“As I said, I’d like to see you try, you little shit. I’m not apologizing for not telling you. I still care about Sienna. More now, after learning what she went through to save Luca.” I’m not about to elaborate or tell stories that aren’t mine to tell. Not that my brothers or Gabe would expect me to. They never would.
“I don’t want no damn apology, asshole. I want you happy instead of infested with guilt. Look at things this way. If things had worked out with you and Sienna, you wouldn’t have Lexi.”
I nearly stumble back at Seth’s words. I don’t know where I’d be today if it weren’t for Lexi, but fuck, Sienna paid for our love while I was burying myself in women, making money hand over fist while all the while trying to forget she ever existed.
It’s a rocky road trip to Hell with me as the driver.
Guilt. Yeah, I’m letting it consume me.
Seth wraps his arms around me, lifts me off the ground, and bear hugs me until I grunt. Placing me back down, he offers me his hand, which I take.
I feel it. Those sibling binds wrapping around me—the way my brothers are trying to ease my mind. If only it would work.
“You don’t owe us an apology, Lane. You are my son. We were waiting for you so we could walk into this meeting as a family. To show everyone, including my brother, that we have your back.” Gabe’s voice is thick with emotion. Felt like shit, causing a rift between Lorenzo and Gabe. They are as close as I am with my brothers.
“You want to tell me what it is we’re walking into?” My voice rasps with the dread curling through my muscles.
“I don’t know everything, Aidan found out, he came straight here before he called Lorenzo, which was before I contacted you. Whatever went down is my guess as to why Lorenzo acted the way he did toward you. I’m telling you three right now to let me handle what you’re about to see. If I had it my way, none of you would be here. Then again, I wouldn’t be able to stop the three of you if I tried.” Gabe’s body doesn’t shift with discomfort as mine is, nor does he swing his gaze from me as his face morphs into one I’ve seen many times. The guy is turning dark.
Ominous. A killer I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of.
Sweat begins to slide down my temples. The edge I’m on, the death I smelled giving way under my feet. My body goes cold, back rigid when Gabe opens the door, and we step inside to Lorenzo and Aidan, glancing up from a table covered in what looks like maps.
That’s not what catches my eye and holds it. It’s the man strapped down in a chair, his body lurching forward as he tries wiggling out of the rope around his wrists and ankles. Matteo stands behind him with a layer of madness clouding his eyes, and a bloodied knife in his hand.
Blood drips down the guy’s face in the chair and his hands. There are gouges of flesh cut out of his cheeks, the crimson color dripping splotches on his white dress shirt.
What the hell is happening here?
A dreaded vibe creeps up my neck, the floor trembling under my feet with every step. Or, maybe it’s me shaking as I catch a dead cold, uncaring glare from the man’s in the chair eyes.
Five different ways to kill whoever this guy is in a minute play through my mind. There’d be no stopping me from finishing that piece of white trash off if he’s involved. I will wrap my hands around his neck and choke the life out of him.
The stranger’s brows shoot up when he notices us. He’s dressed in an expensive wrinkled suit. His mouth is pressed in a firm line as his stare tightens on me.
His devious smirk holds me captive as I follow Gabe and take a seat. There’s not a chance in this lifetime I’ll be able to sit long and let someone handle it as Gabe said, not when that fucker is trying to corner me with a baited hook I’m too smart to nibble on.
He keeps it up, and he’ll have a shattered skull.
“Over the past few days, while I’ve been searching for the whereabouts of that slimeball over there, he was sitting inside Joseph’s house torturing, then killing my men I had camped out there in case Joseph showed.” Aidan pulls out his gun, turns around, points the trigger, and clips the guy in his kneecap.
Sprays of blood shoot in every direction, dripping down his leg and dotting the floor, a howl of pain rips from his mouth, bouncing off the walls.
