Chapter 2
MARCO
I’ve been a fucking mess for the nearly forty-eight hours that have passed since my wife was kidnapped.
Checking my phone every few minutes for a phone call or a ransom message has become automatic, and I can’t close my eyes or eat or take a fucking shower for fear that I’ll miss one.
I don’t think I’ve dozed off more than twenty minutes at a time, and that’s only when one of my brothers promised to monitor my phone.
It’s been hell. I already know firsthand what Charlie and Frankie went through when their younger sister was kidnapped.
Never did I imagine after rescuing Livvie that I’d be going through all of this again so soon, and for my own wife.
All of my family’s attempts at kindness and their soothing words and platitudes have had no effect on me whatsoever. I’m freaking out.
Not that my brother Armani has been kind or gentle—it’s not his style—but at least he’s kept a level head.
Once he became reasonably convinced that Karina had, in fact, been taken against her will, he got to work trying to formulate a plan of attack with me.
But so far, his contacts haven’t turned up anything solid.
The job was clean. We have no leads beyond the fake florist’s van she was driven away inside, and that hasn’t gotten us anywhere.
My idea was to storm the Bruno estate with guns a-blazin’, but Dante vetoed it.
He says that kind of thing would only be a last resort.
Well, I’m ready for that last resort now.
Sitting here in Armani’s office is just making me feel claustrophobic and impotent.
If I can’t kick down Sergio Bruno’s door, I at least need to get myself behind the wheel.
Driving around town will at least help me blow off some steam, even if it doesn’t turn up any clues.
Suddenly, the door is flung open and Charlie bursts into the office. “Karina’s alive!”
My phone falls out of my hand, clattering to the floor as I stand. “What do you know?”
Charlie is out of breath, the dark circles under her eyes clear evidence of the insomnia that our whole family has been battling.
“Clayton heard something. He’s been scouting around town and he said a couple of Bruno’s guys were at a bar talking about new security shifts at some abandoned warehouse at one of the Bruno properties.
Clayton said the place had been sitting empty for years. He thinks she could be there.”
My heart pounds. Is this the lead we’ve been waiting for?
“Or it might just be an illegal shipment coming in,” Armani says, interrupting my train of thought and sounding thoroughly unconvinced. “Drugs, weapons, dirty money, trafficked humans. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions so fast.”
I look at Armani with a frown, but he isn’t trying to goad me. He’s honestly skeptical. Of course he is. He’s the tactical brain in the family.
“What else did he hear?” he prods.
Charlie shakes her head. “That’s it so far. He just texted me. Said he’d call if he heard anything more. He had to move on, so he didn’t attract attention.”
She hands me her phone to show me the messages from her husband. Clayton knows the backdoors of Napa well. He’s well versed in sniffing out information, and having been in the game for a long time with other families, has connections that we don’t.
Gratitude wells inside me. He didn’t have to go out scouting. We certainly didn’t ask him to, but he did. And he might have just saved Karina’s life.
“Before we do anything, I need to confirm the intel,” Armani says. “I’ll send a team to get eyes on this warehouse. If it checks out, we’ll plan something.”
Whipping my brother a look, I shake my head. “We can’t afford to waste any time on this. We need to act now.”
His jaw tightens. “I’m not going in hot when I don’t know what’s in that warehouse. Besides, don’t you think this information came to us a little too easily?”
She crosses her arms, looking peeved. “Are you implying that Clayton would lie about this? You still think he’s working for the other side?”
Armani doesn’t look at her. I love my brother, but sometimes, I really don’t like him.
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying that I don’t trust anyone, especially not a couple of Bruno’s guys in a bar where they know good and well they can be overheard. If anyone’s lying, it’s them. What if it’s a trap, huh? Confirmation first, then we act.”
Dammit.
Charlie and her husband have been staying with us since Karina disappeared, both to be available if something comes up, and so Charlie can help take care of Frankie during this last stage of her pregnancy.
Dante rarely leaves Frankie’s side, either, so I’m doubly grateful to have Clayton stepping in right now.
We need the manpower, and it pisses me off that Armani has to be so, well, Armani.
My brother sends Charlie away and then makes arrangements for scouts to survey the Bruno warehouse.
It’s likely going to take hours for them to get a visual on what’s inside the place, if not fucking days.
I can barely stand it. I’m ready to go straight over there myself, right this second.
We need to infiltrate the hideout, blast anybody who stands in our way, and get my wife home.
Every second that passes is another second her life is in danger.
God, what have they done to her in the past forty-eight hours already?
It turns my stomach just imagining it. Sergio Bruno will hurt her.
He’s a total sadist. Probably he won’t kill her, but he will derive extreme pleasure out of inflicting pain, humiliation, torture.
My thoughts stray to images of Karina bound, beaten, utterly degraded.
Would Pietro be there, putting his hands on her? Touching her?
White-hot fury explodes behind my eyes, burning and screaming to be let free. If that piece of shit laid a single finger on my wife…
“Marco.”
Armani’s voice pulls me out of my spiral.
“Huh?”
