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Chapter Twenty-Four

Jack parked behind the patrol car on the outskirts of Willow Swamp Park . While en route, he’d gotten the call from patrol notifying him they’d spotted Gina’s Porsche . Kyle and Deke were already there, searching the vehicle.

“ Anything ?” he asked as he ran over to join them.

“ Sorry , bro.” Kyle shook his head. “ No sign of her.”

“ Except for this.” Deke held up the remnants of a cell phone with its cover bashed to bits, the frame and casing broken in half. “ The only other things are these buttons.” He pointed to several black buttons scattered on the pavement.

Jack crouched and picked up one of the buttons, turning it over in his hand.

It could have come from her coat, but he couldn’t be sure.

He clenched his hand around the button and stood, searching in all directions.

Fear and panic drilled him with enough force he nearly fell to his knees.

There was absolutely no proof, but he knew with unerring certainty what had happened.

Tino had Gina .

“ You want to file a missing persons report?” one of the uniforms asked.

What he wanted was to tear the island apart until he found her. “ Yeah . Gina Perot .” He gave a quick description, then indicated to his brothers he needed to speak with them privately, out of earshot of the uniforms.

Kyle’s dark brows lowered. “ What’s really going on, Jack ?”

In the interest of time, he hadn’t told his brothers much over the phone.

Keeping them in the dark was no longer an option.

“ It’s a long story. I found out Gina and her friends are the ones who’ve been ripping off the Falzones .

In exchange for not arresting her, they helped me get one of those bugs planted.

Their last break-in was at Tino Falzone’s shore house.

Gina got away with a hundred grand.” Deke whistled.

“ Yeah , and Maria Falzone caught her in the act. She was beat up badly, so Gina gave Maria her number. Maria arranged to meet Gina here so she could leave the bastard. My guess is Maria never had any intention of leaving, and that it was a setup to get Gina here. Either that, or Tino convinced Maria to call Gina .”

Kyle nodded in understanding. “ Meaning he beat her and forced her to make the call.”

“ Yeah .” Jack nodded. His brother had witnessed the horrors firsthand of what a domestic abuser would do to a woman. “ He’ll punish Gina for having the audacity to try to take his wife away and for stealing from him.”

“ Jesus .” Deke shook his head. “ She’s got guts. I’ll give her that.”

Too much, and Jack was afraid it would get her killed.

“ Where would he take her?” Kyle asked.

They were standing not half a mile from the Falzone compound.

Would Tino be so stupid as to take her there?

Bringing business into Franco’s home was a violation of the code.

Don’t shit where you eat. Franco would shit a brick if Tino pulled a stunt like that.

But why else would the meet be arranged here?

“ Bro ?” Deke threw him a look of concern. “ Talk to us. Whatever you want us to do, we’re in. You know that.”

“ I do know that.” He was more thankful for family than he’d ever been in his life. For what he was about to do, he could kiss his career good bye. He hadn’t known how this would go down. Now that he did, he couldn’t risk his brothers’ careers along with his own. He shook his head.

Kyle held up his hand. “ Don’t . Don’t say it.”

“ I can’t ask you to do this.”

“ You don’t have to.” Deke rested a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “ Do you love her?”

“ Yeah . I do.”

Kyle rested his hand on Jack’s other shoulder. “ That’s all we need to know. Just tell us the plan.”

He gave his brothers a grateful nod. They’d always been there for him, good times and bad.

Today was no exception, and today was exceptionally bad.

Jack looked over his shoulder at the two cops standing by the patrol car, one of whom was on the radio.

He had one shot at this. Calling in a marker of this magnitude might lose him one of the best informants he ever had because it would repay a debt owed to him.

None of it mattered if he couldn’t save Gina .

He called his informant, and it went right to voicemail.

He left a brief message about Gina . “ C’mon ,” he said in a low voice to his brothers.

“ I think I know where she is. First we need to lose these guys.” He’d done more off the books in the last two weeks than in his entire career.

What he was about to do now would trump it all. “ Let’s roll.”

He and his brothers ran for the Expedition .

“ Hey !” one of the cops shouted. “ Where are you going?”

“ False alarm.” Jack got in and slammed the door shut in the cop’s face. The guy pounded on the window, but Jack ignored him and gunned the SUV down the hill. Kyle sat to his right with Deke in the rear seat.

Jack redialed the last number he’d called. “ Pick up, pick up !” Voicemail kicked on again. “ Dammit !” He dropped his cell into the console and pounded the wheel with his bad hand. Pain shot up his arm, and he welcomed it.

“ You headed where I think you’re headed?” Kyle asked in a deceptively calm voice.

He glanced at Kyle , then caught Deke’s face in the rearview mirror. “ Yeah .”

“ Well , then,” Deke muttered. “ Looks like we’re going to war.”

Beside him, Kyle nodded.

The address he was heading to was one he knew by heart. Twelve Oceanview Lane —the Falzone compound. If he had to storm the place by force, he’d do it.

* * *

The side of Gina’s face where Tino had backhanded her throbbed. A strip of duct tape covered her mouth, forcing her to breathe in the stench of oil and gas through her nose.

They were inside Franco Falzone’s garage. Seated on a chair with her hands tied behind her back and her coat and blouse gaping wide open, she was so cold her teeth chattered. Not even the residual heat from the engine in Tino’s Caddy did anything to warm up the place.

Tino and his men—correction, goons—stood by the connecting door to the house, talking in hushed voices.

Psycho and Rocco were there, along with another goon— Meat —she didn’t recognize.

Meat’s phone rang, the second time in less than five minutes.

He glanced at the screen, then shoved it back into his pocket.

Maria still sat in the front passenger seat of Tino’s car, her shoulders slumped and her head hung low.

