Mickie was acting strange. “We really need to get going.”
“Let me get Tony.”
“He’s waiting downstairs with Dominic.”
“Okay, well… let me get my bag and we’ll go.” He nodded
I left the kitchen with a feeling that something was off. Alessandra was safe in my suite putting clothes away so I decided to lock the door. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, but I did want to call Tony. “Hey,” he answered.
“Where are you?”
“Mickie told us to meet you at the Delco’s restaurant.”
“Did you get that order from Jax directly or just Mickie?”
“Just Mickie, why?” My heart beat hard with warning.
“He said you were downstairs waiting for us. I have a bad feeling, Tony,”
“Where is he?”
“Downstairs waiting for me.”
“Lock the door and get a gun, Bella.”
“Fuck!” I hissed into the phone. I followed Tony’s orders slipping into the closet to retrieve a gun from Jax’s stash. Alessandra quickly questioned what I was doing, but I silenced her with the wave of my hand.
“Dominic is trying to call the boss now, Bella. It’s going to voicemail.”
“Oh fuck,” I whispered as my eyes found Alessandra’s.
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in just a few minutes. Can you stall him?”
“I don’t need to stall him. Just get here as fast as you can, and send Dominic to find Jax.”
“You’re our priority, Bella. I can’t do that.”
“If you don’t find my husband you’re gonna have a lot to answer for.” I disconnected the call.
“What’s going on?” Alessandra asked nervously.
I gripped her by the shoulders. “Listen to me. I want you to hide in this closet, and do not come out for any reason unless you hear it from me or Jax, do you understand?”
“Bella, are you in danger?”
“Yes, maybe, I don’t know. If I don’t know that you’re safe, I won’t be able to make it better. I’ll be too worried about you.” I offered a smile.
She nodded and touched my cheek. “Okay, do what you must. I love you, Isabella.”
“And I love you.”
“Isabella…” she hesitated. I kept my attention focused on her as she held my hands. “Remember that you’re a strong woman. Forget all that stuff the men tell you about being a woman.” She released my hand and waved it in front of us.
If Mickie was a trader I’d figure it out and hold him accountable for it. I grabbed my bag and headed for the bedroom door locking it behind me. I dialed Jax’s phone and it immediately was sent to voicemail. Something wasn’t right, and I was going to get to the bottom of it. I descended the stairs and crossed the corridor.
“You ready?”
“Yes, oh could you grab my sunglasses from the kitchen counter please?”
“Sure.” He hesitated and wiped his brow.
I slipped the large metal gun out of my bag, removed the safety, and cocked it.
“What the fuck?”
“Funny, I was just going to say the same to you.” I cocked my head to the right. “Put your guns on the bar slowly.”
“Are you fuckin kiddin’ me, Bella?”
“Again, huh, it’s like you can read my mind, Mickie. Pretty impressive. Now, do what the fuck you’re told.” Mickie slipped a gun from under his jacket and laid it on the bar top. “And the other.” I held the gun firm. Once he’d done as I’d asked, I spoke. “Sit down, Mickie.” He did, but again he was hesitant. “You lied to me. You said Tony was downstairs waiting for us, but in fact you sent him to Delco’s. Why is that?”
“You gonna shoot me?”
“That depends, Mickie, where’s my husband?”
“He’s waiting for you, Bella.”
“So when I call him he’ll answer his phone?” A gloss washed over Mickie’s eyes, I’d seen that look before. “I called him on my way down and his phone is going to voicemail. Now, if you don’t start talking I’m gonna put a bullet in your balls, Capiche?”
Mickie laughed at me. “You don’t know how to shoot a gun, Bella, put it down,”
“Here’s the thing, you see, when I was growing up I got to go the shooting range a lot.” I widened my eyes. “Yeah it was boring then, but turns out it paid off.”
