44. Chapter 44
Callahan
A loud bang woke me, the sound jolting my brain online. I looked around frantically for a moment, trying to comprehend why my arms wouldn’t work. I looked up, immediately regretting the movement when my head throbbed painfully. My arms were chained to a meathook above my head and my arse was numb from sitting on the cold concrete floor. I shifted and immediately wished I hadn’t as the gun shot in my thigh flared with white-hot pain. Glancing down, the blood spotted across my shirt caused a moment of alarm before I forced my breathing to even out.
The last thing I needed was to lose consciousness again, and judging by the blood on my clothes and the pain in my face that flared with each heartbeat, it wouldn’t be long before I passed out again.
Before that happened, I took stock of my surroundings. The warehouse was bare-bones, with nothing inside but a stack of pallets in the corner and a few chairs scattered around a plastic table. Men milled about, no more than ten, but I knew there were more outside. I imagined Hajek was around somewhere, but I doubted Fern had stuck around a place like this. She was way too prissy to hang around a dirty warehouse like this one.
Maybe if I could get my arms off the chain, I could take out at least two of the guys before more came rushing in. My injuries would definitely hamper my escape attempt, but I had to try something.
It played out like an action movie in my head, how I would fight off at least a few of the men before I was overpowered and probably shot again.
My planning was interrupted by a series of gunshots just outside the warehouse. The few men in the warehouse scattered, making a run for the exits, guns raised. My heart jumped into my throat and I immediately began trying to dislodge the chains wrapped around the hook above my head, gritting my teeth through the pain radiating around my body.
I tried to determine what was happening outside based on the sounds I could hear through the busted windows, but all I could make out was a gun fight, shouts and, occasionally, the sound of an engine revving.
No matter how I moved, I couldn’t get the fecking chains off the damn hook. My adrenaline was flagging, the tranquilizers and blood loss making me dizzy and weak. I fought it, blinking rapidly to clear my blurry vision and shaking my arms violently, despite the tremor in my muscles. Still, the chains wouldn’t dislodge.
Suddenly, the noise outside stopped, the silence following interrupted only by grunting and shouts of, “Let me go!”
“Move!” a voice grunted back. The voice tickled something in the back of my foggy mind, a blurry face appearing behind my drooping lids. I shook my head, trying to force my eyes to focus, to open fully. The movement made my head swim worse and I lost my balance, falling to my knees, my arms yanked above my head again as fire burned in my thigh, causing me to cry out involuntarily. My head felt too heavy for my neck, lolling down until my chin rested on my chest, more blood dripping onto my shirt.
“Open it!” the same voice ordered, just before keyes jingled and a chain rattled loudly as it was pulled away. The door at the front of the long warehouse slid to the side with the loud screeching of old metal on even older hinges. The sunlight burst through and I squinted, turning my face away from the bright glare that sent ice picks stabbing into my pounding head.
Men flooded the warehouse and it took me far too long to recognize them as mine. Dario, Bryan and Finn were pushing men in front of them, holding guns to their heads and forcing them to their knees. Finn ordered another of our men, Stefan, to watch the man on the ground. As soon as his gun was replaced with Stefan’s, he raced towards me, sliding to his knees and gripping my head with both hands, his eyes running frantically over me. Other than the injuries from the beating and the one gunshot, I was okay.
“How are you, sir? Any immediate concerns?” He removed his belt and tied it painfully tight around my thigh before working to free my arms from the hook above. The moment my arms dropped and blood rushed to them, I almost passed out from the overwhelming tingles of pain. My fingers were white and blue, but they quickly turned an angry red.
I swallowed around a dry throat. “Where’s Rory?” I rasped. It was barely audible and my voice cracked under the pressure.
