Chapter 28
Matt
“Jesus fuck, what the hell is this?” I woke up with the worst throbbing headache I’d ever had.
Sitting up on the couch, I tried to take in my surroundings and figure out where the hell I was. The light streaming through the tall windows blinded me, piercing all the way to my brain, making it hurt more than it already was.
“Good morning, Chatty Kathy!” Liam greeted me louder than necessary, making me wince from the sharp pain. He held a glass of water and two pills. “Take this,” The fucker almost shouted.
“Fuck! Can’t you talk any louder? I think no one heard you all the way over in Jersey!” I snapped sarcastically, taking the pills from his hand and washing them down with the water. “What the hell happened?”
“You don’t remember?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking!” I was extra snarky that morning. Not knowing what happened wasn’t a comfortable position for someone who thrived on control.
“I knew I should have registered the moment,” Liam mocked, soundtracking his words with a cheerful laughter that grated on my extra-sensitive nerves. “You, the almighty, controlling Don Battaglia, were shit-faced, out-of-your-mind drunk last night.”
“I’ve gathered. What else?”
“You, my brother, were completely wasted for the first time in your life. Made a total fool of yourself. Totally hilarious, might I add.” Liam laughed again, and I couldn’t help the snarl that escaped my chest.
“What happened, exactly?” I sneered, losing my patience. I needed to know I hadn’t done anything reckless.
“Well, you came back to take your ‘wifey’ back. You told her you loved her, almost fought her brother, threatened to kill him even, made fun of his name. Somehow, being called Tom is hilarious to you, but you recently renamed him ‘Dumb Blue Eyes.’ So, yeah, fun night. Hilarious, actually.”
I slapped my face, mortified with embarrassment.
So the guy she was with was her brother. That was Tommy.
Fuck!
“After we left, I have no idea what happened, but whatever you said must have worked because Francesca left this for you.” Liam held out a piece of paper with an address saying, “Meet me at 11 if you still want to talk.”
My heart stopped as I jumped off the couch. I had no idea what we spoke about yesterday, but I needed to take this opportunity to make things right with her. At least let her know that what happened in that meeting, what I said, it was all a show for the Lords.
“Did she say anything else?” I felt like a kid talking about his first love, feeling like this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I couldn’t dare to waste.
“No, nothing. Just to give that to you. What the hell happened, Matt? All jokes aside, this is not like you!”
Liam was right. I was so down in the gutters, looking for a way not to feel, seeking numbness that never came. This woman was my life. She was carved in my mind, heart, and soul. A couple of drinks couldn’t ease the burden of wasting the perfection of what we had.
“I miss her, Liam. I don’t know what to do. I royally messed up. She sent me a letter before the meeting saying she would give it all up to be with me and that all I had to do was go get her if that’s what my heart desired. And I… I fucking didn’t. I didn’t see it until after everything was done, after I said those horrible things about her, to her face and in front of a whole room full of people who should respect her.”
“It’s not too late. You may not remember, but she was here for you last night. She stayed behind to care for you. I don’t know what you both spoke about, but she’s definitely willing to hear you out. Go to her. Make this right. You are meant to be with her, Matt. Don’t waste this incredible opportunity,” He said as Jamie nestled under his arm, earning a kiss on her forehead, reminding me that they were once in my shoes and made it out together.
“She needs you, Matt. She needs you as much as you need her. Please just go tell her the truth. She deserves to know. She deserves to make her own choices. And from what I’ve seen, that choice is you. Go earn it.” Jamie encouraged me as I rushed around the living room, gathering my stuff to leave.
“Where’s my gun?” I asked after I had everything else but that.
“Max took it after you pulled it on him and forced him to bring you here.” I rolled my eyes at myself, feeling stupid. How the hell did I let things get this out of hand?
“Shit! Sorry for crashing on your couch, guys, and sorry for ruining your night yesterday.”
“It’s fine. Just cut the crap and go. Have a shower and be there on time! Take control of your life because you’ve been spiraling out, and I hate to see you like this, Man.” Liam said, almost pushing me out the door.
I rushed home, took a shower, and put on fresh clothes. I darted straight to the place where Francesca had instructed me to meet her.
I had Max at a safe distance in the car and James, Mike and Jimmy searching the park for any suspicious activity. I thought all my bases were covered, but the week wasn’t over yet, and I stupidly thought we were out of the woods.
I paced back and forth, waiting for her, frantically looking in every direction. Then, my eyes finally set on the most beautiful angel that had somehow been placed on earth.
There she was, on the other side of the road, waiting to cross.
Francesca smiled back at me, waving, too, and for a moment, I was certain everything was going to work out.
But her perfect smile quickly vanished, giving way to a look of terror that spread across her face like wildfire. Before I knew it, she was in a car, speeding away.
“FFFUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I ran to the other side, picking up the cups she had been holding and reading the inscriptions – Mr. Battaglia and Mrs. Battaglia.
Her taking my name again was a sign that we were about to make this right. We were twenty feet away from fixing this mess I had put us both through.
I watched them take her while desperation and a sense of failure invaded my soul, pulling me down into a darkness of raging fury. The kind that blinded my senses and took away all notion of danger.
I’d do any-fucking-thing to make sure Francesca was safe and unharmed. Fuck the consequences.
In less than ten seconds, Max swerved the car to my side of the road for me to get in.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK,” I shouted, punching the dashboard until my knuckles throbbed. “Don’t you fucking lose them,” I yelled at Max as we sped through traffic, trying to keep up with the black Mercedes they escaped in.
Having received these notes for the past year with no resolution had left me in a numb state. Like a frog placed in cold water on a boiler, slowly cooking without even noticing the changes. I should have known this would happen when I least expected it.
“This is Hiro’s doing! I saw the fucking Yak driving the car,” I told Max, trying to think about our next move, but my mind was clouded with deep concern for Francesca, making it difficult to see past her fading smile. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch!”
As if on cue, gunshots started hitting our car from another vehicle behind us, shattering the rear window into a million pieces.
Both Max and I ducked for cover, his foot still pressing the gas pedal until it hit the floor of the car.
I pulled out his gun from his holster and shot back, trying to hit the driver but without success. We were under a shower of gunshots. Three men unleashing a hail of bullets towards us from behind.
The car swerved uncontrolled, and I knew those fuckers had managed to shoot one of our tires. As soon as Max regained control, it happened again, but this time, it was harder to keep on track. Taking a sharp left at high speed, the two front wheels hit the curb with such violence that it shook both our bodies before it finally came to a stop. Max had managed to hit those brakes just in time to prevent us from colliding with the building in front of us.
“Motherfucker!” I yelled as I got out of the car. “We lost her.”
Max marched into the middle of the road, not even minding to look for cover. We weren’t being followed anymore. They had reached their goal – losing their tail.
Our two back tires were blown out, the back of the SUV full of holes, in a complete wreck, just like me.
Max had his hands in his hair, his own despair taking over for not being able to protect her, having to choose between being killed or stop following them.
I knew he cared for her, too. I knew he was more than just her appointed shadow. He was her friend. My friend. There was nobody I trusted more with her safety, and this was not on him.
“We have to find him, Max. We have to dig Hiro out of his fucking hole!” I roared.
“How the fuck are we going to do that? We searched for him for months and found fuck-all. How are we going to get to her?” Max replied, his voice showing off the distress I saw on his face.
“May a damn lightning bolt kill me right here if I won’t burn this fucking city to the ground to find her. I will search every house, burn down every business, blow up every fucking warehouse I can find, just to get to her.”
“I’ll be right by your side, holding the fucking torch! Sending Yaks down under into Neverland. Even if it’s a suicide mission, I’m in.”
“That’s it. That’s how I’ll get to her!” I shouted, fishing my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and dialing Jax’s number.
“Care to elaborate?” Max asked as he saw me pacing around, waiting for Jax to answer.
“Jax!” I yelled, setting the phone on speaker on top of the hood of the car. “I need you to feed me some info. Have you found your father’s hideout?”
“Good morning to you, too, Matt. And no, we have nothing yet.”
“Then I need you to give me the location of one of the other warehouses he has,” I said, changing plans a little bit. “NOW.”
“What the hell is going on, Matt? I can’t just feed you classified information like that. Not again, at least. Our deal is off after I told you to stay put and you fucking burned that warehouse to the ground.”
“Cut the fucking crap, Jackson! I don’t care what you can or can’t do. They just kidnapped Francesca. Do you want to help, or should I add you to my death list, too?”
“WHAT? When did that happen?” he shouted back into the phone.
“Five fucking minutes ago. Are you going to help, or am I just wasting my time with you?”
“I’ll have to pull some files. I’ll tell you as soon as I have the info.” He finally caved.
“Good. Make it quick.” I answered, hanging up the phone.
“What’s your plan, Boss?” Max asks, not following my chain of thought.
“If we can’t find that fucking weasel, we’ll have his men take us to him. I’m going to find one of his distribution warehouses, and I’m going to walk right into it. They will not pass on the opportunity to hand in the New York Mafia’s Don to their precious Oyabun on a fucking silver platter. That’s my plan.”
“Trojan horse, without the horse?”
“Something like that.”
“Suicidal, as I said, but I like it.”
Suicide? Maybe. But there’s no use in hanging onto a world that Francesca isn’t in.