by Maya Banks
Shaking off the paralysis gripping his entire body, he lunged for the trash can and picked up the home pregnancy test, examining the results window. His knees locked and then buckled almost simultaneously, throwing him off balance. It was faint, but there was still a fading pink plus sign.
Evangeline was pregnant?
Another fear hit him, so hard and so viciously that he flailed his arm out to catch himself on the counter. He’d been horrible to her. He’d said horrible things. Had done terrible things. She was alone, desperate, without money or a place to live. That didn’t leave a single mother very many options. Surely she wouldn’t . . .
He shook his head, pissed at himself for making assumptions when time after time she’d proved nothing but trustworthy and loyal. There was no fucking way she would ever abort their child. He’d seen her look of horror when he’d told her that his mother had wanted to abort him and would have if she hadn’t seen the benefits of having a baby.
But she was still missing when according to her mother she should have already landed and been on her way safely to her parents’ home.
He had to call in the troops. Fast. He had to get everyone on the street, explore every option, call in every favor ever owed to him. And he needed to make it clear that if Evangeline was harmed, Drake would seek out and destroy anyone who caused it to happen or even allowed it by not intervening. He would also give a big cash reward to anyone who returned her safely.
He grabbed his phone and began making calls even as he went out the apartment door, hurrying down to Silas’s. He had a key to get in. Maybe Evangeline had come here. Silas had said she’d stayed with him the first night.
He let himself in, frustrated that he’d been unable to reach Silas with his first call. He shouted Evangeline’s name and went from room to room but came up with nothing.
It would be more logical for him to remain here, presumably the last place Evangeline had been before departing for the airport earlier in the day. He would get the word out to all his men for everyone to get over to Silas’s. He typed in his demand for them to meet here and then the last words of his message with a sickness that went soul deep.
Hurry. Evangeline may not have much time.
30
“Evangeline is missing,” Drake announced when all his men had gathered in Silas’s apartment.
There was a resounding chorus of “what the fucks” and demands to know what the hell had happened. Drake held up his hand for silence, his expression black, determination fiery in his eyes.
“As far as anyone knows, this is the last place she had contact with anyone. She called her mother from Silas’s apartment this morning to tell her she would be on a flight arriving just after six Central Time this evening. She never made it on that flight,” Drake said grimly.
Another round of curses rent the air and Silas and Maddox exchanged helpless, furious glances.
“I shouldn’t have left her,” Silas said painfully.
Drake waved off his man’s guilt. “There’s another thing you need to know.” He held up the pregnancy test, watching as his men’s faces turned to shock. “She’s pregnant. With my child,” he added unnecessarily. “She must have taken the test this morning. Before she called her mother. It must have been what prompted her to leave.”
“Then what the hell happened to her?” Maddox demanded, his fists clenched. “If she called her mother and told her that she would be on a certain flight, then she obviously intended to be on that flight. She wouldn’t worry her parents like that.”
“I know,” Drake said quietly. “Which means there’s a damn good reason she didn’t make that flight.”
Fear and uncertainty flickered on his men’s faces as they all exchanged glances.
“I’ll pull up the security surveillance footage starting from this morning when I saw her last,” Silas said grimly. “It’s a long shot, but if something happened to her here, then we should get it on camera. If not . . .”
Drake wouldn’t consider any alternative. Without a firm starting place, there was no way to know where Evangeline could be. His enemies were many and any one could have sought to strike at Drake where he was most vulnerable. No one had had time to figure out that he and Evangeline had broken up or that she didn’t mean anything to him at all. Or that it appeared she meant nothing to him. When she was everything . . .
“Do it,” Drake ordered. “We don’t have much time. Every minute that goes without us finding her . . .”
He trailed off, refusing to give voice to the possibilities.
“It does no one any good to kill her,” Justice said, an edge of uncertainty to his voice as though he were trying to convince himself. “No one with half a brain would kill her. If she’s been taken, she will be used to extort something from you, Drake. Money. Power. Protection.”
