He couldn’t bear the thought it might be the last time he could ever see her. “We have to find her,” he told Graham, his eyes wide like a frightened child.
“We will,” Graham assured. He was already behind his desk and on the phone to call his security people. Maggie handed Vanni some tea and he muttered his thanks, but he couldn’t bring the cup to his lips. His stomach had coiled into a knot, and he knew that anything he tried to force down would come back up.
She patted him on the shoulder as she glanced over to Graham, who was tersely instructing his security team on what to do. They would call law enforcement to coordinate their efforts to find her before the worst could happen.
After the aborted home invasion attack just weeks ago, all three in the room were terrified of what could happen to Andy – and her baby – if they didn’t.
They had no way of knowing that she was sitting in a chair in her old Redondo Beach house, tied down and facing a crossbow that had been rigged to the front door. If anyone dared to open it, it was poised to send an arrow straight through her swollen abdomen and the baby that grew there.
She came to, groggy and in pain from where she’d been punched in the face. Her body was bruised from where her attacker had manhandled her, and a towel had been taped into her mouth so she couldn’t scream.
Her fuzzy brain tried to assess the situation as she scanned the empty room. It had been slightly cluttered from the last time Vanni had stayed there, but what stood out to her were the wires and devices scattered around the room. It was rigged to blow, whether anyone opened that door or not.
Frantically she tried to wiggle free from her restraints, praying her attacker would not come back before she could escape.
Donny Wilke wasn’t in Redondo Beach, however. Instead he was in downtown Los Angeles, where his reign of terror had continued the minute Leo had opened the door.
“What the fuck, man?” Leo said as he glanced around behind Donny. If he had brought that pregnant woman to their door, he could no longer deny accountability. He’d been so careful setting everything up so they could slip by without detection no matter what this lunatic did. But one wrong move and it would blow the whole thing wide open. “Is she with you?”
Donny burst through the door, knocking the larger man aside. “She’s right where I want her,” he assured before he turned to face Leo. “I’m here to see you.”
“What? Why? I gave you all the information you needed to get your revenge.”
Donny walked further into the room, and Julian and Holly emerged from the bedroom from the commotion. “The gang’s all here,” he said. He took a gun from his jacket and pointed at the couple who cowered in the door frame. “Have a seat,” he said.
They sent a frightened glance over to Leo, who gave a slight nod of the head. His mind raced how to handle this wet dynamite. All three took a seat.
“So, what’s the problem?” Leo wanted to know.
Donny laughed. “Funny you should ask,” he said as he kept his gun trained on his captive audience. “Because that’s what I’ve been asking myself all night, ever since you called me and told me about Baylee.”
Leo cleared his throat. “And?”
Donny grabbed a chair and sat facing them. “Well, I was thinking. You told me that that asshole Vanni had spent the whole night with his fat pig of a girlfriend. So I got to thinking… if this guy Carnevale didn’t pull the plug on my sister… who did?”
Julian began to fidget in between Holly and Leo, which drew her attention. With a sinking stomach she realized that he had been gone most of the night – out with Leo, like usual. She assumed they were out getting drunk and laid. What Donny was suggesting…
Leo shrugged off his concern. “He’s so loaded he could pay to get it done while he had an airtight alibi. It’s the easy way to get rid of his biggest problem.”
“Yeah, but see the settlement stated that if she died, we’d get all the money. Why would he still do that, when it risked his going to jail? Things just don’t add up.”
Leo gulped. He had counted on this hick being too stupid to add two plus two. “Does it matter, man?” he asked. “Your sister wouldn’t be there in the first place if it hadn’t been for him. He should pay for what he’s done.”
“Oh, he’s going to pay, all right,” Donny assured. “Every one that crossed us is going to pay.”
“It was Leo,” Julian spit out as he jumped from the sofa.
“Julian!” Holly hissed, knowing he was signing their death warrant by admitting anything.
“He wanted Andy gone so he could manipulate Vanni, get in good with him like he did before. He needed Vanni weak and compromised so he could fuck with his mind, make him do whatever he wanted to. Probably get him hooked on drugs again, just like he did me.”
“You weak son of a bitch,” Leo growled.
“Not weak enough to do your dirty work,” Julian exploded. “You couldn’t even pull her plug. You had to get me high so that I’d do it.”
“What did you say?” Donny thundered, and Holly jumped up in front of Julian.
“He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Leo did get him hooked on drugs, he’s been out of his mind for weeks… ever since I lost my baby.”
Leo jumped up too. “He’s the reason you lost your baby, you stupid twat. And now you’re defending him.”
“Wait a second,” Donny interrupted as he leveled the gun back on Leo. “You said Vanni was the reason she lost her baby. You said he forced himself on her just like he did on my Baylee.”
Holly shook her head. “No, Donny. Vanni hasn’t seen me since the day I told him I was on bed rest. Leo has been lying to you and manipulating you just like he’s done to everyone.”
This information sent Donny into a tailspin. He hopped up and began to pace, waving the gun around as he processed the betrayal.
