by Mae Doyle
Now we just have to find Lucia.
Ma sees that we’re all standing and leans in the door from the kitchen. She knows that staying out of the way when we have business is the best way for her to avoid getting hurt. Women just aren’t allowed to sit at the table when the Torenti family has shit going down.
“You guys need anything?” She has on an apron, which is pretty much her uniform, and although she includes all of us in the question, her eyes are locked on Pops. “I’ll make sure that whenever you get home that there’s something warm for you to eat.”
“We’re good, Fia. Thank you.” Pops responds quietly, but I see a smile on his face.
We all need a Ma in our life. She smiles at him and then returns to the kitchen, presumably to make sure that there will be something for us to eat when we get back. Pops runs the family, but without Ma, it would all fall apart.
He knows it. We know it. Arlo and Roque found their own versions of Ma, and I think that I have, too.
Now I just have to go save her from the assholes who were stupid enough to take her from us.
They may have thought that it was a good idea, but they have no idea the unholy hell that we’re going to rain down on them. I can’t wait to put a bullet in the brain of the asshole who thought this was smart.
Giorgio Romano is fucked, and he doesn’t even know it.
◆◆◆
The four of us are in one car, slowly working our way to the south side of town. This is the time when you want to mash the gas to the floor, but it’s smart to go slow. There’s no reason to draw unwanted attention to ourselves by taking corners at 45 mph, especially when we just had to pay off a cop this morning.
Paying off those fuckers gets expensive. It’s not a budget line item that any of us enjoy, but it’s necessary if we want to keep doing what we’re doing without getting fucked.
“How many warehouses does this asshole own?” Pops is in the front seat, quickly skimming a map of the city. Roque’s driving, and Arlo and I are in the back, both of us itching to get out and fuck some shit up.
“A dozen.” Roque’s voice is smooth and calm and even though I want to scream at him to hurry up and drive faster, I know that it’s good that he’s the one behind the wheel. He’ll get us there, and there’s no reason for us to be at risk on the way.
“Fucking hell, how are we going to hit all of them at once?” Arlo sounds frustrated, and I get it, but he’s not thinking it through.
“It won’t be the one that’s most used,” I said, thinking through my words before I say them. “Do we know which ones are out of the way? It has to be one that doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic by it.”
In case she screams. None of us want to admit that that’s why they’ll choose one a bit out of the way, but we all know it to be true. Nobody wants a random person to hear screaming when you’re working.
“There are a few.” Pops hands me the map and jabs his finger at a few spaces. Carefully, I spread the map out on my lap and Arlo leans over so that the two of us can look at it.
Romano has a cluster of warehouses downtown, but they’re all too close to other buildings for them to be a good choice for him to take Lucia there. There’s also two down by the bay, but they’re so far away that they may not even be there yet after kidnapping her, so they’re out.
That leaves us with two good options. Both are locked on the outskirts of town. One is near a car parts factory, and the other is by a field. It’s obvious which one I’d take someone to if I was going to torture or kill them.
“The one by the field. It’s out old highway 26.” Roque nods.
“Sounds good,” he tells me, turning off of the main road. The only thing to do now is to take back roads up to the warehouse and pray that she’s there. She has to be there.
A bit later, we pull up in front of the warehouse. Some of the windows are broken in and have been boarded over. There are weeds growing in the parking lot. No cars are parked outside, but we all know that that doesn’t mean that there’s not anyone there.
“Everyone ready?” We pull up to the side of the building, where there aren’t as many windows, and all get out of the car, carefully shutting the doors so that they don’t slam and alert someone to our presence.
I feel my adrenaline spike. Lucia is probably in there, and she’s the only thing that matters. I have to have her back in my arms. It’s the only way that I can make sure that she’s safe, and the only way that I’ll be able to sleep tonight.
I lead our formation. She’s my girl, and although she’s their blood, both Arlo and Roque know that they can’t take this from me. They know what it’s like to fight for the woman you want to be with.
Pops falls into place behind me and my cousins flank us. We all pull our pieces and slowly walk around the building, taking time to look in all of the windows before moving on.
I swear, if I didn’t really think that she were in here, I’d believe that it was deserted. There aren’t any lights on inside and there’s no movement, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing. It just means that they’re being smart and keeping her deeper in the building so that we can’t easily see her from outside.
The main doors are chained shut, a huge padlock hanging on the chains. There’s no way for us to get through them easily, so we circle back to where I saw a side door. It’s closed tight, but unlocked, and I carefully force it open, wincing a little when it squeaks.
The last thing that we need is for a squeaky door to give us away, but after a short pause when nobody comes running to stop us, we all file in, carefully shutting the door behind us.
The only light inside is coming in through the windows, but because of the pieces of wood nailed across them, it’s in small chunks that illuminate the floor and not much else. We wait, letting our eyes adjust to the dark, then I lead us through the room, carefully turning the corner with my piece out to make sure that nobody’s going to get the drop on us.
Fucking nothing.
Panic courses through my body, but I’m calm. I can feel exactly what I’m going to do. It’s like my body is on autopilot and I don’t need to worry about doing something stupid, because everything is automatic.
