Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
VANESSA
The last few days have been hell. I convinced Gino to let me stay at my place after just one night because of my work schedule and how awful I’ve been feeling. Awful as in barely eating and throwing up constantly. I tell myself it’s stress, because no one has heard from Mateo in three days.
Gino keeps saying he probably just doesn’t have service or Wi-Fi, but when I asked him yesterday, I saw the fear in his eyes.
Feeling a little better this morning, I decide not to call in sick again. Alonso is my ride to the hospital now. When I step outside, he’s leaning against his SUV, scrolling on his phone.
“Hey, Alonso,” I say, forcing a brighter tone than I feel.
“Hey, Ness,” he replies with a small grin. “You ready?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go.” He opens the passenger door for me, then climbs in and starts the engine. For once, he’s quiet.
A few minutes pass before he finally speaks. “I know you’re freaking out about Mateo. We all are. Gino’s been working nonstop, barely sleeping, calling everyone he knows, trying to track him down.”
At first, I thought Mateo just lost his phone or left it at the hotel.
After the first day with no word, everyone started to worry.
Gino sent Gabe to Italy to look for him, but so far he’s come up with nothing.
I don’t even know where all the money is coming from, but if it brings Mateo back, I don’t care.
My stomach rolls again, sharp and sudden. “Can you pull over?” I ask. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He eases the car to the side. “You okay? You don’t look good.”
“I really don’t feel great.”
The second he stops, I push the door open and throw up in the grass. When I straighten, I wipe my mouth, mortified. “Well, that’s embarrassing.”
He hands me a bottle of water and a napkin. “Here.”
“Thanks.”
“You’ve been sick for days now,” he says carefully. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Probably just stress. Or a stomach bug.” But my gut tells me it’s not that simple.
He hesitates, then glances at me. “Do you think you could be pregnant?”
I pause, caught off guard. “Um… doubtful.”
“Why?”
“TMI, but I was on birth control until recently. So I really don’t think so.”
“But it’s still possible, right?”
“I guess, but it’s highly unlikely.”
He nods. “You feeling okay enough to keep going?”
“Yeah,” I say, taking another sip of water. “Let’s go.”
The rest of the drive is quiet. All I can think about is what Alonso said.
The chances of me being pregnant are slim.
In nursing school, they always said it can take up to six months for your body to regulate after going off birth control, and I’ve only been off it for barely two.
I stopped taking it after that conversation in the diner about baby names, after Mateo blurted them out.
And before anyone thinks I didn’t tell him, I did.
We both agreed it would probably take months before anything happened.
We pull into the hospital garage. Alonso finally breaks the silence. “I’ll hang out in the lobby for a bit, then hang out in the car.”
We get out. As we walk toward the ER, he glances at me. “Listen, Ness, if you need anything, you tell me. Okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say, even though I don’t feel it. I catch the nervous look on his face. “I promise I’ll let you know if something happens.”
“Okay.”
He heads to the waiting area while I go to the lockers. After I stash my things, I make my way to the desk where Lauren is sitting.
She swivels in her chair. “Hey, Vanessa. You okay? You don’t look great.”
“Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Is Mateo still on that trip?” she asks, and I know she’s trying to get me to open up. I want to, but I don’t know how much I should say.
“Yeah, he is.”
“Is that why that guy who looks like a model is in the waiting room?” She points toward Alonso.
“Yep.”
“Vanessa,” she says gently, “what’s going on?”
“Nothing. I just haven’t been feeling great the last couple days.”
“You’re that lovesick?” she snorts.
“No. But no one has heard from him in three days, so it’s probably nerves and stress. Or maybe just a badly timed stomach bug. But the model out there thinks I might be pregnant. And his name is Alonso, by the way.”
Lauren freezes. “Oh shit. Have you taken a test?”
“Test for what?” Tanner cuts in, walking up with a stack of charts.
Lauren mouths sorry. I take a breath and just say it. “I think I might be pregnant.”
“Oh,” Tanner says. “Well… do you want to find out?”
“I probably should.”
“I’ll get a test.” Lauren is already heading to the supply room. She comes back fast and presses it into my hand. “Here. And whatever it says, it’ll be okay. I’ve been there.”
“I know.”
I walk down the hall to the bathroom and lock the door. Sitting on the toilet, I stare at the test for a long second. “Might as well get it over with,” I whisper. I take it, set it on the sink, and wait the longest three minutes of my life.
Oh shit.
Oh fuck.
Two pink lines. Two bright, undeniable pink lines.
Holy shit, what do I do?
I feel everything at once. Happiness, because holy shit, I’m having a baby. Sadness, because Mateo isn’t here. Anger, because I’m finding out in a hospital bathroom instead of at home with him.
I take a breath and open the door. Lauren and Tanner aren’t there.
It’s Alonso.
He looks at me. “You okay, Ness?”
I don’t answer. His gaze drops to my hand, to the test.
“Oh shit,” he says quietly.
“Yeah. Oh shit,” I whisper. “What am I supposed to do? Mateo isn’t here.”
Alonso is a good friend, but he isn’t the person I need right now. I need the one who would tell me everything is going to be okay and that he’ll be home in a few days. And I don’t have that.
“It’s going to be okay,” Alonso says softly, pulling me into a hug.
I cling to him for a moment, letting myself breathe.
When he lets go, he nods toward the desk.
“I’m going to head back to the waiting room.
Your friends probably want to know what’s going on.
I had to practically wrestle them to let me stand here. ”
“Okay,” I say with a small laugh.
When I walk back, Lauren and Tanner are both watching me.
“So?” Lauren asks.
“I guess surprise, I’m pregnant,” I say, trying to smile.