“She’s in the car, sir. I wrapped her in vests and made her swear to stay back. She’s been invaluable through all this, helped plan the attack and everything. It’s a long story, but when Bianchi called to tell us where you were, she’s the one that picked up on the clues he was dropping. She also pointed a gun at Marco’s head when he tried to order her to stay back.” He rambled to distract me from the pain as he untied my wrists and shook my arms, increasing the blood flow. Despite the dryness and pain, a weak chuckle slipped free. “At least, until he dropped the bomb that he’s her father.”
My eyes shot to his. “W-what?” I croaked.
He looked over his shoulder as he helped me stand. “Someone get the Boss some water!” he ordered. One of the men took off the way they came in, but before he cleared the exit he skidded to a stop, his hands raised. He slowly backed away.
Fern walked in, three men behind her. They all had guns, aiming them around the warehouse, each pointing at a different group of my men. Fern smiled directly at me.
“Well, my lovely ex-fiancée, what a nice surprise to see you awake and standing.” Her smile held just a little too much malice for someone with a gun pointed at my head. The men on their knees all jumped to their feet and rushed to stand behind Fern, disarming my men on their way.
I swallowed heavily and forced my words to scrape their way up my sore throat. “Can’t say I’m too pleased to see you, Frannie. What the feck were you thinking? You have to know, this is a war you can’t win.”
Her eyes gleamed with hate and vengeance. “I don’t need to win anything. I just need to fucking kill you.”
“Because I chose Rory over you?” I scoffed. “Even you aren’t that immature.” I was baiting, but I needed to kill time until whoever had stayed back with Rory got curious and came to investigate what was taking so long.
Finn whispered, “Rory thinks this is about Carlo,” just as Fern let out a high pitched screech that sent my drugged and concussed mind reeling. My head pounded and if Finn hadn’t had a firm grip on my arm, I might’ve fallen to my knees with my hands over my ears.
“YOU KILLED CARLO!” she screamed, waving the gun wildly.
I laughed before it cut off into a small moan, my ribs protesting. “I didn’t kill him, you crazy twat. Your father killed him.”
“Daddy would have never known about us if you could have kept your stupid fucking mouth shut! You and that whore just had to ruin everything! I was going to marry you and then inherit the Irish Mob when some tragic accident happened just weeks after our wedding!” She stomped her foot like a child as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Then Carlo was going to kill daddy and Marco and take over the Cosa. We would have been the most powerful couple in New York.” She sniffled and ran her wrist under her nose.
A flash of white-blonde hair peeked around the door behind Fern and her men, before disappearing again.
Rory, dear God, what are you doing?! Get back in the fecking car!!
My heart pounded at the thought of Rory and my unborn child so close to danger. I nudged Finn and he squeezed my bicep, acknowledging that he’d seen her, too.
“So, what? You’re gonna kill me? Avenge your dead lover? Then what, Fern? Your father is locked in my basement and facing a trial with the Concordia. You’re already going to be under investigation by association.”
As I spoke, Marco dashed across the doorway to the other side, peeking in with his gun raised before disappearing back behind the wall. Several of my men shifted their weight subtly, preparing for the ambush behind Fern.
Knowing I needed to keep her attention, I kept talking. “Whoever helped you pull this off will most likely go down with you. How’d you manage that, anyway? How many men did you have to blow to get this kind of help?”
She sneered at me. “You men are so stupid. A pair of tits and a pretty face, a wet cunt, and you’ll do anything we ask.”
“Where’s the pretty face?” Dario muttered, causing chuckles to erupt around the room. One of Fern’s men moved his gun. Dario jumped aside just as the gun went off. He grunted and looked down at his bicep, a disgruntled expression on his face. “Dammit, man. This is my best fuckin’ shirt!” Several more chuckles sounded, since Dario never wore anything other than a white button up and gray slacks. I shared a glance with Finn, unsure what Dario was doing since he wasn’t one to make jokes or put himself in unnecessary danger.
But then I saw it. The man that shot Dario had moved just two feet to the right, and now no one stood directly behind Fern. She was flanked on both sides, but no one stood directly behind her, leaving her back unprotected.
