Page 34

34

RAFFAELE

I t becomes a waiting game, but I’m not sitting idly by waiting for Pascal to lay out the ground rules whenever he decides to call me back. Every second Adelina is with him is a second he could take her from me for good, and I will never be able to live with myself if I don’t do everything in my power to save her.

I have my men combing the city for Adelina in every place we can think of. None of Pascal’s businesses are off limits. Neither are his hangouts or holiday homes. On top of that, I’ve called in every single favor I can think of to get the police on high alert, every vehicle in Pascal’s name hunted down, every property that he and his guards have ever gone to ransacked and stripped.

The only place that hasn’t been torn apart is Pascal’s manor. I’d have demolished the place by now if not for CCTV footage showing Adelina being dragged out of there not long after Pascal called me. He’s hidden her somewhere, and I will find her.

“Boss!” Vito sprints toward me with his arm outstretched, thrusting his tablet into my hand when he comes to a stop. “We got a ping… on her phone… That’s the address,” he gasps between breaths.

I stare down at the screen. It’s some house on the outskirts of the city, and far out of the search area we’ve been combing. Makes sense that he would try and hide her somewhere he’d think I wouldn’t look.

“When did this show up?”

“Ten minutes ago.”

“Take me there.”

“Boss, it could be a trap. Or he’s getting ready to call you and lead you somewhere else.”

“If he calls, I’ll answer.” I shove the tablet against Vito’s chest. “Until then, take me there.”

The drive is tense. Despite the speed at which Vito navigates the city, it’s not fast enough for me. My chest is in a constant state of tightness, I have a headache just behind my eyes, and my stomach is twisted in tight, acidic knots.

I should have taken better care of Adelina.

I never should have left her side.

Maybe I even should have told her the truth about her father as soon as I suspected something. In my efforts to protect her, I let her walk innocently back into his arms.

This is my fault.

When we screech to a stop outside the abandoned house, I rip my gun from my holster and sprint out of the car only to be stopped by Vito’s hand on my arm.

“We should wait for backup. This could be a trap.”

“It probably is,” I say, wrenching my arm free. “Or she’s in there and waiting outside does nothing but keep her away from me.”

Vito rolls his eyes and pulls his weapon free. “You’re an idiot.”

“Whatever.”

Together, we run up the path to the house and reach the door. I kick it in immediately, not hesitating as I stride into the home.

“Adelina!”

Vito keeps one gun raised with his attention split down on his phone, where he’s dialing Adelina’s number. We pause in the hallway. I scan the dark stairs leading to the second floor, then eye the doors on my left and right. A hallway parallel to the stairs leads to a dingy kitchen at the end, and my chest squeezes briefly as the musical notes of Adelina’s phone fill the air.

“In here!” I crash through the door to my right and stumble into the room. My blood runs cold at the sight.

A body lies slumped on the floor, hunched up and on its side. The sickly sweet, coppery scent of blood catches in my nose and splatters of crimson glitter on the floor, reflecting the light trickling in through the dusty net curtains over the window.

“Adelina,” I gasp softly, stumbling over myself to reach her. “Adelina!”

I crash to my knees on the hard floor, holstering my gun and grasping her shoulder. There are no thoughts in my mind as I roll her over, only horror.

Then relief.

It’s not Adelina.

“Caterina?” Vito gasps over my shoulder, dropping down beside me.

Caterina is badly beaten with a blood-soaked gag in her mouth. Her torso is covered in multiple dark bruises and lacerations, with her clothes barely clinging to her body.

“Shit.” Cradling her head, I work on untying the gag as her eyes flutter and open.

They widen the moment they see me and her lips move around the gag, but her words remain muffled.

“Hold on,” Vito assures her quickly. “We’re going to get you out of here.” He leans over her body and picks up Adelina’s phone, ending the call with a tap of the button. He slides it into his jacket just as I get the knot on the gag free.

“Trap!” Caterina croaks weakly. “G–Get out, he rigged the room to?—”

The explosion takes out the entire wall to my left, sending Vito and me crashing into one another and then into the old couch between us and the window. The heat is intense as a ball of fire skims over the top so us, burning skin and hair before sweeping up toward the ceiling.

A sharp ringing fills the air, settling in my ears from the sound of the explosion, and the shockwave knocks all the air out of my lungs. I lie there, unable to even take a breath as scorching heat burns my face. Any sweat that forms dries instantly.

Then Vito is over me. His lips move, but I can’t hear him over the ringing. I squint up at him as he grabs me by my shirt and hauls me upward.

“Fucking move!” A few words breach the deafening noise in my ears, but it’s enough to spur me upward. I clamber to my feet with Vito’s help, and we make a beeline for Caterina. Together, we drag her upward between our two bodies and stumble toward the door. I can finally breathe again, but the smoke burns my throat, forcing me to cough harshly. The door feels impossibly far away through the smoke and the roar of the flames, but somehow, we make it outside where the first lungful of fresh, clean air feels like a burst of peppermint on a cold winter’s morning.

“Shit!” Vito coughs sharply as we stumble down the path and fall to our knees.

I look up and instantly take a knee to the jaw. It sends me flying backward, and I land in a heap on the grass, still struggling to breathe through the constant coughing my body forces me to do. Several gunshots suddenly blast through the air and then someone is on top of me, punching me repeatedly in the face.

