Chapter Seventeen
Sal was in his office with Trey and a couple other guys when Bela entered without knocking. They all turned to look at her.
“Bela, what do you think you’re doing?” Trey asked.
Always her father’s guard dog, she thought bitterly. If he only knew the kind of man he was idolizing. Looking past Trey, she locked gazes with her father. “I need to talk to you alone,” she said. “Now, please.”
Her dad studied her a minute, looking concerned. Finally he said, “Take five, guys.”
As everybody filed toward the door, Trey gave her a questioning look, but she ignored him. Once they were alone, Sal stood from his desk, walking toward her. “This better be important,” he said.
“It is.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“What?” she asked, surprised. “No! Why?”
“Because if you’re interrupting my meetings like this, you’d better be in trouble.”
She sighed, feeling flustered and nervous. She wanted to turn back, but more than that, she wanted to know the truth. “No, Dad. It’s not like that.”
This seemed to annoy him. She guessed he had too many things on his mind to worry about her unless she was pregnant or dying. “What’s on your mind, Bela?” he asked, his voice brimmed with impatience.
Looking at him, she prayed that she and Vincent were wrong about him. He was her father—the man who’d provided for her her entire life. Surely he couldn’t have been the one responsible for her mother’s death. “It’s about mom,” she said.
He looked surprised. “What about her?”
“Was she having an affair?”
He stared at her, surprise fading to a knowing, reluctant scowl. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Because I need to know,” she said.
“Did that Marcano kid tell you?” he asked, leaning against the desk. When she looked up at him in surprise, he said, “Yeah, I know all about it. Have for weeks. Looks like you get your taste in men from your mother.”
The coldness in his eyes surprised her. Looking at him, she saw him in a completely different light. He no longer seemed like the caring (albeit absent) father. “So it’s true,” she said. “She was sleeping with Vincent’s dad.”
“For two years.” He nodded, crossing his arms. “Now do you want to tell me why you barge into my office to drudge up the past? Asking questions that no girl should know about their mom?”
“You must’ve been angry,” she said. “You must’ve hated both of them.”
He didn’t answer; he just continued to stare at her.
“Not to mention embarrassed and betrayed,” she said. “I bet you wanted to make them both pay.”
“What are you getting at?” he asked impatiently.
“Did you have her killed?”
He didn’t blink. He didn’t seem offended or insulted or even the least bit shocked. His silence stretched on, causing each second to pass at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Tears stung her eyes as the realization sank in. “Dad,” she said, her voice quiet, pleading. “Tell me you didn’t kill her.”
He looked away, swallowing slowly. When he looked back at her, all emotion was gone. “She needed to be dealt with.”
Falling back a step, she knew there was no room for denial now. Now, she knew the truth and there was no going back.
He locked those cold eyes on her, his voice taking on the unmistakable sound of a threat. “Never mention this again.”
A disbelieving half-sob shuddered from her lips. How was she going to do that? How would she look at him again now that she knew this?
“What’s done is done,” he continued. “Do you understand me?”
Blinking back tears, she nodded. Not because she intended to stick with it, but because she didn’t want to raise her father’s suspicions. She didn’t want to risk causing him to ask where she’d gotten this information from, or how Vincent had known. As she walked away from her father, she felt her bond with him break. She knew nothing in her life would be the same again.
When Mandi woke, her head was throbbing. She tried to bring a hand to her head, but realized they were both tied to a chair. It was dark, but she could make out that she was in some kind of basement. There was a twin bed to her left, she realized with a feeling of horror. She struggled against the ropes that bound her, but she knew it was pointless. They were too tight; she couldn’t get free.
“Morning, Sunshine.” Johnny’s voice echoed from somewhere behind her.
She was still dizzy and disoriented as Johnny came into view. “Why?” she asked weakly, as if this was the only thing that mattered.
“Because you’re an idiot,” he said, hatred dripping from his voice. Standing in front of her, he looked down his nose at her. “You’re clueless.”
“Apparently,” she said.
“I’ve been watching you for years, Mandi. I even asked you out once, do you remember that? Of course you don’t.” He crossed his arms as he lingered in front of her. “Do you remember what you told me? I do. You said you don’t date. That boyfriends and strippers just don’t mix.”
She listened quietly while he continued his lecture.
“So I watched. And I paid. And I…fantasized.” He licked his lips as his eyes grazed over her body. “And that was enough for me. Until Trey happened.”
“I thought he was your friend,” she said.
“He’s my boss,” he snapped. “And a shitty one at that. A self-described psychopath who can’t wait to put on the mob crown. Ambitious, ruthless, deadly.”
“You’re jealous of him,” she said. “He’s always going to be the front man and you’ll always be in the shadows. That’s why you’re doing this.”
Though signs of recognition flitted across his face, he wouldn’t admit it. “Jealous?” He shook his head. “No. I’m sparing you from a lifetime of misery.”
“What?”
“Can’t you see what he’s doing to you?” he asked. “He acts like he owns you. Like you’re just some pretty thing on his arm. He doesn’t love you—he doesn’t know how.”
“That’s none of your business,” she said. “None of this gives you the right to do this to me!”