“Holy shit,” Tanner blurts. “I called it.”
“Shut up,” Lauren snaps at him.
“I just thought you got married because you were pregnant,” he says with a grin. “Guess I was half right.”
“Yeah,” I say, then my voice drops. “But Mateo’s been missing for days, and I’m scared. My brother’s freaking out, and he never does.”
“It’ll be okay,” Lauren says gently. “He’ll be back before you know it.”
The rest of my shift stays quiet until I look up and see Gino and Drew standing there, both of them wearing the same grim expression. My stomach twists. Drew motions for Alonso, and the three of them walk over.
“Vanessa,” Gino says, “can we talk in private?”
“There’s a break room down the hall.”
We all head there, stepping into the white, empty room.
“Can you sit down?” Gino asks.
“What’s going on, Gino?”
“Please.”
I sit, and he lowers himself beside me. “We haven’t found Mateo yet, but we know he’s alive.”
“That’s good.”
“It is. But the Russos have him.”
“The people he went to see? Why?”
“One of their warehouses was raided during his meeting. They think we did it.”
“So why can’t you just go get him?”
“We don’t know where they’re holding him, and they’ve made demands.”
“Like what?”
“Money. Drugs.”
“And you’re going to give it to them?”
“Yes. But there’s no guarantee they’ll let him go.”
I swallow hard. “There’s something I need to tell you.” I stare at the wall for a second, then force it out. “I’m pregnant.”
Gino’s eyes widen. “What? You’ve been married two months. I’m going to kill him.”
“Why? We’re married.”
“Hello, little sister married to my best friend.”
“Not like you weren’t the one who pushed us into it,” I mutter.
“She’s got you there,” Drew adds quietly. “So, what do we do?” I ask.
“You let me worry about getting Mateo home,” Gino says, standing. “You focus on staying healthy for that baby.” He kisses my forehead. “Alonso, watch her.”
They leave, and Alonso takes the seat across from me.
“At least we know more than we did a few minutes ago,” he says.
“Yeah,” I exhale. “I just hope he comes home soon.”
The rest of my shift passes in a haze. Before I leave, Tanner convinces me to see Dr. Ryan, one of the OBs. After an exam and some quick calculations, she looks up at me.
“Based on your last cycle, you’re about eight weeks along.”
Then she studies the screen again, pausing.
“Oh,” she says, smiling. “Congratulations. It looks like you’re having twins.”
Oh my God. Mateo is going to lose his mind.
MATEO
These motherfuckers drugged me. Actually drugged me. What. The. Fuck.
I have no idea how long I’ve been out, but the next thing I feel is cold, damp air on my skin.
When I force my eyes open, everything is dark, the only light coming from thin strips of moonlight through a window.
I try to move and realize I can’t. Looking down, I see my wrists duct-taped to the arms of a chair. I twist them, but they don’t budge.
“Fuck,” I hiss as the tape bites into my skin. My head is pounding, and my right leg feels heavy, swollen. I shift as much as I can, trying to get a sense of the room, but it’s useless. A few minutes pass before harsh fluorescent lights snap on.
“I see the princess is awake.”
I squint against the glare and take in my surroundings. I’m in the middle of a huge, decaying room. Rust creeps along the walls, and several windows are shattered. One of the Russo brothers steps closer.
“Lorenzo,” I growl. “What the fuck is going on?”
“You thought we wouldn’t see it coming.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You show up alone, no backup, and then one of our warehouses gets raided.”
“The fuck are you talking about? You told us to only have one person show up.”
“Yeah, so none of you Americans would steal from us,” he snaps. “And you did anyway. Clearly your boss thinks you’re disposable, since no one has come for you in three days.”
“Three days? I’ve been out for three days.” My stomach drops.
“Long enough.” His smile is thin. “Now you’re going to give us what we need to take Gino Esposito down.”
My pulse spikes. Vanessa must be losing her mind right now. I knew something was wrong the moment they rushed us out to lunch. Italians love to talk. They would’ve kept me in that office for hours if this were real.
“Listen, I don’t know what the fuck is happening, but believe me, Gino wouldn’t raid you.”
Vanessa would kill him if he even thought about it. I keep that part to myself. She’s been spending more time around us on her days off, learning the business, and she has a way of spotting problems before anyone else does.
Lorenzo studies me for a long, quiet moment, then turns and walks out.
Fuck.
When he comes back, he’s wearing a black apron and pushing a metal tray. My stomach twists. I tug uselessly at the tape.
“That won’t work,” he says calmly. “It’s been on you for days.” He lifts a knife from the tray and steps closer. “We don’t like being double-crossed, and we especially don’t like it when Americans do it.”
“Lorenzo, I swear I don’t know anything about a raid,” I say, my voice tight. “Gino would’ve told me.”
My shirt is torn and stained with dried blood. He drags the knife down my chest, pressing just hard enough to draw fresh red lines.
“I could kill you right now,” he says. “But you’re Gino’s right-hand man, so we’re going to get something useful out of you first.”
He moves behind me. I hear the scrape of a chain, then the cold bite of metal as it locks around my ankle. With one swift cut, he slices the tape off my wrists.
“You’ll stay here until we need you,” he says. “Don’t try to run. There are men outside who will shoot you without hesitation. We’ll bring you food and water. Be grateful we want information, or you’d already be fucking dead.”
He leaves. Another man comes in, drops a tray of food and a jug of water on the floor, and slams the door. The lights go out again, plunging me into darkness.
My body barely wants to move, but I force myself toward the food. Sitting on the cold floor, I eat slowly, my thoughts spiraling around one thing.
I just need to see my wife again.