17. Chapter Seventeen Tristan
We raced back to the Callahan estate.
I couldn’t deal with the stares. I couldn’t deal with the way our engagement party had ended, with Adriana missing and Nick Rossi right fucking there.
If he had done anything to hurt her…
But Kieran had done his best to convince me that she was, in fact, alive, and that killing Nick Rossi was a dumb idea.
I was drunk, he wasn’t. I didn’t want to listen to him, but it would’ve been a sloppy job in any case, and I wanted time to plan.
So we’d gone home as I tried to think about the slowest way of murdering Nick Rossi. I was vaguely aware that Liam was following us in his car and that, weirdly, Carmen had gotten in the car with him.
So that was something I hadn’t accounted for.
Any echoes of the raucous party had long since faded into a brooding silence that now hung over the Callahan estate like a heavy shroud. I was pacing the length of the opulent drawing room, my footsteps muffled by the thick Turkish rug beneath my boots. Each turn I made felt like a twist of a knife in my gut, the fury and confusion boiling inside me demanding an outlet.
I didn’t even care that Carmen was here.
“What the hell is going on? Where’s Adriana?” My hands were clenched so tightly that my knuckles whitened, a physical manifestation of the anger roiling within me.
Liam leaned against the mahogany bar, his usual carefree demeanor replaced by a shadow of concern. His eyes followed me as I turned to Kieran, who stood by the fireplace, his dark hair a stark contrast against the pale stone.
“Tristan,” Kieran began, his voice measured but laced with a strain that betrayed his calm exterior. He was sitting on the couch next to Carmen, rubbing his bruised face. “After brunch, Silvio—he took me aside.” He paused, searching for the right words as he avoided my gaze, choosing instead to fix his attention on the intricate carvings of the mantelpiece.
“Go on,” I urged, coming to a halt and crossing my arms over my chest. The tightness in my chest eased slightly with the hope of finally getting some answers.
“He asked about what happened at the Rossi place—the night Adriana was taken...and when Dad...when we lost him.” Kieran swallowed hard, the pain of our father’s death still raw for both of us.
“I mean, what did he need to know?” I asked him. “Dad died. It was fucking rough. What else is there to say?”
“I told him everything,” Kieran replied. “I told him that Adriana had been unharmed. Well, physically unharmed.”
“Okay…”
Kieran shifted his weight. “Silvio, I don’t know, he looked shocked, Tristan. Then he told me, in private, that it’s why he’s been trying to make a deal with Nick Rossi.”
I stared at him, trying to process his words. The room suddenly felt smaller, the walls inching closer as if to suffocate the life out of me. “A deal? With that snake Nick Rossi?” The thought alone made my blood boil, a hot surge of betrayal seeping into every pore. “After he kidnapped Adriana?”
“Yeah, the–”
“And you hadn’t told me?”
“Tristan, I–”
“Save it. Just... save it.” My mind raced, piecing together fragments of information, trying to weave them into something coherent, something that made sense. But all I came up with were more questions, each one a heavier burden than the last. “Adriana’s been kidnapped by Silvio,” I said, though saying it aloud felt like admitting a defeat I wasn’t ready to accept. “And we’re standing here playing guessing games while she’s out there... alone. Because you decided not to fucking tell me anything. How do you think that shakes out, huh?”
My knuckles whitened as my grip on the phone turned into a vice. The air seemed to thicken, heavy with the unsaid and the unknown, suffocating me inch by inch. I could almost feel Adriana’s absence, like a void in the room, a shadow where light should have been.
“You’re right,” Kieran said. Next to him, Carmen pretended to play with her phone. “You’re right, I fucked up. So let me tell you everything now.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Fucking spit it out.”
“Now, remember, this is all information I heard secondhand. All things he told me,” Kieran started, tapping his foot rhythmically on the rug. “After you called Silvio and Dad to tell them that Adriana had been kidnapped, he offered Nick Rossi a quarter of the Orsini business. All so that Nick Rossi wouldn’t lay a finger on Adriana, and at the time he didn’t know this, but obviously the twins.”
“Jesus Christ.” I ran a hand through my hair, the threads of control slipping between my fingers. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Kieran looked at me, his dark eyes a mirror of my own turmoil. “I wanted to, but there was never the right moment. With everything going on...”
“Right moment?” My laugh was bitter, hollow. “Since when do we wait for the right moment in this family? We take the moments we get.”
“I know, I—“ He started, but Carmen cleared her throat to interrupt him. She looked messy–we probably all did. The purple gown she’d worn to the party was wrinkled and her red hair cascaded around her face in a way that looked like it was very much not on purpose.
“Guys,” she started, her voice a little shaky. “You need to understand—“
“Understand what?” I demanded, my patience frayed to its breaking point. “That your father made a deal with the devil himself to protect Adriana?”
“More than that,” Carmen said, her eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that demanded attention. “Silvio himself didn’t tell you because he couldn’t afford to show weakness, not even to family.”
“Family,” I scoffed, the word tasting like ash. “I’m not family. And you…and my girlfriend…We’re all just pawns to him, aren’t we?”
“Sometimes pawns are sacrificed for the greater good,” she replied, her tone somber. “But it doesn’t mean they’re not valued.”
“Valued?” My voice rose, a tempest building inside me. “Adriana is out there, because of his choices. Because he decided to play God with our lives!”
“Tristan,” she said softly, reaching out as if to comfort, but I stepped back, out of reach.
I definitely didn’t want her to touch me.
“Don’t, Carmen. Just don’t.” The room felt too small, the walls closing in. I needed space, air, something to clear my head.
“Tristan, please,” she persisted, “you need to see the full picture. There’s danger coming from every direction now. Silvio’s trying to navigate it the best he can.”