He frowns. “Listen. When we get her back, and we will, I’m going to need to speak with her. Privately. She’ll need to be debriefed, and—”
“Are you fucking serious? You’re still trying to play your little spy games?” I snap. “I’m surprised you’re not rallying for them to just kill her. That would pull the biggest thorn out of your ass, wouldn’t it?”
Armani has never liked or trusted Karina.
Understandably, we had to be cautious bringing a Bruno into our family, but I vetted her first. My word should have been good enough.
And for Dante, it was. But for Armani it meant nothing.
Still, despite his constant suspicion, his interrogations, and his general tactless probing, he never found anything to justify his distrust of Karina.
I guess, for Armani, being born a Bruno is a stain she’ll never be able to wash off.
My brother takes a breath through his nose. His tense expression eases. “That’s not fair, Marco.”
“It’s not? You’ve been against me since the day I brought her home.”
“You married a Bruno, and you expected me to throw her a goddamn welcome-to-the-family party? I’ve never been against you, brother, just your questionable life choices.”
I scowl. This is nothing I haven’t heard from him before.
“I understand that you’re worried about your wife,” he goes on.
“You should be. Anyone would be when it comes to the Brunos. But it’s my job to be worried about our entire family and its future.
We have a new addition arriving any day, unless you forgot.
Am I supposed to overlook that because your wife wants to shed her family name? ”
He’s not wrong. I’ve been thinking about Frankie and Dante’s baby a lot, too.
What kind of future my niece will have and whether or not the Bellanti name is one she’ll carry with pride.
Can we create a life for her, and for any other children we may have, that’s free from threats?
My brothers and I all swore when our father died that we were leaving the mob life behind us for good, yet this is where we’ve ended up, once again pulled into the thick of it.
Yes, I may have married a woman from the Bruno mob family. But she doesn’t want to be like them, or one of them. She wants a different life—a better life—just like my brothers and I do. Why is that so damn hard for Armani to understand?
“You’ve never given her a real chance to prove that she’s not one of them,” I point out.
He leans back in his chair. “Then let her prove it this time. I want an hour alone with her when we get her back. Two, tops.”
“Fine. But I’m not going to let you interrogate her. I’ll be the one asking the questions,” I tell him.
“Nope. You’re gonna go soft the minute you get her in your arms. You’ll want to cradle her and baby her, when what we need is to painstakingly go over every single person she was in contact with, every movement she witnessed, every word that was spoken in her presence.
You won’t be able to do it, Marco. It has to be me and her alone, the second she’s back.
I need to get to her before her memories fade or her mind has a chance to distort things. ”
I scrub a hand over my face. He’s right.
I know that he’s right. I’m not cut out for this kind of hardcore interrogation, especially when the witness in question is the woman I love.
Armani, though…my brother was made for this.
His mind is analytical, methodical, calculating and cold.
He has years of experience questioning difficult subjects, and I know he’ll painstakingly go through every moment of her captivity and sort out every detail, every word.
But his methods are what worry me. The man doles out torture as easily as another person hands out a batch of fresh baked cookies.
He doesn’t just like to deconstruct events, he likes to break down people, too.
Mentally and physically. And he’s always been overly suspicious of Karina. He’s not going to go easy on her.
“Fine, you can have her for ninety minutes at most, but I swear to God if a single hair on her head is out of place afterward, I will kill you myself,” I tell him.
His eyebrows arch and then he nods. “Deal.”
Charlie reappears in the doorway. “Clayton is on his way back. He didn’t hear anything else.”
“That’s okay. I’m going to need him here.” Armani’s eyes flick to hers. “How’s Frankie?”
“The false contractions have stopped. She’s resting now,” she reports. “Dante’s with her.”
“We’re not going to bother him with any of this,” I say sternly. “He’s got enough to worry about right now.”
Armani gives a single nod of agreement.
“Worry me about what?”
“Fuck.” I dig a hand through my hair as Dante saunters in. His hair is mussed, and he looks exhausted. “Nothing. Go get some sleep or something.”
Dante folds his arms over his chest, looking peeved. “You’ve got a lead on Karina. It’s the reason a squad of four cars went racing out of here, right?”
“That’s right,” Armani confirms.
Dante slaps me on the shoulder. “What can I do?”
Charlie inserts herself between me and my brother and steers Dante out of the office. “You can go back to bed and babysit your pregnant wife. That’s what you can do.”
Dante glances over his shoulder at us. “Be safe, you two.”
“Always,” I say.
As they retreat down the hall, Armani’s phone rings. He answers, listens, and hangs up.
“We’re confirmed,” he says. “She’s there. Let’s go.”
I nod. My adrenaline is kicking in, but I hold myself steady as new strength begins pumping through me. All the emotions that have been weakening me dissipate, and I feel whole again.
I’m ready to fight. Ready to bring my wife home.
Armani makes another call, and a few minutes later, the room has a few extra men inside, including Clayton. Ten in all, more than enough to take down the handful of guards watching over the warehouse. Armani barks out instructions, and we disperse to gather our gear.
I’m going to rescue my wife, and good luck to any asshole who tries to stop me.