“And if they strike to ensure that she’s taken out?” he demanded.
“You’re placing me in a tough situation here,” Crew protested.
“I’ll track her and when we have adequate protection for Sandy you can rejoin me; by then Trent might be here as well,” he said firmly.
“Understood,” Crew answered though the tick in his jaw said something else was eating at him.
“In the meantime, I’m going to swing by the Basses’ mansion and pray that I don’t kill that fool.”
“I’m coming with you,” Crew stated with heavy finality and Wyatt just shrugged.
∆∆∆
Raine didn’t know how long she laid there rocking back and forth but that was all she could think about. They’re dead because of me, she repeated over and over mentally. They’re dead because of me…
“What the hell were you thinking!” her father shouted from some room beyond where she was; some room where there was light.
She groaned at the pain in her head and tried to shift but found her hands tied tightly.
“You asked me to grab her for you and that’s exactly what I did,” someone responded calmly and she could just picture the smile on his face.
“I didn’t ask you to kill a bunch of store clerks and an Interpol agent!” Bass roared.
A sob tore from between her lips. “Sandy’s dead,” she whispered into the darkness.
“They were in the way,” he declared and one of the clerks had figured out who she was anyway,” he grumbled.
“He could’ve been taken out more silently,” Bass commented. “Now, the whole of Iowa is looking at a grainy image of a woman who many are claiming looks eerily familiar,” he spat. “Soon enough, someone somewhere will call a news station just to get some money but to rightly identify her as Raine Bass!”
“You should’ve thought about that all those years ago,” someone answered coldly and she knew that if Bass kept pushing, there would be more deaths today.
Skipp himself seemed to realize that because his volume lowered. “Ignacio will be here in just a few minutes so she’ll be off my hands soon enough,” he muttered.
“If that’s what makes you sleep at night,” the other man laughed. “But you have gotten yourself into a life sucking black hole Mr. Bass and I sure want to see you dig your way out of this one,” he chuckled.
A door closed somewhere and the sound of shattering glass followed not long after. She could hear her father cursing up a storm beyond the door but not once did he come in to check on her.
∆∆∆
“So Ignacio is already here?” Crew questioned as they stepped out of the chopper.
“According to the recordings that I pulled, he called Stephano’s phone hours ago, so, anything is possible,” he answered.
“So anywhere Ignacio is heading, Raine is too.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Wyatt muttered as he turned the car towards the store. It didn’t take them long to reach Sycamore Street but for the first time, Wyatt hesitated to enter a crime scene.
It was Crew’s gentle nudge that drew him back to reality. “She’s not dead, Wy,” he reminded him. “We just said an undercover officer was dead.”
“Yes, but Bass knows that she’s Interpol,” Wyatt stated as he slammed the car door. They both knew that the bastard he captured Sandy’s image from the recordings and ran it through a high-security database.
Cameras flashed around them and they both ensured that their faces were angled away. “Captain Coleman,” the chief of the police department greeted him at the door and he shook his hand. In just a fraction of a second, his eyes accessed the layout of the bodies and his gut clenched at the bloody feet and handprints which he knew belonged to Raine.
“She tried to run,” he whispered but Crew was focusing on something else, the muscles in his cheeks flexing.
“This is all my fault,” Crew breathed.
He reached out to touch him. “We couldn’t have predicted this,” he reassured him but Crew seemed to be trapped in some other dimension in his head.
“How bad is our partner?” he asked the chief.
“Blood loss was the key downfall because her watch took some time before it called for emergency services—”
“She must’ve changed the settings,” Wyatt mumbled as Crew took in the aisles.
“They didn’t have to kill everyone,” Crew noted as he looked at the cameras and how they were angled.
“They took out the first two manning the cameras, they didn’t need to kill anyone else—”
“They didn’t need to kill anyone to begin with!” Crew snapped and the other man shrugged.
“They came in with the intention to kill and so they did. There was no changing their minds,” he stated.
“This is a sick world,” Crew whispered as he made to move away.
But just as he was about to, Wyatt stilled him as his phone jarred.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“The happy family is a myth for many.”
—Carolyn Spring
The lights flickered on suddenly and they blinded her for a moment.
“Why the heck is her hands tied and she wasn’t cleaned up?” Ignacio demanded.
“This isn’t a fashion show,” Bass answered coldly. “I just need you to get her as far away from my state as possible,” he finished. “She has caused enough trouble.”
“No, you caused that,” Ignacio bit back. “You were the fool who hired bloodthirsty killers instead of some cheap nap and go.”
“Cheap labor would’ve gotten her killed,” Bass pointed out.
“But it wouldn’t have been a national investigation,” the older of the two threw out.
Bass’s lips pressed together in irritation. “Either way, she’s yours now.”
Raine stiffened as the bed sunk and Ignacio’s familiar scent washed over her. “I know the drugs wore off hours ago,” he soothed as he stroked back her matted curls.
Her response was to screw her eyes shut tighter and he chuckled. “They might make your mouth dry but they don’t last that long,” he informed her.
