“Does it matter?”
“If I didn’t want to know I wouldn’t ask the question.” Actually it didn’t matter one fuck, but it added to the details of what I knew.
“The Presidency of Russia,” he answered, sharing. Actually telling me. Frankie heard right.
“Okay. Now we know the back story. Do you have any idea where they might have taken Jia?” It was time for action. We’d talked enough about shit we couldn’t do anything about.
Giovanni shook his head. “Not a damn clue. I have no idea. For all I know they could be in Timbuktu. The only consolation I have is that they’d have to move with the speed of light to get there. I just have to wait for the call.”
“They’ll be watching,” Jack suddenly said.
Giovanni looked to him. “Of course they will. Those people never stop watching. They know I’m here but do not care about that. They just want the prints. That is all. They don’t care about the details, that is the power of The Ra.”
I wish to God we were dealing with anyone else besides them, anybody else.
Fucking hell.
A shiver ran down my spine when his phone started buzzing.
He reached for it and answered it.
I had my eyes peeled on him but out the corner of my eye I noticed Dorian pull something from his pocket too.
“Hello,” Giovanni said into the phone. He pressed it to his ear. His face hardened and my heart sped up its beat to a hundred miles an hour.
It was beating so fast as I waited.
“I will see you then,” Giovanni stated and hung up. He grit his teeth and growled. “Twin Falls. They want me to come to Twin Falls at noon tomorrow with prints. I get to the civic center and they’ll send a fucking address.”
“I got the address,” Dorian announced, pulling our attention to him.
“What?” I asked.
He held up the device he’d taken out earlier. It looked like one of those battery charger units but it had a more slimline look to it.
He smiled. “My device tracked them within seconds.”
“It said unrecognized number on my phone,” Giovanni stated widening his eyes.
Dorian waved his hand as if that was nothing. “Ugh, that’s nothing lad. I can get round that piss easy with my wee device, so much the better when they’re live in conversation for longer than a minute. I picked up your number when you got here and set my device to track any number that made contact with you.”
I knew I would like this guy. A plan was brewing in my mind.
“Dorian, can we locate the address and hack the systems? Do you have anything like that?” I asked. “I’d just need something to rewrite a few algorithms and codes.”
Dorian smiled. “Now you’re speaking my language.”
“Perfect. Now we have a plan.”
“Care to let me in on that plan?” Giovanni asked.
“Sure. We’re not getting anywhere for noon tomorrow. We’re getting there before sunrise, before the dawn of the new fucking day. If we can check out the location we know what we’re doing and where we’re going. We go in and get Jia.”
“I have to take the prints in case it goes wrong. I won’t sacrifice my daughter for them.” He pointed to the prints. “I won’t do it, I don’t care what they’re worth.”
For the first time since this storm happened, I actually respected the guy.
“We take the prints but we’re leaving with her, alive.” I nodded. “Wes I need you with Dorian to be my eyes.” I looked over at Wes who gave me both thumbs up.
“Eyes like an eagle bro.”
“Frankie stay here with Jack.”
Both men looked at me like I was crazy.
“Are you insane? I’m not letting you go on this mission by yourself.” Jack protested.
“I won’t be by myself. Giovanni’s coming with me.”
Giovanni straightened and focused his gaze on me.
“The two of you can’t just go on this suicide mission by yourselves. I won’t allow it,” Jack flared. He lowered his gun on Giovanni and stared me down. The wealth of seriousness mingled with worry in his eyes.
It was times like these when I was grateful to have someone who cared for me. Wes was my best friend, but it was different. I wondered how it was I’d lived without it for the last five years. It was the same as how I wondered how I’d existed for the first sixteen years of my life without him and Claire.
“Jack, you are injured, badly.”
“Like fuck am I injured. You are … you are my son. You are like a son to me and I just got you back. I’m coming whether you fucking like it or not.”
When Jack spoke there was no point arguing. I could imagine me trying to talk him out of it and then just getting pushed back. I gave him a curt nod, agreeing. I supposed the more muscle we had the better.
“Okay.”
“I’ll assemble some guys,” Jack added. Hope filled me when he said that because I knew he meant guys who were like twenty of me.
“Thank you.”
“I’m coming too,” Frankie chimed in. “Don’t expect me to sit here and scratch my ass until you come back.”
Giovanni gave him the same hard look he had when he first came in and saw him.
“How touching. All aboard. Traitor,” Giovanni hissed.
I was glad when Frankie made his way over to him and squared off with him.
“I don’t care what the hell you call me boss,” Frankie countered. “I’m not the traitor, you are. To your country. Greedy mobster, getting in shit and not getting all the details. The fine print.”
The look in Giovanni’s eyes hardened. “That is none of your concern,” he answered.
“You get involved with something like that, sacrifice your best men and now look where your daughter is.”
“Frankie, she wouldn’t be in danger if you didn’t take her,” Giovanni countered. The sting of his words got me.
