Page 23

CHAPTER 23

Sienna

“ Y ou seemed distracted back there, Si,” Kat says, her brows pulled down low, “I know you don’t want me to worry, and I don’t want to nag you like your dad, but are you okay?”

The light wind blows curly strands of my hair into my face, and I brush them behind my ear.

“I’m fine,” I reply.

“I have an extra hair tie if you want,” my best friend says, digging into her oversized purse.

“I’m fine.” My words come out more snappish than I intend, and her head snaps up, her grey eyes wide and hurt.

With a sigh, I step forward and take her hands in mine. “I’m sorry. I just feel like a withering flower with the way Dad and Sal keep fussing over me. I don’t want you to treat me any differently. I’m totally fine.”

The look Kat shoots me tells me she doesn’t believe me at all, but she knows me enough to drop the matter.

Her shoulders drop. “Okay. I’m going to let this go…” she pauses, “…for now. So don’t think you’ve gotten away with telling me that bullshit story about you just being locked up and bored out of your mind.”

I wince. I had hoped for her to buy my story, but it seems I’m not fooling anyone.

Her mouth curves into a small smile. “You’re a terrible liar, Si, and I love you for it.”

A chuckle leaves my lips, and I step forward and wrap my arms around her. “I’ll tell you everything someday. But not today.”

Maybe when it doesn’t hurt so much. Maybe when it doesn’t feel like someone is ripping me into shreds from the inside. I have a terrifying feeling there’ll never be such a day, though.

Kat squeezes me tightly before releasing me. “Take care of yourself, sweetie. Try to eat something more substantial than a salad.”

I glare at her, and she glares right back.

“What?” She rolls her eyes. “I’ll complain about you pecking at your food like a damn pigeon whether you got kidnapped by a psychopath criminal or not.”

Her phone begins to ring before I can say anything, and she glances down at it. “Shoot, I have to go. Unfortunately, we’re not all as lucky as you to get millions from an anonymous buyer.”

If only she knew , I think sardonically.

“Bye,” I say, blowing her a kiss.

“Ciao.” She catches the kiss and makes a show of tucking it into her breast pocket before turning and dashing off, the heels of her thigh-high boots clicking against the cobblestones of the sidewalk.

Suddenly, there’s a prickly feeling at the back of my neck, and I whirl around, my eyes dashing around the street. But just like every other time for the past few days, there’s no one there.

A shiver rolls through me, and I dig my hand into my purse, my fingers brushing against the pepper spray tucked inside there.

I haven’t told Dad or even Kat about my gut feeling that I’m being followed because, for one, I may be wrong, and two, I don’t want to make them worried.

I’m sure the whole kidnapping incident has shaved ten years off my father’s life.

Heading down the sidewalk, I continue to scan the streets and alleys I walk past. I’m tense and jittery, and sweat beads down my spine.

Right as I begin to think I’m just being paranoid, I hear sharp footsteps behind me. I peek over my shoulder and see a tall figure decked out in all black with a hoodie shielding his face.

I increase my pace, and he does too. My hands are shaky as they wrap around the weapon in my purse. I haven’t run properly in months, and my stamina is shit, but I have to dig it out from under layers of grief if I’m to have any hope of getting out of this in one piece.

Just as I turn the corner to start running, a hand lashes out of the alley, and I’m yanked into its dark confines.

“Help—” A hand slaps over my mouth, and before I can dig out the pepper spray, both my wrists are grabbed, and I’m pushed face-first into the wall, the rough surface scraping painfully against my skin.

I let out a whimper as a small blade that doesn’t look any less deadly appears against my throat.

“Let’s not get any ideas, love,” a man croaks against my ear. “Make a sound, and I’ll carve up your pretty face.”

The hooded man joins us in the narrow space. “Where’s the van?”

“It’s parked just across the street.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here.”

Why does the man’s voice sound so familiar? But my heart is racing too fast with terror for me to be able to think straight.

The only thing I know for sure is that this isn’t Alessandro trying his hand at another kidnapping.

My last thought before something knocks into the side of my head and everything goes blank is that if I were still with him, this wouldn’t be happening.

I come to in a dark room that smells stale, and I immediately note two things. One, I’m tied up in a chair, and two, there’s water under my feet.

“She’s our best shot of getting to him,” a man growls nearby, and I cock my head, listening while my eyes adjust to the darkness.

“Do you think he’ll do it?”

Someone else scoffs. “Men like that live and die by their goddamn code of conduct.”

“He’ll be a fool to call our bluff.” The speaker sounds amused. “But we may have to give him a preview to encourage him to make the right decision.”

My head hurts, and I can feel blood trickling down the side of my face, but it’s not my imagination that one of the voices is very familiar.

“I really wished it didn’t come to this,” the voice I’m trying to place says before making a tsk sound.

The other man scoffs. “Whatever, man. You’re only acting squeamish cause that bitch?—”

There’s a loud groaning sound of a metal door opening, and it drowns out the rest of the man’s words. As my eyes start to adjust, I glance around curiously and realize I’m in an empty underground parking lot.