She cast an unconcerned look at Dario and then back to me, her lip pulled into a sneer. “Besides, you’ll all be dead and the only other person who knows who helped me is so far in daddy’s pockets that he wouldn’t dare betray me.”
As Rory appeared in the doorway, it took everything in me to keep my eyes on Fern and avoid tipping them off about the presence behind them.
The sun streamed in behind her, lighting her hair like a glowing halo. The anger on her face made her look like a beautiful, avenging angel.
What was probably only a second or two felt like thirty, until Rory grabbed a fistful of Fern’s hair and kicked her in the back of the leg, sending her to her knees. She lifted a knife to Fern’s throat in the same fluid movement and, despite my weak and drugged state, my cock made a valiant effort to twitch. It was more of just a tingle, but it tried.
“Cal may not, but I do,” Rory said loudly.
Chaos erupted as Fern’s men spun, but just as soon as they turned, the twins, Marco, and Nate burst through the door.
“Now, now, men, let’s be civilized,” Rory cooed in that annoyingly saccharine voice that made the men in our world assume she was just another dumb woman. Fern reached up and gripped the hand fisted in her hair, trying to ease the pressure or escape. “There’s no need for weapons, is there?” She gave her most imploring and cherubic smile, then let it drop as she lifted Fern’s chin, pressing the knife just a little harder into her skin. “Why don’t you hand them over, since you won’t be using them any time soon?”
Fern’s men hesitated and Rory tsked. She leaned down, looking into Fern’s face. “You know, sorella, we really need to break this habit. This is twice now that you’ve had a knife to your throat around Cal and me. I wonder why that is,” she said, feigning concern for her stepsister.
I needed to get to Rory. I needed her in my arms and then I was going to take her home and spank her pasty ass red for walking into a warehouse full of armed men. I pushed away from Finn, but my shaky legs wobbled beneath me and my injured leg gave out. Finn caught me and I grunted a thanks as Rory’s eyes locked on mine.
“I think we should let Mrs. Byrne handle this one, sir. She’s been beside herself since she found out you went missing,” Finn said quietly in my ear. “She kept it together and helped organize all this. Let her follow through and show the men they didn’t misplace their loyalty.”
I held Rory’s eyes for a moment, but her gaze said the same thing Finn had just murmured to me. I nodded and leaned more of my weight into my best friend.
“Tell me, Fern, did you really think Hajek would honor any kind of agreement you made with him?” Rory’s condescending chuckle echoed through the empty warehouse like windchimes. “He sells women, Fern. You were just a tool to get Cal out of the way. The moment you were no longer useful, he would have sold you to the highest bidder. Elio has so many enemies,” Rory said with false sadness. “How much do you think one of them would pay for the daughter of the man that screwed them over? Do you think they’d be kind to you?”
Fern jerked in Rory’s hold and let out a nasally stream of Italian curses and insults. Rory dragged her to her feet and then pushed her to Marco. “Put her in the back of the SUV. We’ll take her to see Elio, as promised.”
Rory finally, finally, made her way over to me. I immediately gripped the back of her neck and pressed my forehead to hers, my other hand pressed against the bullet proof vests, trying in vain to seek out our baby.
“Have you lost your mind, mo solas? What were you thinking?”
She rubbed her face against mine, her nose running along mine and across my cheek as she inhaled deeply, her lips gently brushing my bruised skin. “That my husband was missing, and then in danger, and that I couldn’t stand to see those guns pointed at you for one more second, because, I swear to god, Callahan, if anything happened to you…” She trailed off and swallowed heavily, her hands gripping my arms tightly. “I wouldn’t survive it,” she whispered.
I held her for a moment longer, my adrenaline flagging and my body losing whatever strength it had. Finn was there, my arm around his shoulders in seconds.
Rory wrapped my other arm around her shoulders, not that she’d be helping at all. “Let’s go home, mo phrionsa.”