“That’s for killing my men. Consider yourself lucky your death belongs to Lorenzo and not me. I’m known to burn off people’s flesh and shove it down their throats when someone fucks with what’s mine. Then again, fire is your thing, so maybe they should burn you alive.” Aidan shakes his head, shifts back around, and nods at Lorenzo.
Lorenzo clears his throat, drawing my attention to him.
“Over the past year, someone has been setting fire to buildings in New York owned by me and The Diamonds. At first, we thought it was the Mexican cartel seeking retaliation over a disagreement that happened years ago. Come to find out; it’s an act of revenge of a different sort—an action brought on by Joseph. Where Joseph is, we still don’t know, but our guest here was spotted by Aiden last night outside of Sienna’s house. Caught him as he was pouring gasoline all over the house to set it on fire.”
I couldn’t care less about fires to their warehouses. That is not my concern, what is, is what has Lorenzo so agitated.
When Lorenzo’s eyes lock with Gabe’s, I damn near break. I’d never seen so much pain coming off him as that which I’m witnessing.
If there’s such a thing deeper than desperation, he’s jam-packed with it.
“Sienna didn’t take anything with her when she escaped except her purse. When Gabe and I flew to New York to get her, I told her to leave everything behind, and once I knew it was safe for her to go back, we’d get the things she wanted. Luca’s baby pictures and things he made in school was all she wanted. The gasoline destroyed them. Irreplaceable things ruined. Unsalvageable. Sienna has nothing but memories and the few pictures I have of when Luca was a baby.”
Bowing my head, I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Goddamn it. Why? Who the fuck is this guy, Lorenzo?” Seth yells from beside me, while I struggle with wondering not only that, also what this is going to do to Sienna when she finds out. “Someone better start talking before we draw our own conclusions here. Is Luca dead?”
Shit, he better not be. Sienna will be lost forever if he is.
God, how much more can a person take before they break beyond repair?
Lifting my head to take a look at my younger brother, I catch Gabe place his hand on Seth’s shoulder to calm him down. That’s probably a damn good idea. Seth has admitted several times over these past months that Luca’s disappearance has his taste buds craving a drink. Knowing he’s his nephew now has tripled it, I’m sure. It makes me worry all the more about him.
“No,” Aidan answers with a tone that says, ‘don’t doubt me.’
That boy cannot be dead. Life is cruel, but not like this. Fuck no, not like this.
“No, as in your positive or no, as in you aren’t sure?” I slam my fists on the table. Ready to cold-cock someone. Not giving a shit if I’m stepping out of line. On someone’s toes or what the hell ever else code the mafia lives by. I need a straight-up answer. Proof? Something?
Lorenzo clears his throat again, my eyes observing his every move. His hands are shaking, lips quivering. He’s on the verge of losing his shit.
Whatever he’s holding back is going to rip my guts out.
I rake my hands through my hair, grip the back of my neck, squeezing until I feel pain.
“No, as in we’re positive. At least from what Aidan and Matteo were able to beat out of this guy.” I growl at Lorenzo’s response.
“You’re going to trust the word of some guy you have strapped to a chair?” I throw my arm out in the direction of the guy since someone seems to be stalling by not giving us his name. That, plus, if I look at him, I’ll fly over this table and kill him.
“Lane, listen to me. I might be a hard son of a bitch. If my grandson, your son, was dead. I would have
told Sienna first. Give me some credit.”
Staring back at him, I try to remind myself I trust Lorenzo and that he is undeniably going through as much torment as everyone else. If anything, Lorenzo isn’t a liar. Not with his family.
We have a staredown. For now, we draw a truce.
At my silence, he continues.
“I’m only going to say this once. Joseph has gotten himself tangled with three men calling themselves XYZ. These men are like phantoms. So undercover that someone could be sitting across from them at dinner and not know it. They came out of the womb with debauchery already bleeding in their blood. Government officials, the NYPD, FBI, no one has been able to find them.” He chokes on his words.