But one fact lay heavy over the group, one that Drake knew was front and center in their minds. Money was the only possibility because Drake would never protect or form a partnership with anyone who’d frightened Evangeline or put their hands on her. Taking her would be a suicide mission.
Silas was on his computer across the living room, punching in a series of commands. After a few moments, he called for Drake. He was pointing to the screen, which was split between six camera views.
“Here is when I left this morning and Evangeline was still in her apartment,” he said.
“If we catch anything, we can zoom in on whichever camera got her and follow her progress to the end of the block. I have cameras around the entire perimeter of the building as well as going both directions down the street.”
Drake watched in silence as Silas got into his car, and then they watched through an hour of no activity. No sign of Evangeline.
“There she is,” Silas said, zooming in on the camera outside her apartment in the hallway.
She was carrying only one small bag. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was pale, her face outlined in clear distress. They picked her up when she got off the elevator and strode briskly out of the building, where the street camera picked her up outside.
At the entrance of the building, she hesitated, looking in both directions down the street. Then she started right, walking toward the corner. Had she hailed a cab? If Silas could pick up any identifying information on the vehicle that picked her up, they could hunt the driver down and find out where he’d taken her.
Silas began cursing and Drake zeroed in on the footage.
She was almost to the end of the street when a dark sedan pulled up beside her and rocked to a halt, as if it had been going at a faster speed. Evangeline warily stepped back and began to circle around the vehicle when a man jumped out of the backseat and immediately went for her.
She fought wildly and Drake’s blood froze when the man hit her over the head with the butt of a pistol. She went limp and the man all but threw her in the backseat of the car before the vehicle roared away.
It all lasted a total of a few seconds, and yet each frame was playing in slow motion in Drake’s head. Every damn minute of Evangeline’s fright, her struggle and the man striking her before abducting her.
“Son of a bitch,” Maddox seethed. “Come on, Silas. Work your magic. I want that son of a bitch and I want him now.”
Drake lowered his head over Silas’s shoulder and in a cold voice said, “I don’t care what it takes, who you have to blow, what you have to hack into. Find out who the fuck took her. It’s been fucking hours and she’s still in his hands.”
“Give me five minutes,” Silas said, his gaze never leaving the monitor, his hands working quickly over the keyboard as he zoomed in on the car.
Drake closed his eyes, his stomach lurching. Fingers of dread curled around his insides, squeezing relentlessly. The icy coldness of the predator settled around him. He itched for the kill. Clawed at Drake’s insides, begging to be set free so he could spill the blood of the bastard who’d hurt Evangeline.
And his child.
God, let his ch
ild be okay. Let them both be okay. And then he did something he’d never thought he was capable of doing.
He prayed.
If only one can be saved, let it be Evangeline. I want them both, but God, there will be other children. There will never be another Evangeline.
“I’ve got him,” Silas said furiously. “Punk-ass motherfucking little bitch! It’s Charlie McDuff.”
The others let loose a torrent of vicious curses.
“McDuff?” Drake asked incredulously. “That fucking pansy-ass wannabe?” Then his eyes narrowed. “You think his father has a hand in this? I find it hard to believe he had the balls to pull this off by himself. He’s either extremely stupid or extremely desperate.”
Silas shook his head. “No way, man. His old man actually has a brain. He cut Charlie out of the family business a long time ago. He was too unstable and too short tempered. Not to mention dumb as a fucking brick. My money says he’s making a move to prove to Daddy and the rest of the world he’s the man. He’s desperate. He’ll probably want money and a position in your organization. When Brian cut him off, I mean he cut him off. Told him to get a fucking job because he wasn’t supporting his lazy ass anymore. Worse, Mommy didn’t intervene as she normally did. And he’s a complete mama’s boy. Usually when the old man got pissed, Mommy stepped in, soothed tempers and talked the old man into giving the ‘baby’ one more chance. Word is even she was pissed over his last fuckup and cut him loose same as Daddy did. So I’d say this was desperation. Well, stupid too, but he’s acting out of desperation.”
