Chapter 32
NICO
West coast time always messed me up. It was midnight at home, and we’d just finished supper. Sitting in a closed-down restaurant in a horseshoe-shaped booth, we laughed and enjoyed the discussion that had turned from business to the antics the other men's wives were up to.
“Nico, are you keeping that wife of yours out of trouble?” Romolo Barbieri asked with a chuckle.
“Well, she saved my life at a function, and then helped me plan to take out the Cardone’s, so no Romolo, she’s not staying out of trouble.
” I laughed as I lifted the glass of whiskey that had been placed in front of me.
Speaking of my wife, I needed to call and check in with Emilia, but I hadn’t had the time.
My phone rang. And I smiled. She was obviously anxious. Reaching inside my suit pocket, I saw Trixie’s number.
“Trix?” I asked.
“She’s gone, Nico. Your room’s a disaster.” Trixie was panting, her voice was high-pitched, and I figured she was running through the house, hoping she was just mad or something. “Oh god,” her whispered words made my blood run cold.
“What, Beatrix?” She’d either yell at me or snap back into talking to me. Standing from the table, all the men looked at me.
“The guards outside the house, they’ve all been drugged. I think they’re alive.” Her words weren’t confident like she normally was.
“I’m coming back. Trix, I need to hang up and call Antonio to be ready.
” I reached for my coat and headed toward the door.
The four men I trusted more than anyone else stood in front of it and stopped me from going.
“I’ll be back soon, Trix, get Walter and start figuring this out.
” Ending the call, I stared at the phone.
“What is it, companio?” Gabriele Amato asked. I was in his city, I needed every blind eye turned and favour called in to get me out of here now.
“Emilia’s been taken.” The words came out of my mouth, but I wasn’t sure I’d said them. Running my hand through my hair, Gabriele was on the phone before I had time to ask him anything.
“Your flight plan has been filed, and my men are doing your pre-flight checks. If you need more support, call, and we’ll be there.” He tucked his phone away. “Go, you need to find that woman.” He nodded, and I ran out to the car I had waiting for me.
Dialling Antonio, I waited for him to pick up. “Hey, what’s…”
“Emilia’s been taken. We have to go home.” There was silence on the other end of the line.
“I should have stayed home.” His words cut me to the bone, because yes, he should have, but I insisted he come with me to make his presence known in the circles.
“I’ll meet you at the hanger.” Then the line went dead.
It wasn’t just that she was my wife. Over the time we’d been married, Antonio had thought of her as a little sister, and I knew he’d be blaming himself, just like I was.
For the entire flight back, I made calls, but nobody had seen anyone enter or leave my home. The place was supposed to be tighter than Fort Knox, but something catastrophic had happened, and I was over four hours away when it had.
“What about her tracker?” I asked, looking up at Antonio.
“Nothing. Wherever she is, the signal is scrambled, or they’ve removed it.” His voice was hoarse and full of emotion.
He knew as well as I did that there was only one way to remove that necklace, and it wasn’t a thought I wanted to entertain.
“Please buckle your seatbelts. We will be landing in thirty minutes.” The captain’s voice rang out through the plane. Thirty minutes, and I’d be on the ground ready to find my wife with whatever means necessary.
Antonio and I frantically made phone calls to every person we couldn’t reach while we were in the air, and still nobody knew, or they weren’t saying.
The front door of my home flew open, and Trixie and Letty ran out. Both their faces fell when they saw I was alone.
“Where the fuck is she?” Trixie yelled as I walked past her.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You’re the most powerful man in this city, you have to know.” Her voice was more frantic as she ran to catch up with me. I ignored her as I ran up the stairs to see our room. Maybe something would give it away. “You have to find her, Nico.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I stopped mid-step and turned to face my sister.
“She’s my fucking wife, and now I failed to protect her, and I know I have to find her.
You’re the last person I need telling me the obvious.
” I wanted to slam the door in her face, but the pain in her eyes made me stop in my tracks.
The front door opening caught my eye, and I met the grief-stricken look of my mother, which made me ache even more.
“No, Nico, you have to find her because she’s pregnant.” Trixie’s eyes filled with tears.
“What do you mean?”
“She took a test after you left, because she didn’t want to drink any wine just in case.” Trixie pushed past me and walked into my room. She picked the blue-and-white test up off the floor and handed it to me.
Pregnant - six weeks is what the test said.
Six weeks, had I not been paying attention to her for six weeks?
How had I missed this? I was intimately aware of everything that went on with her body, but I hadn’t noticed she didn’t get her period, or that her being tired was from this and not Christmas.
Stumbling back, I sat on the edge of our bed and stared at it. My mother’s gasp made me look up. “I have to find her.”
“Lorenzo and Antonio are looking at footage. Both men are ready to follow you anywhere, son. And so am I.” She held her head high, and for the first time, I realized she was in black tactical gear. “I haven’t fought in many years, but this is an attack on our family, and I’m ready to go.”
It was in this same room that she stood in front of my grandfather when her family came looking for their pound of flesh, and she’d risked her life for this family after only being here a few weeks. Now she was ready to fight for my wife. It was all the strength I needed to get my feet moving.
“Let’s get her and my baby home.” I stood from the bed and dropped the test onto it. Trixie took my hand as I walked past her.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t keeping a better eye on her.”
“This isn’t on you, it’s on me. I shouldn’t have lost my temper at you, I’m sorry. We’ll get her back.” I gave her the best smile I could muster, but she didn’t return it, so I imagined it wasn’t convincing.
In the hallway, I turned to go to my office when Lorenzo came bounding up the stairs. “Nico, you need to go to her father’s house,” he said as he pulled his cell phone from his ear.
“She’s there?”
“No, but I managed to find someone willing to talk, and it looks like Grand Central Station at that house tonight. They don’t have safe houses or second homes to hide out in, so comings and goings all happen out of the Carminatti home.”