I’ve heard of them. Dangerous to college girls in New York City. The last I’d heard, they kidnapped a half dozen young women in one day in broad daylight. They snatch them off the streets, their homes, college campuses. It doesn’t matter. If they have an eye on you, then you are theirs. Taken and never seen again, unless you’re a sick fuck, who can finagle yourself into the dark web and pay a hefty price to watch a faceless man rape a woman. Or so the news says.
And these people might have their hands on my son? Jesus Christ, no wonder Lorenzo is cracking.
Acid bubbles in my throat. I swallow that nasty taste down before I upchuck all over the place.
“Xander York. Yves Julien and Zackery Hanson are three men kicked out of Columbia University fifteen years ago for filming students having sex. Up till Aiden found this one, no one knew their names or where they were. This guy here is Xander. He claims Luca is in good health.”
My jaw unhinges as I wait for him to say more.
Like maybe give me an update on my son’s mind.
Revenge.
That word is going to simmer inside me until the day every ounce of blood drains out of Joseph.
I will gut him.
My heart hesitates to beat for a second while my brain struggles to catch up. I knew that son of a bitch was untrustworthy. Still, how the hell could Joseph keep this a secret, and for how damn long? How the hell could a man take a child and throw him into a wolf’s den as prey?
And the thought of Joseph tearing through an innocent person then going home and doing vile things to Sienna is like a thousand knives slicing me wide open.
“Aidan followed him to his vehicle before he could set fire to the house. He grabbed him from behind. I wish I could say I find it inspiring how quickly Xander talked. You know what they say, though, people behind the screen have no goddamn balls once they are caught. They run and hide, seek out shelter while shitting their pants. He gave Aidan a location, but by the time he and his men got to the house, it was wiped clean. No sign of any woman. No sign of Luca.”
Terror grips onto the fringes of my mind, as my concern leaps between Aidan to Lorenzo and back again. I’m not sure if I’m ready to let my thoughts infect my brain about what they could be doing to Luca. There’s too much rattling around up there.
The unthinkable. They could be forcing my child to do things that could fuck him up for life.
And those girls. However many they had, are they dead? Jesus, we’ll likely never know.
Sickness.
I will never be able to wrap my mind around it.
Lorenzo takes a seat, his shoulders slump. Forehead wrinkles. Body folds. His whole being appears exhausted from the earth before resting his head in his palms.
I lock stares with Aidan. I don’t know him all that well, not like Seth does and not as well as I used to know his daughter Victoria. When I called her a few months ago, I was surprised she spoke to me since we haven’t talked in years, but she did, and I couldn’t be more thankful Sienna had someone to talk to, I only wish that someone would have been me.
He’s rough around the edges, big, burly, and in great shape, for someone, I’d guess to be in his late fifties. He’s trustworthy, I sense it. Knows his shit, no doubt been around the block a time or two.
“Joseph is one of XYZ’s clients. He showed for a taping with Luca in hand claiming he’d bargain Luca’s life with our families by asking for protection to expand into other cities if they’d let him be their number four. He told them he’d been setting fires to the warehouses to let us know when the time came for him to negotiate, we’d know he wasn’t fucking around. That he’d continue to destroy us if need be until we caved. The information I’ve gathered wasn’t easy to dig up, but,”
Again, I don’t care about these fires.
“But what?” My patience dwindles with every passing second as I wait for Aidan to speak. Swear to God there’s a pain in my chest so severe if it keeps up, I’ll have a heart attack. I’m thirty-years-old for shit’s sake, way too young, unlike Lorenzo, who needs to take a back seat and let someone else drive.
“Tell us, damn it.” Seth stands, hands gripping the edge of the table, limbs shaking. He wants confirmation of what my instincts already know.
On the other side of me, Logan lets out a pain-filled growl, and I glance down to see his hands balled into fists resting on the table.
Aidan closes his eyes briefly, and when he opens them, I see the answer, the defeat in his eyes, the devastating pain—the words no father wants to tell another. He doesn’t want to say it because if my son doesn’t find a way to escape or isn’t found, he’ll always be the man who delivered the news that stole my soul.