A fearful shiver passed through her body as he stroked her arm. “Why are you doing this?” she breathed, her lips cracked.
“Because you are Raine Bass,” he answered and her father shifted uncomfortably. “Your father wants to become the president of the great United States of America,” he chuckled. “And you are his genie in a bottle.”
“Why don’t you just kill me?” she questioned as she turned her head and peeled her eyes open to look at her father.
“Because I like the way you look too much,” he laughed. “I would be such a waste to do away with this beauty.”
“Can I leave now?” Skipp questioned, his voice tight.
“And miss the reaping of the fruits of your labor?” Ignacio questioned and Raine could feel the bile rise up in her throat.
“I think she’s going to puke again,” he grumbled.
“Side effects of the narcotics?” Ignacio questioned and the polished politician chuckled darkly.
“I think it has more to do with the reason she was in aisle nine,” he answered and indicated something with his chin.
“No,” Raine whispered as Ignacio’s eyes met what hers hadn’t in the dark.
“Well, looky here,” he drawled. “Someone’s about to become a granddaddy again.”
Bass made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat before moving towards the door. Vince, however, moved to block his exit.
“I leave you for a few months and you get knocked up again,” Ignacio growled. “Did you exchange yourself for favors in order to get here?” he demanded.
I’m sorry Wyatt, she breathed internally before she opened her mouth. “Something like that,” she answered as she trained her eyes on her father and for the first time, he saw it fit to hold back some information because he didn’t tell Ignacio who Sandy had really been. Maybe, it was his way of securing himself because if h
e said anything, Ignacio might leave her on his hands because no one wanted to lug around someone the world was essentially looking for.
“Well, one way or the other, it’s a new addition to the Genovese tribe.”
∆∆∆
Wyatt leveled the scope again as he tried to figure out what Ignacio was up to. Bass had left not too long ago; Wyatt would deal with him at a later date because he was going to wipe the floor with him. He tapped into whatever device was open to see if he could get any more clarity.
“I know that you are lying to Ignacio,” Vince breathed darkly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered tightly.
“If he hadn’t had you clean off all that blood I could’ve smacked you and gotten away with it!” he spat.
Her indrawn breath was so audible that it felt as if she was right over his shoulder.
“I know that the man in that surveillance isn’t some random punk who you exchanged favors with,” he breathed.
“What are you talking about—?”
Wyatt shifted as her words were cut off and he knew from her breathing that he hand his hand around her throat. At this point, he just wanted to storm the building but he knew that that wasn’t wise.
“I know that it is Stephano,” he growled.
Rained coughed as he released her and he flinched at the raspiness of her cough.
“I don’t know what games you two are playing or how you got Salvatore so convinced that he’s dead but I know differently,” he spat.
“You’re crazy!” she said boldly. “We both saw the bullet hole in his skull—”
This time, he did slap her and a door opened.
“What are you doing?” Salvatore questioned.
“Get out!” Vince hissed.
“You better not let Ignacio see that blood,” Salvatore grumbled.
“It won’t matter when he realized how his very own son betrayed him,” Vince chuckled darkly.
“You are just as delusional,” Salvatore muttered before closing the door behind him.
“Now,” he paused. “As I was saying,” he continued. “I know you and Stephano cooked up some grand scheme to delude Ignacio and the rest of the family, but I’ll ensure that I get the glory in all this,” he hissed. “This time, I will ensure that I am the one to take him out—”
“And tell me just how you’re going to do that?” she questioned boldly.
“You see,” he chuckled. “Wherever the queen bee goes, the worker bee will follow,” he laughed.
“What are you talking about?” she questioned, obviously confused.
“I ensured that he had my own men on the ground, Raine Bass,” he stated frankly. “And one of my men has a gun to the base of his skull, waiting for my command to shoot—”
Wyatt froze as the cold metal touched him in the exact same place.
“Don’t even think about it,” the voice stated candidly and his hand stilled on his knife.
“But,” Vince chuckled. “I want Ignacio to see his demise first handed before I take him out as well. I might even give the old man the opportunity to do it. You know how much he hates to be double-crossed—”
“Stephano did nothing against his father—”
“No, I did,” Vince laughed. “Stephano is just the scapegoat and you’re his kryptonite—”
“You’re making a huge mistake,” she breathed.
“That’s for me to find out and you to watch,” he chortled. “Bring him in guys,” he instructed as he moved from near Raine.
“Will do, boss,” the man behind him answered. “You heard him boys, rustle him up and get him inside. This is about to get interesting.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
“I must be cruel only to be kind;
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.”
—William Shakespeare
“What have I ever done to you for you to betray me like this?” Ignacio questioned as he took a seat before Wyatt.
Wyatt had no idea what Vince had told the other man in the short time it took for them to bring him off the roof of the adjoining building and inside, but now Raine was stringed up and struggling. Well, it could’ve been hours ago because he had lost consciousness when Vince had knocked him out with the butt of his gun as the men had carried him in. Vince had planned this all out so meticulously that it was hard to even question what he said.