Frankie shook his head though.
“It wouldn’t matter where you sent her, those people would have found her. Send her to the moon and they would find her. Believe me, it was inevitable no matter where she went. Armand, that asshole would have saved himself first before her if shit had gone down in Italy. And your family there are no match for The Ra. Your people here or there are no match for them. It’s the reason why you’re here.” Frankie stepped back away from him but wasn’t finished with him yet. “Be grateful she was taken somewhere where we still have a chance to do something about it.”
I wouldn’t excuse the guilt I felt that Jia had been taken, and it didn’t make me feel any better to hear she still would have been taken, his words held truth though. They held truth and I was listening and paying attention. Grateful for his wisdom.
This was our chance. My chance that I wouldn’t blow this time.
“Okay guys, let’s do this. We’ll assemble in a few hours and get this done. Get her back,” I stated.
I was looking at Giovanni, who’d resumed his former worry. He’d resumed the worried sick father mode.
Worried sick didn’t begin to describe my worry.
I knew what Balthazar Kane was like.
No one here, aside from me, had seen the extent of his madness first hand.
I was really praying there wouldn’t be a repeat of it.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Jia
I’d been watching everyone’s movements. Watching what they did and how they operated.
Their process.
What I was looking for was a way of escaping.
Yes…
I’d officially put my hand up and admit that I’d gone bat shit crazy.
But then, I was pretty sure there were a few times in my life when I’d said the same thing.
This time was just the time that really mattered and it needed my craziness to push the limits so I could believe in myself. Believe I could do this.
Escape this place.
It started with this room. if I could get out of the
room then I could have some type of chance. Maybe…
I had to try. I had to.
I couldn’t just allow Balthazar to do whatever he wanted to me. I couldn’t sit here and wait and accept my fate.
It was crazy.
That would be crazy. Not trying would be crazy and the coward’s way out.
Ethan hadn’t come back since I spoke to him. That was many hours ago. I even fell asleep. What put me in gear for this plan of mine was waking up to seeing Balthazar watching me. It was so creepy. So damn creepy and gave me that instant feeling of some violation although he hadn’t touched me.
That had been some hours ago too.
They had a guard at the door, who’d taken me to the toilet twice already. It was down the corridor from the room. I’d gone the second time to get another look at the place. There was a vent in the wall above the toilet. I was hoping to go in there and try and get gone.
The time was now. It had to be now. I’d already been here too long.
“Guard!” I called out. “Guard!”
He was standing there on the outside of the door ignoring me. Idiot. I wished I could be one of those women who could seriously handle themselves. Someone like Xena or fuck, Wonder Woman was needed to kick his ass and put him in his place. Actually, the whole fucking lot of them.
Since I was neither Xena, nor Wonder woman I would have to settle for what I could do, and that was to be as annoying as fuck.
I called him over and over again.
“Guard, guard, guard, guard, guardddddddddddd!!!”
That got him good. The door practically flew open and he burst in eyes boring into me like daggers.
Now it was time to turn on the charm.
“I need the toilet,” I said with a smile and lifted my shoulder into a sassy shrug.
“You just went,” he snarled.
“That was hours ago. You want me to piss on the floor? I don’t really care but I don’t think you people want that do you?”
“This is some fucking joke,” he huffed. I gathered babysitting duties weren’t his usual thing.
He walked over to me and undid the ropes around my feet, my hands next.
This was the part where even if I knew some kind of self-defense I’d try to escape.
This guy would have me on the floor in seconds though if I tried anything like that. he was a military looking type that would have been fitting to Pa’s knights. The kind of man who didn’t fuck around and was not to be fucked with.
I stood when he grabbed my arm and started hustling me toward the door.
My legs wobbled from the non-activity for the last few hours and having to keep still.
We got to the little toilet cubicle and he allowed me to go inside. He’d only allowed me in by myself because it was so small and the toilet was right there.
The minute I got in and closed the door I knew I only had seconds. Seconds before he realized I’d gone. That meant that once I got inside the vent I had to power through and hope like hell it got me somewhere I could get out properly. I’d seen most vents like this lead outside. That was my hope. These were built to regulate the air flow in buildings so there had to be a path of sorts that led outside.
I turned on the tap and let it trickle so it would sound like I was peeing. Then I made a move. I stood on the toilet seat and moved to the sink. The vent was above. I pushed it in and thanked my lucky stars it was one of those flap style ones like what Pa had installed back in the hotel rooms at The Marchesi.
I didn’t waste any time I hoisted myself up and pushed in with my head, sliding in and clawing my way up the slippery shaft.
Oh God… I was in.
I actually did it and it was small. Just small enough for me to make my way through. A big guy like the guard wouldn’t have been able to fit. It wouldn’t stop him though. It wouldn’t fucking stop him if he decided to shoot me and then scoop me out after.