Gina clenched her bound hands. Bastard . How a man could ever do that to a woman she’d never understand. Maria Falzone was not only physically battered but emotionally beaten to a pulp.

She had to get out of there, and she’d take Maria with her.

Easier said than done. Not telling anyone where she’d been going was the right thing to do but had bitten her in the ass.

She was alone but refused to give up. Certainly not to these assholes.

Slowly , so as not to attract attention, she assessed her surroundings.

The only vehicle in the cavernous three-car garage was the Caddy . Two other vehicles were parked in the circular driveway in front of the house; she’d seen them as they’d driven through the large iron gates.

A wood workbench took up half of the rear wall of the garage, over which hung sheets of pegboard with various tools hanging on silver hooks. Tools she could never get to. Aside from the three closed garage doors, there was only one other way out. The connecting door to the house.

Meat’s phone rang again. Again he ignored it.

Next to where he and the others stood was a short set of stairs leading to the connecting door.

Leaning against the side of the stairs was a large crowbar.

Even if she could somehow manage to grab it, with her hands tied as they were, she wouldn’t be capable of making any good use of it.

Not for the first time since Tino and his goons had grabbed her, a frisson of fear shot up her spine, only this time it was worse. I might be totally screwed here.

She could have told Margo where she was going. She should have told Jack . Then she wouldn’t be in this no-win situation. Coulda , woulda, shoulda. Three completely useless, after-the-fact words.

“ I gotta make a call.” Meat headed up the stairs.

“ What the fuck, Meat ?” Tino’s brows slammed together. “ Now ?”

“ Yeah , now.” Meat flung his arms wide. “ My little girl got in a fight at school. That’s a big deal these days. I gotta talk to the principal before she gets expelled.” He pushed open the door and disappeared. The door banged shut behind him.

“ Jesus Christ ,” Tino muttered. “ Kids . Goddamn pains in the asses.”

“ Fun making them, though.” Psycho chuckled. His eyes lowered, taking in her exposed breasts. “ Right ?”

Behind the duct tape, Gina gagged. Tino had surrounded himself with an army of disgusting, slimy clones.

“ Right .” Tino grinned. “ Business before pleasure.”

He came toward her, and with each step her heart raced faster. When he fisted one of his hands, she tensed, preparing to take a punch to the face, but it never came.

“ You stole something from me. From all of my men.” He canted his head to Rocco and Psycho , who’d come to stand on either side of him. “ You didn’t know about the camera in my safe, did you?”

Camera ? Uh , nope . Maria hadn’t necessarily dimed her out, after all. Judging by Maria’s apologies, Tino must have forced her to make the call and pretend she wanted to leave him.

“ I recognized you from that fundraiser. You were with Gates . Are you his girlfriend? Or is he just fucking you?”

She gritted her teeth, exhaling through her nose. Even if her mouth wasn’t covered by duct tape, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of answering his questions.

“ Doesn’t matter.” He curled his lip. “ Whoever you are to him, it will make it that much sweeter when I fuck the shit out of you and leave what’s left for him to find. First , you’re going to tell me what I want to know.”

She couldn’t suppress the shudder that ran through her body. The idea of him touching her was so repugnant, she nearly gagged.

With one painful yank, he tore off the duct tape, leaving the skin around her lips stinging.

“ Where’s my money?” He leaned down, resting his hands on the arms of the chair. Hot breath washed over her face. “ Where is it?”

Pain exploded in her other cheek as he backhanded her again. She opened her eyes, trying to focus, but the room spun. All she saw were bright lights and a blurry shadow looming over her.

Maria’s muffled sobs came from inside the Caddy .

“ Rocco , take Maria inside. Lock her in Franco’s study.”

“ Franco ain’t gonna like this,” Rocco muttered. “ You bringing all this into his house while he’s out of town… Doing the broad here? I’m tellin’ you, this is not smart.”

“ I don’t give a fuck,” Tino shouted. “ Just do it!”

Gina’s vision came back on line in time to see Rocco half dragging Maria up the stairs and the murderous look in Tino’s eyes as he watched them go.

His chest heaved and his nostrils flared.

The man was about to explode, and Gina was front and center in the fallout radius.

Frantically , she looked around for a way out, still finding none.

“ The Commission meeting is Saturday . After that, this will be my house.” Tino took a deep breath before turning back to her with cold, dead eyes. An eerie calm seemed to surround him, and that frightened her more than any outburst.

“ Untie her hands. Bring her over here.”

Psycho untied her hands and began dragging her to the workbench. She twisted in his grip and lashed out, punching him in the gut. He didn’t flinch.

Tino lunged for her wrist, jerking her closer to the workbench. “ Hold her still.”

“ Nooo ,” she cried, still trying to twist away as Psycho shoved her to the vise grip attached to one side of the bench. Before she could stop him, Tino shoved her hand between the iron sides of the clamp and cranked it closed, leaving her fingers protruding from one end.

She screamed as he cranked the vise tighter. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes as pain radiated from her hand up her arm. Psycho held her other arm tightly. Any movement she made only intensified the pain.

“ Now , let’s have some fun.” Tino grinned as he reached for a tool on the pegboard—a large wire cutter.

Gina gulped. Her breath came in heavy rasps as she shook her head. “ Don’t do this,” she whispered. “ Please , don’t do this.” Visions of the jelly jar in Tino’s safe swam before her eyes. The one containing that agent’s finger.

He clamped the wire cutter around her thumb, squeezing until the blades cut into her skin enough to sting like a bitch and draw blood. “ Where’s . My . Money ?” He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back.

Several hairs ripped from her scalp and she cried out. Sweat broke out on her forehead as harsh reality settled over her like a death shroud. There was no way out.

Her heart hammered in her chest. Her fingers were about to become the newest addition to Tino’s treasure chest. Worse … It was only the beginning of the horror to come.