We were here because of me, and realistically what the hell was Frankie supposed to do? Go to Brazil with us on the run?
Jesus.
As exciting as it all sounded it was farfetched.
Farfetched and sketchy like everything else. We were all doing our best here but my worry was just increasing with every passing second. There were too many variables but I was sure one would lead Pa here. I just knew it.
“Well maybe you could be your own boss. You’re good in everything you do,” I praised him with a little smile. I felt he deserved something nice along those lines since he really had stuck his neck out for me.
He nodded firmly with a wide smile plastered on his face. It made his beard look thicker. Usually he’d have it trimmed up but I was liking the more rugged look.
“I like that. I could be my own boss. Speaking of which, I gotta make a call.” He straightened up.
“To home?”
“Thereabouts, don’t worry, if something had happened I would tell you. No point keeping secrets now. If I think anyone is on the way here, you’ll know by me grabbing you and heading for the truck.”
I nodded even though I imagined him doing something more like throwing me over his shoulder and running to the truck with me.
“I have eyes in the sky,” Jack stated. “People keeping tabs on the area. You’ll know when we need to make a move.”
That did sound more promising. I didn’t know he had people watching like that.
“Thank you.”
Frankie nodded his thanks and headed out the kitchen door, leaving me with Jack.
This was actually the first time that we’d been left by ourselves.
I didn’t miss the tension that coiled around my heart.
It was from that awkwardness again of being here, it being clear that Xander and I were together and me feeling like the replacement.
“So, you manage to do anything with that sketch pad? I was looking for some paint but what I found dried up several moons ago,” Jack said with a little chuckle.
He was trying to make me feel at ease. I could tell.
“I drew last night. Sometimes that’s okay.”
“Well we can run to the store tomorrow and get some stuff if you like. The surroundings are beautiful this time of year.”
“Thank you, I would really love that. Everything here is beautiful. Did you paint?” I asked only because he’d mentioned the paint that dried up.
The shift in his mood however showed it wasn’t him that used to paint and I’d asked yet another question I shouldn’t have.
“Not me. It was my daughter,” Jack answered and the guilt just intensified.
“I’m sorry. I … shouldn’t have asked.”
He chuckled surprising me. “Jia, it’s okay… and for heavens sakes you don’t have to walk around tense because you’re with Xander. It’s good you two found each other, no matter the circumstances. I can tell he cares very much for you and I just hope this whole incident gets resolved as soon as. Happiness is always a great outcome.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I care deeply for him too. I wish I could be more useful. I wish this wasn’t about me. I wish my father wasn’t so…” There was so much to wish for when it came to Pa. So damn much. “I just wish he was normal. Not the mafia boss. He was normal sometimes. When he cooked.”
“He cooks?”
“Yeah, he always insists on fresh everything and bringing the Italian cuisine to the table, like he’s bringing Italia itself. My mother was the same. Cooking. For me it’s the one thing we do that brings people together. Everybody loves good food, right?”
He smiled at that. “I agree. I love cooking. I insisted on teaching my daughter how to cook but just like everything else, she refused to learn. Why learn when you could have take out or me doing cuisine meals?”
I laughed. Xander couldn’t cook either.
“So you were the cook?”
“I was the cook and the bearer of failed attempts. So when she decided she wanted to do art I got her everything she asked for only for her to give up a week later, when she decided she wanted to do ballet so she could be more like the other girls. I got her the whole caboodle, tutu and all. She hated that with a fiery passion. One day I told her to just do what she loved. She joined the air cadets. Then followed my career path like it was a road map.”
“Wow. That is amazing.” I loved how he spoke so highly of her. “I’m sure she was amazing.”
“She was and she died doing what she loved most. The memories keep her alive for me. Death is the risk we take with jobs like ours. But we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t think it was worth it.”
I nodded. “Yes. I agree. It’s so honorable and beautiful. I hope I can be something worthwhile like that one day. All my life everything was given to me, art is the only thing that I do where I get to show my heart and who I am.”
“Miss Jia, I swear to God I’m looking at you right now and I can see your heart and who you are. Don’t worry about things like that. Enjoy life and try not to...” His voice trailed off when his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He reached for it at the same time that Frankie ran back in the kitchen, guns in both hands.
“Guys we have company, doesn’t look like our people,” Frankie balked. “Two guys on bikes were heading toward the house from the woods.”
My heart jumped in my throat and I dropped the mixing spoon.
Oh God no…
What was happening?
Jack whipped out his phone and spoke to someone really quick.
“Ra. They’re here. We have to get out of here,” Jack cried. He moved to the cupboard and pulled out a gun.
Just then though, a loud smash echoed in the sitting room and two men ran into the kitchen.
Jack fired a shot from the smaller gun and took them out.
He then grabbed my hands and put me behind him while we moved forward, Frankie next to us, just in time to see more guys filling the house.
Jack shoved me in the corner and opened the door to the basement.
