Chapter Forty-Nine
Lucas
My mind is still stuck on the information Vitale’s nephew gave me.
The city blurs past my windows in streaks of streetlight and shadows, but I barely register any of it.
Everything loops in my head like a broken record—the dock, the dead men, the masked shooters, the Chicago Outfit.
Something’s off. There’s something we’re missing.
Something that keeps nagging at the back of my conscience and won’t let go.
I press harder on the gas. There’s only one thing, or rather, one person who can calm the storm raging inside me. Chiara. My wife.
I should’ve called or texted her. I should’ve done something other than disappear into work again like a fucking idiot.
The last days have been strained, I’d been busy with the investigation, leaving early and returning late.
But every time I came home to her, my mind settled, business slipping into the background when I gathered her in my arms and inhaled her like a junkie.
The only thing I want right now is to get home to see her.
To smell her, taste her, bury myself inside her and forget everything else.
I can’t comprehend this visceral need to be balls deep inside her, to own her in more than a physical level.
All I know is that she is the reason I breathe.
The truth slams into me—I can’t live without her. I don’t want to live without her. Fuck.
The Aston roars as I take a turn a little too fast. I force my fingers to unclench from the wheel, but it barely helps. I’m fucking anxious to get home to her. Once I get back, I’ll pull her in my arms and—
Headlights explode in my peripheral vision, blinding me for a fraction.
“What the—”
A massive dark SUV slams into the passenger side. The impact is violent, bone-shaking. Metal screeches, the sound high and deafening. The car spins, and I become weightless. My head whips forward and agonizing pain cracks through my temple.
Adrenaline invades my bloodstream and I reach instinctively for my weapon. But my hand gets crushed between my back and the seat, preventing me from pulling the gun out of my back holster. Right before everything goes black, one last vicious thought registers in my mind.
I should’ve taken the SUV with the concealed weapon in the center console.
My vision blurs and my body becomes weightless. I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.
“Lucas…” Chiara’s voice whispers softly in my head.
Then there’s only darkness.
* * * *
A needling burn throbs painfully in my skull, dragging me gradually up from the dark.
For a moment I just breathe, cataloging every pain in my body.
My ribs hurt, one is probably cracked. Arms and legs seem fine.
My nose and face are stinging and the metallic tang of blood lingers in my mouth.
But the worst pain is the slow, dizzying beat in my skull.
I register that I am in a sitting position, head slumped against my chest. Hands tied behind my back.
My eyes snap open, even though I keep my head bowed and remain immobile as not to alert whoever has taken me. Because this is a fucking kidnapping.
Flashes from the scene earlier replay in my head. The massive black SUV swerving into view. The crunch of metal folding around me. The world flipping as my car turned over. The airbag detonating, smashing into my face. A sharp sting at my cheek. My head hitting something. Then blackness.
Footsteps break the silence, and a pair of expensive black leather shoes appear in my line of sight.
“Well, well. Looks like you’re finally awake,” a cold voice drawls.
I know that voice. I snap my head up, despite the dizziness. There’s no mistake, Lorenzo Vitale is staring coldly down at me from a mere foot away.
“Vitale,” I rasp, my throat feels like it’s filled with sawdust. “I knew I smelled something rotten.”
Instead of a reply, his hand snaps out faster than I can brace. A vicious backhand cracks across my cheek. My head whips sideways and white-hot pain flares in my skull.
I spit blood onto the floor and grin up at him. “That’s all you’ve got? I’ve had rougher mornings.”
Another blow, a closed fist this time, splits my lower lip and makes my vision blur.
“I’d watch my tone if I were you,” he replies, wiping his knuckles with a handkerchief. “You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“Yeah?” I rasp. “Then why am I still breathing?”
Vitale smiles and I have the uneasy feeling that I won’t like what he’s about to say.
“Because killing you now would complicate things. I need you alive to make your wife listen to my offer.”
My breath whooshes out of my lungs at his words. My wife.
He sees my flinch, and another slow malicious smile curls up his lips.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” he drones on, circling behind me then back into view, like a lion around its prey.
“I know everything that matters. Your hasty little wedding, your eagerness to keep things quiet. You thought this would protect her?” He laughs softly. “Nothing can protect her from me.”
My blood turns molten. “If you go anywhere near her—”
A brutal hook to the jaw cuts me off. Pain radiates through my skull, and my vision turns black for a fraction.
“I already have,” he replies calmly. “As we speak, she’s on her way here for our little reunion party.”
I barely swallow the growl threatening to tear out of me. “What the fuck do you want, Vitale?”