There’s a single naked bulb far ahead that’s flickering on and off and an abandoned trolley at one corner. My body trembles as terrifying thoughts of my fate down here flit through my head, each one more frightening than the last.

The sound of approaching footsteps breaks me out of my impending panic attack, and I glance up to see a figure shielded by shadows.

“Good, you’re awake.”

My eyes widen as the bulb flickers again, washing the man’s face with light for a split second, which is long enough for me to see the way his mouth is pulled into a smirk.

His voice is different—darker and harder. That’s why I was having so much trouble placing it. He sounds nothing like the man who, just a few days ago, told me he loved me and begged for another chance, but it’s unmistakably him.

“Sal,” I breathe.

The lights flicker again, and I see him reach for me.

Alessandro

Sixty-two days, seventeen hours, fifty-two minutes, and forty-three…forty-four…forty-five…

“Boss.”

The voice is an annoying intrusion, and I raise my head to shoot the dead man a lethal glare. Maurizio’s face is a sheet of white, and a little bit of pride replaces my fury when he takes a brave step forward. Greater men would have tucked their tails between their legs and run.

I throw back the glass of bourbon and allow the glass to dangle from my fingers. “What is it?”

“Gonzales wants to know if?—”

My fingers twitch for a gun, but I settle for tuning him out. I don’t want to hear about my business deals or the men I have to keep in line. I just want to sit here and sulk like a fucking loser.

“Many of the men are becoming curious about your continued absence. There’s a lot of rumors in the city, and nobody’s sure you’re still alive. Nobody’s seen?—”

“Maurizio,” I grunt, stopping his unwanted information, “the next time you bother me, I’ll carve a hole through your chest and carefully dig out your heart so you’ll stay alive for a while with your fucking heart outside your body.”

He swallows. “S—sorry, boss.”

A second later, he’s gone, and I drop my head back, trying to convince myself that Sienna’s smell is still lingering in the air.

Fifty-six minutes…twenty-two…twenty-three…

My phone buzzes, and I turn to it with my lips peeled back into a snarl. Whoever is on the other end of that line, I’m going to hunt the bastard down for sport and peel their?—

I blink at the caller ID. Why the hell is the prosecutor calling me?

Has something happened to Sienna?

“Alessandro, I need your help,” he rasps when I pick up, his voice raw and strained.

My spine stiffens, and I sit up, my fingers tightening around the empty glass in my hands. I force myself to relax, and I do a passable job of sounding amused when I state, “You need my help. Isn’t that ironic?”

“I know you hate me.”

“Hate is a very mild word, prosecutor.”

“Damn it, Mancini. I don’t have time to parry with you right now,” he growls. “I don’t care what you feel about me right now. I don’t know why you let Sienna go or why you disappeared. I don’t even know why I’m asking you this.”

My mouth settled into a grim line. “What are you asking me, D’Addario?”

“It’s Sienna. She—” he trails off, his voice choking. “She’s gone.”

At those words, I lean forward, blood pounding in my head. “What do you mean gone?”

“Someone’s taken her. They snatched her right off the street. The cops found her purse in an alleyway this afternoon, and a while ago, I received a text with a picture of her tied up like an animal.”

“Two kidnappings this year. You’re really Father of the Year.”

“They’re going to hurt her.”

“And why are you coming to me?” I force a chuckle. “Do you realize this call alone can put you in jail for a very long time? Law-abiding prosecutors don’t call the big, bad monster to ask for help. You’re supposed to run to the cops. I don’t see how your daughter is my problem.”

“Because you’re the only one who can save her.” His voice shakes, and in normal circumstances, I’ll gloat about the great Ivan D’Addario swallowing his pride and practically falling to his knees before me.

But I can’t think past the fact that Sienna’s hurt. She’s in trouble. I should never have let her go.

“I’ll do anything you want, Mancini,” he rasps.

“Hmmm,” I say, a rush of anger rising to the surface. “And what can a man like me possibly want from a man like you?”

His pause is long and defeated. “She’s a good girl. She doesn’t deserve to be entangled in this world.”

Well, it’s too late for that.

“The cops will take too much time and attract too much attention. I don’t want to tip these bastards off. I just want my baby back home,” he pleads. “I don’t want them behind bars, able to slip away from the holes in the law and then come back for their revenge. I want them gone. Forever.”

Without responding, I hang up, and then I hurl the glass in my hands across the room and watch as it shatters against the wall and rains down in a flood of broken pieces.

My chest rises and falls with harsh breaths, and I slice my gaze to the door when Maurizio appears with his gun drawn. He glances from the broken glass to me.

“Boss.” He starts to take a step forward.

“Don’t,” I order in a low voice. Nobody is allowed to step a foot into this room. A room that has become a shrine to my short-lived time with Sienna.

“Get Cassell on the phone.” I grab my jacket off the back of the chair and then my gun. “Tell him I want Sienna D’Addario found within the hour if he wants to keep his head attached to his spine.”

I’m a fool for not keeping an eye on her after I let her go. I wanted to sever all ties so it would be easier to live out the rest of my life, and yet all I did was sit in her room and mope.

Well, I’m done moping now.

My blood thrums, half in anticipation of getting my hands on the fool who has her and the other half at seeing her again.