Chapter Twenty One
I am pacing the surgery waiting room, praying Giovanni makes it through. He took a round to the back and one to the belly. Ayla must have been the one to call the cops before she was taken, before they traced the call and found him.
We know that Josh isn’t going to kill her.
His goal is to get a baby out of her, so I am confident she will stay at one of his properties.
We can’t just go rushing all of them, or we will get her killed, so we have to be patient.
She knew what this would look like if he got her, but she can survive this. She will. I won’t accept anything else.
“Family for Davis?” a man says, stepping into the room.
“Yes,” I say. “That’s us.”
“Okay,” he says, coming in and shutting the door. “Giovanni is out of surgery and doing well. He lost a lot of blood, but we were able to get him stabilized. He got really lucky and nothing major was damaged.”
“Is he awake?” I ask.
“Yes, and he is asking for Ayla?” the doctor tells us. “You can go see him. He is in room 303.”
“Thank you so much,” I say.
“He will be here for a few days, so it’s important that he gets rest. If he tears any of those sutures, he could bleed out,” he warns us. Based on how he is looking at us, he knows Ayla is missing, and Giovanni has told him who my family is.
“We will make sure he stays in bed,” I confirm.
When we leave the room and get into the elevator, Reid sighs. “I hate this,” Reid says tightly. “We should be out there looking for her.”
“We both know Josh only wants one thing from her. Dad is on his way up here, but when I told him about all of this, he even said she will survive, but she might end up pregnant in the process. We just need to look for her but not trigger them into panicking and killing her. They don’t know who my family is yet, so we need to keep it that way. ”
“Yeah,” Reid says, sniffing back tears. “I don’t want anyone to hurt her again. She’s been through enough.”
“Then we need to set emotion aside for a moment and be logical. I would love to go slaughtering people one by one until I find our girl, but we need to help Gio heal and let Dad help us. Josh Larson has over twenty properties in just the United States alone. He won’t risk taking her out of the country, so he will keep her at one of the houses he has here.
He won’t go far, which leaves a few options,” I say.
“Let’s just talk to Gio and wait for Dad. ”
“I know. I love and hate you can be so level-headed,” Reid says as we step out onto the third floor. We both take a deep breath before we enter, and Giovanni perks up a bit.
“Where is she? Is she okay? You found her, right?” Giovanni asks, his voice slightly slurred from the pain medicine. He tries to sit up, but winces.
“Sit back,” I say, helping to lift the head of his bed before I sit next to him. A sad demeanor washes over him, and he knows. I take his hand as Reid walks around to sit on his other side.
“Is she…”
“She’s gone,” I say. “Dad is on his way up here. I think he likely took her to one of his houses; we just don’t know which one.”
“But can we find her?” he asks.
“We have to do this very slowly and methodically,” I say.
“He’s raping her, Thane. You get that, right?” he snaps at me.
“I know he is, and he will fucking die for it, but right now, we have to be logical,” I say.
“My father is the most well-known mafia boss in the country. Meridian is my mother’s last name, and I am separate from them because I wanted to live normally.
If Josh finds that out, he will kill her on the spot. ”
“Fuck,” Giovanni sighs.
“She’s a strong woman,” Reid says.
“She is. I just don’t want anyone to hurt her. What if he does get her pregnant?” Giovanni questions.
“Then we handle it,” I say. “Biology doesn't matter, and we will raise that baby just the same. If she wants to have an abortion, we will be there for her every step of the way. If she wants to give it up for adoption, we will help her choose the perfect parents. We don’t have to overcomplicate things.”
“How long do you think this will take?” Giovanni asks me.
“Months,” I hear from behind me. I turn, and Dad is standing in the doorway with my mother.
“Hey,” I say with a heavy sigh as I stand. Dad hugs me so tightly that it throws me off for a moment.
“I know asking for any help was hard for you, son. Thank you for trusting me with this,” Dad says.
“Hey, baby,” Mom says, hugging me next.
“This is Giovanni,” I say. “He was shot twice but just some blood loss.”
“You got lucky, son,” Dad says, shaking his hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
“You too,” Giovanni says. “You can find her, right?”
“I will have my men discreetly try to find out where she is first. He will more than likely keep her in one place to prevent moving her around. He’s been looking for someone to give him an heir, and he has a lot of enemies, so if he wants an heir, he won’t risk anyone being able to get to her.”
“What do we know about him?” I ask. “Is she safe, all things considered?”
“He doesn’t seem to hurt any of the girls he keeps for himself.
When they leave him, they are usually either free or sold to someone else.
He’s had a couple of women knocked up, but someone always gets to her and kills her.
This last one killed herself by jumping out of a hotel balcony when she was almost due,” Dad says.
“So if he said he wants to get her pregnant, he won’t let her out of his sight.
They will probably hold up on one property.
As long as she doesn’t piss him off, she will just have to deal with the rapes.
He may share her with his men, but again, in his immediate circle, I've never known the girls to get physically hurt.”
“And if she fights or runs?” I ask.
“Honestly, he will probably cut her feet off if she runs,” Dad says.
“What the fuck?” Giovanni asks.
“We’ve had this talk before,” Reid says with a sigh. “She knows if he takes her, she has to just let him do what he wants, or she risks getting hurt. He has a goal and sees her as an object. She needs to be that object, or he will make her into what he wants.”
“Exactly,” Dad says.
“I’m only worried about her attitude,” I say. “She is… strong-willed.”
“Well, I hope you taught her how to fully submit at Meridian, son, because sassing Josh Larson will get her tongue cut out,” Dad says bluntly.
“No… She will be okay. She knows there are lines she cannot cross. She will get right up on them, but she won’t get herself killed.”
“Where is she?” Allison demands, running into the room. Jerry grabs her waist and keeps her in place as I dump it all out for her. She breaks down and starts crying, but she is firm with her response. “She is a survivor. My baby girl is a survivor. I’ll find her myself if I have to.”
“She will be just fine if she is as strong-willed as you,” Dad says to Allison. “I’ll say, though, Ayla is just as beautiful as her mother.”
“Dude, her husband is right there,” Reid says with a half-hearted smile. Dad grins at Jerry. Jerry just smiles and shakes his head, telling me they know each other.
“Shut up, Victor,” Allison says with a tearful laugh as Mom hugs her.
“Y’all know each other?” I ask.
“Yeah, Jerry was my childhood friend,” Dad says. “Allison and your aunt Kristy were friends. Aunt Kristy died in a wreck a few years ago, and it nearly destroyed Mom. It makes sense she’d get close with her friend. I am wondering if there is any connection between everything and Lenord, though.”
“Did you all know her biological father?” I ask.
“Lenord? Yeah, he was a sketchy motherfucker. I don’t know what exactly he did, but he worked for Josh and Joe’s father until he died.”
“That’s how it’s connected. He worked for the Mafia.
So when they connected her to me through Meridian, they knew exactly how to find her,” I say.
“We had a janitor there that was caught hacking the system last week.
We couldn't see if he did anything, but clearly he did. She tried to call the office, but it was routed to his phone.”
“So we just sit here… and wait?” Giovanni asks.
“We quietly investigate,” I say. “When we know for sure where she is, we can make plans on getting to her. Until then, we just pray she can play along with whatever it is he wants her to do.”