The freedom and adrenaline that rushed through me propelled me forward , scuttling down the path as fast as I could, and fucking faster when I heard the faint sounds of commotion from where I’d come from.
God all I’d had was about two minutes before he must have gone into the toilet and realized what I’d done.
I didn’t allow it to faze me or throw me.
Keep going Jia. Keep going girl. You got this.
Christ… the echoes of voices outside the vent sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t. The best I could hope for was that the path truly led outside and in some miracle spot that would give me an opening to run.
I approached a section ahead where it split off into five different pathways. I followed my instinct for survival and went toward the one that had the most light.
More light may mean daylight. It might have helped if I knew what time of day it was. For all I knew that could have just been a very bright light.
It got brighter and looked like daylight.
I prayed it was.
Please God let it be daylight.
I pounded forward propelling my body to move. When I got to the end of the path and gazed out desperate to see some kind of greenery I frowned when I realized I’d just gone toward a room.
This had to be the way though. I’d have to take the route. I couldn’t go backwards.
I pushed the vent panel open and pulled myself out.
There was about a ten foot drop to the floor. falling would be just like when I fell out of that tree at Great Auntie Layla’s house when I was twelve.
That was an accident. This was survival but I fell the same way. With a loud thump, smacking into the floor.
That was one of the differences between then and now. The ground was a lot softer than a tiled floor.
The pain was the same.
The room was some kind of hall. A meeting room. There was a long table ahead of me that looked like it was used for a buffet and there were a few chairs dotted here and there.
All the while I looked around I still couldn’t quite work out what sort of building this was. A house? An office?
Something else. what sort of house had the cell like cubicle I’d been held in and vents like where I’d just crawled from?
It didn’t matter. Whatever it was and wherever I was, I needed to get out.
I made a run for the doors, opened them and landed smack into a wall.
The impact made me rebound and recoil. I stumbled backwards but gathered my footing only to see that it wasn’t a wall I crashed into.
It was Balthazar Kane.
Balthazar Kane. My worst nightmare.
“Oh my God…” I breathed.
“God will not help you here, sugar.” He snarled and landed a slap straight across my face.
As the pain lanced through me stars speckled my vision.
Part of me thought I should have prepped for the slap.
In the last few weeks I’d been slapped twice. In my life no man had dare hit me. The previous two slaps came from people who were holding back. Pa and Armand.
When Balthazar slapped me, the stars blurred my vision. I could feel myself falling and then there was darkness.
The man knocked me unconscious…
My eyes fluttered open and I found myself staring at something gold and silky.
And, my head…
It had that sensation again. Like it might explode . Not as bad as last time though although it was still pounding.
I blinked several times and moved my head.
Now I was looking at rails. Gold rails. It reminded me of a bird cage.
I shuffled and saw more rails then I made the mistake of bolting up right because now my head felt like it just might fall off.
It would have been the least of my worries because the reason why the rails reminded me of a cage was because I was in a cage.
I was in a fucking cage!
“No…” I cried and brought my hands up to my cheeks.
I was in a cage.
I shook my head as I looked around.<
br />
This was a bedroom. There was a massive four poster bed in the center of the room with a large French window leading out what I thought was a balcony.
But this… this was a cage. A human sized cage in the room. the gold silk was the padding on the floor. the bedding, like what you’d have for an animal.
The room door opened and Balthazar came in carrying a mug. He looked so ordinary with his mug.
He wore a knitted gray jumper , black slacks and had his dark hair slicked back. If not for the scar running down his cheek he really would have looked just like a regular guy. He smiled when he saw me and set his mug down on a little table by the wardrobe.
“Hello pet, you’re awake.”
Pet…
My soul shivered. My soul quaked and doom filled me. When Pa told me the other week that he’d put me in a cage if I disobeyed him this was what I imagined. Or where they kept dogs at the pound.
“Not talking?” he cajoled.
“Please let me go. Please…” I resulted to begging.
He came over and got to his knees meeting my level and holding on to the rails of the cage.
The way he looked at me, his coal like eyes lightening with desire I almost thought he was going to actually turn into a monster.
“Say that again pet.”
“Please let me go. You don’t have to do this.”
When he closed his eyes and seemed to relish my words I realized he got off on the begging.
“I could listen to you beg all day. Miss Jia.” He opened his eyes and his stare hardened up.
My throat went dry when he stood up, opened the cage door and came inside.
I backed away on my hands. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want him to come near me.
There was a limit though, a limit to what I could do. My back reached it when I came up against the cage wall. The rails stopped me from going further.
He knelt down and crawled to me, right up to me and hovered over me, resting his hands either side of me.
“You fascinate me Jia Marchesi. You’ll definitely make a good toy. So glad you tried to escape. It gave me the idea to bring you up to my room. I hope you last longer than the last girl, and you’re not a screamer. No one but me will hear you.” He brought his hand to my cheek and moved close to my lips.
Game of Love : A Mafia Romance Page 47