by Anna Lewis
“It isn’t…my place to say,” Jackson started off slowly.
“But I’ve already found this, so start talking,” I said through clenched teeth. Already I could feel my body shaking and my vision was tinted red.
“About two weeks ago we took her to the drug store to pick up pregnancy tests. Then the day after, on her day off from work, she went to see the doctor. That’s all I know.”
“Jesus…fuck…” I couldn’t keep it together after that. I collapsed to the ground with the damn vitamins in my hand and chucked it across the room, my head falling into my hands. If that Giovanni fucker hurt Maddy…if he hurt her the baby…my baby could be hurt too. “Why didn’t she tell me?” my voice sounded broken, but I didn’t care. Jackson was seeing me at my lowest but I’d already lost everything that I love because of my lie so I could care less about dignity.
Everything about Maddy’s subtle shift in behavior made sense, she no longer drank coffee. She didn’t drink alcohol at all when we visited my family. All of a sudden she was taking fucking vitamins when she never used to, not to mention her dizzy spell earlier in the day. Why hadn’t she told me? We’d been doing so well, why hadn’t she told me she was pregnant? Distantly I heard a cell phone go off. Three seconds later Jackson was handing mine to me, the word ‘Aida’ on the screen.
“I can’t talk now…just tell her what happened, tell her we’re busy trying to find them,” I said hoarsely, and Jackson answered the call for me as I finally pulled myself up off the floor. I took two Advil as I had intended to do earlier and walked over to pick up Maddy’s vitamins and set them on the counter. After that I went upstairs and took a cold shower, changed into a durable hooded pullover and jeans and went to sit on the couch in the living room. Someone had turned on the gas fireplace. Glancing around I realized Mo had gotten back. He and Terry had set up another makeshift headquarters right there on the breakfast bar. Jackson was watching them intently, intermittently calling and receiving calls from his guys out still looking for Maddy and Gio.
I felt the strangest stillness inside. Maybe I was numb, or dead a little bit, probably both. My would be wife, son, and unborn child were in the hands of sadistic fuckers and I hadn’t a clue if we could actually find them before it was too late.
***
Maddy
“We’re here,” the car door opened and I knew that if I hesitated to get out we might be pulled out by force.
“Come on Gio, I promise everything is going to be okay…Josh will come for us,” I whispered in his ear as I slid out of the car with him. All he did was nod and hold my hand with a vise grip.
“Look at this! They have packed bags and everything!” I glanced up at the big white Virginia style farm house. It was on a wide patch of land with seemingly no one around but a few cows and goats as far as I could see. Giovanni was standing on a porch that seemed to wrap around the side of the house. There were three black SUV’s in the drive and a half dozen of his thugs milling around, not including the two that brought us here.
“See I knew you wanted to come back to me,” he said with a smile as he hurried down the steps to approach us. I felt Gio cringe into my side and took a deep breath to try and center myself. I couldn’t let either he or Giovanni see my fear.
“What do you want with us Giovanni…we left you,” I said in a level tone.
“I know exactly what you did. You stole my son away from me in the middle of the night. What I want is for us to work things out and be a family again. What is so unreasonable about that? You make me come all the way out here…” He shook his head, his brown hair falling into his face and framing his dark eyes.
“We left you because you’re a sick and evil man,” my voice was still surprisingly calm.
“If I’m sick and evil then so are you, and so is he,” he almost spat the words. His eyes drifted down to Gio who was almost completely hidden behind my leg. “Happy birthday mini me…” Giovanni’s voice changed from cold to warm in under a second. “Did you miss me Gio?” he asked, looking for a direct response. But Gio simply shook his head and held on to my leg even tighter.
“I see, you’re a little worried about what’s going on. But don’t worry, daddy’s not going to hurt you,” Giovanni’s tone was sweet, but his cold gaze swung up to me and held so much promise. A cold sweat broke out across my back as my heart rate intensified. I started praying, hoping he wouldn’t do anything to make me lose the baby.