We clear the first few rooms of the warehouse and I’m beginning to get the sinking feeling that she may not be here. It’s entirely possible that they have her stashed somewhere else, but this is the most likely location.
The problem? We haven’t seen any signs of people. Nothing. No cigarette butts, no footprints in the dirt on the floor. My heart is pounding hard in my chest, but I do my best to ignore it. Letting my emotions get the best of me won’t help the situation.
Besides, we all want her back. All of us need Lucia in our lives.
Pops comes up next to me and leans so close to me that his lips are practically on my skin. He’s not whispering so much as breathing the words so that I can hear him but so that nobody else can.
“What do you think? Did we pick the wrong spot?”
I shake my head. It doesn’t make any sense, but there’s a part of me that’s telling me she’s here. We just have to find her and recover her.
He nods and falls back behind me, letting me take the lead. We move through the rest of the rooms quickly, coming finally to an industrial kitchen.
I have no idea what the fuck this warehouse has been used for in the past, but old kitchen equipment is creepy as shit, especially in the dark. We’re deep enough in the warehouse now that there isn’t any light from the windows and we all have a small flashlight that we’re using to illuminate the space.
Nothing. Besides old mixers and bowls, the kitchen is completely empty, and we’re about to turn around and leave when I see something behind a baking rack. It looks like a locking handle on a walk-in freezer, and while part of me is ready to go and move onto the next location to look for her, the other part of me needs to check in there.
I lead our group over to the baking rack, my eyes constantly scanning the ground for some sign of people c
oming through here. Just when we reach the rack, I see it.
A fucking footprint in the dirt. Someone came through here and pivoted on the ball of their foot. It’s a small bit of hope, but I grab onto it anyway and reach out to carefully push the baking rack out of the way.
It squeaks as it rolls and I wince, but nothing happens.
Nobody runs around the corner. Nothing falls from the ceiling onto our heads.
As soon as I grab the handle to open it, both Arlo and Roque come up beside me, their pieces out and ready. I nod at them, even though I’m not sure that they can see me in the dark, and pull the handle, swinging the door out carefully.
This makes sense. She wouldn’t be able to get out if she were locked in here. There’s no way that anyone could hear her scream if they walked by the building.
We shine our flashlights into the dark.
It’s completely empty. There are shelves along the walls of the freezer, but the whole thing is turned off, stale and stagnant, and there’s no sign of Lucia.
Fucking hell. Where is she?
Chapter 11
Lucia
My mouth is so dry that the water looks temping, but I know better than to drink it. With my luck, it would be some sort of slow-acting poison and I’d die right as I was rescued. Like Romeo and Juliet. What a fucking stupid play.
I scowl about that for a moment before my stomach rumbles again and I sit up straight on the sofa. I have no idea how long I’ve been in here, but even without a watch, I can tell that it’s getting late. My eyelids are heavy, but there’s no way that I’d willingly lay down and try to sleep.
Not when I don’t know who took me or what they want with me.
In the entire time that I’ve been here, I haven’t heard any sounds from outside the door. Sighing, I get to my feet and walk over to it to start banging on it. My fists hit the door with loud thuds that echo back at me, but I keep banging.
I’m going crazy in here, and I’m going to take someone with me. They have to let me out. They have to know that I’m in here. I’m so pissed that my uncle was right that someone would try to hurt me. I’m pissed that I didn’t listen to Enzo.
Oh, yeah, and I’m pissed that the trial I was working on will probably get thrown out now because I left and just never came back.
“Fucking assholes! You’re ruining everything, don’t you see that! What, you got a small prick, so you think that kidnapping a woman is a good time? Jesus, let me out!” My fists hurt from me slamming them into the door, but I’m not about to stop now. I don’t know who the fuck has me or what their plan is, but I’m tired of sitting down and just waiting.
That, and this is at least keeping me from falling asleep. I can’t pass out on the sofa. It’s just not safe.
After a moment, I stop banging and press my ear up to the door to listen. Nothing. Fucking nothing.
“God, you guys suck!” I yell, slowly turning in a circle once more to look for a hidden camera. “You tiny-dicked motherfuckers suck so much ass, you know that!?”
Is my language fitting for a lady? Well, no. But I’m not feeling like a lady right now. I’m feeling like a fucking kidnapping victim, and if I’m going to die, I’m at least going to try to give the asshole who took me a complex about the size of his dick.
“You feel big? You feel like a big boy now that you kidnapped a lawyer?” I’m staring off into a corner of the room, my back to the door, because I’m convinced that I saw a blinking light up there when the door opens behind me and I jerk around at the sound.
The man standing there is huge. Like, really huge. I’m not particularly tall or big, so I’m used to people towering over me, but he takes it to the next level. Probably lives at the gym. I scowl at him and wish that I had one of my high heels in my hand. My only weapons are sitting on the sofa, and I’d actually have to walk closer to him to pick one up.
No, thank you.
“I feel like a big boy because I kidnapped a Torenti.” The man is dressed in dark jeans and a black shirt with a jacket over it. There’s a characteristic bulge on his hip and I have no doubt in my mind that he could easily pull his weapon and shoot me in the head before I made it halfway across the room if he wanted to.