“Jesus,” Drake muttered.
He took a moment to organize his thoughts, though terror knotted his insides. Desperate men did desperate things and were highly unpredictable. Then he lifted his gaze to Silas and his men.
“Get the old man on the phone. He needs to know that I’ll have mercy if he has nothing to do with his son’s latest fuckup. If he can help me find the little bastard, I’ll be even more lenient. All that matters is that I get Evangeline back. But if he’s involved, if he doesn’t cooperate fully, then the entire family will have culpability in Evangeline’s abduction.”
Silas nodded.
“You know Charlie worked for the Luconis for a while,” Maddox spoke up. “About a year back. Another of his attempts to prove he’s the man and has what it takes to get the job done.”
“What’s your point?” Drake asked impatiently.
“He spent quite a bit of time with them is what I’m saying,” Maddox said, every bit as impatient as Drake. “The Luconis know quite a bit about his habits, or at least they should. They’ve been after you to back their takeover of the Vanuccis. They’d probably do anything you wanted in order to secure that backing. Make it a produce-or-you-don’t-get-shit deal. If they can help you find Evangeline, they get your backing. Otherwise, they’re on their own.”
Drake stared back at his man for a long moment, absorbing the implications of what Maddox was saying. If the Luconis could help him find Evangeline, it would be worth anything. Even backing their takeover of the Vanuccis when he’d planned to pit the two organizations together and stand back while they both crumbled and fell.
Christ, but this was huge. It upped the threat, not only to himself and Evangeline, but to every single one of his men as well. They’d become targets of the Vanuccis as well as anyone who supported them.
“Do you know what you’re saying?” Drake asked Maddox. “Do all of you know what he’s saying?”
“Yeah,” Zander said. “Do you? You willing to take that risk?”
“How can I not if it gets me Evangeline back?” Drake asked hoarsely.
“Then I’d say you have your answer,” Jax said.
One by one his other men stated their agreement. And acceptance of the risk posed to them.
Drake focused his gaze back on Maddox. “You make the call. I have to talk to McDuff. Make sure they know no deal unless they can produce Evangeline. Alive.”
31
“How sure are you that we can trust the Luconis?” Drake asked grimly as he and his men positioned themselves outside one of the butcher shops the McDuffs owned.
How appropriate that the McDuffs had several family-owned butcheries as their “family business,” since they were little more than butchers themselves.
Maddox shrugged beside Drake. Maddox and Silas had insisted on taking position with Drake, more likely to sit on him and keep him from losing his shit than for any real need for their help. The other men had paired up, and surprisingly, the eldest Luconi and appointed leader of the family had sent several of his men to assist Drake in the takedown of Charlie McDuff.
“They’re very keen to see Charlie go down,” Maddox said as they waited for go time. “The timing is pretty good, not that I’d say there was ever a good time for Evangeline to be abducted.”
Maddox’s face contorted into a black scowl, his eyes flickering with fury before he continued.
“Turns out, the Vanuccis struck at the Luconis a week ago and the Luconis want blood. Rightfully so.”
Drake and Silas turned to Maddox in question.
Maddox sighed. “It’s pretty horrifying and, well, after hearing of it, I’m not sad that we’re backing the Luconis to take the Vanuccis down for good. The Luconis may not be Boy Scouts, but I’ve never known them to do this kind of shit. They have a code of sorts, one that excludes women and children. The world won’t miss the fucking Vanuccis. They’re all a bunch of pond scum.”
“Tell me,” Drake barked.
“Jacques Vanucci targeted the elder Luconi’s granddaughter. She was only twenty fucking years old. Young, innocent and very beautiful. The Luconis aren’t complete assholes. They shield their women completely. No knowledge of their business practices. The women in that family are cherished and absolutely protected by every single male member of the family.”