“Bullshit,” he growled
“Honestly, Mickie you’re wearing on my patience. Tell me where the fuck Jax is or I’m gonna hurt you. You have five seconds.” I drew in a breath. “One… Two… Three… Four… Five.” Aim and shoot. That’s what Tony and Sal had always said. I pointed the already cocked gun into the direction of Mickie’s balls deciding maybe that wasn’t such a great place to start. The gun fired hitting him in the left knee. He screamed so loud. “I’ll bet that shit burns, huh?”
“You fucking bitch!”
“I knew I never liked you.” I shook my head. “Eventually, I’ll run out of places to shoot you, Mickie, and I’ll have to blow your balls off. Center of gravity and all that.” I was so calm. Almost eerie how comfortable I felt shooting a man. “Tell me where he is.”
“Fuck you!” I shrugged shooting his right knee. He screamed again.
“Where is Jax?” He didn’t answer from the place he’d crawled onto the floor.
“Bella!” Tony screamed from the front door. “What the fuck?” he asked when he saw Mickie’s blood all over the floor. “Give me the gun, Bella.”
“Fuck you, Tony. You’re going to take my orders until my husband is found.
“I always knew you should have been a boy,” he laughed.
“Hold him down! I’ll go for the nuts next.”
“Holy fuck, Bella, stop! She’s fucking crazy!”
“Dude, you just now figuring that shit out, you’re kinda late to the party.” Tony laughed.
“I’m fucking made, you do this and it’s your death ticket,” Mickie told Tony.
“You have anything to do with my husband disappearing and they’ll never find your body. I’ll tell everyone you’re a rat. No one will care that you’ve been killed. Hold him down.”
“Okay, okay!” he cried.
“What the fuck?” Dominic and Sal entered through the door.
Tony hushed them quickly.
“Where is he?” I demanded from Mickie.
“The docks.”
“Is he hurt?”
“I don’t know,” he shook his head.
“Where exactly can he be found?”
Mickie spilled everything he knew about Jax. He said that this was an inside job cashed out by Salvatore Casconi.
“What are you going to do with me?” That was a great question.
I approached Mickie with sympathy in my eyes, “You did really good giving up the info. I guess that really does make you a rat.” I placed the gun flush with his forehead and pulled the trigger. I felt absolutely no remorse whatsoever. I guess that made me a murderer. Blood sprayed all over the sofa and Tony. “Get this cleaned up. I need to get to Jax.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
I laughed manically looking Sal in the eyes. “Get a fucking sheet.” My face was flat and hardened. I slipped the gun into my pants and walked up the stairs to get Alessandra. I prepared her for the display that she’d walk in on. I left out the part where I was the one that killed Mickie. Sal was on the phone when we came back down. “Hang it up, now!” He quickly did as I demanded. “You go telling someone he’s gone, what happens then?”
“Bella, you don’t get to call the shots,” Sal hissed.
“I do and I did.”
There’s protocol, Bella, the underboss and Jax’s people need to know what’s going on.”
“Fuck that, if we couldn’t trust Micki, why think we could trust anyone else?”
“She’s got a point,” Dominic answered.
Sal drew in a deep breath running his hands through his hair. “Yeah, you’re right. If Casconi is the
one that set this up, we need a plan.”
“Awesome, you sit here twiddling your thumbs thinking of a plan, and I’ll be rescuing Jax,” I sneered.
“Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is having a woman doing a man’s job?”
“If you all would have been doing your job, this shit wouldn’t have happened.”
“Damn it!” Tony cursed as he re-entered the room. “I’m gonna have that guy’s brains in my hair forever.”
“Tony!” I nodded to Alessandra.
I left Alessandra in the house with Mickie’s body. I didn’t want to leave her like that, but I needed to find Jax.
We arrived at the dock where Mickie had said Jax was. There were two men standing outside smoking cigarettes.
“Do you know them?” I asked no one in particular.
The three guys shook their heads. No one knew who they were.
“I’ve never seen these guys before, probably some of Casconi’s crew.
“Obviously.” I rolled my eyes. I realized that these guys took much longer to get the idea of things. “We need to figure out how many are inside.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have let her watch those action movies when she was growing up.” Tony laughed. He was the only one that seemed amused I was taking over.
