Chapter 55
Fifty-Five
ROME
“Ican’t reach any of the guards,” Luke says, his face full of fury and worry. “And Scarlett won’t answer the phone.”
I’m pacing the penthouse, staring at the yellow dot on my phone.
“She’s moving,” I announce as ice-cold fear settles in my stomach. “Away from the shopping center. Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Julian says, holding up a hand, and I snarl at him. “I know, we all want to go get her, but we need an army, Rome. If all of Rizzo’s men are here with him, we need our men, too.”
“I’m calling every-fucking-body,” Luke says. “And I’m sending a team to that fucking shopping center. Where’s my girl?”
“They could have them both,” Mateo reminds us, but suddenly, my phone rings, and I see that it’s Smith, one of the guards with the girls today.
“Talk,” I bark into the phone.
“Lulu’s gone,” he says, wheezing into the phone. “Scarlett’s locked in the bathroom. Can’t get her out.”
“We have people on the way,” I reply.
“Too late,” he says, and I know what the voice of a dying man sounds like. “Matthews was in on it.”
“What about Parker and James?” Luke asks.
“No, just Matthews. Fuck. Sorry, boss. Tried.”
He doesn’t say anything else, and I know he’s gone.
“Get this army together.” My voice is hard. “Now!”
It takes too long.
We have Scarlett back and safe in her apartment more than an hour later, but she’s a mess. Sobbing and wailing, and inconsolable. I sent Rita to be with her because I need Luke with me.
I can’t keep my own fucking panic down.
He has my firefly.
And I know he won’t hesitate to hurt her.
“We should have killed him when we had the goddamn chance,” I growl, speaking over something Mateo was just saying.
“He dies today,” Julian says, his jaw tight. “None of them walk away from this. We destroy his entire empire.”
“It’ll be a pleasure,” Mateo agrees. “She’s not stupid, and she’s not weak, Rome. She’s been trained well, and I can tell you that she’s skilled. She keeps a cool head, and she’s almost as good at target practice as you are.”
I lift an eyebrow. “This isn’t target practice.”
“No, but she won’t go down without a fight,” he replies, and the words go down have me swallowing hard. “We have three hundred and fifty men ready to go.”
I check the screen for the fiftieth time in the past hour. “They’ve stopped moving. This must be a warehouse or an abandoned building.”
“Looking it up now,” Julian says, tapping the keys of his laptop. It feels like it takes him forever, that every single second is an hour that she’s gone, and it’s making me lose my fucking mind. “It’s a … house.”
“Say that again.”
He shakes his head, still typing.
“It’s a goddamn, motherfucking house. And it was purchased a month ago by Rizzo.”
“A big one,” Mateo says, looking over Julian’s shoulder. “How did we miss this?”
That’s what I want to fucking know.
“We need to get eyes in the air,” Julian says, “so we know what kind of security we’re walking into.”
“I’m going now.”
“No,” Mateo says, and I snarl at him. “Julian’s right. We have to do this right because they won’t hesitate to take her out, and you know it.”
“Christ.” I push my hand through my hair and continue to pace. “I can’t think.”
“We’ll do the thinking,” Julian says and nods to Luke. “Get eyes in the sky. Drones are best. We need to know what his surveillance is like, and how many people he has on the grounds.”
“On it,” Luke says, making more calls. “I’m going out with them. I can report to you myself. Don’t worry, boss, we’ll get her back in one piece.”
Fuck.
We’d better.
Thirty minutes later, we have some answers.
Rizzo’s army is closer to thirty men. Half outside the house, and it seems the rest must be inside, coming in and out.
“Let’s go,” I say, pulling on a Kevlar vest as I leave the penthouse and head for the parking garage. I’m already armed with my knives, my guns, and enough rage to tear these motherfuckers apart with my bare hands.
Hold on, firefly. I’m coming for you.
It’s time to end this.