“Well come inside! It’s a little nippy out here.” Giovanni turned on his heel and I was nudged forward by one of his guys to follow him inside. I first bent down to pick Gio up and he held on to me tight as we went inside. “Don’t get attached to the house, it’s not mine. But we’ll be here just until the buzz of your disappearance dies down and such.” Giovanni began talking, going on and on, about how difficult this all was and how easy it could have been should I simply have gone back to Chicago when I had the chance.
We were led into the living room and made to sit down on the couch. Gio wouldn’t leave my lap, he was still holding onto me so tightly.
“You know mini me, you shouldn’t be so clingy to your mother, it will make you a weak man.” Giovanni had stepped close enough to us that if he wanted to, he could reach out and touch us.
“I’m not a bad guy like you,” Gio said in a small voice, peeking at his father.
“Being a ‘bad guy’ isn’t weakness son. In fact, it’s made me stronger. All that crap your mother’s pathetic boyfriend provides I can do ten times over.” He didn’t yell at Gio, he wasn’t in his face, it was as if Giovanni was having the most natural conversation. Bile rose in my throat; I couldn’t believe what Giovanni turned into. We were fine, more than fine, we were great. Then one call from what I thought was his long lost father and he turns into a completely different man. He was more aggressive, unpredictable, erratic. Now it seems he’s lost his mind completely.
“Don’t waste your breath trying to convince my son that you’re worthy of us because you aren’t. He knows exactly what kind of monster you are. We left you because we weren’t going to let you put us through hell any longer,” I said, my voice low with thinly veiled rage.
“Your son?” his hard gaze met mine and I braced myself for any sort of backlash. All he did was laugh and take several steps away from us. Both Gio and I let out silent breaths of relief.
“We’re going to fix this. We’ll fix our family before we go back to Chicago,” he said resolutely and then quickly left the room.
“Let’s go Miss, your room is upstairs.” I glanced up at one of the men who was standing by. Marco, Giovanni’s right hand, had disappeared with him from the room. When we made it upstairs I was showed to a quaint bedroom.
“He sleeps next door,” the man said, attempting to extract Gio from my side.
“No! I want to sleep with mommy!” he protested and held on to me with all his might.
“If you don’t want your father to punish you, you’d do what I say,” the man said in a hard voice and I knew it was the truth. I knew Giovanni well enough to have guessed he wouldn’t want Gio and I in the same room. Giovanni wouldn’t lay a finger on Gio, he never has before.
“It’s okay Gio, I need you to be brave for me okay? I’ll just be in the next room, right here,” I told him. Tears welled up in his eyes and he took deep breaths, trying to be brave like I said.
“We’re not getting separated, don’t worry,” I promised him and he nodded. “I love you,” I said and kissed him on the forehead. He slid down onto his feet and the man led him into the next room before gesturing me to enter mine. I stepped inside and jumped when the door slammed closed behind me and was locked from the outside. I heard Gio’s door get locked as well before the man’s footsteps faded away down the hall.
***
Joshua
“You’re wasting time trying to be too techy. Look up exactly what I told you to. He took eight men with him. One of which is Marco Santorini. Look up all properties owned by each
of them. I gave you a list of the possible others he brought to New York with him.” Kane was pacing around the living room, possibly just as keyed up as I was. Terry and Jason were busy at the computers and Mo was coordinating with the men still out in the city looking for Maddy and Gio.
“Mo pull them back, that town car has had to have reached its destination by now,” Jackson said grimly. The way he said it made me think of Final Destination.
“Josh maybe you can call Donovan, he has the access we need to pull up full dossiers on these guys. It would be a big help.” Terry glanced over at me and I was almost grateful to have a task. I walked over to look at the list of names Kane gave them.
“Detective Mark Donovan,” he answered on the second ring.
“Hey Donovan, it’s Joshua Aberdeen…”
“Do you have something new for us?” he asked, getting right to business.