“You take these two quietly, and the rest of us can sneak inside,” I said to Sal then to the others.
The area was quiet with no one in sight besides the two that were smoking. Dominic led the way crouching down as we approached the metal building.
We entered through a side door, each one of us carrying a gun. The building was a warehouse of some kind only there were only a few crates that I could see.
“This way.” Sal waved me to a flight of metal stairs. We ascended as quiet as we could but caused an echo anyway. “Shh, there's one man inside,” Sal said crouched down just under a window. “The boss is inside.”
“You see him? Is he alive?” He waved me to be quiet as he stood against the wall looking into the window. His gun fired, the sound muffled by the silencer attached to the muzzle.
“Come on.”
I stood and leaped over the threshold to see Jax in a chair bound and gagged. “Jax,” I hissed. My throat tightened. I felt as though a part of me had just died, and if Jax wasn’t okay…if he was dead, I would be dead, too.
“Jax.”
Chapter 10
Jax
Leaving Bella behind was difficult. I knew I’d have to get back to the bullshit eventually, but for now, I wanted to be nowhere besides my bed with my beautiful wife.
Mickie called requesting I meet him to handle some family shit. And since he wasn’t with me I decided on driving myself. Something I only did rarely now that I was the boss. A lot of people wanted to see me dead, so I had to be careful not to put myself into a situation that would put the family in a vulnerable position.
My phone rang, and I reached into my suit jacket to retrieve it. “Yeah.”
“Boss, you almost here?”
“Yeah, and this better be good.”
“It is, boss, I promise you that.”
I arrived at the warehouse we used for our import business. I parked my car inside the large warehouse door and stepped out. Mickie was standing with a few other men I didn’t recognize. “What’s going on here?” The other men didn’t even acknowledge me, and right away I knew something wasn’t right. “Mickie?” A gun was in my face before I had a chance to react. “What the fuck is this?”
“This? This is business, boss. There are some people that want what you have and are willing to pay a pretty penny to have it.”
“You fucking sold me out? I took you under my wing when you were nothing.”
“You see what I’m sayin’, this guy.” He waved the gun in front of my face. “You don’t know shit. I’ve been doin’ deals and runnin’ shit behind your back for years.”
My gun was just inside of my jacket. If I could get to it, I would have a chance. “What do you want, Mickie?”
“Me? The Russians make sure I’m taken care of as long as I’m feeding them info.”
“This is the Russians?” I slid my hand inside my jacket. BANG. A shot to my arm. A burn and then a piercing pain. “FUCK!”
Mickie laughed, “Hey, that hurt me more than it hurt you,” the other men laughed. “That wife of yours, mmm, when you’re dead I’m gonna hit that shit hard. I’m gonna put that smart ass mouth of hers to use.” Everyone laughed and suddenly the pain in my arm was dulled.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you, Mickie.”
“No, boss, I’m gonna kill you. Well, the Russians are gonna kill you while I’m fucking your wife.”
I sprinted forward. BANG! Another shot this time to my chest. I collapsed.
“Come on, let’s get him upstairs.”
My body was dragged across the warehouse then the stairs. My breath was difficult and consciousness was a joke. I moved my arms searching for a gun or phone, feeling nothing. My body was cold and a gurgling noise came from my lungs.
“I’ll leave you to it then. I’ve got a prize I’m going for. Don’t leave anything behind.” I heard Mickie’s voice.
I moved my legs and felt around on the floor for anything to kill these motherfuckers with.
“Orlov wanted to be here himself, but he’s a busy man now that he’s got all of your territories.”
Mickie hadn’t taken care of him? All these weeks he’d said he’d handled it. “Wait.” My vision was blurry. I focused as best as I could but nothing helped. I still couldn’t make the men out.
“Rest in peace,” the Russian accent spoke.
I took a long uncontrolled breath and sank into death’s wasteland.
