by L A Cotton
“We didn’t run the footage that far back, but we can look.”
“Do it.”
“What are you thinking?” Nicco asked me.
“Something still doesn’t add up.” We’d found nothing. Not even a speck of blood. It was as if they were never there. “We’ve all met Bianco. He might be hiding something but he’s not capable of this. He’s just the puppet.”
I’d met the guy toying with us, been right up close and personal with him. It definitely wasn’t Luca, so what was the connection?
“He’s working with whoever is coming after us,” Nicco said.
“That’s my bet.” I nodded, my jaw working overtime as I tried to piece together the puzzle. We were still missing something.
“Did Luca—Stop,” I yelled, my eyes fixating on Luca and a couple of guys entering the building. “When was that?”
“Yesterday afternoon. A little after one.” My eyes narrowed, watching as security stopped them to interrogate Luca about his friends.
“Wait, freeze it and zoom in. Motherfuck—”
“That’s Nate and Isaac, Luca’s friends,” Matteo cut me off. “We met them the other night at the bar.”
The ground went from under me. “That’s the guy.” I jabbed my finger at the grainy image.
“Who, Isaac? No way! We both met him, he seemed legit.”
“I’m telling you, that’s the fucking guy. Fuck.” I blew out a steady breath. “I need to know everything you know about that guy, stat.” Adrenaline pumped through me, blood roaring in my eyes. I was staring right at him. The guy responsible for killing Gino, the guy who had left the package for me at La Stella and the VCTI. The guy I knew without doubt had taken Nora.
“I don’t know anything about him,” Matteo said around a tight expression. “His friend Nate hooked up with Nora’s friend Lucii.”
“Arianne knows her.” Nicco pulled his cell out to call his wife. It was the middle of the night, but I had no doubt that Arianne would be glued to her phone waiting for any word from Nicco.
He disappeared out of the room. “I can’t believe it. We were right there at the club with him. He seemed… normal.”
“This isn’t on you, Matt. The fucker is toying with us.” It was a game. Some sick, twisted game.
Just then, Nicco came back into the room. “I’ve got Lucii’s name. Tommy is going to do his thing and dig up her number.”
“Good, that’s good.” Matteo shot me a concerned look.
“I’m okay.” I lied. Anger had infiltrated every inch of me, coursing through my veins like wildfire. But it wasn’t only anger I felt. The bitter sting of regret coiled around my heart.
This was all my fault.
No one could take that away from me.
We left La Luna and walked the short distance back to La Stella, piling into Matteo’s truck.
“We need that number,” I ground out, my leg bouncing uncontrollably.
“Tommy will come through,” Nicco said.
“He’d better.”
Because we had nothing else to go on. No clues. No leads. Just a name and a face.
And the hope that my cousins were right—that Nora wasn’t the endgame.
I was.
Chapter 28
Nora
My eyes flickered open to faulty strip lighting. It made it difficult to focus, the constant flicker. Dim then glare. Dim then glare. A brass band beat loudly in my skull, making me groan in agony.
Where the hell was I?
And why couldn’t I move?
Panic raced up my spine as I slowly found my senses. I couldn’t move because my hands were bound behind my back and my ankles bound together, secured to the chair I was seated on.
“What the—” The icy fingers of fear wrapped around my throat, stealing the words. “Hello,” I managed to choke out. “Someone help me.” Straining against the restraints, another wave of panic crashed over me.
This wasn’t happening, not again.
Breathe, I silently urged myself, just breathe. Somehow, I managed to calm myself, trying to focus on the things I could control, like my bodily functions. I might have been bound, but I still had my sight and hearing and my sense of smell. A groan sounded over to my right and my eyes strained against the poor lighting.
“Luca?” I gasped. He was slumped in the corner, hands bound in front of his body. “Luca, can you hear me?”
“N-Nora?” His eyes were heavy-lidded. “I’m sorry… so fucking… sorry.” He started to fall out of consciousness.
