“What’s going on?” he asked.
They all started answering at once.
“Quiet!” He bellowed. He pointed at Zoey. “You. What’s happening?”
“Lorenzo’s gone. Andrea’s son.” Zoey gulped a breath. She’d been crying. Whoever made her cry was going to swallow all of their teeth before they died. “The Southside pack took him.”
“It’s all your fault!” Andrea shouted at him, and she slapped him across the face, then gasped and fell back a step.
He bared his fangs at the woman, who looked temporarily startled, but then lunged at him and grabbed his shirt.
“My son is missing! They did it to get at you!” she shrieked.
He shook her off violently, but she was too frantic to be terrified. “Explain.”
“My son started bragging about how he had a friend in the Blood Oath pack. He’s just a kid. He wants to be tough. He didn’t mean anything by it.” Andrea choked on a sob.
“And?”
“And he went to visit her, and she was hiding out in the Bianchi’s territory -” She pointed at Cin, furiously. Cin shriveled in on herself. “And they took him!” Andrea’s face crumpled. “Save my son. Please! I’ll give you everything I have.”
Dominic shook his head impatiently. “I don’t want your money. Where was he taken from?” He glowered at Cin.
She started talking really fast. “We were dumpster diving at 37th and Fillmore. He saw a bunch of the Bianchi pack members headed right for us, and he ran out to distract them so I could get away. I didn’t want to leave him, I swear I really didn’t, but he said if they grabbed both of us, nobody would know we’d been taken. He said I had to find Zoey and get help.”
Giuliana came running down the steps to join them. She glanced at Zoey askance, but didn’t say anything. Dominic quickly filled her in on what was happening.
“All right. Approaching them directly won’t help,” he said, thinking out loud. “We can grab up someone from the Bianchi pack and put the screws to them, and hope that they know where he’s been taken. We’ll also have our Strega do a locate spell. Do you have anything of his, some hair, an item of clothing?” The Strega was the witch the pack contracted with.
“No!” Andrea looked panicked. “Oh, God, I’m so stupid! I can go back home and get it – but that will take so long! They could be killing him!” She burst into loud sobs and collapsed in Stewart’s arms.
“You can find the kid,” Giuliana said to Zoey.
“Me? How?”
“You’ve got some kind of magic location powers, right?”
Dominic looked at Giuliana suspiciously. How did she know that? He hadn’t told anybody.
“My powers? They’re useless for this,” Zoey protested. “I’m just a map witch. My power guides me through town, it helps me avoid obstacles, but it doesn’t find missing people. I’d do anything to find Lorenzo, but I can’t.”
“I’ve heard of map witches,” Giuliana mused. “You can find any destination. Can’t you imagine Lorenzo as your destination?”
“A person, as my destination? I…” Zoey looked at Andrea, who was staring at her now, tear-stained eyes shining with hope. “I’ll try.” She closed her eyes. She pictured Lorenzo. She imagined his narrow face topped by the mop of brown hair, his tall skinny frame…she pictured being in a car and driving towards him…and she knew exactly where he was.
“Thirty-fifth and East Main!” she cried out happily. “In an office building. In the basement. Not only that, I can see the obstacles.” She quickly described them to Dominic; every obstacle was almost certainly a group of Bianchi shifter guards. And she knew how to steer him and his boys around them.
“Call the boys,” Dominic said to Romano, who took off at a dead run. He’d quickly round up the foot soldiers.
Dominic guided Zoey away from the rest of the group, a grim look on his face.
She put her hand on his arm, her brow crinkling with worry. “Be careful,” she said to him. “And thank you so much. I hate to ask you to do something dangerous, but the Bianchi pack is going to make an example of Lorenzo to get at you guys, and he’s just a dumb naïve kid. I’d get him myself if I were capable.”
“You’ve done your part. And I would never let you go on a mission like that. Now here’s the deal, Zoey. If you want us to get your friend back, you agree to stay here. And you don’t leave the property until the feud with the Bianchi pack is settled.”
Her hand dropped from his arm, and she took a step back.
“You would leave him there to die?” Acid dripped from every word.