“Yes, I have a list of names for you to check out. We need some info on these guys, it could be some of them are here with Giovanni,” I told him.
“Sure thing, I can fax you copies of what I pull up in the database,” he said and I gave him the names and thanked him for his help.
“Let’s get back to what we’re doing when we have the location.” I glanced at Kane who nodded, his hand on his mouth as he was deep in thought.
“We’re moving in on wherever they are.”
“What about the detectives already looking for Maddy and Gio?” I asked him.
“Donovan’s on our side and I know his partner Arby. If they were doing things by the book they’d still be here with another officer in charge of the search party. People go missing in this city every day, it’s up to us. Whatever happens we’ll call them after the fact. Chalk any injuries up to self-defense,” he said brusquely.
“We can’t call them after the fact, at least when we know where we’re going we should let them know when we’re on the way.”
“Joshua we’re going up against people from a longstanding mafia organization. We can’t work with the cops on this one and even they know that. Their efforts won’t last past a forty-eight-hour BOLO then subsequent wanted and missing posters.”
“We have the forty-eight hours to pinpoint them and show up or else they’re on the next flight out,” Jackson piped in.
I took a deep breath and went upstairs to see if Donovan faxed the information yet. The fax machine was printing as I stepped into the office. As I read what Donovan was faxing over I realized that he was sending exactly what we need. After the ten pages printed Donovan called me back.
“Joshua, I have a feeling they could be holding Maddison and Gio upstate. Gio’s right hand man, as you’ve told me, owns a house there…” I hurried downstairs as I flipped through the pages to bring up Marco’s information. I pointed to the list of known addresses in his name and handed it to Kane who hurried over to Terry and Jason.
“So what are you going to do?” I asked him slowly.
“I’m going to go to Arby with this and we’ll visit the residence. If nothing looks out of the ordinary…we’ll have to keep searching,” he answered honestly. “We’ll be heading up in the next ten minutes. I’m going to have to ask you guys to sit tight until I call you back with news.” I took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Alright…fine, thanks for faxing the info by the way,” I said, thanking him again and I ended the call.
“So what, are the cops going?” Kane asked me and I nodded. He ground his teeth for a second then took a breath. “Alright, let’s hope they find nothing and we do. There’s only one other New York address in this pile and it’s an abandoned warehouse in Harlem,” Jackson said as he studied one of the documents.
“I wonder what’s there…” I mused, and Jackson got on the phone.
“Yeah…I need you to check something out and tell me what you find…”
Everyone seemed to be doing something. Yet there I was again simply standing by and trying not to think about the fact that Maddy was pregnant, that Giovanni had Gio, that Maddy could be hurt or worse.
“Fucking hate having to work around the cops…” Kane muttered. I glanced over at him and could see the tension rolling off of him in waves. He wanted to take Giovanni down and had perfect reason to. In his early days of being involved with his father’s mafia Giovanni had killed two cops, brothers undercover. Both were brothers to Kane.
In the two hours that followed Jackson called his men back to the penthouse and Kane had a couple of his own trained friends come by, guys who he said ‘owed him a favor’. Kane had laid out the plan, it was a ‘simple’ search and rescue. Since we were calling the police after we arrived the aim was to incapacitate only so they could make their arrests.
“Hey Josh…can we talk for a sec?” Kane pulled me aside, into the kitchen. Maddy’s prenatal vitamins were sitting there on the counter. My worst fears represented by that pink and white bottle. When Kane pressed the black automatic pistol into my hand my gaze snapped back to his. “When the time comes, if I’m not around, will you do what you have to?” I glanced down at the gun and back up at him. “I know you want that fucker dead just as much as I do, my pride doesn’t block out my need for vengeance. If there’s a chance we can kill him today, by all means I don’t care who’s pulling the trigger.”
“I know how to shoot,” was all I said, my voice hardly had a waver to it.
“Good, aim straight,” he said before heading back into the living room proper.
