Chapter 17
Luke
J immy didn’t question the soldier getting into the driver’s seat. I didn’t wait for an invitation, climbing into the backseat before we sped away.
A small worry hit me that I shouldn’t be leaving Emma behind, but she was safe here, guarded because the Rossini men were here to guard my father at all costs. They were paid to do so, and they’d sworn their loyalty to him all this time.
I bet they recognized Emma as a Giordino, but I wanted to assume that we’d demonstrated that she was with me.
They wouldn’t turn on her and harm her without me being there, right?
Hell, she’d defend herself. She wasn’t helpless. She knew how to shoot.
I pushed aside the worries about Emma. It was natural to be anxious. We’d been together, living in each other’s shadows nonstop for weeks now. More than a month, we’d spent all of our time together. This bout of separation anxiety passed quickly though, because I focused on the guard speaking to Jimmy. He didn’t address me, even though this was my mother we were rushing to get back. He had no clue that I was the Rossini heir. I didn’t correct him, because like Jimmy had coached, we had to keep my identity a secret until we were ready to tell the whole world. Rumors were dangerous, and if men—Rossini men—caught word of a suspected heir, dissent could become an issue. Too many could question my linage. Others would claim that they were bastard children of Marlo’s as well, because why not join that trend?
“Leo said it was the Giordinos who took her. He followed them all the way to the bridge but he lost them there.”
Jimmy scowled. “You’re sure it was the Giordinos?”
“Isn’t the cartel active near the bridge?” I asked. Even I knew that area was risky.
“They are.” Jimmy turned to nod at me, but then faced the guard driving us. “Leo is certain the Giordinos took Nina?”
“Yes. He said it was them.”
“I can’t see Damon Giordino working with the cartel to pull of a kidnapping.” Jimmy shook his head, deep in thought.
If he doubted what these Rossini men reported, I would too. “Damon’s working with the Marcheses,” I said.
“But you could use whatever resource or connection he has to get the results he wants.”
In this matter, it seemed the wanted to lure me out. How they could know that Nina was related to me, I had no clue. Maybe they looked through the Tropican employee info. Maybe they had cops in their pocket. I didn’t care that they’d discovered my mother. I only prioritized keeping her safe.
We held on for the ride, getting nearer the area that the guard referenced.
It was a slow going with traffic, and the wait to get moving pissed me off.
“What about there?” Jimmy indicated for the guard to drive around a blockage, a shortcut to the left.
“The signs say it’s closed up there,” the driver said as he steered where Jimmy pointed to go, “but maybe I can get around another side street and—”
The car rocked to the side with a loud crash. Metal-on-metal screeches filled the air, and I tensed at the impact. Jimmy was flung to the passenger door. The driver clutched the steering wheel as he was whipped back from the collision. I gripped the armrest, feeling the vibrations of the hit traveling from the truck driver’s accident.
“Dammit!”
As soon as the car jerked to a stop, half of it wedged into a caving hole that the utility workers had dug up, Jimmy slammed his hand to the dashboard. Plastic crunched. Glass shattered. After the hard crash, slamming us to a full stop, I held my breath for another moment until the dust settled. I was already tense and high on an adrenaline rush from rushing to save my mother. Now, I was deeper into survival mode, bracing for another hit.
The airbags had deployed on the driver’s side, and the guard struggled to shove them clear.
“Fucking hell.” Jimmy shoved at his door, forcing it open. It swung low with the car tilted to the side, but he jumped out anyway.
I followed suit, opening the back door and leaving the guard to fend for himself.
“We have to—” Jimmy didn’t bother finishing. He looked at the guard, who nodded and waved him on.
“Come on,” Jimmy yelled at me.
Already, commotion was taking over. The truck driver was wincing and apologetic as he climbed down from his driver’s seat. Cops and utility workers were crowding close, bemoaning the location of the untimely accident.
I tuned out all the shouts, running with Jimmy in the direction of the rundown building where Leo claimed the Giordinos had taken Nina.
Going on foot wasn’t ideal. If they’d hurt her at all, we’d need to ensure her safe exit. She was already so weak, so feeble and frail, that it wouldn’t take much to drain her energy. The slightest rough handling would bruise her delicate skin, and the risk of infections would be a worry as well.
I gritted my teeth, pissed and irked that they’d dared to capture her, but with that anger burning at a low, manageable simmer, I resolved not to let it consume me. I couldn’t let them win. They wanted me distracted and out from hiding. I’d risk my safety for her, but I had to keep a level head about it.
Jimmy sprinted ahead, proving that he wasn’t as old as he looked. He wasn’t as sore and exhausted from the beating the Marchese men had given him.
He ran steadily, impressing me not only with his fitness but also his determination to save Nina.
I caught up with him, straining to keep an eye out for trouble.
It wasn’t great luck to be held back with a fucking accident near the construction site. We were already losing precious minutes of her being captive by men who would treat her poorly.
And then we ran into more holdups.
A group of men blocked us at the next intersection. They formed a line, giving us no opening to run around them and pass them on our way.
That was there intention. Jimmy skidded to a stop, barricading me with his arm flung out. “Get out of the way,” he growled.
The leader laughed, shaking his head. “No. We got orders from the boss.”
“You can shove Damon Giordino’s orders up his ass. Get out of the way.”
Giordino? He recognized them, and I couldn’t help the stupid but legitimate envy that I could have that skill of identifying all these mafia men so easily on sight. They all looked the same. Suited and sporting cocky smiles, walking with the same swagger.
“Ain’t happening, old man.” Another one approached, looking me up and down. “He knew you’d coming running to help that old-ass lady.” He scoffed, pissing me off more.
“Damon ordered her to be captured?” Jimmy asked.