“He’s not one of us.” It was what Arturo would have said – without conscience, without a second thought. It didn’t make the words taste any better in his mouth.
He saw the blaze of fury in her eyes, but she gave a sharp, abrupt nod. “Fine.” She bit the words out. The look on her face when she said that – it hurt.
He’d been hit run over by a truck, shot, stabbed, set on fire, bitten by ghouls, punched by an ogre, and thrown off a fifty foot cliff.
But having Zoey look at him like that – it hurt.
He turned and hurried down the steps, praying that he wouldn’t be too late to save Lorenzo…because if he was, it would break Zoey’s heart.
Chapter Fifteen
“Is that him?” Andrea jumped up from her chair and hurried to the window for the dozenth time that hour. They were in the parlor of Arturo’s house, a sprawling mansion on the outskirts of the northwest side of town. She was looking out over the broad front lawn, her eyes laser-focused on every car that drove by. Arturo’s property was ringed in by giant iron gates, which were adorned by enormous wolves and bristling with magic protective spells.
The car drove on by the front gates.
“Not yet,” she answered her own question, shoulders slumping in despair. She slunk back to the overstuffed velvet armchair she’d been sitting in, and collapsed.
Armed men and wolves paced the front of the property. Most of the pack members lived there, in houses scattered across the grounds. Wolves were social animals and needed to live together, or their animals risked going feral. The pack members lived in houses whose size and luxury depended on their position within the pack. The low rank single pack members lived in dormitory style accommodations.
It had been two hours since Dominic and a crew of men had headed into Bianchi pack territory to storm the building and take back her son by force.
Cin sat hunched in her own chair in the far corner of the room, hugging herself, steeped in misery. Stewart sat quietly in a chair next to Andrea’s, looking wretched. Giuliana kept flipping the pages of a magazine that she wasn’t really reading.
“Andrea,” Zoey said finally. “It’s not Cin’s fault. What did you want her to do – stay there and fight, all 95 pounds of her? Get killed or kidnapped? Did you want that skinny little girl to be in the hands of those Bianchi creeps?”
“No.” Andrea scrubbed at her face with her hands. “Not that.”
“Lorenzo’s almost being eighteen. He’s basically an adult. He makes his own choices. Cin didn’t hold a gun to his head and force him to visit her. And she’s not a bad person. She takes care of a whole crew of homeless kids, keeps track of their whereabouts, makes sure they have food and clean clothing and a place to sleep.”
A small sound emanated from Cin’s chair. She was crying quietly. Andrea stood up and walked over to her and knelt down next to her.
“I’m sorry,” Cin said, her voice watery with tears. “I shouldn’t have let him visit us. He isn’t part of our world. I just liked him, you know. And when he talked about you, I’d pretend that you were my mom too. But you aren’t. I don’t have a family, I don’t deserve a family.”
Andrea shook her head furiously. “It’s not your fault. And of course you deserve a family,” she said. “If your old family left you behind, then they don’t deserve you.” And Cin cried harder. Andrea pulled her into her arms in a hug.
“Hey
, can I get in on that?”
Everyone looked up. Lorenzo was standing in the doorway, battered and bruised, leaning on Dominic. Romano was right behind them. Lorenzo’s eyes were blackened, nose swollen, lips split – but he was alive. Cin shrieked with joy, and Andrea burst into tears again, and everyone ran over to hug him. When they crowded around him, he cried out in pain. Giuliana elbowed them out of the way.
“Everyone back off, people!” she yelled. “Let me work my magic. Hugs can wait.”
Lorenzo’s knees gave way, and he fell into Dominic’s arms. Romano scooped Lorenzo up in his arms and carried him off, and Giuliana walked with them, her hand on Lorenzo’s arm. Her healing power would be working as soon as she touched him. Andrea, Stewart, and Cin crowded around them as Romano headed to the clinic.
Dominic and Zoey were alone in the room now, standing a few feet apart. Zoey folded her arms defensively across her chest. Dominic had shed his suit jacket, and his white button-down shirt was splattered with blood, and his movements were a little stiff, but he didn’t seem to have any injuries that were life-threatening. Not for him, anyway.