He stops moving and looks at me with a cruel smirk. “Simple. Chiara is going to divorce you, and you’re going to tell her to sign the papers.”
“Not a chance,” I bark. I start to pull at my restraints, not caring that the zip ties cut painfully into my skin.
“She will,” he says, voice steady. “And she’ll marry me. That’s the only way it ends.”
My pulse thunders in my ears, drowning out every other noise. “Why her? You barely even know her.”
For the first time his facade cracks, letting me get a glimpse of something dark and cruel underneath.
“Oh, I know exactly who she is. She’s the heiress of the Bianchi legacy.
A heritage that was supposed to be mine.
I made the agreement with her mother but things…
didn’t turn out as expected thanks to your interference.
” He sends me a venomous glare before going on.
“But soon, all she has will be mine, all her family estates in Italy. Especially…” he leans in and murmurs darkly next to my ear. “...the port of Napoli.”
The words slam into me, making my breath hitch in my throat. Napoli…Naples.
He leans back and watches the realization bloom. “There it is,” he whispers, “the moment the pieces finally click in that thick skull of yours.”
My mind races. The shipments, the dead men at the docks. The threat didn’t come from Florida as we suspected, but from Italy. Then another realization hits me. The organization spreading like rot in our city.
“Manticore,” I growl.
His smile widens.
“You’re part of it.” I breathe with disbelief, rage courses through me, hot and deadly, permeating every cell of my body.
“Leading it,” he corrects me in a bored tone.
“Your little interferences were minor inconveniences, nothing more. But once Chiara is mine…the world opens. Your group is standing between me and my plans. I will wipe your little family out and take over the docks in Boston, too. Once both ports are mine, nothing will stop me. I’ll have a direct route for my shipments through two continents. ”
Motherfucker, we’ve been so blind.
“Chiara will never agree to marry you, even less when she knows that you are the one behind Manticore,” I spit out.
“Oh, but she will.” He smirks ominously. “And you will help me to convince her, she’ll obey you. Tell her you married her out of duty or whatever you need to say to make her divorce you and marry me.”
“Over my dead body,” I growl, struggling harder against the restraints.
He chuckles darkly. “I don’t even need your cooperation. Her mother assured me she was perfectly trained. She’ll obey me.”
I grind my teeth around the taste of blood in my mouth. Obey… No, she definitely obeys no one. Not my fierce little warrior. You’re in for a hell of a surprise, motherfucker. But I won’t let it go that far, I won’t let her fall into the hands of this monster.
“Of course, there is a second option,” he goes on. “I could make her a widow and force her to marry me, but where would be the fun?”
“You fucking—”
Another punch makes my head snap back, and when I straighten, blood trickles down my jaw.
“You’re going to listen very carefully now,” he says. “You will not tell Chiara anything about this conversation. Not about Napoli. Not about Manticore. If she so much as suspects a thing, she suffers. And unlike you, Romano, she’s not built to withstand pain.”
My stomach knots, but I keep my face stone-still. He watches for a reaction, but I give him nothing.
“Now, here’s the part where you behave. You’re going to play along.
Sign whatever is necessary. Make the separation smooth.
And in return…” He shrugs casually. “I only kill you. I can set her up in a villa in Italy and she can finish her life peacefully in her family’s vineyards.
Or she will suffer misfortune just after our marriage before joining you at the bottom of the sea. The choice is entirely yours.”
I gnash my teeth so hard it’s a miracle they don’t crack.
He waits in silence.
Chiara’s face flashes before my eyes. Her luminous eyes, her soft smile, the graceful curve of her neck where I want to sink my face to inhale her.
Can I give her this last gift? Her freedom.
Life far away from Boston and the famiglia, like she wanted.
I can barely breathe around the knot in my chest. I’m as good as dead. I won’t drag her down with me.
I force myself to meet his gaze, schooling my face into a flat, empty mask. “Fine,” I say. “I’ll play along if you promise you won’t touch her. Untie me and I’ll sign.”
He stills, lips curling up in a victorious snarl. “We have a deal.”
I swallow the acid rising in my throat. “Just…don’t hurt her.”
Lorenzo’s smile widens. “Cooperation suits you.” He steps back, satisfied.
I bow my head. Not in defeat, but to hide the murder blazing behind my eyes. I’m getting out of here. I’m going to kill him. Or I’ll die trying.
Two minutes later, I sign the papers with a shaky hand while two of his guards stand with a gun trained to my head. They tie my hands again and shove me unceremoniously back into the chair.
His phone buzzes and he casts a glance at the screen.
“Looks like our little bride has arrived.” He smirks. “Remember, you have the choice of how and when her life will end.”