by Cala Riley
“It won’t happen again,” I promise, walking through my busted front door.
“Anything yet?”
“Sal is gone. Have the guys bring a front door, they busted mine,” I say, checking the kitchen counter, heading toward my office.
“Gio made the call. They should be there in the next ten minutes. Did they leave a note or anything?”
“Not that we’ve found. I don’t think that’s what this is.” I sigh. “I sent the camera footage to Lucian to go through and try to identify the two men.”
“Did she go willingly?”
“I-I...” I stutter on my words. “I don’t know. It looks like she walked out of the house on her own…” I trail off.
“After the crew shows up, head over to Ivy, we will figure out our next steps then,” he says, hanging up before I can respond.
“Matteo, you need to see this,” Lo calls from out the front door.
I jog out to meet him and find him in the neighbor’s front yard.
“Fuck,” I curse, leaning down.
Nico’s lying on the ground, blood surrounding him, no life left in his eyes.
“He was a good man,” Lo says from above me.
“He said he’d protect her with his life. That’s the last thing he said to me,” I murmur.
“He did his job then. We will give him a proper burial. Does he have any family?”
“A sister out west. I think that’s all he had.”
“We will take care of it. The clean-up crew just showed up. So did some extra soldiers. I have them canvassing the area for any clues as to where he would take her.”
I give Nico one last look, silently praying that the Lord takes good care of him.
“Bash wants us over to Ivy to make a game plan.”
He nods. It takes only ten minutes, but it seems like a lifetime. It’s late in the evening, the club already bumping, but I pay attention to none of it. All I can think about is Vanessa.
Once in my office, we conference Bash in.
“How are you holding up?” Gio asks.
“I could be better,” I answer. “Do we have anything?”
“Lucian ran to the restroom real quick, once he gets back I’ll have him break it down for us.”
I take a seat behind my desk, my knee bouncing with nerves.
A single knock on the door through the phone has me sitting up straight.
“He ready?” Lucian says.
“What do you have for me?” I ask.
“Well, hello to you too,” he grumbles, I hear some papers shuffling. “I’m sending you two photos. Have you ever seen either of these men?”
My phone pings. I take a long look at each photo.
“The first one looks vaguely familiar, but I don’t know why. Maybe I’ve passed him on the street?”
“His name is Ricky Smith, and the other guy is John Jones. Ricky is low-level with the Westies. Like street-corner hustler low-level. And his buddy is just that, a friend. He has no ties to them.”
Looking at the mugshot again, I look closer, trying to pinpoint where I’ve seen him. “What else?”
“Turns out our boy Ricky likes to hang around the homeless, hell, he even claims to be homeless. Has a history of harassing them.” Lucian’s voice sounds bored. “Honestly, with all the shit he stirs, I’m surprised the Westies haven’t put him down yet. He’s nothing but a liability.”
“Do we know why he wanted her or where he’s keeping her?” Lo asks.
“I pulled his record and Vanessa’s. Turns out Vanessa hung out in Queens for a while until she dropped off the radar. My guess is he wanted her to do work for him, but she said no. He seems to be trying to recruit the homeless to start his own crew.”
“Sounds like a winner,” Gio grumbles.
“Where does he have her?” I ask, losing my patience.
Lucian speaks next. “You know that empty lot you and the Westies purchased together on the territory line?”
Bash answers him, “Yes.”
“It doesn’t have a building, but it used to, almost a hundred years ago. That building had a cellar.” Lucian pauses. “The cameras caught him taking her there. My guess is she’s still there unless there’re tunnels in there leading somewhere else.”
“How did we miss the cellar?” Bash asks.
“It wasn’t in any records, but I’ve done some research on the area and I found a picture of the old building in a book. The details of the property were.” Lucian whistles. “Just be thankful that someone was very detail-oriented then.”
I frown, looking up at Lo. “This guy has avoided cameras since I’ve met Vanessa. Why did he get caught now?”
“It’s not in Queens. Maybe he didn’t realize they were there,” Lucian answers.
Lo looks at me. “Or he wants to be caught.”
“Thank you for the information,” I say, standing.
“Matteo,” Bash calls out from the speaker, making me stop. “Remember, he has ties with the Westies. If you find him, you can’t kill him. Treaties cannot be broken. I know this is your girl, but don’t break the rules.”
“Yes, Don,” I say over my shoulder.
“Lo, go with him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” I hear Bash order behind me.
“Wait up,” Lo says, trying to catch up.
Walking outside, Lo pushes past me.
“I’ll drive,” he says, unlocking his car.
“Just hurry,” I say as we both slide in.
The drive across town feels like forever. I zone out, watching the passing streetlights.
Is she okay?
Has he done anything to her?
What does he have planned?
“We’re here,” Lorenzo says, pulling me out of my head as the car slows.
I fling the door open as he shuts off the car. As I move to step out, he grabs my arm.
“Wait,” he growls. “Think about this with a level head. We will not go in there guns blazing, do you understand?”
I grind my teeth and look away.