So Holly put the last nail in Leo’s coffin. “He’s the one that got Vanni hooked on booze and drugs, and he’s the one who told Vanni to go pay for prostitutes. If it weren’t for Leo, Vanni would have never picked up Baylee at all, much less drove them off a cliff.”
There were angry tears in Donny’s eyes as he turned on Leo. “Is that true?”
“Who are you going to believe?” Leo challenged. “Me? Or some little whore who gets paid to spread her legs?”
Thanks to a silencer on the end of his pistol, no one in the luxury high rise heard the bullet explode from the chamber of Donny’s gun. In an instant it blew a hole right through the center of Leo’s forehead, spilling his brains from the back of his shattered skull before he collapsed in a heap.
Holly stifled her scream as she watched Leo drop.
Donny walked over to where Leo lay in a bloody pile, before he glanced back up at the other two accomplices in the room. Julian put his hands on Holly’s shoulders as she shielded him from Donny’s wrath. He advanced on them.
“You need to move,” he told Holly. He really didn’t want to rough up a woman, but he was going to make Julian pay, with or without her standing in between them.
“Please. You got what you wanted. Leo was the one who did this,” Holly pleaded.
“Why are you defending this piece of trash?” Donny wanted to know. “He killed your baby. Don’t you fucking care?”
Holly dissolved into bitter sobs. “Of course I care,” she said. “I died inside that day.” Then she uttered the sad, hard truth of her entire life. “But I need him. He’s all I’ve got.”
“Not anymore,” Donny told her as he swung on her, knocking her easily away before he flung his whole body toward Julian. He could have shot him like he shot Leo – but this asshole deserved to suffer for what he had done.
Julian met each punch with one of his own. They thrashed around the living room, and Holly tried on wobbly feet to get in between, only to receive blow after blow meant for someone else. Effortlessly Donny lifted her tiny, frail body and flung her across the room, where she landed right into the middle of her glass coffee table.
It shattered around her and she felt the warm trickle of blood slide through her scalp. She could barely hear their muffled blows as blood pooled around her ears, and she reached for her cell phone that had been knocked to the floor.
The minute Vanni received her frantic text he showed it to Maggie and Graham. All three jumped in Graham’s car and sped downtown. Vanni didn’t even bother with the elevator. He took the stairs two at a time until he reached Holly’s floor. The door had been broken into and police were already swarming. Vanni forced his way through, where he found Holly on a stretcher. She had been badly beaten and was covered in blood, with several bad lacerations on her face and neck.
As he approached Vanni made the sickening discovery that she was clearly no longer pregnant. “Holly,” he said as he sank to his knees. “What happened?”
Another gurney was rolled from her bedroom, where a body was covered from head to toe.
A tear rolled from her puffy, swollen eye as she looked at him. “I’m sorry,” she croaked. “It’s all my fault.”
“What’s your fault?” Vanni demanded softly.
Graham and Maggie finally entered the room and Maggie rushed to the aid of another person the EMT was desperately trying to revive. It was Julian, who had been shot right through the chest.
Vanni turned to Holly. “What happened, Holly?”
“I lost the baby,” she said with considerable effort. It was obvious she had been badly injured.
“Today?” he wanted to know.
She shook her head, and winced from the pain. “In May,” she confessed. “Right after I saw you the last time.”
It was another blow that would have brought Vanni to his knees had he not already been there. His son had died and she never bothered to tell him after nearly a month. His throat ached as he asked, “Why did you lie to me?”
It opened the floodgates. Holly used her remaining strength to weep with all the bitter regret that eaten away at her soul for the last few weeks. From under the blanket she withdrew the bear that she had created with Vanni as a loving gift for their son. After he died, the bear had become a replacement. The paramedics found her clutching it to her bloody body when they broke into the apartment. “I didn’t want to believe it,” she answered. “When I talked to you I could still pretend that everything was okay.”
He looked around the trashed apartment. Nothing was okay. Was this what she had to live with? “What happened?” he asked again.
An emergency medical technician came to check her vitals. “I think we need to get you to the hospital,” she said to Holly, but Holly shook her head. She somehow sensed she wouldn’t make it that far, and this was way too important. She glanced back at Vanni.
“I’ve lied to you about everything,” she admitted. “Julian wasn’t my brother. He was my ex, the one I told you about. Leo got him hooked back on drugs and he was the reason why I lost the baby. And he was crazed that he had ruined our plan to get you away from Graham and start another label. We were going to run it when he took over Dreaming in Blue. That’s always been the plan, even when we came back out to L.A.” His jaw clenched as he listened. Andy had been right. Graham had been right. And he had been a damned fool. “That was when Leo told him there was still something we could do to save our plan.”
A vice closed Vanni’s throat. “Which was?”
“We had to get rid of Andy,” she said. His ground his teeth together as she went on. “At first he tried to gaslight Andy at your house, with all those packages. But then when Graham installed security cameras, Leo went after Donny Wilke, to stoke his anger towards you so he could have the perfect fall guy. He was just crazy enough to manipulate, and Leo knew all the right buttons to push. I’m pretty sure that’s who attacked her in your home a few weeks ago.”
“And you knew this?” he bit out between clenched teeth.
