by Eden Butler
“Bella, fucking look at me now.”
“To hell with that…”
I should have known better. There was nothing stronger, nothing scarier than a mother worried about her kid. She didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate. She charged forward, slipping away from me before I could stop her, seeming single-minded as she moved through the door.
I could only get in soon enough to pull out my piece and flank her as she darted into the apartment.
The place was dark when we entered. The lamp on the end table next to the sofa was overturned and blinking. Maggie’s low curse caught in her throat when she spotted Vivian on the floor knocked out.
My chest burned. My stomach knotted up like I’d been jabbed hard with a body shot.
The baby wasn’t in this room. My gaze roamed around everywhere—under the tables, near Vi on the floor, to the sofa and love seat, by the window, but the kid was missing.
A thousand fucking images, each one worse than the next, ran through my head. I loosened my grip on my gun and I had to stop. Vi lay still, but her chest was moving, steady and even. Bending down to move the pillow partially covering her face, I glanced at her and spotted a knot on the side of her head. He’d punched her square on the cheek and she must have hit the coffee table, causing the bump her head. She was out cold but still breathing.
Maggie dropped to her knees next to her friend and felt her neck, her shoulders lowering when she glanced at me. “She’s breathing.”
Tears ran thick and heavy down her cheeks.
I reached to wipe them dry but stopped when she shook her head. “Please… Just…don't touch me right now. I need my baby. I need to find him.”
I stood, understanding her desperation, and offered her my hand before we went back to the search, upturning furniture, moving into the bathroom, then Vi’s room before we separated, and I made it into Maggie’s room, finding nothing before going into Mateo’s room.
From the hallway, I heard Maggie’s low, soft voice and made out the constant refrain of Dios te salve, María, llena eres de gracia, el Señor es contigo, recognizing the Hail Mary and the desperate pleading in her voice. She begged the Virgin for help and though it had been years since I uttered the same prayer, I mimicked it, doing a little praying of my own.
There was a small toddler bed, the same one Dante had described building for the kid when I asked if he’d checked in on them for me. Mateo’s blankets were still warm when I touched them. A nearly full sippy cup was in the center of the mattress. That asshole hadn’t even bothered to grab it for him. Sitting on the bed, I bent forward, my elbows on my legs as I tried to get my shit together before I went back in there to disappoint Maggie again.
That kid didn’t deserve this shit.
He had to be scared, being carted off by some asshole he didn’t know.
Fuck, what if that bastard was high or drunk?
Shit.
What if he didn’t even bother with a car seat or…if he wrecked.
Christ, my stomach was rotten.
I felt sick, like I’d spew right in the middle of the sweet bed that smelled Maggie’s hair and the lotion she always rubbed on the baby’s face when the wind blew too hard outside.
“Dimitri?” I heard, jerking my attention at the door, finding Maggie there, her face flushed, her eyes searching as she moved into the room. She glanced at my empty hands, then at my face.
I stood, turning away, wiping my wet eyes, feeling useless.
“No,” she said, her voice loud, sharp.
I reached for her, trying to bring her out of this room, trying to get her free from anything that reminded her of her baby and the fact that he wasn’t here, but she pushed me away, slapping my hand from her arms. “Don’t…I…”
Then, Maggie unleashed, toppling the crib, upturning the toys and frames that rested along the dresser. This anger was hers and I guessed it was tied up in the worry and anxiety she’d kept to herself for over a year. She never let anyone see that. But it was always there, simmering below the surface. I could read people. See it and now that her worst fear had been realized, it came out like a geyser, raging and unstoppable.
All I could do was let her go, let her rage, let her scream.
“Selfish, arrogant, greedy pendejo!”
When she hit her knees, doubling over, her scream turning into a sob that tore at my insides, I couldn’t keep still, couldn’t stop myself from touching her.
“I’m…sorry,” I tried, fighting her when she jerked away from me, pulling her to my chest, only relaxing when she turned toward me and collapsed against me. “We’ll find him,” I promised, hoping she knew I meant it. God help that bastard when we found him. Maggie’s entire body shook, but she gripped my shirt like it was the only thing keeping her upright. I held her close, letting her fall against me as we both let fear and terror rise inside us for just a few seconds. “I promise you, we’ll get him back.”