He ignored her. “I was testing him when I sent those guys after you. I wanted to see how important you would be if he thought his…family position was threatened.”
That was him? she thought with a feeling of disbelief. The person Trey had assigned to protect her was the one responsible for assaulting her?
“Haven’t seen him much since then, have you?” he asked. “He claims he’s protecting you. Trying to avenge you. But we know the truth, don’t we?”
She couldn’t listen to any more of this lunatic’s ramblings. “Shut up,” she said.
“He doesn’t love you, not like I do.” Leaning close, he whispered, “His power means more to him than you.”
Anger fueling her, she spit right in his face. Infuriated, he backhanded her hard. She tasted blood and felt her lip begin to swell instantly.
“I’m trying to help you, Mandi!” he shouted, grabbing a handful of her hair. “He’s ruining you. You’re turning into him. And now this bastard baby…”
Her eyes gut to meet his in surprise and rage.
“Oh yeah.” His fist still buried in her hair, he gave her head an angry yank. “I know he got you knocked up. Just like I know you haven’t told him yet. It’s because deep down, you know I’m right. You’re too good for him. You can’t have this baby, Mandi. The second he finds out, he’ll never let you go. As long as there’s a chance at a DeLuca heir, you’ll be tied to him forever.”
Her anger exploded. She clamped her teeth down on his hand and squeezed her jaws together as tight as she could, until she tasted blood. He screamed in pain and after a few seconds of trying to yank his hand away, he grabbed her by the throat. On reflex, her mouth relinquished him, but it didn’t matter. She’d already left her mark.
“Bitch,”
he shouted, grabbing his bleeding hand as he turned away from her. He looked over at her, infuriated. Before he could act, a phone started ringing. He yanked his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. He grinned at her. “It’s your boyfriend,” he said. “Sorry, baby, but it looks like our little chat is gonna have to wait.”
He walked up the set of stairs to the right, disappearing behind the door at the top. She started screaming Trey’s name at the top of her lungs, hoping that somehow, he would hear her. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her own voice echoing back at her.
“What do you mean you didn’t pick her up from work last night?” Trey demanded. He’d been standing outside of Mandi’s apartment, knocking on her door for ten minutes. So far, there was no sign she was home.
“I tried but the bartender said she left early,” Johnny said on the other end of the line. “I knocked on her door but she didn’t answer.”
“And you didn’t think to call me?” he said. “I told you not to let her out of your sight.”
“You’re right,” he replied. “What do you want me to do now?”
“Just meet me at her place,” Trey said. “We’ve got to find her.”
After a quick call to instruct Vincent to go to the Dive to get answers about when Mandi left and where she went, Trey stooped down in front of her door and picked her lock with a paper clip. He went inside, relieved that everything looked in order. There were no signs of struggle.
“Mandi,” he called out, just in case she happened to be a really heavy sleeper. He wasn’t surprised when nobody answered him.
Walking into her bedroom, he saw that her bed hadn’t been slept in. He took a quick glance at the closet, but none of her clothes seemed to be missing and there was a suitcase in the back, so it was likely she hadn’t left town. Where was she? he wondered. He didn’t want to believe someone had gone after her to get to him again, but he didn’t know what else to think. Where else could she be? If she wasn’t working, she was at home or with him.
In her bathroom, make-up was cluttered around the sink as if she’d left in a hurry. The cap to her foundation was off. He could picture her getting ready for work, running late and leaving the sink like this. But Mandi always spent twenty minutes on a beauty regime at night, and wouldn’t she need more space to work with? Wouldn’t she have cleaned up the make-up mess? The only conclusion he could come to was that she hadn’t come home last night at all.
As he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of something poking out of the top of the trashcan. Looking closer, he realized it was an EPT box. Slowly, he reached out and picked up the box, hearing something bounce around inside.
What he found rattled him. He looked down at the positive pregnancy test feeling a rush of disbelief, panic and concern. Was this hers? Of course it was hers, he scolded himself, it was in her bathroom. Is this what had been making her so distant the last time they talked? Why hadn’t she told him? And did this have anything to do with her disappearing act?
He heard a male voice call from the other room, “Trey? You in here?”
Still a little dazed, he dropped the pregnancy test into the trashcan and went back into the living room. He found Johnny coming in the door.
“You find anything?” Johnny asked, sticking his hands in his pockets.
“No,” Trey said. “You should’ve called me last night.”
“I’m sorry man,” he said. “It’s just that…”
“What?”
“Nothing, forget it.”
“Johnny,” he warned.
“Well, she’s been saying she needs some space,” he said. “I was just trying to give it to her.”
Just then, Vincent approached the open door.
“You learn anything at the club?” Trey asked.
“Yeah,” Vincent said, looking over at Johnny. “The bartender said she left with Johnny last night.”
“You said she was already gone by the time you got there,” Trey said.
Johnny looked back and forth between Trey and Vincent. Then he bolted, body chucking Vincent on the way out. Fleeing the apartment, both guys scrambled to catch up to him but Vincent grabbed him first and slammed him against the building. Trey was at their sides in an instant, with his gun out.