I wanted to smirk at him for asking such a dumb question. Obviously, Emma’s father had targeted my mother and captured her. He knew I was Marlo’s son, and somehow, he’d found the identity of my mother.
He already identified these men as Giordino soldiers. So why ask if Damon ordered the capture? It was implied, wasn’t it?
As we stared each other down, though, I had my first lesson in reshaping my thought process. Maybe it wasn’t implied that Damon ordered my mother to be taken. Maybe it was a ploy, a collaborative effort between the Giordino and Marchese bosses to lure me out.
Jimmy didn’t seem ready to believe that Damon instructed his men to kidnap my mother. I took this as a lesson, an exercise in building up my doubt and skepticism.
I hadn’t been introduced to this mafia world for long, but it seemed I had much to learn in navigating the deception and lies.
Not everything was as it seemed with these people.
“It don’t matter who wanted the bitch kidnapped,” another guard said. He didn’t answer with an affirmative, hedging an actual reply.
Aha. It seemed Jimmy was right to second-guess who was at fault here. It didn’t matter to me who gave the orders. According to the little I knew, the Marcheses and Giordinos were one and the same—my enemies. They would all be dead for laying a hand on my mother.
But knowing who ordered her to be taken might make a difference in where she’s being held. The other guard who was supposed to be watching my mother, Leo, reported that Giordinos had taken her and brought her this way. If they were working under someone else’s orders, though, it stood to reason that we might not find her here.
I missed the simplicity of fighting one-on-one. In the ring it was simple. I faced a single opponent and strategized how to take them down. I felt out of control, too slow and lagging to view all this danger among the mafia families. They worked with hidden agendas and trickery.
“Now that we got your little prize fighter to stop being a coward and hiding...” Another Giordino guard stalked up close. He seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place how.
“I can’t wait for a chance to see if he’s all that they’re saying. That no one can beat him.”
Shit. I remembered him now. I’d seen him at the fights before.
“Come on, punk. Show me that you’re the fearsome asshole everyone’s making you out to be.”
I breathed in steadily through my nose. Hearing taunts like this never pushed me to violence. Usually, I heard this shit in the ring or near it, and then, I’d have the chance to prove idiots wrong in doubting me. I could enter the ring and fight. Letting my triumphs and victories be proof was far easier than the energy required to care about taunts and teases.
These men were goading me for the same reason. To look strong and make me feel intimidated. They wanted to challenge me. Somehow, they chose this moment to treat me as a dare to overcome. We weren’t in the fighting arena, but the same logic applied.
With five of them facing us, the odds weren’t in my favor. I was outnumbered, even with Jimmy at my side.
The only way out of this was to fight them. It would be giving them the satisfaction of getting a rise out of me, but that wouldn’t matter once I had them down on the ground.
“You hear me, fucker?” Another one stalked up quickly. “Show us what you got, man.”
He attacked, lunging out first. I deflected his punch just in time to sidestep another one’s kick.
Jimmy wasn’t spared. I heard him grunting from the effort to fight back. We maneuvered into a defensive posture, our backs to each other so we could keep them from getting behind us. Between the hard smacks of flesh upon flesh with hits, jabs, and kicks, I heard my uncle doing his best to fight back these cocky Giordino fighters.
Out here in the thick of a rundown and cartel-controlled area, we wouldn’t have to worry about innocent bystanders walking by and being too close to danger. We wouldn’t have to consider the cops witnessing this beat-down and interfering.
This was no man’s land, and Jimmy and I had to fight for the sake of getting away.
After weeks of inactivity, it almost felt cathartic to use my body in a way I’d trained it. To attack and defeat any adversary. I embraced the burn in my muscles as I dodged and hit faster. I welcomed the strenuous exercise of fighting. Sparing never pushed me to the thrilling level of cardio combined with violence like this, and I vented my anger and frustration with every hit and strike I unleashed on these men.
I was still standing, fighting the best I could, but soon enough, I was on my own.
Jimmy fell, hit hard and pushed too far. He lay on the sidewalk, groaning as he rolled to his side. Protecting his stomach, he winced and turned redder in the face from the Giordino guard’s well-placed kick at his gut.
I’d taken two men down. They remained on the cement, unconscious from hard hits to the head and neck. It was only a matter of time before they rested enough to get back up, but until then, I would do the best I could with this setup.
Two against one. But I had to protect my uncle now, too.
“I don’t have time for this,” I shouted, wiping spit and blood from my cut lip.
They laughed, glad when one of the two men I’d knocked out got to his feet again.
Fuck. Three against one. The man I’d dropped to the ground seethed, baring his teeth and heaving great, deep, and angry breaths as he glowered at me.
He fisted his hands, getting right back into the swing of things.
One by one, they tried to grab me. The tallest one almost succeeded in holding me tight so another could pummel me with hard, direct punches.
Jimmy lay gasping on the ground, too wounded to help.
Enough of this bullshit.
I waited until the man gripped me tight, locking my arms back and exposing my face and torso for hits. Once he had me back, and his fellow guard reared his arm back to slam his fist into my gut, I dropped and flipped the man at my back forward, over me. He flew straight into the other man’s fist at the last second, and they collided with such a force that it was just one man standing for a moment.
He gaped at me, surprised by my quick thinking.
I grinned, licking the blood away from my lip as I caught my breath. “Next,” I growled.
He hardened his expression and faced me, brave in thinking he’d succeed where the others hadn’t. Behind him, the other man who I’d knocked out first started to climb to his hands and knees.
It was a game of whack a mole, and I sighed heavily, hating that this was a distraction, a delay, that I didn’t need. The longer these idiots took to learn a lesson about what happened when they challenged someone like me, that was more time lost to finding my mother and ensuring she was safe.
The more time that was lost from me knowing Emma was safe and sound at that mansion, too.