“How?” she said, looking up at me. “We have no idea where…”
“He wants you. This isn’t the end of it. Guys like that, messed up like that? No way can he handle a kid on his own. He’ll come looking for you.”
She closed her eyes, likely thinking the same twisted bullshit I had.
“He wants you and when he comes after you, when he comes with demands, we’ll be ready for him.”
“I’ll…I’ll go to him. I don’t want anything to happen here…” She shook her head, moving away from me, but I pulled her back. “Sweetie…”
“I’m not talking about making a stand here. Not in this town.”
“Then where?” Her face was swollen, her eyes red-rimmed, but Maggie was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“I got a place, don’t worry about that. We’ll own this game. I promise you.” I tightened my hold on her, promising myself right then that I’d never let her go again. “This isn’t over, and we’ll get our boy back. Don’t doubt that shit.”
15
Smoke
“He took my phone.” Vi had said the same thing four times in the past half hour. The woman hadn’t been able to look at anyone but gotten really damn jumpy anytime Maggie came near her. “I’m sorry,” she said, dropping her face into her hands. “If I’d only…”
“What? What could you have done?” my father said, setting a mug of coffee in front of her. The steam fogged up the woman’s glasses when she curled her hands around the surface and my ma moved into the seat at her side. Pop nodded, glancing between Vi and my mother before he softened his voice. “Listen…a man holds a gun in your face and the smartest thing you can do is keep quiet.”
“But the baby…”
“We’ll find the baby,” Ma answered, grabbing her arm. “That much we can promise you.”
Vivian’s face was swollen still, but now her eyes matched the knot on her temple from all the crying she’d done. The stubborn woman refused my parents’ offer to bring her to the hospital, swearing she didn’t care about anything but getting Mateo back.
“I—” Vi went quiet when Maggie came into the dining room, her arms curled, her stare unfocused until she grabbed Vi’s attention. The older woman glanced at her, but then dropped her gaze, hiding behind the mug in her hands.
Maggie, though, was having none of her friend avoiding her. She’d spent the past hour calling everyone she knew in the city to ask if they’d seen her ex and warned them that he had her son, and her death grip on her phone was still tight.
Maggie moved to the table, taking the empty seat next to Vi. She pulled her friend’s chin up, forcing her to look her in the eye. “You look at me, chica. Right in the eyes.” Vivian listened, forgetting the coffee when Maggie’s voice came at her fierce, but kind. “I don’t blame you. No one blames you.”
Vi’s features wilted, like she couldn’t take forgiveness when it was given, but when she started to crumple, retreating again, eyes shooting downward, my girl held her friend’s face in both hands.
“No, Vi, you can’t do that.” Maggie’s vo
ice shook a little, but her hands were steady, and her eyes looked like they could shoot fire. “Mateo and me, we have no use for weak people in our lives and I know you, Vi. You’re not weak. You’re a baller. You’re strong. I really need you to be that for me now because I can’t…if you aren’t…” Maggie nodded, letting some of the tears she’d been holding back slip from her eyes.
“Don’t…oh, sweetie,” Vi said, holding Maggie’s hand, finally pulling her into her arms.
I left them alone, spotting Dario and Dante when they came in through the door. My younger brother nodding behind him. Shifting my attention to the right, some of the tension racking up my chest eased when Dino came through the door.
“Boss,” he said, offering me his hand.
“D…man…” I ignored his shake and threw my arm around him, smacking his back before I mussed his hair. “You good? Let me get a look at you.”
The man was broad, his large shoulders and long legs eating up a lot of space as he stood in front of me. He was still pale and moved a little slower when I led us to the back of the room. “I’m good enough for this.” Dino patted his jacket and the bulge made by his gun, cocking an eyebrow.
That one look let me know my man thought he was back in the game. But I wasn’t sure. That game had changed.
Everything had.