“I am glad to see that you made it back in one piece,” she said frostily.
“That’s what I do,” Dominic said. “I live through things.” There was weary, bitter tone to his words, a tone of old haunted guilt, that Zoey might have questioned if she weren’t simmering with fury. “I’m having your stuff moved here, by the way.”
“I see.”
“And you’re pissed at me.”
She gave him a dirty look. “Using Lorenzo’s life to blackmail me was a really low, despicable move.”
Dominic met her gaze, unblinking. “But a necessary one.”
“Excuse me!” Ottavio’s harsh tones made Zoey jump. He stalked through the door. Carlo bustled along behind him, glowering with his usual dull expression.
Ottavio fixed his icy gaze on Zoey. “I have been told that you are now permanently living on pack property. Have you come to this house of your own free will?” he demanded.
Zoey met his gaze fearlessly. “Yes, I have.”
“And you know that because of the wolf’s bite this may be your final month on this earth, and that you are not required to be here yet? You are granted that final month of freedom to say farewell to your loved ones if you so choose?”
Well. Nice way to sugarcoat things.
“I am aware that I am not required to be here.”
Ottavio put his hand on her arm and led her across the room. Dominic watched, his eyes glowing with anger.
He spoke in a lowered voice. “Did he coerce you? Because you didn’t want to be here before, and now you do.”
“I volunteered,” Zoey said, shaking his hand off her arm. “Should you be touching me in front of my mate?” She flashed a poisonously sweet smile as she said that. Ottavio looked rattled.
Dominic walked over to them.
“No, he should not. He will not do it again. And I can here every damn word you say, Ottavio, I may not be a born shifter, but I am a shifter nonetheless, and I’ve got shifter hearing. We’re done here.”
Ottavio let out a threatening growl. “We’re done when I say we’re done.” And he returned his attention to Zoey. “What are your powers?’
“None of your business.” Dominic stepped in between her and Ottavio. “She is my mate. She is here of her own free will. This conversation is over.”
“It is absolutely my business. I need to know everything about her before I decide if she is permitted to stay here. Arturo’s safety is my responsibility.”
“It’s the entire packs’ responsibility! Do you imply that his safety is not my first priority?” Dominic’s ears went pointy and furry, and cruel dark claws shot from his fingertips.
Ottavio’s lip wrinkled back in a snarl. “I imply nothing. I openly state that you have been making many questionable decisions recently, which weaken the pack.” He was looking at Zoey as he said that. Then his lips twisted into an ugly snarl. “We can take it outside.”
“Gladly.” Dominic’s eyes took on that scary glow.
“Enough!” A wave of power rolled into the room, making Zoey’s hair frizz. She felt as if she’d rolled in static electricity.
Arturo strolled in, big and imposing. His cold blue gaze swept the room, and he looked Zoey up and down slowly. “Welcome to our house.” He glanced at Ottavio. “Biting Zoey was a decision that Dominic’s wolf made. I do not expect to hear you bring it up again. As for her staying here, I can sense her powers. She is an Earth witch of low-level magic abilities. She is no danger to me. And my herb garden will enjoy the benefits.” His lips quirked in a brief smile. Then he gestured at Ottavio and Carlo. “Come with me, I require your assistance.”
Ottavio and Carlo followed him out of the room. Zoey waited until they were all gone before she spoke to Dominic. “I said I’d stay under this roof. I didn’t say I’d stay with you. I would like my belongings moved into my own room.”
Dominic’s expression turned bleak, but he nodded. “I hope you’ll change your mind,” he said, but she was already walking away from him.
Chapter Sixteen
The gardens surrounding Arturo’s mansion were a patchwork of miracles.
Some of the land was xeriscaped, for the dry landscape, with cactus and other succulents and stone arrangements, and statues of wolves. However, there were enormous sections of lush, tropical landscape as well, with a cluster of rain clouds hanging over them. It only rained at night, and it always rained just the right amount. The privileges of ill-gotten gains; Arturo would have needed a full time upper level weather witch on hand to maintain that, which would be ungodly expensive. There were citrus fruit trees and pomegranate trees and banana trees. Waterfalls gushed into crystal pounds.
