Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
TONY
I was reading yet another résumé when my phone vibrated with a call. To my surprise, it was Sal. I swiped to answer. “Hey, Sal. What’s up?”
“Anthony, we have a problem.”
My gut twisted. It was never a good thing when Salvatore said we had a problem. “What’s wrong?”
He blew out a breath. “I got a call from Brendan…”
Surprise overrode my common sense. “Brendan from Café Roma? How did he get your number?”
“I gave it to him at the exhibit. Anthony, listen to me and don’t interrupt.”
Oh shit. Whatever it was, it was bad. “Okay. Sorry.”
“As I said, Brendan called me. He told me he saw a man take Greg away in a taxi. He was certain Greg didn’t want to go. He got the impression Greg had been drugged.”
There was a ringing in my ears, and for a moment, I stopped breathing. “Is he sure?” I croaked.
“He’s sure,” Salvatore replied. “He said he ran outside but wasn’t in time to stop it. He did get a picture of the back of the taxi. He found Greg’s phone and tablet on the table.”
Fear washed over me. “Oh god. The stalker got him. And I have no leads. I don’t even know how long he’s been gone. What if he’s already dead?”
“Anthony!” Salvatore barked. “Stop this right now. You have a job to do.”
His order penetrated my panic. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I was no good to Greg if I let my fear overwhelm me. “Okay. I’m okay.”
“Good,” he said. “Now what’s the plan?”
That was easy, I’d just call my brothers…fuck. “Sal, my team is on the way to Indonesia. Marco and Michael aren’t here to help me.”
There was a moment of silence on his end. “Who do you have here in the country? I know you’ve got a bunch of special forces people working for you.”
I ran through the roster in my head. “Hunter. Dante. Isaac. They all have search-and-rescue experience. But I don’t have a hacker to get into the CCTV and any other systems I would need to track him.”
“Gio will do it,” Salvatore replied.
I’d forgotten about Sal’s computer expert. “That’s good. Thank you.”
“And you have no idea who this guy is?” Salvatore asked.
“No. He’s never done anything online.” But wait, that wasn’t true. “Sal, the stalker sent Greg an email today, pretending to be a client. If I get you Greg’s laptop, do you think he could trace the email?”
“I’ll bring Gio to you. Are you at your apartment?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in less than half an hour.” He ended the call as abruptly as he always did when he was in business mode.
In the silence of my apartment, all my fears came rushing back. I clenched my jaw and shook them off. I couldn’t let myself go down that road. Greg needed me to be clearheaded. I was about to call Hunter when my phone vibrated with another call. This time, it was from my office. “Hello?”
“Tony, it’s Liz.” Her voice sounded strained.
“Hey, Liz. Is something wrong?”
“I think so,” she replied. She sounded scared.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I urged.
“We got a delivery of flowers. They were addressed to you.” She hesitated.
“And…”
“They’re black roses.”
My gut twisted. I blew out a breath. I had to remain calm. “Is there a card?”
“Yes.” She sounded near tears. “It says, ‘You took from me. Now I’m taking from you. By the time you find him, it will be too late.’”
I wanted to throw something. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I did neither of those things. “Is Hunter in the workout room?”
“No. He was here earlier this morning. Dante’s here doing the exercises recommended by his physical therapist.”
“Put him on the phone.”
“Okay.” She paused. “Tony, what’s going on?”
“A stalker has taken Greg,” I replied. “I’m going to get him back.”
“Oh god,” she sobbed. “I’m taking the phone to Dante now.”
I heard movement and muted conversation before Dante came on the line. “Boss. Liz said Greg’s been kidnapped?”
“Yes. Can you come to my apartment now?”
“You bet. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Bring your sidearm.”
“Yes sir.”
Liz came back on. “He’s changing now. Is there someone else I can call?”
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “I’ll call Hunter and Isaac from here.”
“Isaac’s out of town this weekend,” Liz said.
“Dammit. Okay. I have to go.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
I hung up before she could say anything else. I couldn’t deal with platitudes at the moment.
What did the stalker mean I’d taken from him?
Taken what? Did he mean because I’d started dating Greg?
It sounded personal. Like he was trying to get back at me.
But what for? Something was niggling in the back of my mind.
Something I was forgetting. I pushed it aside.
“Okay, focus,” I murmured. I pulled up Hunter’s contact and hit his number.
He answered on the second ring. “Hey, Tony. What can I do for you?”
I didn’t mince words. “Greg’s been kidnapped and I need your help.”
Hunter muttered a string of curses. “Hold on. I’m in the grocery store. Let me go outside so I have more privacy.”
There was a moment of muffled sound and then the noise of cars passing by and horns blaring. “Okay, I’m out of earshot of anyone who might be listening. Read me in.”
I told him everything I knew up to that moment, including the flowers and the note. “How soon can you get to my apartment? I’m on West 30th, two blocks from Penn Station.”
“I’m not far from my apartment. I’ll have to go home to change and get my firearm. I can take the 1 train straight to Penn Station. Maybe twenty minutes?”
I gave him my address. “Okay. I’ll let the security guard know you’re coming.
” I ended the call, thankful it wasn’t rush hour yet.
The subway was a mess during rush hour and everything took twice as long.
I then called down to the security desk to tell them about my expected guests.
Before I could get a word out, the guard said, “I was just about to call, Mr. D’Angelo.
A Mr. Vitale and Mr. Riccio are here to see you. ”
“Good,” I replied. “Send them up.”
There was the sound of another man’s voice, and then the security guard came back, sounding anxious. “There’s a second Mr. Riccio here who insists he should be going up with the other two.”
I sighed quietly. That would be Gio’s brother Alessandro. And people thought I was overprotective. “It’s fine. Send him up.”