With his gun aimed and a venomous look of warning in his eyes, Trey demanded, “What did you do?”
Chapter eighteen
“You got this all wrong, Trey,” Johnny stammered as he looked from the loaded gun to Vincent, who had him pinned against the wall.
“Where is she?” he shouted.
“I don’t know!” Johnny said. “Vincent’s lying. I didn’t see her last night, I swear!”
“Yeah? Then why’d you run?”
“Cuz you had your murder face on,” Johnny exclaimed.
“What happened to your hand?” Vincent roughly grabbed Johnny’s wrist and held it out for Trey to see a deep set of teeth marks just below his thumb.
“My girlfriend’s a biter,” he said.
Fed up with the lies, Vincent gave Johnny’s face a solid punch. “You’ve got two seconds to tell the truth or—”
Before Vincent could finish the threat, a loud blast rang out. Suddenly, Johnny started crying in pain as blood poured from a bullet hole in his leg.
Trey’s eyes locked on Johnny like a lion locked on a gazelle. “Where is she?”
“Jesus!” Johnny screamed in a high-pitched tone. He started to cry out in pain and anguish. “You just fucking shot me!”
“And I’ll do it again. You know I will.”
“Alright, alright,” he relented, gasping for breath. “She’s in the basement of my mom’s house.”
They heard sirens in the distance, coming closer.
“Let’s go,” Trey said to Vincent as he headed toward the parking lot. “Leave him here.”
Mandi wasn’t sure how long she’d been in the basement, but her back was starting to hurt and her wrists had gone numb from struggling at the ropes. She’d tried everything to get free; she’d even tried reaching the rope with her teeth so she could try to gnaw her way through, but all her efforts were futile. More constricting than the ropes was the feeling of helplessness and the fear of what would happen when Johnny returned. How long would she be here? Would he kill her?
Hearing the sound of footsteps upstairs, she felt her entire body freeze. Every step filled her with dread and terror. As the heavy boots boomed closer, her heart sped up. The door to the basement opened and the light flashed on. After hours in the darkness, the bright fluorescent bulb blinded her. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to brace herself against the sting in her eyes. This seemed to heighten her hearing, and the sound of the footsteps echoed in the basement.
“Mandi?”
Her eyes flew open at the sound of Trey’s voice. He was running down the stairs, gun in hand. Hurrying toward her, he tucked the gun away and pulled out a switchblade.
“Trey?” she repeated in disbelief. Just the sight of him brought on tears. She hadn’t cried all night, but now they came in floods.
“It’s okay, I’m here.” He touched her face quickly—as if he just had to feel her. Clicking the switchblade open, he cut the ropes around her wrist, then moved to her feet.
She still couldn’t stop crying. Even when she wiped the tears from her cheeks, more flowed to take their place. She was so relieved, filled with comfort and joy at the sight of her beautiful and dangerous lover.
He helped her stand up. Seeing the busted lip, he caressed the side of her face tenderly. “That bastard,” he muttered under his breath. Turning his compassionate eyes on her, he asked “Are you okay?”
She nodded, blinking back tears. “Yeah, I am now.”
“Both of you?”
She looked at him in surprise. Seeing that he knew, she said, “I think so.”
“Let’s get you out of here.” Draping her arm across his shoulders and looping the other around her waist, he helped her limp out of the dark, cold basem
ent and into the bright warm morning.
Hours later, Mandi sat on the couch in Trey’s bedroom. She’d never been in his room before, but for some reason she hadn’t expected something so elegant and tasteful. The room was huge, with enough space for a king-sized bed and a living room suit. She was curled up on the end of the leather couch, freshly showered and dressed in one of Trey’s button downs. It swallowed her whole, which she liked. It was comfy, the way the fabric swam around her, and the scent of him was soothing. Entering the room, Trey brought Mandi a cup of hot tea and sat down next to her.
She took the cup of tea he offered her.
“How are you holding up?” he asked gently.
“I’m okay,” she said, keeping her gaze fixed on the cup of steaming tea in her hands. She’d barely been able to look him in the eye since he’d rescued her. There was so much they needed to talk about, and yet she didn’t have the strength.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. “I mean…I know I haven’t always been supportive, but you could have told me.”
“I meant to,” she said. “I kept meaning to, but I just…”
He waited patiently for her to gather the right words.
“This is all happening really fast,” she said. “I wasn’t even sure how I felt about being a couple and now…”
“Being a mother scares you just as much,” he finished for her with a nod of understanding.
Just the word ‘mother’ scared her. What did she know about mothers or how to be one? Nothing. She knew how to dance, she knew how to tease and sometimes she could even manipulate men, but babies? Children? Those things were so far off the scope of what she could handle.
“We don’t have to decide anything right now.” He placed his hand on hers. “I just want you to know that I’m here for you…whatever you need.”
The feel of his hand on hers, skin against skin, was somehow reassuring. Suddenly, the situation didn’t seem so overwhelming and incomprehensible. After coming to her rescue tonight, and now this promise, he’d reassured her that she wasn’t alone.
Men of Honor: Cosa Nostra book 1 Page 11