“Mickey hasn’t…”
“I’m not worried about that asshole, boss,” Dino said, shrugging. He adjusted his stance, moving his hands together in front of him like a soldier awaiting orders. “I’m just here for you to tell me what needs to be done about that baby.”
“We’re figuring that out,” I told him, my gaze shifting to the left when Dario tilted his head, listening to something Dante whispered in his ear. My brothers both jerked their eyes at me when I cleared my throat, not hiding the stupid look they shared. “There something I should know?”
Dario was the first to nut up and speak. “Dante says one of Mrs. Phillips’ renters saw a black Lincoln speeding away from her B&B around ten-twenty.”
My stomach dropped and the back of my neck heated at the description of the vehicle. We’d made it out just minutes before I found Maggie on the street packing her car. Dario nodded once, his face telling me he remembered it too, but we’d been too caught up in our own shit to worry about some strange Lincoln slowing through the park.
“What else?” I asked him, trying to keep calm. Without me asking, Dino moved to the bar. A minute later, there was a bourbon in my hand and my fingers didn’t shake as much.
“Phillips said the renter only recognized it because that boarder, the one with her at Pop’s party…”
“July…” Dante said, frowning…
I shook my head. “August. His name was August.” I downed the bourbon, squeezing the glass. “He was the one wanting to dance with Maggie.”
“You had me check him out,” Dario reminded me and I nodded. “That asshole hopped in the car. When they drove away…” Dario looked around the room and I watched him, catching how he looked to the table where Maggie sat with my folks and Vi before he finished, “the driver handed off a crying baby to August. Then they tore down the road.”
“How the fuck did nobody see them?” Dante asked, his voice raising loud enough that the conversation behind us got quiet. When I flexed the muscles around my mouth, my little brother started in on the apologies. “Man, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean…”
“We didn’t see them either and we were on the damn street,” I said, squeezing Dante’s shoulder.
He liked Maggie and the kid. Dante and Dario both had stepped up when I was out in Edgemont, taking care of business. They took care of shit for me when she needed things done. So had my boys.
I glanced at Dino and, like my brothers, he was gearing up for a slip of temper. I got that. Knew that feeling, but now wasn’t the time to punch walls and upturn tables. What would be the fucking point? Wouldn’t get the kid back any damn sooner.
“Did the old woman say anything else?”
“The renter got a partial on the plate,” Dario pulled out his phone, moving his thumb across the screen. “I’m sending you the info. I figure you could get somebody to run it.” When I stared at him, like I couldn’t believe he hadn’t done that himself, my brother shrugged, grinning at me like I was simple. “My sources at the precinct aren’t exactly talking to me anymore. Five years, man. Wouldn’t look good if they were doing favors for a convict.”
From the corner of my eye, I spotted Dante’s wince but didn’t comment on it. Since both my brothers had been home, they seemed to ignore the fact that Dario had taken the bid for Dante’s fuck up. Not exactly how I’d have like shit to go down now that they were home, but we had other things to handle.
“It’s fine,” I told him, pulling out my phone. “I don’t want the locals to know anything anyway. I just wish Kat would show up. I need her right now.”
“What about her little brother?” Dino said, his eyebrows going up like the thought just popped into his head.
“You know him?”
“Drew is his name. He’s in Albany. I can make a call.”
“Do it,” I told my man, tapping his shoulder, already thankful he was back.
My brothers liberated the bourbon from the bar when Dino stepped away to place the call to Kat’s kid brother.
I didn’t know the guy well, but he’d help Kat, who was the smartest woman I knew, on a couple of her jobs. She’d hidden cash for Joey Mancinni and Vinnie Russo’s businesses before they turned on each other and it should have cost her. But every time a warrant popped up under one of Kat’s identities, she made them disappear. Drew wasn’t as good as his big sister, but he could handle this, no problem.
But before Dino could make it to the other side of the restaurant to place the call, Maggie’s voice shrieked across the room and I turned, darting for her when she held up her own cell.
Vi’s number and picture flashed across the screen.
“Stay calm,” I told her, waving my mother back. “Put it on speaker.” When she hesitated, her entire arm shaking, I sat her down, moving the phone to the table and slid the call button to accept.