He hesitated, then asked, “Are you expecting more people, Mr. D’Angelo?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Dante Carter, who should be here soon, and Hunter McLaughlin. Sorry, I forgot to call you about the other three.”
“No worries, Mr. D’Angelo. Thanks for letting me know about the rest. I’ll send them right up when they get here.”
I still had my phone to my ear when someone knocked on my apartment door.
I quickly ended the call and hurried to open the door.
Of course Alessandro was the one who knocked.
I opened the door wide and gestured for him to enter.
He walked past me with a short nod, his eyes scanning my apartment.
As he went to open my bedroom door, Salvatore snapped, “Alessandro, that’s enough. Anthony is family.”
Alessandro clenched his jaw and nodded. “Yes, Mr. Vitale.”
Sal came to me and pulled me into a tight hug. “We’ll get him back.”
Tears stung my eyes, and I held on to him so I wouldn’t fly apart. “Thanks,” I said hoarsely.
When I pulled away from him, I saw Gio standing uncertainly in the middle of the living room. “Gio, thanks for coming. Would you prefer the table or my desk?”
The young dark-haired man gazed from my small wooden desk to my round kitchen table, where Greg’s laptop sat, and said, “Table. It’ll give me more room.”
I nodded and left him to it, going to answer another knock on my door, which I assumed was Dante. Unfortunately, Alessandro beat me to it. When he opened the door, Dante took a step back and fell into a defensive stance, his right hand reaching inside his light jacket. “Who the fuck are you?”
I’d forgotten Dante hadn’t been on the last personnel extraction mission. I hurried to get between the two men. “It’s all right, Dante. This is Alessandro. He’s part of my cousin Sal’s protection detail.”
He relaxed, straightened, and dropped his hand. “Oh. Sorry, man. I didn’t know.” Alessandro grunted and walked back into the living room.
Dante watched him go. “Pleasant fellow,” he said quietly.
I shrugged. “What are you gonna do? Come on in, and I’ll introduce you to everyone else.”
“Who all is coming?” Dante asked. “And why is your cousin here?”
“Hunter’s on his way and should be here soon.” I then explained how Sal had gotten involved and what Gio would be doing for us.
Dante was wide-eyed by the time I finished. “Wow, that was a stroke of good luck.”
“Yes, it was. And I’m lucky you and Hunter are available. Isaac is out of town, and the rest of the search-and-rescue operatives are either too new or on their way to Indonesia.”
“That’s right, I forgot. Marco is going to be pissed he wasn’t here to help.”
“Yeah. The timing really sucks,” I replied.
There was another knock on the door, and I didn’t bother going to answer it. I gestured to Alessandro, knowing he was just doing his job. Besides, he knew Hunter, so the potential for bullets flying was much lower.
When the door opened, I heard Hunter say, “Hey, Alessandro. Good to see you again.”
My cousin’s bodyguard merely nodded and said, “Hunter.”
Hunter came to stand with Dante and me. “Tony, I was thinking about that note. There’s got to be more to it.”
“Are you talking about the note that came with the black roses?” Dante asked.
“What note?” Sal asked.
I repeated what Liz had told me about the flowers and the note. There was still that insistent thought in the back of my mind that I was missing something important.
“It’s personal,” Sal said. “It’s not only about Greg. It’s about something you did.”
I threw up my hands. “But I don’t even know who this is.”
“But you must have tracked other stalkers in the past,” Hunter said.
“Yeah, we do from time to time.” Dante agreed. He gestured with his chin toward Hunter. “Like with your cute little redhead.”
I shook my head. “There’s no way it’s Brent Oberman. He never even knew I was part of the search.”
Sal glanced over at Gio. “Check out that name anyway. Where’s he from?”
“Chicago.”
“On it,” Gio murmured, reminding me of Michael. God, I missed my brothers right now.
“Wait,” Dante said. “Didn’t you get famous after finding Jeremy’s stalker?”
I waggled my hand. “Not exactly famous, but well-known to the right people. But that was almost ten years ago, and that guy went to prison. It turned out he’d stalked a couple of other men and drugged and raped one of them.
They couldn’t find him using DNA at the time because he wasn’t in the system for anything.
They only found out after he was brought in for questioning when we tracked him down…
” I stopped speaking. “Oh shit. The food delivery. He did the same thing with Jeremy. He delivered food to his dressing room door after a concert at Carnegie Hall. Luckily, one of the security guards saw him and he ran away.”
“What food delivery?” Hunter asked.
I told them about the supposedly mistaken food delivery the day before.
“I’ll bet that was him,” Dante said.
“Are you sure he’s still in prison?” Sal asked.
“I don’t know. Jeremy never said he got a letter notifying him he’d gotten out.”
“Name?” Sal demanded.
“Paul Langer.” Oh fuck. It felt like all the blood drained from my face. My knees started to give out, and I would have gone down if Hunter hadn’t grabbed hold of my arm and guided me to the sofa. “The email Greg got was from someone calling themselves Paul Jameson.”
“Gio’s checking the police database.”
“How the…” I stopped and shook my head. I didn’t want to know. I was kicking myself. I’d never given my past cases any thought. It never occurred to me that it could have something to do with me. This was my fault.
“Nope,” Dante said emphatically.
I blinked and stared at him. “What?”
He shook his head. “I know that expression. You’re blaming yourself. It’s not your fault. This Paul guy is a sick fuck who should have never seen the light of day after he got caught.”
“But…”
“He’s right,” Hunter said.
“Found him,” Gio announced. “Paul Langer was released from prison on February tenth. His listed address is in Brooklyn. He has a criminal no-contact order for Jeremy Fitzgerald and the other two men he stalked.” He got up from the table, bringing his laptop with him.
He turned it so I could see the screen. “Do you recognize him?”
My breath caught in my throat. It was the man from Central Park.