“I get it, Matteo, I fucking get it, but I refuse to take you to my wife and watch her cry as she puts you back together because you weren’t thinking clearly. Or even worse, hold her at your funeral because you got yourself killed. You said it yourself. This kid has been careful not to get caught on camera. This could be a trap.”
“Understood,” I growl and get out of the car.
Lorenzo and I shut the car doors quietly as we look around. The street is quiet, with no one standing around. A few lights on in each building.
“It looks like a ghost town,” I mumble to Lo as we cross the street into the lot.
“Do you know what we need to look for?” he whispers, flashing the light on his phone at the ground.
“Not at all.”
“I’ll start over there, you look here and meet in the middle.”
“Sounds good.”
Slowly but surely Lorenzo and I grid search the property. After about twenty minutes, I start to give up hope.
Is there even a cellar here?
My phone buzzes in my hand and I look at the screen.
Lo: I think I found something.
I look up and make out his outline in the dark and pick my way over to him.
“What did you find?”
“Does this look weird to you?” Lo asks, nodding to a couch sitting perfectly upright and a cord running under it.
“Let’s move it.”
We each grab an end and move it off to the side, revealing a metal door in the ground.
“Bingo,” Lo whispers as my heart races.
Lo and I both draw our guns and get into position. On the count of three, he wrenches open the door. No one rushes forward or fires. There’s no explosion. Lo nods for me to go first while he watches my six. Slowly I make my way down the rickety steps, cringing with each noise. A construction light swings from the rafters, barely lighting the room.
A whimper comes from the bar back and I move forward, only for L
o to grab my shoulder. He holds a finger up to his mouth and takes the lead, moving methodically, clearing the room. Lo nods to the right and I look over and see her.
Vanessa.
She’s sitting on the floor, arms above her head roped through a metal hook. Rushing forward, I take the duct tape off her mouth.
“Cara,” I rasp.
“Matteo,” she whispers as she cries. “You need to get out of here. I don’t know what his plan is, but he knew you would come.”
“Fuck, I don’t like this,” Lo says from beside me, keeping his eyes around the corner of the room.
Carefully, I pick Vanessa up until her hands come loose. I pull her into my arms and rush toward the end of the room.
“Do you hear that?” Lo asks, pausing.
It sounds like a ticking.
“Run,” I tell him as we both take off up the stairs, me with Vanessa in my arms.
I barely make it two steps from the door when I hear the explosion, then I feel it as it flings me farther forward.
I land on top of Vanessa, wincing when I hear her cry out in pain.
“Are you okay? Can you hear me?” I ask her through my own ringing ears.
“I’m okay. He’s close, Matteo. He had a device with him. He had to of watched you go in.”
“Don’t worry about that now.” I lean up.
“We need to get those looked at.” Lo nods toward her wrists where she has rope burn from trying to escape. “I’ll call Mia and have her meet us at your place.”
Nodding, I scoop Vanessa into my arms and follow Lo to the car, both of us watching the shadows for movement.
“I can walk,” Vanessa whispers against my neck.
“Just let me carry you, please,” I murmur, squeezing her tighter to me.
Once to Lo’s car I slide into the back seat, still holding her and finally breathe as Lo drives off in the dead of the night.
I have her.
She’s safe.
When we arrive back at Matteo’s, it doesn’t look like it did when I left a few hours ago. The door is fixed, and everything is in its place.
Pain radiates through my wrists, making me pull away from Mia.
“I have to clean them,” she says as she grabs my wrist and goes about cleaning out the wounds. “Not too many rope fibers in this one,” she says cheerily.
“Yay,” I deadpan, not looking forward to her using the tweezers on me again.
“It has to be done,” she sing-songs.
“I think you can tone down the cheerfulness mio piccolo angelo,” Lo teases.
“Oh hush,” she says to her husband, blushing.
I feel Matteo’s arms flexing around me.
“Do you need to move?” I whisper over my shoulder.
“No,” he murmurs, burying his head into my back.
He hasn’t stopped touching me since he found me.
“Knock, knock,” Bash says, entering the room. “Good to see you again, Vanessa.”
“Bash.” I nod.
“Are you almost done, Mia?” Bash asks.
“Give me one more minute,” she says as she sets down the tweezers. Picking up the ointment, she smooths it over my wrists then puts a soft bandage over it.
“Change these twice a day, okay?”
“Thank you.”
“No problem, but let’s not do this again, yeah? I don’t enjoy working on people I know.” She smiles softly. “I’ll leave the ointment and bandages on the kitchen counter and let you guys talk.”
She gathers her supplies and heads out of the room.
“Thank you, Mia Pia,” Matteo calls out, making her smile over her shoulder. Lo gives her a quick kiss on her way out before shutting the door.
Both Bash and Lo turn toward me. “We have some questions,” Bash says to me.
“I don’t know if I know the answers, but okay.” I shift nervously.
“How do you know Ricky?” Bash asks.
“Met him a couple years back on the street.” I shrug.
“Are you friends?”
I scoff. “God no, the man gives me the creeps.” I shiver just thinking about him.
“He’s why you said you couldn’t be in Queens when I first met you,” Matteo states.