“This is not what you think,” Wyatt murmured.
“So you’re telling me that what I’m seeing is incorrect?” Ignacio demanded.
“That and that you’re being fooled by Vince,” Wyatt stated strongly, despite the pounding headache that was starting at his temple. “I am the child you left behind when you cut Stephano from our mother’s belly,” he informed him, trying to buy some time. He knew that Crew had already started tracking his watch and that meant that Trent was also on his way.
Ignacio seemed to hesitate as if to consider if what he was saying was the truth but Vince whispered something in his ear and the older man’s expression darkened. Before Wyatt could brace for it, Ignacio’s brass knuckles met the side of his face and he tasted blood. Raine cried out, drawing the attention to her.
“Please, stop!” she begged as Wyatt spat out the blood in his mouth.
Ignacio moved towards her and Wyatt’s chest tightened in fear. This man was as unstable and unpredictable as they came. “And you,” he sneered. “You are something else!” He turned to Wyatt whose eye was rapidly swelling shut. “Do you know how I caught her?” Ignacio sneered even though he’d really had nothing to do with it. “She was in a freaking dollar store, buying this!” he laughed
Wyatt’s eyes flew to hers as Ignacio waved the stick around. No, no, no! he screamed mentally.
“Please, not like this,” she pleaded.
“So, you know I had to make her pee on it,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “And guess what I found out?”
Wyatt’s gut clenched at what this could all mean, but it was the distress on her face and the blood running down her arm that had his stomach somersaulting.
“You, Mr. Genovese, seems to be about to become a daddy again.” He motioned to Vince and the other man wheeled something over. “But I never trust only one method,” he said to himself as he caressed the wand. “I just had to send for this when I found out.”
“Honey,” Wyatt breathed as tears rolled down her cheeks when she squeezed her eyes closed. Her eyes fluttered open to meet his as she bit back a sob when Ignacio tore off her underwear.
“Ignacio, please,” he petitioned but the older man didn’t care.
She flinched as he inserted the tool with little preparation and Wyatt could taste blood fill his mouth again; this time from his own making.
“Now would you look at that,” Ignacio marveled. “If your story’s to be believed, it would seem like history is repeating itself,” he chuckled darkly, drawing Wyatt’s eyes to the black and white image. “I might reconsider after all; fate might be telling me something here. I should just kill you and keep her for the kids. I could grow a new empire out of you my girl,” he said excitedly.
There’s no way in hell I’m allowing that, he thought darkly. Wyatt’s eyes flickered to hers and his stomach sank. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“No!” she shouted at him. “Don’t you dare!” she snapped, fire in her mossy green eyes.
But she misunderstood because he sure as hell wasn’t about to give up. “Raine, close your eyes,” he instructed as the blade from his belt tore through the rope.
“No!” she responded disobediently and Ignacio laughed sinisterly because he thought that he’d won.
The second the last strand of rope gave under the blade, Vince’s gun was gone and a pop sounded before Ignacio’s stunned eyes met his. Like his son, he crumbled to the ground, soundlessly as blood oozed from the hole in his head. Vince rushed towards his boss, ignorant in his movement. But it gave Wyatt the upper hand. With the tightening of his f
inger, Vince yelped in pain.
“Pull back!” he screamed as Salvatore rushed into the room and a bullet barely missed his head before digging into the concrete, a shower of cement forming a cloud from the impact. Ignacio had made the mistake of undermining his experience by just bringing Vince and Salvatore, and Vince made the mistake of calling off his men to paint a heroic picture. Either way, neither of them had many people left in their corner. They should’ve been better prepared. Either way, it was in Wyatt’s favor and he didn’t hesitate to take it.
As they scurried away, he grunted and pushed to his feet, knowing that he’d get to them later. For now, Raine was his main focus.
“You’re bleeding,” she gasped as he staggered over to her, one leg numb.
“So are you,” he responded as car tires squealed above them.
Slowly, he lowered her before cutting the rope from her raw wrists.
“I’m sorry about this,” he breathed.
“Baby, it wasn’t your fault,” she comforted.
“I thought that it would’ve been safe for you to go to the store,” he grunted.
“I would’ve gone, with or without your permission,” she whispered lightly, trying to inject something other than the putrid, metallic smell of blood into the air.
“Yes, you would’ve,” he acknowledged as he breathed out, blinking at her as his vision doubled.
“Wyatt!” she screamed as he staggered against her and lost his footing, down they went as Trent stormed in with the cops.
∆∆∆
Salvatore pulled over in a back alley not too far away.
“What are you doing?” Vince demanded. “I need to get to the hospital.”
“Something that I couldn’t have done before Ignacio was dead,” he answered.
Before Vince could answer, the needle pricked his arm and Salvatore squeezed the drug in.
“Either this will kill you or you’ll do it yourself,” he stated as he replaced the tool inside his jacket. Sliding out the gun, he placed it on the dashboard before sliding out of the car.
Before he reached the end of the alleyway, a pained cry sounded before the back glass of the car shattered and brain matter sprayed the ground.
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