Fuck. Maddox had referred to the Luconi granddaughter in the past tense. Drake didn’t have a good feeling about this at all.
Maddox sighed and continued on. “It wasn’t pretty. He wooed and courted the girl for months. Made it all out to be a modern-day telling of Romeo and Juliet. Two people, forbidden from one another by rival families. Told her all kinds of shit, about how he was in love with her, wanted to marry her and how he’d take her away from both families so they could live a happy life. He has money of his own. Told her she’d never want for anything he could give her and their children.
“She resisted at first. Wanted to finish school and get her degree, but the bastard was persistent. She finally agreed, left her parents a note outlining the entire sordid tale and went to meet her boyfriend.”
Maddox shook his head. “I’m sure you can guess the rest. He raped her. Let his men take turns. Recorded the entire disgusting thing, and in the end, he killed her then sent the video to the elder Luconi with a message saying no Luconi was safe, man, woman or child. Luconi has declared war, and he was extremely eager to count you as an ally. It surprised him at first that you were trying to get Evangeline back, since he believed your show that she meant nothing to you, but when I told him they kidnapped a pregnant woman, it actually pissed him off. It’s a well-known fact that the old man has a soft spot a mile wide for pregnant women. He hates Charlie McDuff. Said he was a bad seed. Had too much liking for violence and he hates women. Given the Luconi sentiment toward their women, I can well imagine why he didn’t last long working for them. The old man told me he was already on the chopping block, but then he tried to corner the old man’s sixteen-year-old granddaughter. I’m surprised Charlie isn’t six feet under, to be honest. I think only because the Luconis didn’t want to risk outright war with the McDuffs, given their imminent war with the Vanuccis, did Charlie live. But the way I hear it, he wasn’t seen in public for months after the beatdown he got when they pulled him off the granddaughter.”
Drake’s mouth twisted in disgust. “Jesus,” he whispered. “And Evangeline is right in the middle of this giant clusterfuck. An innocent pul
led between warring factions, and she’s in McDuff’s hands even as we speak!”
He pounded the dashboard with his hand, a sense of wretched helplessness tearing him apart.
“What are we waiting for?” he seethed. “Every minute we sit on our goddamn hands is another minute she’s in his.”
“Keep a cool head,” Silas murmured. “You know this has to be done by the book, man. One mistake and Evangeline pays with her life. McDuff is batshit crazy and highly unstable. If he even thinks things aren’t going the way he planned, he’ll kill her. At this point he has nothing to lose.”
Drake’s phone rang and he tensed. They’d been expecting Charlie to call. Drake had expected to hear from him hours ago with his demands. Every minute that had ticked by that Drake hadn’t heard made his heart die a little more. Why had he waited? Had he taken his time, abusing Evangeline before he called Drake with his demands?
Drake didn’t recognize the number, and typically he let such calls go to voice mail and either called back later or not at all. But he answered it on the second ring with a terse “Donovan.”
“Drake Donovan,” Charlie McDuff drawled smugly. “I believe I have something that belongs to you.”
“Yes, you do at that,” Drake said softly. Dangerously soft.
Charlie obviously picked up on that note in Drake’s voice because he didn’t sound nearly as smug or confident when he spoke next. There was a distinct edge to his voice and he sounded rattled. And unstable, and that worried Drake. It scared the fuck out of him and he knew he had to tread very carefully and give the man no reason to hurt or kill Evangeline.
“If you ever want to see her alive again, you’ll do exactly as I say. You have two hours to complete the transaction and not a minute longer.”
“What do you want?” Drake snapped.
“Twenty million should be nothing for a man of your means,” Charlie said, some of the nervousness gone at the mention of the amount. “I’m being very generous. I know you could afford more without even noticing it was gone. But I can be reasonable. I’m going to text you the wiring instructions and the account numbers. As I said, if the funds aren’t in my account and verified in the next two hours? Your lady is dead. But not before I enjoy a taste of her. She is rather beautiful, but then I’d expect nothing less from you, Donovan.”