“And your plan is?” My only hope right now is to keep this guy talking. I wasn’t sure at first if he was the main asshole in charge or just a lesser asshole, but I think that now I know the answer. He may look like a lackey because he’s not wearing a full suit, but he doesn’t look like he’s going to play around.
“Well, Lucia Torenti, I thought at first that I would ransom you to your uncle, but the more I thought about that, the more I realized that doing so will just put a target on my back. So, plans change. You get it.” He shrugs, like it’s no big deal that he’s going to have to kill me.
Nothing personal, dear, just a bullet to the brain.
“What drove you here?” I take a chance and move closer to the sofa without taking my eyes off of his face. He doesn’t reach for his gun, but I have no doubts that he’s keeping a close eye on me and waiting for me to fuck up enough to kill me.
“What drove me to taking you? Do you know how long I had to look for you, Lucia? You were always going to be my little insurance, and now I came to collect.” His voice has a hard edge to it and it makes me shiver.
“Yeah, but why now? What pissed you off? Because, believe me, I can relate. That’s why I don’t use the Torenti family name. They’re a little much.” Maybe if I make him think that we’re alike, he won’t be so keen on killing me.
“You and I have nothing in common. I doubt that any wrongs your family has done to you come close to the ones I’ve suffered.”
Or maybe not.
“So, what? You just want to kill me to get back at them?”
He shakes his head like he’s a little sad that I’m not getting it. “No, Lucia, I want to kill them to scatter them. Then I’m going to pick them all off one by one. Your family is a fucking plague on this city, and there’s nothing that I want to do more than relieve the city from their complete and utter bullshit. Do you get that?”
“You’re cleansing the city of the Torentis?” Wow. That’s…a little crazy. I honestly didn’t see that coming.
“Not just the city. The world.” He pauses for dramatic effect and it takes all of my self-control not to roll my eyes. He may get away with killing me, but I sincerely doubt that he’ll be able to get the drop on the rest of my family.
Taking me and making a big deal out of it with a warning letter that I was on his shit list was a stupid fucking mistake, but this asshole doesn’t realize the hell that’s about to rain down on him when my family finds me.
When Enzo finds me. My heart squeezes at the thought of Enzo and I have to push his face from my mind. He’s all I’ve thought about since being with him, and I can’t help the fact that I miss him. I want him here, and part of me knows that if he came, he’d keep me safe.
Where the hell is he?
The man has been watching me the entire time, his face totally impassive, but suddenly he moves and pulls his gun from his hip. I jump back a step and hold my hands up.
“Hold up. I know that you want to kill me, and I get it. My family’s a bunch of assholes. But this is going to be messy, and I don’t just mean the clean-up in here.” I wrinkle my nose at him, trying to decide how far I can push him. “You know that I’m a lawyer, right? There’s no way that you’ll be able to get away with this.”
“You think that the Torentis are the only ones who have cops on their payroll?” He chuckles and I frown.
They do? What the hell is my extended family involved in? Geez, no wonder my dad wanted to keep me as far away as possible. And then what do I do? Spread my legs for Enzo and fall head over heels for him.
I think. That, or this is Stockholm syndrome.
“But we’re not doing it in here. Come on,” he says, motioning with the gun for me to walk to the door. I do, my steps slow and measured, trying to buy me as much
time as possible. I have to go with him, but that doesn’t mean that I have to make it easy on him.
“Where are we going?” I ask. “And is there anyway that I can pee first?” If I can get away from this guy then I may be able to get out a window. Maybe.
“You can pee,” he says after a minute, “but I’ll have to watch.”
Naw, I’m good. I try to ignore the growing pressure in my bladder as the two of us walk slowly down a hall. The room I was in was probably built just to hold people, because the rest of the house is gorgeous. There’s a thick rug on the floor and incredible art hanging on the wall.
I linger for too long at one of the paintings and feel the sharp jab of a pistol in between my shoulder blades.
“Don’t slow down.” He sounds frustrated, and I pick up the pace. We walk past a number of rooms, but I don’t even turn my head to look into them. There’s no way that I’m getting out of here now, and even though I tried to be as calm as possible, panic is starting to bubble up in me.
I’m fucked.
He’s really going to kill me.
Tears well up in my eyes as we walk through an open door to the back patio. There are some men sitting around a table playing cards, and one of them looks up as we walk by.
“You want me to take care of her, boss?” He looks eager to put a bullet in me, and that’s what finally sends the tears down my cheeks. I don’t dare to raise my hands to wipe them away.
I don’t want this guy to think that I’m trying something stupid and to respond by really killing me. Part of me still thinks that I’m going to make it out of this okay. That maybe Enzo will show up. That this guy will have a change of heart.
I know that it’s stupid, but I have to hold onto something. I don’t want to willingly walk to my death, but that’s exactly what I’m doing.
“She’s mine.” He jabs the gun into my back again and I walk down the stairs from the patio into the grass. I’m barefoot and it feels wonderful, but it’s hard to enjoy when I know that I’m about to die.