“Go down there and stay there until I say,” he ordered.
I did as he said, following exactly what he said.
I opened the door and ran down the stairs.
After five minutes I wasn’t sure what was worse for me, being upstairs and in the action where maybe I could have helped, but also get myself killed. Or being down here and listening.
Gun fire clashes, then thuds would echo over the roof as bodies went down.
People would scream in pain, scream to take cover, then scream as they died.
It went on like that for maybe fifteen minutes, but it felt like forever.
It was like a forever of the horrible sounds above me, then something changed. The sounds were still there but I swore I heard the door open from the back of the house.
I did. Next came heavy footsteps. Several people came in then my heart squeezed when the door to the basement opened.
I didn’t think Jack would be coming down here with the gunfire still going. So it could only have been someone else.
I ran behind the washing machine and hid there. It was the best place I could find with so little time to react. I hadn’t expected anyone to come down here, but why wouldn’t they?
I was so stupid.
Now was not the time to be stupid either dealing with these people.
The Ra…
Christ, what would they want? What the hell would they want? Xander didn’t have the prints but maybe they thought he got them.
Balthazar knew that Xander knew where to find them so this was retaliation.
Shit.
A pair of legs came into view where I could see.
There was another and another.
Then damn it, another, but these legs wore suit pants quite unlike the other guys who wore cargo pants.
The suit guy moved forward and it was like he just knew where to look. Maybe I was completely obvious.
Maybe I w
as foolish. I should have covered myself or something. It would have been better than perching behind the washing machine.
Because that was the first place Balthazar Kane looked and the smile that filled his face when he saw me made my blood freeze.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Xander
No!
Not again.
I was too late.
I was too fucking late.
Wes and I pulled up at the house and it looked like disaster had struck. There were military officials outside, walking around. They tried to stop me but I pushed ahead, running inside.
I got to the living room and found a battered and bloodied Jack on the floor, with paramedics tending to him. He was out cold. No sign of Jia.
I rushed up to Jack. He looked bad.
“I’m sorry we have to tend to him.” The paramedic said to me.
Frankie came around and Wes joined us.
“I’m sorry man. We were ambushed,” Frankie began. He looked like he’d taken a beating too. But the beating he got wouldn’t have been enough to give him the sadness in his eyes. “Xander it was Ra guys and they took Jia. We thought she was in the basement. I was out here covering your old man.”
I walked over to the wall and threw a punch into the concrete.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Not your fault. Not yours.”
“Xander calm down. Please.” Wes winced.
I looked over to Jack, he started coughing when he came to. I rushed back to him and he saw me. His left eye was so swollen and bruised he couldn’t open it, but he reached out to me.
“Boy they took her. It was Balthazar. He was here.”
My skin buzzed from the trauma. It was all just getting worse and worse.
Balthazar was here, so Wes was spot on in his assumption of what would happen next.
Fuck. It was all so fucking convenient that I wasn’t here.
“I’m sorry Jack. Fuck, I’m sorry.” Once again I felt useless. Fucking useless as shit.
“Save the sorrys boy. I’m okay but we have to get her back. You find out anything useful from Dorian?” It was typical Jack to be in business mode even in this state.
“It was Ethan. It was him all along. He played me, he played me for years too. He and Balthazar were in cahoots. It’s on him why Claire died, Jack.”
Jack growled and tried to get up but the paramedic pressed a firm hand down on him.
“Ethan!” Jack cried. “That fucking dog! He’ll pay.”
Pay?
He was the reason why Claire had been killed and now the same thing could happen to Jia. I didn’t doubt that one bit. Right now though it didn’t look like I was in any position to be making any threats.
What the fuck was I going to do?
Balthazar had Jia.
Balthazar had my girl.
We sent out a search party.
The best kind of people that Jack had at his fingertips.
No one found a trace of them.
It was like Jia had just disappeared. Completely gone. What I called off grid. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Wasn’t I used to dealing with Balthazar and the Ra? I knew how the fucking man worked. I knew how he treated people he kidnapped.
I kept seeing images in my mind. Images of Claire’s body. Her being shot, blood splattered then the explosion. Death.
That was what this meant. And time was passing.
I’d looked with the guys too, we went further than the state line and decided they had to have gone out of state.
They really had all the power. Jack told me the place had been flooded with men. Men came on bikes and cars, but there was no trace, nothing picked up on any camera.
I knew what that was, they’d made sure they screwed with all cameras that could pick them up on their route. That was the best explanation I could come up with. It had to be that because that was unheard of.
Time was passing and we were nowhere nearer than we’d been when I first got back to the house.
I didn’t sleep and when morning came the next day I couldn’t believe Jia really wasn’t with me. I couldn’t believe it.
In my cynical mind I cursed myself. Her father wanted to send her to Italy with Armand so she would be safe.
I stopped that from happening. My intervention stopped her from being somewhere she would have been safe.