“Josh…its Donovan calling,” Terry said, holding up my phone. I took a deep breath and went to answer it.
***
Giovanni
“We have an issue,” Marco strode into the kitchen, his voice gruff as always. I glanced up from the coffee I was making for Maddison and I. I wanted her to be awake while I talked to her. She needed to come to her senses quick or else Gio would continue to like fucking Joshua over his own father.
“What.” I stirred sugar into both cups, I knew exactly how Maddison liked her coffee, it was the details that would win her back, she’d always been soft for the little things. She’d remember how well I know her and she’d realize that our family should be together.
“The cops are poking around the barn…” I glanced up and he beckoned me out to the living room. The guys were all inside, Reese and Noland were staring at the TV while everyone milled around, juiced up and ready for anything. The surveillance feed was up on the screen. Good thing the actual house was so far back from the main road and off the grid that the cops had no chance of finding us without someone who knew the area. The address would only lead people to the barn, the house wasn’t registered under anything, it was virtually nonexistent.
“They aren’t really looking; they only have one other car as backup…”
“It means they’re in Joshua’s pocket, he’ll be here soon enough with his ‘security.’” Marco scoffed.
“Get ready,” was all I said before heading upstairs. I needed to have that talk with Maddison sooner rather than later. Things would go a lot smoother for us if she was on board. I unlocked her bedroom door and stepped inside, it was dark and she was sitting near the window looking out at the fields of pasture land.
“You know they say distance makes the heart grow fonder…I think you look more beautiful now than you did when you left me.” I walked over to touch a lock of her hair, she tensed up, hugging her knees to her chest.
“Yeah, I don’t have any more bruises. That’s the difference,” she said, her voice heated, but careful.
“I love how you challenge me Maddison, you know I’m in control, but it’s like you aren’t scared…” I caressed her cheek and she flinched away from me. I ground my teeth together and took a deep breath. I wouldn’t hit her, Gio would see the bruise and he’d never respect me.
“Look, I have train tickets for us to head back home. Come with me, we’re a family and we should all be together.”
“Why are you suddenly so eager to go? Is Josh here? I tol
d you he’d come for us…”
Heat rose in my chest and before I could check myself I slapped her hard across the face.
“Joshua Aberdeen is nothing. You and Gio are mine, we belong together and we will be. I came up here trying to be civil and look what you’ve made me do,” I growled. She was no longer hugging her knees to her chest, instead she was sprawled against the wall, cupping her cheek and an arm around her stomach. “I didn’t want to play this card, but obviously you’re giving me no choice. If you don’t want to come with me fine. I’ll take my son and we’ll leave without you.” I turned to leave, but she sprang to her feet and clutched my arm.
“No, no please…don’t take Gio…I’ll cooperate, I’m sorry,” she said, trying to hide the panic in her voice.
“You’re sorry for leaving?” I asked her and she paused briefly before nodding her head. “Say you love me.” I moved to caress her neck, but she flinched away from me. I grabbed her around the throat instead, my face only a breath from hers. “Say it.” My patience was thinning and I hadn’t heard anything from downstairs so I didn’t know how much time we had to leave.
“Vanni! We got issues,” Marco shouted from downstairs. I cursed and let Maddison go, not really meaning to throw her down in the process. I met Marco on the steps, he was all kinds of pissed off. “Joshua and his crew are on the way to the farm. He has extra guys, not just his posh security firm guys. This won’t be PG when they get here.”
“Take Gio, head to the train station. I’ll be right behind you with Maddison. Tell the men to meet Joshua at the barn.” Marco hurried past me, quickly retrieving a kicking and screaming Gio along with his book bag.
“I hate you! I hate you Daddy!” he shouted at me as Marco hauled him downstairs. Mini me was more like his father than he thought. I took a deep breath and turned around just in time to see Maddison holding a lamp in her hand. I caught the thing just before she could bash me over the head with it. I caught her arm and twisted it behind her back, forcing her back into the room.