She shook her head. “I only found out today. I swear to God. Donny showed up at the door enraged that someone had pulled the plugs on Baylee. She died last night. He’s lost his mind. He went after Julian so I told him that Leo was the one he was truly after. He shot him right between the eyes, right in front of me.” She gasped back painful tears. “Then he came after Julian. I tried to stop him but…”
She didn’t go on, but her broken body was context enough. “Where’s Donny now?” Vanni asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I blacked out. But he and Leo were talking about his getting his revenge against you. I think he’s going to go after Andy again.”
He nodded. “He already did. She was taken from our house. We don’t know where she is.”
Holly closed her eyes. Her heart sank. From the state Donny was in, she knew that Andy would bear the brunt of his aggression. When her eyes opened there were real tears there. She had never meant for it to get so out of control. Now everything was lost. She had no baby, no Julian… no Vanni.
She knew saying she was sorry would never make up to him what he had lost, but she couldn’t let go of what little life she had left without saying it. “I’m sorry, Vanni,” she whispered as the gurney she was on was lifted. “I really did love you,” she whispered. “I never lied about that. You were the best thing that ever happened to me.” She weakly grasped his hand and placed the bloody, dirty bear into his care. “His name is Angelo,” she whispered before she closed her eyes and gave up all fight that was left. The paramedic rolled her from the room as Vanni grasped the bear to his aching chest in a wail of pain unlike any he’d ever known.
A hand fell on Vanni’s shoulder. It was Graham. He had overheard everything. Vanni covered Graham’s hand with his own as he broke down a little more.
Graham’s phone rang and he quickly answered it. “Yes.” He paused. “Yes, I understand. Thank you.”
Vanni rose to his feet to face him. “What?”
Graham took a deep breath. “We had stopped monitoring your house a few weeks after Andy moved out, but I had my guys check the security feed from Redondo Beach to see if we could get any clues. He’s at your house, Vanni. That’s where he took her. He’s not even trying to hide it.”
Vanni nodded and rushed behind Graham and Maggie as they headed for the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Redondo Beach, California
June 17, 2011
Andy stopped struggling against her restraints when Donny vaulted over the railing and landed on their deck with a thud. He wore no covering over his face, so she knew it was the same man who had attacked her before. She also knew he was the brother of the hooker Vanni had almost killed in the car accident the year before.
Clearly this was his idea of payback.
He prowled the room like a hungry cheetah, fixated with the front window as if he were waiting for something… or someone.
She winced slightly. She was no stranger to the Braxton-Hicks contractions she had been having for the last weeks, but that one was particularly powerful. She felt like she was suffocating on the towel in her mouth, and she found herself unable to catch her breath, so it took several minutes for her to recover. She counted in her head and tried to calm her body using only her mind.
But when she glanced down at her tummy under the nightgown, she realized that her abdomen was tightening and growing painful again. Her panicked eyes glanced back up at the man who held her captive. She tried to communicate through the towel, but he was beyond hearing her.
He had gone off the deep end, she could tell by the blood on his clothes and the look in his eyes. She had no way to know that he had killed several people in cold blood – one with his bare hands. But she sensed that he was beyond reason.
When the third contraction hit within twenty minutes, Andy knew she had to fight for the life of her child. She thrashed where she sat to get his attention.
He glanced from the street to her, annoyed by her intrusion. He stomped over to where she sat and she tried to convey through her eyes to remove the gag while she screamed deep in her throat. “What’s your problem, pig?” he
sneered. “Used to your five-star accommodations?” He laughed as he looked down at her. “Those days are over,” he promised. “In fact, all your days are over. I’m just waiting for your little boyfriend to show up for the party.” He bent down to look her in the eye. “Or should I say the fireworks?”
Her eyes widened. She tried to plead with him through her gag but he turned away from her and walked back to the window. She tried in vain to pull from her restraints. Another contraction hit, wrapping around from her back to her front.
“You richies all think you’re entitled to everything,” he said as he watched the first police car idle up to the curb. “You don’t care who you step on or use to get there. You treat everyone else like toilet paper. You wipe your ass on all of us and then when you’re done you just toss us in the trash. It’s about time for the trash to get even,” he declared. He took a break from his post to check on all his rigged explosives. He seemed immensely proud of himself. “Amazing what you can do with a few household chemicals, isn’t it?” he asked. “It’s going to blow your little love nest sky high, and take you and your bastard along with it.”
Tears ran down her face. She would have tried to reason with him if she could speak, but he seemed wholly uninterested in whatever she had to say.
He was listening to the voices in his own head now.
When the next contraction hit, warm fluid flowed between her legs, taking both her and Donny by surprise. He came over and backhanded her out of disgust. “You fucking pig! Don’t you piss all over yourself!”
She nearly gagged on the towel as she wept. How could she explain it wasn’t urine? But when he looked down he realized there was blood on her nightgown.
He pulled the gag from her mouth by ripping the tape from her face. “Please,” she begged as she tried to catch her breath. “I’m going into labor. Please don’t do this!”
He stared at her, as if he couldn’t process what she was saying. This was not part of his plan. “What are you talking about?” he demanded finally.
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