Maggie inhaled, resting her hands on her chest, her attention on me when she exhaled. “Alejandro?”
“Hola, mi amor.”
16
Maggie
I was a Pisces who didn’t like the water.
Lakes and rivers, the ocean, streams—none of it ever held my interest. I thrived in the woods, among the trees, getting lost in thick vines and inclined trails.
But water? Sand and spray? The wobbling current of waves?
No, I hated it all.
When Alejandro demanded that we meet him here, at this small fishing shack fifty miles away from Cuoricino, I knew this would all end in the place I hated the most: on the water.
A Pisces who did not want to swim, sitting next to the man who refused to give up.
“Fucking cameras.”
Dimitri was still seething as we pulled into the parking lot that led to the pier. The veins in his neck throbbed and pulsed, hadn’t stopped doing either since we sat around Vi’s phone listening to Alejandro taunting us. Dimitri had clutched my hand, giving me the strength he knew I needed, as my ex laughed at us.
“Maggie, mi amor, you think I’m stupid, don’t you?” There was a laugh in his tone that was forced, but the confidence, the cockiness, that hadn’t changed. Alejandro was beautiful and smart. But not smart enough to believe he could work, program, and shoot poison in his veins. “You think I haven’t been watching you?”
“You couldn’t be,” I tried, hating the shake in my voice and how tired, how weak I sounded.
Dimitri grabbed my face, kissing my cheek to calm me.
I exhaled, long and slow, my pulse rate easing. “There’s no way…”
“Tell that gringo cabrón to get his fucking hands off of you.”
Dimitri went still, backing up slowly, his entire body changing as he heard the
threat in my ex’s tone. When he looked down at the phone, something shifted in his expression and I thought I glimpsed what I’d only heard horror stories about in the time I’d been working for the Carelli’s.
Smoke Carelli, the gangster had shown up.
“This cabrón doesn’t take orders from anyone, you feel me, pendejo?”
My heart thumped and I reached for the phone when Smoke grabbed it from the table. But he held me back, keeping me at arm’s length as he focused on that screen and the dip in Alejandro’s voice.
“You’re fucking with the wrong man,” he said, his voice clear and alert.
Dimitri’s laugh was sharp, biting and held no humor. It scared me, almost as much as what he said next. “Come say that to my face, if you’re such a man. I’m right fucking here. Got plenty of time and a lot of energy to burn. You meet me in the street, and we’ll see who the fuck the wrong man is.”
“No…don’t,” I pleaded, grabbing his arm. “Mateo…”
“Oh, mi alma,” Alejandro said, the laugh back in his voice. “Our baby is right here. He’s fine. And he’s waiting for you, just like me.”
From the other end of the phone, I could make out the sound of feet against a wood floor, the creak of movement against it and then the bustle of fabric. The noise shifted then and I picked up the low, soft snores I recognized instantly. That was my mijo. It was the same low cooing sound Mateo made when he drifted off. I’d know that sound anywhere.
“Mateo…” Dimitri didn’t fight me when I took the phone from him, holding it in both hands. “Alejandro…please don’t hurt him. I’m begging you. Please.”
“Now, why would I hurt my own son? The boy you tried to keep from me?” He moved again, taking those sweet, soft noises from me, and my chest clenched. Then, Alejandro opened and closed a door and there was a squawk from overhead, clearly a bird of some kind and the harsh rush of a blistering wind. “He looks just like me. Same nose. Same mouth. Your eyes though. But I didn’t get to see any of that up close until tonight. I had to watch him through cameras. See my boy sleeping in that small bed somebody else built. See my son being held by that gringo fuck. My. Son.” He made a noise, something that sounded like a grunt, and Dimitri reached for the phone, but I shook my head, hoping the look I gave him was enough to keep him quiet. Alejandro exhaled, the breath loud against the speaker before he finished. “But it doesn’t matter. I have him. Soon, I’ll have you and…I think, you and that gringo will come. I want him to come with you. I want that cabrón to see me take you and my boy away. I want to watch his face when I take back what’s mine.”
