Page 24

CHAPTER 24

Sienna

“ G et your hands off me, you ass-wipe,” I snap as Salvadore’s hands cup my jaw in a surprisingly tender gesture.

I shiver in revulsion at the feel of his hands on my body. There’s only one man I ever want touching me. Too bad I may never get to feel his touch again.

“When did you get such a dirty mouth?” This close, I can see the frown on his face.

“About the same time you started snatching women off the streets,” I retort.

He squats until we’re at eye level. “Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve had to do this. I normally don’t do the grunt work. We leave that to people like Mikael.”

I’m guessing Mikael is the partner who held the knife to my throat. I really wish I got the chance to douse them in pepper spray.

“What’s going on? Why am I here?” I glare at him.

He sighs and then rises to his full height, looming over me. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”

I shudder. There’s just something particularly horrifying about being called a pet name while you’re tied up, bleeding, and at the mercy of your ex-boyfriend.

“Too late for that,” I sneer.

I don’t see it, but I feel his gaze shift to my bleeding skull. “That wasn’t me.”

As if that makes it any better. I glare at him, even though I know he can’t see me. “So what exactly is going on here? Is this about ransom money or something?”

“This is about your father,” he answers.

Oh, joy. I’ve been kidnapped again by someone who has a vendetta against Dad. I’m starting to understand why he kept me hidden and insisted on me using my mother’s name all these years.

“Ivan messed with the wrong guys,” he continues. “And I’ve been paid a truckload of money to make sure your dad changes his mind about some of his less-than-favorable decisions.”

“What decisions?”

“Your father is about to have my employer, Hendrix, tossed in jail. And Mr. Hendrix isn’t a fan of being locked up.”

My teeth clench. “You’re a cop. You’re employed by the government.”

Salvadore snorts. “Did you think I was able to buy you that diamond tennis bracelet with my salary as a cop?”

“I never even wanted that bracelet,” I bark. “You’re doing this because you want to. Because you’re a greedy asshole. So don’t try to pin any of it on me.”

He lets out a deep chuckle. “I wasn’t trying to pin it on you, baby. Just letting you know. I’m not ashamed of wanting better than a destitute life for myself. I thought your father would be smart enough to take the cash we offered.”

“He turned it down?”

“Thirty million dollars, to be precise,” he spits. “An amount he could never make in his lifetime. But I guess some people just don’t know when to put the fucking honor to the side!”

Tears prick my eyes at the reminder that my father is a good man. I hate that ever since I returned from being in Alessandro’s captivity, I’ve been doubting my father and wondering if he had a hand in killing Alessandro’s brother.

But if he didn’t take thirty million dollars for the Hendrix case, didn’t it mean Alessandro was mistaken?

“Unlike you, honor isn’t something some people can just put aside,” I tell him. “It’s as much a part of them as the blood in their veins.”

He chuckles. “For your sake, Si, I hope he’s capable of putting his honor aside, or you won’t live to see him get his medal of integrity.”

Ice runs through my veins at his words. “You’re a cop. You’re supposed to protect people, not hurt them.”

“It wouldn’t have come to this if you had just given me another chance,” he mocks. “I’m supposed to be the good guy, huh? But what did that get me? Not your love, that’s for sure. I guess if I can’t have you, nobody else should.”

“How our relationship ended has nothing to do with?—”

His humorless laugh makes me pause. “We both know women never want the good guy. You want that enticing bite of darkness. It wouldn’t surprise me if you went and spread your legs for that monster and then tossed your heart in along with it as the cherry on top of the cake.”

Shame makes my cheeks heat, and I’m suddenly glad for the darkness that hides my flaming face. “Now I’m really glad I dumped you.”

I see his shoulders lift in a shrug. “It doesn’t matter anymore now, does it?”

I shut my eyes as the painful realization hits me. Regardless of my father’s decision, I know he’s not going to let me walk out of here alive. Not after his identity has been revealed.

A broken whimper leaves my throat, and I bite back my sob. I won’t cry. I won’t give this asshole the satisfaction.

Alessandro

“Boss, I have Cassell on the phone for you,” Maurizio says right as I’m holstering a gun into my shoulder.

I grab the phone and press it to my ear. “You better have good news for me.”

“I like my spine where it is just fine,” he grumbles. “Footage of Miss D’Addario being taken is missing from street surveillance, so it is someone with a connection to tamper with street surveillance.”

“And someone who knows she’s Ivan’s daughter,” I say. It took a lot of time and money for my best men to find intel connecting Ivan to a daughter.

From the information Ivan emailed to me, he only started working on the Hendrix case about five months ago. Definitely not enough time for them to locate Sienna.

Which means…

“Someone close to her gave out the info,” Cassell continues. “I am eighty-five percent sure it was the ex-boyfriend.”

I jolt. What ex-boyfriend?

“Who?” I snarl.

“Uh, I mean—” he stammers. “Her relationship with Salvadore Bianci only ended about a year ago. I sent you a report about him two months ago.”

And I never looked at it because I was too busy fucking Sienna into every flat and sometimes not-so-flat surface I could find.

My eyes narrow. “Carry on.”

He clears his throat. “I looked into Salvadore, and it turns out he received a bulk pay of three million dollars a week ago into an offshore account. He has also been getting multiple payments throughout the years.”

“So the dirty ex-boyfriend cop has her?” I grit my teeth.

“Yes,” he replies, and I hear the clacking sound of typing. “Specifically, in the underground parking lot of one of Hendrix’s abandoned building projects. I’m sending you the location and a general layout of the building right now.”