Arturo had “requested” that Zoey’s friends stay as guests in his mansion for the time being, because he didn’t want the Bianchi pack to be able to use them as collateral again. Nobody turned down Arturo’s “requests”, so there they all were. Danielle, Zoey, Dominique, Cin and Stewart had just finished a late afternoon snack of coffee and biscotti served to them in a gazebo.
At the moment, though, Andrea was blind to the beauty that surrounded them. Her attention was focused on Lorenzo, who was leaning on his crutches and talking to Dominic. And Lorenzo was hanging on every word that Dominic was saying.
He’d suffered shattered ribs, a fractured arm, and broken nose and cheekbones at the hands of the Bianchi pack, and he was still recuperating. Giuliana’s med-mage powers had saved him weeks of healing time, but he was only human.
Cin was in a funk too. Lorenzo used to hang on her every word, and now all of his attention seemed to be laser-focused on the Blood Oath Capo. She was happy that Arturo had relocated the rest of her homeless friends back to the Blood Oath territory, moving them into a motel where they actually were provided with hot showers and food, and he’d even given them all jobs – painting over the vacant buildings that they’d spray-painted. But she apparently hadn’t realized how much she returned Lorenzo’s feelings – until he started ignoring her.
Zoey had no idea what the two men were talking about; she’d spent the last three days treating Dominic as if he were a communicable disease. She couldn’t get past the fact that Dominic would have let a dumb innocent teenager die if she’d refused to stay with him. And Dominic didn’t deserve Lorenzo’s hero worship, but telling Lorenzo that would have been pointless.
“I’ve lost him,” Andrea said miserably. “How can I compete against a Blood Oath Capo? He’ll join the pack and get himself killed.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. Lorenzo’s not Blood Oath pack material,” Zoey said, then winced. That hadn’t come out right. “I’m not trying to be mean, I’m just saying that he isn’t physically big enough that anyone would allow him to be bitten by a warrior class shifter.”
“They must want my son for something. Why else would Dominic have been talking to him for hours?” Andrea wiped te
ars from her cheeks. “They’ll use him as cannon fodder.”
Andrea had to be right. Dominic didn’t do anything unless he had something to gain, Zoey thought bitterly.
“If they did that, I’d never talk to Dominic again,” she said, eyes blazing.
“But my son would be dead.” Andrea’s voice was flat and hopeless. Lorenzo’s head was tipped up, riveted by whatever Dominic was saying, his head bobbing with eagerness. “I’m going to my room. I can’t watch.”
“I’ll go too,” Stewart said, standing up with a sigh. “I’ve got a chair to finish.” Arturo had provided Stewart with wood-working tools, and he’d even commissioned multiple pieces of hand-carved furniture from Stewart, which under other circumstances would have had Stewart over the moon. But Andrea’s misery had everyone down in the dumps.
“Yeah, me too,” Cin sighed. “I’m going to go work on some jewelry.”
“About that,” Zoey said to her. “I never apologized for thinking that you’d shoplifted the jewelry. I’m really sorry.” She was wearing a bracelet that Cin had made for her.
Cin managed a wry smile. “Why would you think anything else of me?”
“Cin, no. You’ve got to value yourself more than that. You should have told me off, and I would have deserved it.”
“It’s no big deal.”
After Cin left, Zoey nudged Danielle with her elbow. “Go on. Your turn to complain. Everyone else is miserable.”
Danielle stood up. “Nah. Arturo’s chef, Tony, taught me how he makes coffee. In case you haven’t noticed, this particular variety is the nectar of the gods. So, I’m actually in a good mood for the moment.”
“The hell you say.” Zoey bugged her eyes wide open in fake astonishment.
“God’s honest truth. Now, when I leave here and no longer have access to the imported coffee beans and the bomb-ass coffee maker, you can expect to hear weeping and wailing from morning to night. So prepare yourself.”
Mated To The Capo (Mafia Shifters Book 1) Page 13