2. Marco
CHAPTER 2
MARCO
“Marco, I have a job for you.” Bianca Gallo swept into my rooms without so much as a knock, a privilege of being the boss, I supposed. Everything here belonged to her and we served at her leisure.
“What kind of job?” I asked.
“The Mancinis offered me their daughter if I could get her back from her captors. If you can get her out, you can have her.”
I stared at her for a long moment. “Do we know where she’s being held?”
Bianca shrugged. “I imagine if her family could’ve found her themselves, they would’ve done so. Do you want her or not?”
I had grown plenty used to Bianca’s impatience, her need for impossible questions to be answered immediately. I could always reject the girl later, so for now I agreed. “I’ll take care of it.”
Bianca nodded decisively. “Good. Their family is beloved for their nauseating work with the poor in their district, so we might as well take advantage of their goodwill with the community and solidify a deeper alliance, even if they do insult me by thinking their daughter would be good enough for me.”
I read between those lines. The Mancini girl wasn’t good enough for Bianca, but she was good enough for me. Being near the top meant we could take on what Bianca found to be unsavory while still giving her the credit.
“I’m taking their restaurant as payment. They’re close enough to Rossi territory we can use it to run drugs through their kitchens, and I needed a new money-laundering front anyway. He was so desperate for our help that he promised anything I wanted.”
One thing I’d learned in my time serving Bianca was to never offer her anything she wanted or she’d take everything someone could offer just because.
I had grown up under the thumb of the Gallos, worked my way up to underboss, but Bianca didn’t give a shit about hierarchy behind closed doors and treated us all however she pleased. Her father, Darius, had been the opposite, enforcing harsh protocol with everyone, though they both ran this family with an iron fist, and I couldn’t decide whether he or his daughter might be worse.
Bianca’s power, while absolute on the south side of the river, had been coming under threat as of late. She needed to boost her resources to take on what we were all coming to see was a looming war. The dividing lines in the sand had been widening for years until it was painfully clear who was on top. Both the Gallos and the Rossis had been shoring up their alliances for decades, with the Gallos firmly holding south of the river and the Rossis controlling the north. The only real hold out was Romano territory, which spanned both sides of the river to the east and controlled one of the bridges. The only way for the Rossis or Gallos to expand their empires was into the territory of the other. I only wondered how long it would take for us to hit a boiling point and spill into war.
“Try not to bother Enzo with this,” Bianca added. “I have him monitoring the idiotic Cafaro uprising. I don’t want his attention diverted.”
Well, there went my plan. “Of course. I’ll handle it.”
“I want her matebonded once you find her. Take her to the club once she’s secured.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bianca left me without a goodbye. The agreement was easy on my tongue, but my mind immediately erupted into a string of curses. This went beyond ‘jump’ and ‘how high?’. Omegas were bartered and sold in the mafia all the time, creating alliances with marriage and bondings, but I had never been asked to do that. Fuck. I could worry about that aspect later. First I needed to locate the omega.
I’d need Enzo’s help if I wanted to find the girl quickly, so I’d have to just ignore her order not to bother him. The man was a fucking bloodhound. He could find anyone if you gave him enough time, no matter how much they didn’t want to be found. I did have one thing on my side, though. While whoever took the Mancini girl wanted her off the radar, she certainly didn’t share that desire.
I knew every single street in this city under Gallo influence, and it was easy enough to find the small section where the Mancinis maintained some semblance of control. As long as Bianca allowed them to do so, of course.
I pulled into the small parking lot and beelined for the hole-in-the-wall restaurant that smelled like heaven the second I’d breached the doorway. Everyone froze and turned to me, waiting in silence to see if I had brought violence to their door.
I hadn’t. At least not today.
“Bring me Mancini,” I told the hostess. “Table for two in the meantime.”
They hustled one couple out of their table and hastily cleaned it so I would have a seat in the packed venue. Someone ran into the kitchen and a server promptly took my order, bringing me a glass of wine on their way.
I hadn’t even gotten through my glass when Joe Mancini, the family’s don, sat down across from me.
“You’re here about my daughter? Bianca never responded.”
“I’m her response. We’ll get your girl out, but don’t have any ideas about using her to elevate your family. Once we get her out she’ll be mine, not Bianca’s.”
He stared at me, and I could see in his eyes that he was weighing whether I would be better or worse for his daughter than Bianca would be. All he said was “We’re grateful for your assistance.”
“Where was she taken from and how long ago?” I asked.
He gave me every bit of detail they had collected, a clear picture of what had happened coalescing in my brain. Either this was a bold-as-hell abduction, or the Mancini girl had disappeared on her own. Girls in the life were always making stupid decisions, either in a desperate bid to get out or in trying to climb the ladder. Gianna Mancini had disappeared out of her bed three days ago. A lot could happen in seventy-two hours. She could be on another continent by now. But if she had been abducted and hadn’t left on her own, it was likely she was still close by.
“Please,” Joe said softly. “Gianna is the best thing I’ve done with my life and I couldn’t protect her. Take care of her.”
I didn’t tell him I would, but I did nod. Let him have that much security at least.
We weren’t supposed to target the children of the family heads, but not everyone played by the rules. The Mancinis certainly weren’t influential enough to scare anyone. They cultivated their power by being helpful, not with fear like Bianca did.
I indulged myself in some manicotti during Joe’s explanation before setting out on my mission again.