Pain explodes through my cheek and my jaw. My chest is being crushed. Pressure swells in my skull from my lack of oxygen.

I can’t breathe.

I can barely see through streaming eyes.

He’s on top of me, punching my senses right out of me.

Shit, Raffaele. Get up. Get up!

I throw my elbow up and catch my attacker on the tip of his chin. His head jerks backward, so I punch him squarely in the throat. He flies off me with a gurgle, and I roll onto my hands and knees, coughing and gasping through the smoke in my lungs and the blood streaming from my lower lip.

Then something impacts my thigh, like a punch that quickly throbs into a sharp, horrifying pain. I yell, rolling over to see my attacker hanging onto the hilt of the knife he plunged into my leg. In the background, I’m dully aware of Vito engaged in his own brawl and Caterina somehow holding her own in another fight.

“The fuck, man?” I gasp as the pain becomes a blaring siren throughout my body. It cuts through the fog in my mind and the daze from the explosion, bringing the world into a sharp focus.

“Fucking die!” The man rips the knife free and surges upward like a bear about to come down with the killing blow.

I rip my gun out of my holster so quickly that the clip burns my hand and fire multiple shots into the chest of the man seconds away from ending my life. His face twists in pain and then he collapses backward in a dead heap.

Panting heavily, I roll over and spit a mouthful of blood on the ground as several more gunshots ring in the air, then the loud hum of arriving vehicles catches my attention.

What kind of backup are they if they arrive this late?

I push myself up groggily, then yelp as the pain aggravates the knife wound on my leg, and then arms are suddenly around my body, hauling me upward and away from the inferno consuming the house.

Vito and I collapse back down to the ground, resting against my car with Caterina beside us. All three of us pant heavily, watching the house be consumed as the rest of my men flit about like bats mopping up the vermin Pascal left behind.

“Holy… shit,” Vito gasps.

“I t–tried to tell you,” Caterina says weakly.

“Fucking Pascal,” I pant tiredly. “Caterina, we’ll get you to a hospital.”

“I’m fine,” she says. Our eyes meet and she bursts into weak, tired laughter, then she sobers. “I–I’m sorry, Boss. I tried to stop them. I tried to save her.”

Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I grip my wounded thigh and nod. “I know. I know. I will get you help, I promise.”

“There’s something you should know.” Caterina weakly grips my arm. “I–I should have told you, but it wasn’t my secret.”

“What?”

“Adelina is pregnant. I found her test. She told me it was negative, so I knew she wanted it to be a secret, but you have to know. You have to be careful.”

Pregnant.

Adelina is carrying my baby?

Pascal calls me three hours later.

My leg is patched up, Vito is prescribing me several shots of Vodka for the pain, and Caterina is admitted to the hospital where hopefully, they will save her life.

I’m exhausted. That explosion took a lot out of me, but it doesn’t dampen my feral determination to find my wife.

If anything, I’m ready to kill every single person I find who isn’t her just to narrow down the search.

Because she’s pregnant.

I can’t fathom why she didn’t tell me something so insanely important, but it makes this situation so much more dire. Not only do I need to save my wife, but I also need to save my unborn baby. Never have I felt so on edge.

One wrong move and Pascal will wipe out my entire family.

I tell myself this as I answer his call, but as soon as I hear his treacherous voice, the venom inside me surges forth. “You weaselly, rat-faced motherfucker,” I snarl. “When I get my hands on you, what I’ve done to other people will look like fucking child’s play, do you understand? I’m going to have you begging for death and I won’t grant it until I’ve made you pay!”

“No wonder my daughter’s started swearing after being around a man like you,” Pascal replies bitterly. “I’m sorry to hear the bomb didn’t work.”

“Unsurprising, given the shoddy nature of your plans.” I raise my glass and drain it in one gulp.

“Really? No one knew about my work with the Irish. I’d say my plans are decent.”

“And yet a nobody like Carlos was able to unravel your schemes all because you killed his sister.”

“An unfortunate event,” Pascal replies. “But it will be over soon. As soon as you are taken care of, the lid goes back on all of this, and you, Raffaele, are going to walk into your very own funeral.”

“And why is that?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll make you listen to the sounds Adelina makes when she’s being tortured, that’s why.”

My heart drops like a stone, and a cold sickness settles in my gut. “You talk that way about your own daughter?”

“You have no idea the lengths I’ll go to,” Pascal growls. “So I’m going to send you an address and you’re going to crawl in the door like a good little dog, understand?”

I lock eyes with Vito, who is positively simmering with barely restrained rage.

“Fine. I will. Because that’s the difference between you and I, Pascal.”

“What is?”

“I actually care for your daughter.”

As soon as I hang up the phone, Vito explodes. “What the hell are you thinking? You can’t just walk in and hand yourself over! There has to be another way. Your going suicidal does nothing to save Adelina!”

“Vito…”

“You can’t bow to a man like that. After everything we’ve worked for, everything you’ve worked for. He’ll kill you, and all people will remember you as is a butcher!”

“Vito—”

“I won’t allow it! I refuse. There’s got to be another way because that scum doesn’t deserve to?—”

I silence him by placing my hand on his shoulder. “Vito. I need you to do something for me.”

Pain flashes across his face. Then he nods slowly. “Anything, Boss.”

“I need you to take care of the Irish like we talked about. Can you do that for me?”

After a moment of silence, Vito nods. “Consider it done.”