“Luca, stay with me, please… stay with me.”
“Hurts… it hurts.” His eyes fluttered open.
“What happened?”
The last thing I remembered was Luca jabbing me with a needle… and Maurice—
“Oh God,” my voice cracked, “what did you do?”
“I had no choice… he… he—”
“Well, well, you’re awake.” A figure stepped into the room and confusion welled inside me.
“Isaac?” My eyes grew to saucers.
“Surprise!” He smirked deviously.
“But… I-I don’t understand…”
“You’re not supposed to, baby. This is between me and your boyfriend.”
“My—what?”
It didn’t make sense. Isaac was Luca’s friend. He wasn’t the guy doing this.
He couldn’t be.
“You… why?”
“Why?” He stalked toward me, crouching to my eye level. “Now there’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” Reaching out, he ran his knuckles down my cheek. Luca groaned to my right, but I didn’t look over at him.
“It was all you?”
“The Family’s enforcer, the break-ins, and my personal favorite, the VCTI. I’ve been a busy guy.”
“But why?”
“Nah-ah, baby.” He beeped my nose. “We’ll get to that when your boyfriend arrives. Assuming he figures it out.” Isaac winked at me, but my head was too busy swimming with confusion.
What the hell was happening?
Isaac wasn’t the guy coming after the Marchetti, he couldn’t be. He was just a regular guy who worked out at the same gym as Luca.
Except he wasn’t.
Because I was tied to a chair and Luca was on the floor, slumped against the wall and barely conscious.
“What do you want?” I shrieked, fear drenching my words. My hands and feet strained against their bindings, but it was futile. They were too tight, the cable ties cutting into my skin.
“Please, just let us go.”
“Aww, now I know you’re not one of those girls… a damsel in distress. From what I’ve seen you like it rough.”
Bile crawled up my throat and I swallowed hard, breathing through my nose. He’d been watching me… watching me with Enzo.
Who the hell was this guy?
“Do you like cold-blooded killers, baby?” He pulled a knife out from behind his back. “Do you like a little pain?”
My breath caught in my throat as he pushed the tip of the blade against my clavicle. Featherlight, Isaac traced the knife over my skin, following the hollow of my collarbone.
“Please,” it was a ragged plea as I tried not to move even a millimeter.
“How I’d love to slice you open and see what you’re really made of.” There was a wicked glint in his eye, an honesty that made my stomach wash with fear. “But the fun is only just getting started.”
A chill ran down my spine at the threat in his voice.
“Enzo won’t let you get away with this,” I spat, letting my emotions get the better of me.
“Oh, baby,” he flashed me a wolfish grin, before standing, “I’m counting on it.”
Isaac left us after that. Left us cold and alone and scared. Luca was in and out of consciousness. I couldn’t see any blood or contusions, but the flickering strip lighting made it difficult to see right into the darkened corners of the room.
“Luca, are you awake?” I whispered, every mu
scle in my body heavy and sore. I had no idea how long we’d been here. It could have been a couple of hours, it could have been an entire day. Time was nothing. But for every minute that passed, my hope faded.
What if Enzo didn’t come?
What if he and his family couldn’t find us?
Couldn’t find me.
What if he did?
I wasn’t foolish, I knew this would only affirm Enzo’s resistance to be with me. He would take one look at me tied to this chair, dehydrated and confused, and vow to never put me in this situation again.
So as much as I wanted him to appear in the doorway, to come and save us, part of me—the naïve part of me that was just a girl in love with a guy—didn’t want it to be him. Because I knew what it meant…
And I knew it was the end of us before we’d even really gotten started.
Emotion rushed up my throat, stinging the backs of my eyes. I was a good person, or at least, I tried to be. I took my vitamins and gave to charity and helped old ladies across the street. I tried to treat people the way I hoped to be treated, kind and with compassion. I often saw past people’s walls and didn’t judge someone for the lifestyle they chose. But I knew that bad things happened to good people all the time. So even though I was scared and hurting, I didn’t have the capacity to blame Enzo or his family for this. The same way I hadn’t blamed Nicco and Arianne when Scott Fascini took me.