Gianna’s photo was saved in my phone so I could identify her if I found her. She looked the picture of a peppy blonde, with big hair, and big lashes over blue eyes. If— when I saved her, she’d be mine. Staring at the face of my omega without ever having met her was bizarre. Whoever had taken her would pay, and then I would make her mine and take her home. At least the compound was more secure than the Mancini household.
I dialed Enzo’s number and spilled all the details a half second after he grunted his version of a hello.
He sent me back a list of holding sites they had uncovered from some local traffickers. “Try these. If she’s not there, come back.”
“Will do. Thanks, Enzo.”
If Gianna was with the traffickers, it was in both of our best interests to move quickly. No sense in her suffering needlessly. Abuse of all sorts wasn’t out of the ordinary for omegas in the mafia, but not all of them handled it well. I wasn’t going to mate a husk of a person.
I called up one of our teams and gave them the addresses to scope out before heading to the first spot on the list myself. A fair few of the locations were simply houses where no one would notice the comings and goings of the people there. They would be easy enough to check quickly before moving on. Between all of us, we would be able to scope out the most likely place the Mancini girl might be held, assuming that she was even with traffickers right now.
I kept a palm-sized drone in my vehicle for reconnaissance. If I saw anything useful, I would be able to send the team in for recovery. The camera feed showed the drone zipping through the air and ducking down behind the hedges, and I carefully maneuvered it up to each of the windows. Granted they probably wouldn’t keep trafficking victims where they were easy to spot, but at least this way I could get the lay of the land. They were working on the edge of Gallo and Rossi territory, a dangerous place to be with tensions increasing between the two families every day.
A message came through my phone.
Mario:
Blondie’s at the warehouse
Fuck. That would be a lot more work to get her out.
An image from the drone followed in the next message. It was grainy from the filthy windows, and the girl looked worse for wear, but I was reasonably certain that was our target.
I messaged back the entire team.
Marco:
Figure out their schedule
We’re moving in as quickly as we can
By the time I arrived, my team was assembled.
“Looks like there’s only five men on site,” Federico told me. “One for each of us?”
I nodded. “How many victims?”
“Three that I’ve been able to see with the drone.”
Bianca didn’t give a shit about trafficking happening in her territory. She got a cut of the money and that was all the persuasion she needed to allow it. I didn’t personally like it, but trying to fight Bianca Gallo was asking for a bullet in your head, so I let it be.
I didn’t report back that Gianna had been found with the traffickers, half wondering if Bianca would call me off and let the girl be sold even though we had told the Mancinis we would get her back.
I didn’t want any of my men to die on a rescue mission, but with equal odds against the traffickers, that was a possibility.
“Everyone have a vest on?” I asked.
The men around me nodded.
“We move in on their next break change. Federico and I will go for the girls; the rest of you take out the traffickers. No one die.”
They chuckled, though I was being completely serious.
We moved like a well-oiled machine, and the moment one of the traffickers stepped through the door to take their break and replace who was there, I put a silenced bullet in each of them.
The others moved swiftly, slipping inside without a sound. The traffickers wouldn’t be expecting any pushback in Bianca’s territory. That was probably why there were so few of them. I was more than willing to use their arrogance against them.
I fucking loved watching the men I had trained work. When I’d been young, Bianca had seen my potential in training, how my men naturally deferred to me and improved under my instruction. I had personally trained the majority of the capos serving under Bianca, and whenever I doubted my skills, I was reminded of my expertise when I put my people through their paces on missions. I followed inside after a moment, not waiting for their go-ahead that everything had been handled because I wasn’t about to let them have all of the fun.
Two of the traffickers were already on the ground.
“Where’s number five?”
Federico gestured to an office on the second level. I didn’t like him having that sort of advantage over us, but if we could get the girls out while he was busy hiding, that would be ideal.
Mario busted open the locks with a crowbar, the women inside pressing against the far wall. My men snatched out two of the girls, their survival instincts kicking on with struggles and screams, but Gianna stayed as far back as she could.
“Gianna Mancini?” I asked.
“Who wants to know?”
I reached for her, a tendril of her sweet peach tea scent bursting through the grime, and the world tilted on its axis, my back slamming down against the concrete, knocking the wind from me. Gianna sprinted away, and I cursed, barely able to breathe as I struggled to my feet and went after her.
A bullet zinged past and I tackled her behind some shelving, the two of us crashing into the concrete.
She immediately began to struggle.
“Hold still for one fucking second.”
Her response to that was a swift punch to the face I wasn’t expecting. She bolted once more, actually making it to the doors.
Note to self: Gianna Mancini is a fucking hellion.
“Fucking Christ. Federico, cover me.”
The gunfire ceased with one well-aimed bullet on his part, the body of our last assailant collapsing over the railing and landing with a damp thud. I took off after the Mancini hellcat. She might be feisty, but few people could outrun me for long.
I locked my fingers into those blonde waves and yanked her to a stop, wrestling her straight to the ground where she wouldn’t be able to pull any surprise moves on me again. “Do you want to get out of here or not? You keep kicking up a goddamn fuss and their backup is going to get here before you can get anywhere. Also, you hit me again and your ass will be so red you won’t be able to sit for a week. Am I clear?”
“Fuck you.”
Might as well start now. I smacked her ass without regard for my strength and she yelped, her struggles renewing.
“Let me go,” she ordered.
“Absolutely not. Your father came to the Gallos and we came for you. You belong to me now.”