Chapter 11
Bella
I ran to Jax’s side. Seeing him lying on the floor next to a chair that had fallen. All color washed from his face shook me. I grabbed him feeling his lifeless body under my touch. “Jax!” I screamed, unable to hear my own voice. “Jax?” I shook him.
“Bella!” Tony ran to my side. “Stop!”
“Is he alive?” Tears poured down my face. “Is he alive?” I screamed again. “Jax, wake up, wake up, baby. I’m here, you’re gonna be okay.” I pressed my head against his chest listening for a breath or heartbeat. There was blood everywhere. But he couldn’t be dead. “Jax,” I shook him again, “you’re the first person I think about when I wake up, baby. You promised you’d never leave me, so wake up!”
“Bella, stop!” Sal grabbed me from behind. “Bella, he’s gone, he’s gone.”
“NO!” I cried.
“Fuck!”
“Who the fuck did this?”
All of their voices were mere echoes. I was lost inside of myself, and now I was covered in Jax’s blood.
“Get an ambulance. Get him to the hospital.”
“I already called Marco. He’s on the way.”
“Get someone here to help him,” I cried.
“Wait!” Dominic hushed everyone. “Did you see that?”
“Did we see what?”
“The boss.” He dropped to his knees feeling Jax’s chest. “There,” he pressed his head to his chest, “he has a heartbeat and he’s barely breathing, but he is breathing.”
“He’s breathing?” I pulled away from Sal and hovered over Jax. He’s alive. Baby, stay with me.” I cried hysterically. Jax, don’t leave me, we are going to have a baby.
“There’s a bullet wound to his chest. Hs lung likely collapsed.” Tony announced.
We counted every breath Jax had until Marco and another paramedic came to help. Sal held me back while the people worked on Jax and put him into an ambulance.
“I’m riding with him,” I fought against Sal, “I’m not leaving him.
We had been sitting in the hospital waiting room for ten hours. I hadn’t eaten or slept. I refused to leave for fear I’d be gone when Jax came out of surgery. The Doctors and nurses said they would do everything they could but that the odds were not in
his favor. Tony and Sal hadn’t left my side and I was greatful.
From what I’d heard from Tony, it was the Russians and they found that out when I’d ordered Tony to have Sam brought to me. I was going to put a bullet in his head like I had Mickie but it was the Russians. Mickie didn’t think we’d find him or maybe he thought they’d kill us first.
So as I’ve sat here for the last ten hours I’ve planned their deaths. Every dark and twisted one of them. I’d write it down but the feds could use that against me. Instead, I’d simply do it myself. I’d walk in and shoot them all.
“Mrs. Moretti?” I heard someone announce.
I stood, my body weak. “Yes!” Tony walked me to the tall doctor. He led us into a small room. My body was ice cold, my heart beat fast and hard, fearing what he would say to us.
“Is he okay?”
His face was pale. He looked weaker than I felt.
“We did everything that we could Mrs. Moretti.” I collapsed. “He’s lost a lot of blood. We were able to retrieve the bullets from his lung and arm but the head trauma…he has severe swelling, and until that decreases we are going to be in the dark.”
“Is he going to live?”
“We have to take it hour by hour. Our hope is that he can make it through the first twenty-four hours, and if we get that far then the chances get better and better.”
“So there's a chance he could make it?” Tony asked.
“I’m going to be honest, right now I’m not sure how he’s still with us. He took a beating but he’s a fighter, so yes, I think there is a chance. Small but yes.”
“Can I see him?” I needed to hold him.
“Yes, he’s in the ICU, but I need to warn you. He’s completely intubated. He has a breathing machine and that can be scary if you’re not expecting it.”
“I need to see my husband.”
The doctor walked us into the ICU.
We approached the cold, dark room. Jax was in a hospital bed and sure enough, he had tubes in his mouth and an IV in his arm. Tears welled in my eyes seeing him like that. I approached the bed afraid to touch him. I didn’t know if he’d make it, but I prayed that he would. I loved Jax Moretti.
Bella (A Sagatori Family Saga a Mafia Romance Book 3) Page 6