I was here sitting on my ass without a paddle of an idea on what to do next other than try the most lamest of things.
I tried calling Ethan.
I’d done it yesterday too.
I tried calling him as a last resort. Not really thinking I was going to get an answer.
The same fucking thing happened now.
The phone rang out to voicemail so I ended the call. I’d left him enough messages for him to know what it was I wanted. I doubted though that I would have needed to say anything.
The hours that followed since we got back felt like eons, and now I was sitting on the front porch with a cigarette in my hand. It was one of Jack’s. I hadn’t smoked in years but this right now was something I needed to calm me down because everything had blown up in my face. Everything.
I glanced down at my watch, it was nearly nine.
It rained last night so there was a slight mist about the place and it wasn’t as bright as it usually was at this hour of the morning. The scenery suited my mood.
Jack opened the door and came out. He had a slight limp and his arm was in a sling.
He’d broken a few ribs yesterday and taken a bullet to his shoulder but it passed through at an angle that probably hurt like a bitch but wouldn’t leave too much damage. He’d been told to stay in the hospital for a few days. Jack being Jack however stayed long enough to get patched up with some stitches and discharged himself straight after.
He said staying in like that was for people who had nothing better to do and as long as he could move he was leaving and coming to help me.
He pulled out his lighter, lit up, and held the flame to me when I got out another cigarette. Jack then reached for a cigar from his back pocket and lit it up.
He sat opposite me on the porch, gazing out into the open the same way I was.
“I’m sorry Xander,” he said, voice just above a whisper.
I shook my head and looked at him.
“No, you have nothing to be sorry for,” I told him.
“I feel like shit. You asked me to watch her and she got taken on my watch. I had eyes in the sky and everything. She still got taken.” He took a draw on his cigar and blew out the smoke in a ring. “If it wasn’t for your friend Frankie I would have been a goner. They blindsided me big time and tried to undercut me. He had my back. We thought she’d be safe in the basement. They went down there and I don’t even know when they took her. There was no scream or anything. They just took her.”
“I need to get her back Jack. I have to. I can’t allow Balthazar to …” I couldn’t say the words.
He wouldn’t just kill her.
He wouldn’t.
He’d told me so himself when he went to her house. He knew what she meant to me and the things he said were the kind that were enough to make me end him if he didn’t have a gun pointed at her.
“Don’t think like that, son. Don’t. We just have to hope.”
I tossed the cigarette and redialed Ethan’s number.
Another fruitless attempt maybe, but it was what I had. We had Dorian track the number but it came up with somewhere listed in Vegas. Around the area we’d been when we were there. We knew then that he couldn’t have been anywhere near us because he was hours away.
It suggested he’d ditched the phone.
I hung up when the same fucking thing happened as before. But unlike before, my phone rang and it was an unrecognized number.
I answered straight away.
“Who is this?” I barked.
“Xander Cage is that any way to answer the phone? Really?” It was Ethan!
Jack straighten
ed up instantly as I bolted up.
“Ethan, where the fuck are you? Where is Jia?” I was just talking. Not quite thinking about what the hell it was I was asking him.
Realistically I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill him.
“Xander, I tried so hard to hide the truth from you. I really did. But it was to no avail. I suppose these things come out eventually. The way things were going meant they had to at some point.”
I seethed, trying hard to focus on the right thing to say.
“It was you. All of it. All along. It was you. Right from the damn start. You. When? When did you switch sides?”
Everything was tumbling through my mind. I wanted answers for all of it.
He cleared his throat. “Is that really relevant now?”
“Yes, you will tell me and then you’re going to tell me where Jia is.”
“Old friend, this is a courtesy call. Not one where you make demands. It’s one to tell you to give up the chase. We’re seeking other avenues now. The same way you like to get in and out and not leave a trace, the same way I like to be clean, not leave any baggage behind or shit that can follow you. I was the one who insisted on not taking her for leverage at the start. I really thought you would have stolen the prints and everything would have run smoothly. It might have worked if you hadn’t gotten involved with the girl. It clouded your judgment Xander and your ability to do your job. You got messy, you slipped up, you weren’t thinking straight. This is the result.”
“Son of a bitch, tell me where she is.”
“No. Like I said, I won’t be doing that. We’ll do things the dirty way from here onwards. She is leverage, so we’ll see just how important she is to Giovanni Marchesi. I guess though I can tell you when it was I changed sides.” He chuckled. “The truth is, I was always who I was. I was always part of The Ra. I’m a leader, just like Balthazar. The thing about leadership in The Ra is that we never wear the mark. The same way he doesn’t have any tattoos on him to give him away as a Spade or even part of The Ra, is the same way I am. It’s how we work. I worked my way in to get the intel. All the things I needed to get to report to my superiors. Years of work. We infiltrate and become part of the system until we need to strike. That’s how we’re always one step ahead of the game.”
Game of Love : A Mafia Romance Page 45