A strangled laugh spilled from my lips. What were the chances that I would find myself here again? I guess when you kept company with the mafia, anything was possible.
I sucked in a shaky breath. Enzo would find us, he would. I could imagine him now, on a rampage through Verona, burning buildings to the ground and ploughing through anyone who dared to stand in his way. His anger was always there, under the surface, only made worse since his father’s death.
God. I’d never gotten the chance to tell him how sorry I was for what he’d had to do. I hadn’t wanted him to pull away, not when he was finally letting me in, so I’d kept his secret. I would always keep his secret if it meant protecting what we shared. But one day, I’d hoped he would tell me. I’d hoped he would share with me his secrets and pain.
The lights flickered overhead, plunging the room once more into total darkness.
“Luca?” I called, fear sitting heavy in the pit of my stomach. “Luca?”
“H-here…” It was a faint groan. “I’m here.”
His voice, although pained, settled something inside me. I knew Luca had a hand in taking me, but I didn’t want him to die. I wanted him to survive this thing and then explain to me what the hell had happened.
“Hold on,” I croaked, my throat dry and sore. “You have to hold on. Enzo will come.”
But as I said the words, all I could think was, he was walking right into a trap.
Time lost all meaning. At some point, Luca had slipped under and hadn’t resurfaced. Silent tears rolled down my cheeks. If he didn’t get medical help soon, he might never wake up.
“Isaac,” I yelled. “ISAAC!”
He appeared in the door like the reaper sent to claim my soul. But he didn’t look concerned, he looked… excited.
“Showtime,” he rasped, stalking toward me with a knife. He grabbed my hands and slid right through the third cable tie binding the tie around each wrist. Then he worked on setting my ankles free.
“Try anything and I’ll gut you like a fish,” he snarled. “Your boyfriend is here now, so it makes no difference to me whether you make it out of this alive or in a body bag.”
An icy shudder rolled through me. This wasn’t the Isaac I’d met at the bar. That guy was cool and aloof, but he wasn’t cruel. But then, I remembered I had felt something a little off about him. As if he watched me a little too closely. Honestly, I’d just thought he wanted me.
The idea seemed preposterous now, seeing as he was dragging me down a long hall with a seven-inch blade pressed to the small of my back.
He yanked me into another room, one with windows. Sunlight poured inside, tinged pinkish orange. Sunset. Jesus. I’d been here hours. Enzo would be going out of his mind.
We waited in silence. Isaac was skittish, his eyes darting to and from the window as he kept his knife at my back and his other hand on my shoulder. Then the door in front of me opened and my heart lurched into my throat.
Enzo.
His eyes were wild, anger burning in his icy depths. His jaw was clenched painfully tight and his fists pressed at his sides. He looked murderous. But when his eyes shifted to mine, his whole expression softened.
He was here.
Enzo had come for me.
“Took you long enough,” Isaac spat the words, slowly inching us back.
Enzo stepped forward and Isaac whipped the knife around my front, pressing it against my throat. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Enzo’s hands shot up as he stalled. “This isn’t about Nora. It’s about you and me, Vinnie.”
“Oooh, you’re good.” He chuckled darkly. “You’re really fucking good. How’d you find out?”
“One of our guys is a dab hand at uncovering secrets.”
“Tommy Gabini? Should have guessed. He said he was one of the best.”
“Who said?” Enzo frowned and I knew my expression matched his. They weren’t making any sense.
“Oh, come on, Lorenzo. Surely, you’ve figured it out by now. Or did the infamous Tommy Gabini fail to uncover the biggest secret of all?”
