and smash it, but I remember my manners and stick to decorum.
I get up, thanking Mrs. Daku for her hospitality. Daku escorts us outside to our car.
“I have already asked my men to look into this,” he tells me. “Whatever we hear, I will inform you right away.”
I nod my thanks. “May I suggest you look into the Abrashi family?”
“You think…?”
“It could be revenge they want.”
He says nothing. We both know the war was in retaliation to the non-marriage into that family and the subsequent murder of one of its sons.
The rage that has been simmering all this time is now threatening to boil over, and I close my hand tight on the car door to give me some countenance.
I can’t end this night without finding Bianca! This is inconceivable. I have to locate her and bring her home. She is everything. I need her, as does our son and also her family. We’ve all just found her again, we can’t lose her so quickly.
I’m starting to slide into the backseat when a message pings on my phone. I pull it out, surprise then anger bursting through me to make me stiffen and temporarily freeze.
Unknown: My family was promised a marriage. At Remick’s Church tonight, there’ll be a wedding. Or a funeral. Or maybe both?
There’s a sinister-looking smiling emoji at the end, and this more than the words themselves infuriates me. This fucker is playing with us, with me. A wedding and a funeral? He has Bianca, and he plans to marry her. If I come, it’ll be my funeral. I have no trouble reading between the lines.
What I also figure out? The first sentence says it all. Only one family was promised a marriage. This is the proof I needed.
“Jasir Abrashi has Bianca,” I tell both Mattia and Daku.
Daku sputters. “He is not with us!”
I turn the screen over to Mattia who gives it a quick read.
“It’s a trap,” my best friend says.
I know. It kills me to reckon this, but I know. And it’s Bianca involved. Bianca’s life at stake, never mind mine. Enzo can live without the father he’s known for just a few days, but not the mother who’s loved him and taken care of him and put him first ever since she found out about his existence.
“What other choice do I have?” I tell him.
His resigned frown tells me everything. We’re going to stop a wedding tonight. With any hope, the funeral won’t be mine.