Chapter 18
Eighteen
Dante
I pay a visit to Moreno, pleased that he’s woken from his coma.
Paige has been by his bedside every waking hour. She needs rest. “Go home, shower.” I glance her over; she looks rougher than Moreno does.
“I—” She stalls, and I can see the hesitation, the desire not to leave his side, worry that something might happen. I’d feel that way, too, if anything happened to my Nikki.
But he’s awake.
Has been for a couple of hours. I drove my ass down to the hospital to see if there was anything new he could tell me. Anything that he might remember from that day.
But that conversation won’t happen around Paige. I don’t need her worrying about business matters.
Moreno smiles weakly, his voice thick. “Go home. Dante is right. Get some sleep. Actual sleep, love. In a bed.”
Paige shakes her head. “Absolutely not. I’ll shower and then I’ll be right back.” She glances down at her jeans and sweater. “I could use a fresh change of clothes too.”
“Take your time, love.”
Paige leans down, planting a soft kiss on Moreno’s mouth, and I turn around, not needing to witness their intimate moment.
I clear my throat when she hasn’t left yet and glance over my shoulder at the two of them.
“Right,” Paige whispers and her fingers squeeze his hand before letting go, quietly leaving the hospital room. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Now go, shower, sleep, get some rest,” Moreno says, glancing her over. “That’s an order.”
She laughs under her breath.
That woman never takes orders from me; I can’t imagine Paige takes them from Moreno, but she doesn’t argue.
I wait until she’s gone and feel both relief and sadness wash over me. I hate how worried she was, attentive to his needs, and had been waiting for him to wake up.
I wouldn’t want Nikki to have sleepless nights at my bedside, and yet without a doubt she’d be doing the exact same thing.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, approaching his bedside.
Moreno’s eyes crinkle. “Honestly? I hurt like hell.”
“You were shot in the head,” I remind him, wondering how much of the incident he actually remembers. The doctors warned of amnesia surrounding the event.
“That’s what they say,” Moreno says and shrugs, wincing. “I remember driving to go get Harper and then—nothing after. What happened? Paige wouldn’t tell me specifics.”
I exhale heavily. I had been here, hoping he’d be giving me information, not the other way around.
“Nico shot you and abducted Harper. Turns out, he’s been working for the DeLucas all along.”
Moreno rubs at his eyes, the monitors increasing in urgency with each breath he takes. His pulse and blood pressure are increasing simultaneously. “I never suspected…” he trails off, disgust filling his voice. “He was one of us!”
I rest a reassuring arm on his shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself.” Staring down at him, I remove my hands, sliding them into my pockets. “I interrogated the capos.”
“And?”
“Matteo was hiding something.” I meet his stare, and he raises an eyebrow.
I offer a curt nod, a silent understanding.
He’s deceased.
“Anyone else?”
“Can’t say for certain. I’ve brought Rhys back in; he’s your daughter’s new personal bodyguard.”
The color drains from Moreno’s face. “Nova needs a bodyguard, why exactly? Who has been threatening my daughter?”
“After Harper’s disappearance, I thought it might be good to protect the family. Nova isn’t mafia but like you said, she’s your daughter. If the DeLucas want to hurt us…”
“Appreciated.” Moreno’s eyes flicker and I sense his concern.
“She’s in good hands; I can assure you Rhys knows how to protect her.”
“But where are Rhys and Nova now?” Moreno asks, glancing past me. She hasn’t come to visit, and while I had hoped he wouldn’t notice, that was unlikely and foolish.
Best to rip the Band-Aid off.
“Against better judgment and my direct orders, she boarded a plane with Luca, Ashton, and the others to go get Harper.”
The monitors beep haphazardly, and a slew of nurses rush into his room to check on him.
I’m shuffled out, against Moreno’s request. “Let him stay! I demand answers!” Moreno shouts, forgetting perhaps who is in charge.
He reports to me, not the other way around.
I step out into the hallway at the insistence of the hospital staff while they check his vitals and inevitably sedate him.
Paige is going to be pissed when she finds out Nova is with Rhys in Nevada. I let Paige believe her daughter was back at the compound, trying to help with Harper’s disappearance. Since she hadn’t been home, there had been no way for her to know otherwise.
The cell phone reception in this place is horrible. I head down to the elevator, making my way into the hospital lobby to check my phone.
There are several missed texts and calls from both Rhys and Ashton. Two more texts from Jaxson Monroe.
Not a word from my son.
How odd.
I glance at the texts, briefly read through them. It’s mostly updates on the plane landing, heading to the DeLuca compound, and then my stomach drops to the ground.
It’s the text from Rhys which has me calling him, wondering what the hell happened in the past couple of hours.
Rhys: Luca is using himself as bait.
Why the fuck is my son the bait? Why didn’t Ashton or Liam offer themselves up, and what the hell plan are they thinking?
Rhys answers on the first ring.
“Tell me Luca is safe.”
“I wish I could do that, sir.”
Wincing, I step outside. The air in the lobby is hot, suffocating. I need to breathe. “What the hell happened, Rhys?” My heart wants to slam outside of my chest, trying to break free from its cage.
“Luca couldn’t wait for us to come up with a plan, so he ran in headfirst to rescue Harper. And it went about as well as you might expect.”
I curse and shake my head, unpleased with the latest revelation. “Any chance he brought in any surveillance equipment?”
Jaxson had provided a full load of spy-grade audio and video technology at the airport hangar. I’d made sure the team had access before rescuing Harper from the DeLucas.
“He grabbed a camera and still has it on. There’s audio too. I’ve got Sophia mapping out the house based on the video footage that’s being sent.”
“Good. What else?” Rhys is typically Nova’s bodyguard. He’s not usually running point on a mission. But he’s got the most experience on the team that I sent—and heaven help me now that Luca has been captured.
“We’re missing a lot of footage. We only have two hallways in the compound, and there’s an entire wing we haven’t laid eyes on. There are dozens of cameras inside; we need access.”
“I’ll have my source work on that,” I say. “And Luca, how is he?”
“Alive.”