Enzo started inching closer again, but Isaac moved us deeper into the room. They were dancing around each other with me right in the middle, the sharp edge of the blade so close to my skin I could feel the coolness of it.
I swallowed hard. Enzo caught the small movement, and his eyes went to mine. Dark eyes full of regret and apology. I wanted to tell him to stop, to reassure him that he didn’t have to carry this burden alone. But I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe for fear of my skin slicing open against the knife’s edge.
My body trembled violently.
“She’s shaking,” Isaac said. “Trembling like an animal about to meet its bloody end. Do you think he felt it too? The claws of death coming to reap his soul?”
“Vincenzo Marchetti was a traitor and a murderer.”
I was still missing something. Something Enzo had apparently figured out.
Isaac wasn’t called Isaac at all. His name was Vinnie.
Vinnie.
Vinnie.
Vincenzo…
No.
No!
It wasn’t possible… and yet…
“You’re wrong, brother. Our father was a great man who deserved so much more than being Antonio’s right-hand man. Vincenzo had the stomach to get the job done. He—”
“What the fuck did you just say?” The blood had completely drained from Enzo’s face.
“You heard me, Lorenzo. Guess you weren’t the apple of your father’s eye, after all.”
Oh God.
Realization flickered across Enzo’s face.
A brother.
He had a brother.
A brother Vincenzo had kept from him, kept from everyone if this family reunion was anything to go by.
Oh, Enzo.
“You’re lying”. Enzo’s voice shook with anger.
“Am I? Our father told me all about you, brother. All that rage inside you, the blood thirst, the desire to drown in darkness. He had high, high hopes for you… but like always, you were a bitter disappointment.” The temperature cooled in the room as the two brothers faced off against each other.
“And then, you killed him. You chose Antonio, the Family, over your own flesh and blood, you fucking piece of shit.”
“What do you want, Vinnie? You want vengeance, is that it? You want your pound of flesh? Then come and get it. I’m right here.” Enzo opened his arms to the side, goading my captor.
“You think I want to kill you?” His dark laughter snaked through me, coiled around my heart like barbed wi
re. “I don’t want to kill you… yet. First, I want you to watch as I destroy the thing you love most in the world.”
My blood turned to ice at his words, but I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything.
“I’m going to ruin her and you’re going to stand here and watch.”
“Touch her and I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Kill me. I’d like to see you try while I have a knife pressed to your girlfriend’s throat.”
Tears streamed down my face. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be the kind of woman who laughed in the face of danger. But the reality was, my world was splintering apart right in front of me.
I wanted to live. I wanted to graduate college and decide what to do with my life, maybe travel before settling down. I wanted to get married, a big over the top wedding with all my friends and family, and then I wanted a life with the guy I loved more than anything.
I wanted that… I wanted it so much.
But Vinnie had taken that from me. The second he’d made Luca kidnap me, he’d ruined my future. Because I knew Enzo, and I knew he wouldn’t ever forgive himself for this.
My eyes settled on his rugged face. He couldn’t even meet my eyes, focused solely on his psychopathic brother.
“This is between me and you, just let her go.”
“And give up the opportunity to destroy your world the way you destroyed mine? Our father was everything to me… everything and you took him from me.”
“She isn’t anyone to me,” Enzo said with so much sincerity my heart cracked wide open. “She’s just good pussy, that’s all.”
“Ohhh, hear that, baby.” Vinnie pressed his mouth to my ear. “He’s good. So good I almost believed him.”
“It’s the truth. If our father taught me anything, it was to never let a woman into my life. Nora isn’t my woman, Vinnie, she’s just a piece of ass I like to lose myself in occasionally.”
His words cut like tiny blades across my heart, ripping open old scars and forming new ones.
“Liar. She’s yours… whether you’re man enough to admit it or not. She’s yours and I’m going to fucking destroy her.”
Enzo finally gave me his eyes and what I saw there gutted me. He didn’t know how to end this. Not with us both walking away alive.