“We might be criminals, but we can’t offer protection no matter how much we want to. That would be like us committing the crimes. It would start a war amongst other families. I don’t know if or when Joseph and the remaining two will reach out to us. Honestly, I don’t think they will. I can only promise that I’ll take my last breath before I give up searching for Luca, Joseph, and the other two men.”
What he means is they could kill Luca if he isn’t found. Use him in ways I can’t think about, in ways that have me crawling out of my skin. My son will disappear just like all those young girls, and I’ll never meet him. Sienna will never hold him again, Lexi will never know she had an older brother.
Our family will never be the same again.
It could take days, weeks, years even to find Luca. Those men could be anywhere by now. The only hope we have is that the sick sons of bitches surface. Even then, it makes me think about the victims they’ll take.
It’s a no-win fucked up game to the innocent, and it makes me feel as if I’m losing my mind.
I can’t take anymore, the desire to kill, the need to get out of this suffocating building is driving me insane.
“That’s my son. If you’ve laid a finger on him, you will beg on deaf ears for mercy.” I point my finger at Xander, yelling so loud at the smirky asshole staring me down, I wouldn’t be surprised if the windows in this place aren’t shaking.
Screw letting anyone handle this. Screw standing down.
“They haven’t. I’ve been doing this long enough to know when someone lies to me. I wouldn’t give you my word if I didn’t mean it. You have it, Lane. My word as a man who would have already cut that scum wide open if I thought he was lying. Let me keep digging. There is more going on than what any of us know. You have to trust me.”
“Trust is all I’ve got. Just find my son.”
“I will, Lane. We will.” He lifts his chin to either Gabe or Seth. The hell if I know who is where anymore. All I see as I divert my eyes toward Xander is someone who needs to fucking die.
I grind my teeth, adrenaline coursing through my legs. I want to jump up and snap the neck right off Xander. The weaselly vile son of a bitch.
I want blood. I want to take off to New York with Aidan, Seth, and Gabe and whoever else. It Goddamn fucking sucks knowing they’d tie me up before they’d let me go.
I’d never wanted to kill someone so badly in my life. Before I knew Luca was my son, my dark side had awoken thinking about Sienna. Now, it’s more sinister than any amount of viciousness I’d ever known before.
“Are you sure he’s done talking? S
ure he doesn’t have the missing pieces you’re looking for?” I ask Aidan while keeping my eyes on Xander.
“Yes, he’s given up all he knows.”
My head starts swimming just as quickly as I am out of my chair. With every step I take, revenge licks at my fingers.
A roaring fire to kill.
All I can think about is what Luca has to be going through. How scared he is, how he’s probably screaming and begging and crying for his mom.
“Not so fucking smirky now, are you? You don’t hide my kid from his mother and live, asshole.” I snarl. My body begins to shake, just staring at a man such as him burns my eyes.
A plea to spare his life comes as he struggles against the ropes to get himself free. The one wrapped around his neck turns his skin red and raw. He has nowhere to go, but like the dumbass he is, he continues to try to free himself. In a way, I want to help him along so I can slice him from sternum to scalp.
I shake my head when Matteo offers me his knife. I want this man’s blood to stain my hands.
“You are certain he has no idea where his revolting friends are?” I look over my shoulder for confirmation at the same time I grip hold of his throat. Pain radiates up my arm as I squeeze until my muscles jump.
“Yes, but Lane, I asked you.”
“I know what you asked, Gabe, and you know I would let go if any of you can honestly tell me you wouldn’t do the same.” My vision blurs as I swerve my head back around and squeeze harder.
The silence behind me settles my argument.
“You’ll never find them before they sneak up on the rich bitches who think they are better than everyone else. They will play and taunt and tease. They will rip women apart. They will kill your son.” He coughs out. Bloody spit dribbling down his chin. Eyes about ready to pop out of his head.
Abrupt Page 10