“Yeah.” I nod. “He wanted to ‘help’ me out and for me to fall under his thumb, but I wouldn’t so he told me to never come back.”
“Why are you scared of him?” Lo asks, leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
“He’s mafia, isn’t he? Kept throwing it in my face that he could do things and no one would say anything,” I say, making the guys laugh. “I don’t find that funny,” I grumble.
“What’s funny is he’s not really mafia. We don’t operate like he does. He’s just a boy trying to play a man’s game,” Bash says gently.
“How was I supposed to know?” I toss up my hands, annoyed. “I tried to avoid people like you and him. If you keep to yourself, you can’t get into trouble.”
“It just means you blocked everything out around you while you tried to survive. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Matteo softly replies.
“Wait, how do you know he’s not mafia? Aren’t there like hundreds of you?”
“I’m the Don of the Italian mafia. I know my men. We would never even consider a guy like him even as a low-level guy. I think it’s safe to say the Irish wouldn’t let him in either. He may be a corner dealer for them, but he would never make it further than that.” Bash shrugs. “With that said, though, we need to figure out what to do about this situation. We can’t have it happen again.”
“Did he hurt you?” Lo asks quietly.
“Aside from kidnapping and tying me up?” I shake my head. “No. He didn’t touch me or anything. He’s a lot of talk and not much action.” I sigh. “Or so I thought. I think he was actually disgusted with me. He couldn’t stop talking about how I wasn’t a good girl anymore because of, um, things he witnessed me do with Matteo.”
“That son of a bitch. He was spying in my window?” He calms when I reach up to touch his cheek. “He won’t get near you again. I won’t let him.”
“No, he won’t, you’re under our protection.” Bash stands. “We can talk more later. You two get some rest.”
“Thank you,” Matteo says.
“We will let ourselves out.” Bash nods, walking away.
“I’ll catch up with you later,” Lo says, following Bash out.
I lean back into Matteo, completely exhausted.
“Let’s go to bed,” he says, standing.
“Shower then bed.”
“Shower then bed.” He nods in agreement, carrying me toward his room.
I carry Vanessa into the bathroom and set her on the counter.
“Stay,” I demand.
“Yes, sir,” Vanessa teases.
“Watch it,” I warn, looking at her over my shoulder. “Shower or bath?”
“Shower, please.”
I nod, reaching into the shower and turn it on. As it warms up, I turn around and slowly undress Vanessa.
“Lift.” She lifts her hips off the counter, giving me just enough room to slide her pants off of her. I pick up her pile of clothes and set them on the counter. Slowly I undress, laying my clothes on top of hers.
Vanessa hops off the counter.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m getting in, I’m cold.”
“I’ll be in there in a minute.” I scoop up our dirty clothes to take into our closet. “Make sure you don’t get your wrists wet,” I yell over my shoulder.
Dropping the clothes in the hamper, I hustle back into the bathroom and stop. Vanessa has her arms on the walls, head tilted back, water cascading down her.
God, she’s beautiful.
Beautiful and mine.
I open the door and step in with her.
“Jesus,” I hiss at how hot the water is, making her laugh. Reaching around her, I turn it down just a tad.
“It feels nice,” she w
hispers. “It was so cold in that basement.”
“Cellar,” I correct. “It was a cellar, not a basement.”
“Minor details.” She rolls her eyes.
I grab the shampoo and put some in my palm.
“Is that for both of us?” she teases, looking at how much I have in my hand as I set the bottle back.
“Just let me take care of you,” I rasp, making her sigh.
“Go ahead.”
I run the shampoo through her hair, rubbing her scalp. Vanessa moans, leaning into me.
“Lean back,” I say once I’ve gotten everything. Vanessa does as I asked, and I rinse the shampoo out and start all over again with the conditioner.
“Don’t wash the conditioner out right away, let it sit for a few minutes,” she murmurs as I untangle her hair with my fingers.
Once I’ve gotten as untangled as I can, I reach for the body wash and slowly wash her body. After I have her covered in body wash, I wash myself.
“Can I?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Next time. I don’t want you to get your bandages wet.”
“Fine,” she grumbles, making me smile.
I hang up the loofah and rinse Vanessa’s hair and watch the body wash swirl down the drain. She turns, letting me slide by and have the water. I quickly rinse off and wash my hair.
“You ready to get out?”
Vanessa hums, leaning against the shower wall looking dead on her feet. Turning off the shower, I open the door and grab a towel, wrapping it around Vanessa.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I say as I grab my own towel.
She steps up, walking over to the counter and picks up a hairbrush and starts working it through her hair.
Silently, we get ready for bed next to each other. After hanging both towels, I grab her by the hand and pull her into the bedroom. Pulling back the covers, she crawls in and faces me as I slide in.
“You want to talk about it?” I ask, pulling her into me.
Vanessa relaxes into me and sighs.
“I wasn’t worried you wouldn’t find me.”
“No?”
She shakes her head. “I knew you would find me. I don’t know how, but I just did. I was scared of what he would do to you when you found me though.”
“I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever been as scared as I was when you hit the panic button,” I confess.