I hang up and toss the phone back to Maurizio. “I’m going to go get her.”

“I’m coming with you, boss.”

“No, you’re not,” I tell him firmly. “You’re staying right here and supervising the transport of the product that’s coming in.”

Shaking his head, he draws himself up. “I’m going to have to disobey a clear order, boss.”

I step forward and wait for him to flinch, but his gaze hardens. After a brief moment, I shake my head at him. “Fine, but Salvadore is mine.”

With that warning, I storm out of the room and the house, holding the fringes of my self-control by a thread.

“You drive,” I tell Maurizio because with the fury roaring through me, I’m not sure I won’t crash the car and destroy my chance to save Sienna and beat that fucking cop to a pulp.

The car feels like it’s crawling by, but in reality, Maurizio is breaking all the traffic rules, and the only way he can go faster is if the car grows wings and takes off. That fact does nothing to stop me from clenching my jaw and wanting to toss him out of the car because he hasn’t gotten us there yet.

After what feels like an eternity later, the Porsche comes to a stop in front of a dilapidated building. I step out of the car and look up at it.

I’m coming, baby.

“Shoot to kill. Everybody except Salvadore,” I order Maurizio, and he nods.

Together, we creep toward the building and through the revolving front doors that deliver us into a trashed reception area.

I draw my gun and motion him to take the opposite hallway. He pulls out his Glock and screws on a silencer before sneaking away, silent despite his size.

Wary of my surroundings, I continue down the broken tiles of the hallway. There’s an elevator at the end of the path, but I don’t trust the unstable electricity in the building, so I continue to the door of the stairwell.

I push it open and wait a moment after the loud creaking sound. When I don’t detect anybody approaching, I continue down, hurrying down the dark stairs to the belly of the building. It has two floors underground, and the first one turns out to be completely empty.

“Nothing, boss,” Maurizio confirms when we meet up in the middle of the lot.

I motion to the path leading down, and we take it.

Suddenly, a man in a sleeveless denim jacket appears from around a corner. “Hey, you can’t?—”

My bullet through his mouth silences him, but it’s too loud in the echoing space, and within seconds, we have armed men rushing toward us.

“Fuck my life,” the bald man beside me grunts. Then, ducking behind a pillar, he pulls me into the safety of the stone wall with him as bullets fly past us.

“I think they’re keeping her behind those metal doors,” I tell him. “I have to get to her before the bastard has the chance to take her to a second location.”

His eyes meet mine, looking grave, and I know he can hear my unspoken, “Or worse.”

“I’ll distract them.” His eyes flicker around, looking for a means of escape. The men shooting at us are coming closer, and if they get close enough and corner us off in here, we’ll be done for.

“Are you sure?” I ask him.

“I like Miss Marino,” he mutters with a shrug before running out of our cove toward the entrance we came from.

I wait for the men to run after him before peeling myself away from the wall and walking toward the door at the corner. Just as I reach for it, it’s kicked open, and light spills on the dirty cop who’s holding a gun to Sienna’s head.

“Ale,” she gasps. “W—what are you doing here?”

“If you take a step forward, I’ll blow her brains out.” His dark eyes gleam at me, and I know he means every word.

I raise my hands in the air with the gun dangling from my fingers. “Don’t shoot.”

The cop glances between Sienna and me, and then his mouth pulls up into a bitter smile. “Really? It seems I was right on the money when I said you spread your legs for this thug.”

“You’re the one who has a gun to my temple, so I’m finding it hard to pinpoint who the thug is here,” she spits, jerking against her bindings.

He turns to her, his fingers going a little slack. “What would honorable Ivan think of you when he discovers you’ve tossed your dignity out the window?”

She flinches.

I don’t think. I just rush forward and dive into the man. We both crash to the ground, and the gun goes clattering away, a shot going off.

Sienna shrieks, but I’m laser-focused on the man who’s currently pushing my head into the pool of water on the ground. His fist comes down on my jaw, and my teeth cut into the inside of my cheek. I taste blood.

Raising my knees, I dig it into his stomach.

“Oof,” he gasps, and I take advantage by pushing him down beneath me and landing my own blow.

He tries to buck me off, but red has already crept over my vision.

“You touched her,” I roar, landing another blow to the side of his head. “You hurt her!” I growl.

“You bastard!” he snarls. “You can’t kill me. I’m a cop.”

I laugh darkly. “Oh, trust me, Bianci. There aren’t going to be any witnesses.”

“Alessandro, you can’t kill him,” I hear Sienna cry, but her voice seems to be coming from far away.

My fists come down again and again and again on the man’s face until I hear the crack of bone under my fists, and he’s no longer trying to push me off—until my knuckles split and the blood that pours from it becomes one with the pool under me.

Salvadore’s face is pulp—bone, brain matter, and blood—but I don’t stop until a sharp ringing sound pierces through the blood haze.

I rise up and turn to where Sienna is standing in the bald-headed man’s hold, her face completely drained of color, her wide, haunted eyes fixed on me.

I spit the blood out of my mouth.

“Leave us,” I tell Maurizio without removing my eyes from hers.

He stares down at the body behind me, hesitates, and then finally marches off, leaving the both of us in oppressive silence.

Her throat bobs in a swallow, and she takes a step back. That small move feels like a thousand needles being stabbed into me at once. Gritting my teeth, I lock my feet to keep from closing the distance and covering that plump mouth with mine.

“Are you afraid of me now, Sienna?”