“By kidnapping my fiancee.”
“By doing what he thinks is necessary,” she answered, her voice steady despite the tremor I saw in her hands. “And I think...I think it means we’re all in danger now.”
The finality of her words resonated within the room, sinking into my bones. For the first time since I had met her, Carmen Orsini seemed afraid. And I didn’t like that. Not at all.
We’d find her. We had to. For Adriana, for the family, for ourselves. It was the unspoken pledge that bound us, stronger than any deal or deceit. The Callahans stood together, come hell or high water.
Adriana was a Callahan now.
And hell had just knocked on our door.
I nodded sharply to Liam, who hovered near the door, his fingers tapping an anxious rhythm against his leg. “Alright, lad. We start by gathering intel. We need eyes on every Rossi and Orsini associate, now. Can you handle that?”
Liam straightened up, his youthful face hardening with determination that belied his years. “Got it, big bro,” he said, a renewed sense of purpose in his voice as he slipped out the door.
“That should take him a bit,” I said as I heard his footsteps recede. “I should give you both the bollocking of your lives.”
Carmen watched him go, her red hair a fiery cascade down her back, a stark contrast to the cold dread settling in my gut. She leaned against the sofa, arms folded as if shielding herself from the weight of her own revelations.
“Look, if I’d known this was what he was planning to do, I would’ve told you in the first place,” she said.
“Really? I don’t see you picking up your phone to tell me about this.”
She ignored me. “Before all this...,” she began, her voice quieter now, “Silvio considered aligning our families differently. He wanted me to marry into the Rossis.”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. “A Rossi?” I echoed, the name leaving a bitter taste.
She nodded solemnly. “It was a different time. Malachy’s shadow loomed large over the city, and Silvio was feeling the squeeze. He thought a marriage could unite the Italian fronts.”
“Which Rossi?” I pressed, trying to piece together the twisted history before me.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Carmen dismissed with a wave of her hand. “I never liked Nick, and Gio? Even worse. He’s a brute. Doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together.”
“Then why call off the deal? Why go to Malachy instead?” The questions were tumbling out faster than I could process them.
“Silvio changed his mind. Maybe he saw something in Malachy, or maybe he just saw me refusing to be part of that world.” Her laugh was hollow, devoid of any real humor. “He knew I wouldn’t stand for it.”
“Orsini pragmatism,” I muttered, more to myself than to her.
“Survival,” she corrected with a knowing look.
“Right now, none of that matters,” I said, breaking the connection as I turned away. “We need to find Adriana. Can you help us?”
“Of course,” she answered without hesitation. “She’s my sister. I’ll do anything.”
“Good,” I replied, the next steps already forming in my mind. “Because we’re going to need all the help we can get. And Carmen,” I added, pausing at the door, “keep this between us.”
“I’m going to,” Carmen said. “But Tristan, there’s more.”
“Explain. Now.” The words came out sharp, like bullets. My mind raced, connecting dots with lightning speed. Silvio’s lust for retaliation had been clear, but this—this was a new level of threat.
“After you backed off marrying my sister, things got very bad for my dad. I don’t think you understand how precarious his position was compared to the Callahans. He was losing allies left and right and he thought going to your dad was the solution. Of course, my dad had resources…and the war had been happening for years and years, so he could have easily retaliated. The marriage between a Callahan and an Orsini was genius. But you can’t think there were no consequences to your mistake, can you?” she asked.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“When you decided not to marry Adriana, it meant my dad lost his footing. He was desperate,” she rushed on, her voice quivering. “He blamed you for losing his allies, and now that you’re back with Adriana...” She trailed off, her implication hanging heavy between us.
“Go on,” I pressed.
“Your engagement to her makes you both targets,” she whispered, as if saying it louder would make it more real. “He thinks by getting to you, he can regain some of his power.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “That’s his daughter.”
“Doesn’t matter. Think about it. You’re the head of the Callahan family now, right? And Adriana, well, she’s going to be a Callahan soon. And your children? Callahans. Who got the best end of the bargain here, Tristan?”
“Me,” I replied immediately. “Me, because I got to have her.”
“You’re sweet,” Carmen said. “I don’t know how helpful that is when it comes to running the biggest mafia family in the city, but I’m sure my sister likes it.”
“Christ.” My hand flew to the back of my neck, squeezing tight. Adriana, fiery and bold, didn’t deserve to be a pawn in this messed-up game of power. Neither did I, but there was no opting out—not when blood and loyalty bound you to the life. “So he has her?”
“Yeah, I expect he does,” Carmen replied.
“Where are they holding her?” I demanded, locking eyes with Carmen. It was time to shift from defense to offense. Adriana needed me, and I wasn’t about to fail her—not now, not ever.
“I don’t know,” she said.
I inched closer to her, so close I could see the freckles on the bridge of her nose.
“You better hope for your sake and mine that you’re not lying,” I warned, my voice low and threatening. “Because if anything happens to her...”
“I’m not lying, Tristan,” Carmen countered, matching my intensity. Her green eyes flashed with a mix of irritation and determination. “I want her safe just as much as you do.”
“Damn it,” I backed away from her. “Think! Think about where he could have taken her!”
“I’ve got teams searching every known Orsini location,” Kieran informed me as he stood up. “And I have someone watching Rossi.”
“Better hope it’s not Killian,” I said. But right then, the fact that he had betrayed me didn’t seem to matter at all.
“Yeah, about that–”
I held my hand up to stop my brother from talking. “Later,” I said. “Right now, my priority is to find Adriana.”
Carmen swallowed. “That should be your priority,” she said. “Because if you don’t find her quickly enough, I’m worried something really terrible is going to happen to her.”