Page 124 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

I went to hang up when a shout made me put my ear back to the phone.

“Is it Cosima or Elena?” he asked quietly, voice vibrating with intensity.

I didn’t have time for thisstronzo, but a part of me felt for him, so I grunted. “It’s none of your concern anymore. I’ve got it under control.”

Another brief hesitation and then, “Good luck. Thank you for calling.”

Two hours after Elena sent me her text, I finally got the call I’d been waiting for.

“Think they’re in a white clapboard house on the corner of East 34thand Filmore,” Marco whispered. “You want us to go in?”

“No,” I ordered darkly, snapping my fingers at Frankie, who immediately started doing his thing on the computer. “I’ll be there.”

“Boss,” Jaco protested as he came in from the elevator. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m going to get her.”

He blinked at me in shock as Frankie bent to the anklet with thin tools and started to fuck with it.

I glared at my cousin over Frankie’s dark head. “You got something to say, Jaco?”

“Why the hell are you doing this?” he asked with pure exasperation. “This is what they fuckingwant. She’s goddamn bait.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I asked low, the words dredged up from the depths of my gut. “You think I don’t know she’s been taken and probably hurt because of me? Why the fuck do you think I’m doing this?”

“You’ll go to jail,” he told me what I already knew. “You’ll go to jail when you didn’t even kill Giuseppe.”

I didn’t bother to respond to him. The plastic tracking bracelet popped off with aclick,and Frankie quickly produced the SIM card from a tiny compartment then put them in the Faraday Box.

“You’re good,” he said without looking away from the blue screen of his monitor. “Go get her, and I’ll see you on the other side.”

I picked up my Glock from the table, shoved it into my holster, and then threw on my leather jacket before starting for the elevator.

Jaco blocked me.

“Let one of the men go,” he urged. “The cops or the probation office find out you know how to disable the tracking anklet, it’ll ruin everything. Why risk it for this pussy?”

“I’m fucking going,” I said with deadly calm. “You want to get in my way, Jaco, be my guest, but I’ll paint you black and blue with my fists and leave you for dead if I have to.”

“Just let her go,” he tried to reason still, his eyes almost frantic. “Don’t let her make you weak.”

I used my shoulder to knock him out of the way. Only when I was in the elevator did I lock eyes with him and say, “I’m not afraid of a woman, Jaco. Why are you?”

It wasn’t a very good plan.

I mean, really, it was clear I didn’t get my brains from my father.

They were set up in the basement of some old house, the ceiling dripping steadily, the concrete subfloor stained with mysterious dark splotches. I was tied to a support pillar with zip ties around my wrists and ankles that were closed too tight. The circulation was cut off, so I struggled to stay upright on my dead-weight feet and not put more pressure on my bleeding wrists.

They didn’t beat me.

Kelly and Seamus fought about whether or not to slap me around a little to see if I’d give anything up, but in the end, Seamus won. He even shot me a victorious look as if he was proud to have gone to bat for me, and I should be grateful.

I spat at his feet.

“You won’t get away with this,” I told them calmly. “Someone is going to find me.”

They laughed, Kelly and Seamus, the four other armed men that patrolled the house.