by Anna Widzisz
However, the girl didn’t show up in the park, and Ryder didn’t know if it was because she was unable to leave without protection or if she simply didn’t want to see him. He hoped it was the first, but his mind told him that it was her decision and nobody else’s.
Once again, he sat on the bench where he’d seen Lynette for the first time a year ago. Now, it was he who didn’t care about the cold and windy weather. He decided to wait for the last time and see whether or not the teenager would read one of his messages and come.
Instead of Lynette, however, Francisco came with Isaac and Inéz. He hadn’t seen them in several days, didn’t want to explain everything to them. He was sure they’d added two plus two, and the whole puzzle had come together, but the last thing he needed was to confirm all those things. In addition, he was convinced that they often considered going to his father with the information, most of all Francisco wanted to do it. Who knew, maybe today was the day when they would finally do it.
“Are you going to wait here for her every day?” Francisco spoke up first without hiding the lack of understanding in his voice.
“It is not a crime.”
“Not yet. To commit crimes, all you need is some help from your girlfriend's family.”
“Francisco, I know I've said it many times, but this time it will be one hundred percent true. You are a complete moron. Stop judging him for everything and start acting like the friend I thought you were,” Inéz rebuked her brother.
She was the only one who didn’t oppose Drew’s actions, as it was in her nature to see the best in people. Ever since they’d met, he could come to her with every little thing, and she was ready to help him. To his surprise, he also had to admit that she was dealing the best with the whole situation surrounding the Selvaggio family. Not even he was doing as well.
“I need to know if Lynette is safe and well.”
“I’m fairly sure you won’t find out by sitting here and waiting for her. She’s made up her mind, Drew, and even if she wanted to be with you, how do you imagine it happening? Your dad is investigating David's murder case, she's involved in it and he’s trying to use her to get to her family.”
“Boys, leave us for a moment,” Inéz ordered and pulled Drew away. “Lynette is slowly recovering. Unfortunately, the wounds on her legs were deep enough to leave scars. She has broken two ribs and is still a little sore, but otherwise, everything is fine.”
Drew looked at her confused. “How do you know that?”
“That’s not important now,” she downplayed it. “Lynette won’t come, Drew. I managed to get to know her enough to understand she was too smart for this. She wants to protect you and I'm not surprised at that. Her life is dangerous, especially now when someone keeps tracking and threatening her.”
“You keeping in touch with Noah also doesn’t scream ’reasonable’, you know?”
He had no problem with realizing where the brunette had received the information about Selvaggio. He could see more than the others. Lynette had taught him to see things that he wouldn’t have picked up on before.
“I’m not keeping in touch with him. I just ran into him,” she announced without looking into the boy's eyes. It made him understand that she was hiding something from him, but because of the marriage, he wouldn’t have to worry about it for long.
“Lynette may lead a dangerous life, but he’s worse, Inéz.”
“I really don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
Apparently, she wanted to end this topic, and Drew was the last person who should criticize for her incomprehensible infatuation. Because that much was certainly there.
“Listen, go home. I'll see you at school tomorrow. I still have something to do,” said Drew to his friends and quickly disappeared from sight, not wanting them to follow him.
In fact, he understood how idiotic it was to sit in the park and wait for a girl who couldn’t meet him that far from home. That's why he decided to pay her a visit. Consequences be damned.
He arrived at the gates of the sizable grounds of the Selvaggio family estate, aware of how stupid he was, but with no intention to back down. He’d been brought up as a person who would fight for what he wanted, for what he needed regardless of the situation. It was his last resort. If it didn’t work, he had no idea what else he could do to get Lynette back. He hadn’t spent as much time with her as he would have liked to. He wanted forever.
So he got out of the car and went to the intercom. Without overthinking it, he pressed the button with a bell drawn next to it. After two signals, a deep, masculine voice spoke. It was probably one of the bodyguards.
“Drew Ryder for Lynette,” he said, and on the other side a brief silence followed, and after a moment the man hung up.
The teenager didn’t know what to think. Did it mean that he was supposed to leave because he wouldn’t be allowed in, or would anyone open the door anytime soon? As the son of an FBI agent, he should not cross the threshold of this house. Especially since it was full of Made Men with weapons who would shoot him without blinking if the boss told them so.
After a few minutes, the gate started to open. He took a deep breath, mustering up the courage to move towards the house, but before he did, he saw Lynette’s father confidently walking towards him. He was dressed in a white, buttoned-down dress shirt, his sleeves rolled up, and black pants. His expression was threatening, and Drew didn’t know what to do. He observed as the distance between them was getting smaller.
The man came up to the front of the gate, smoking a cigarette that he held between his fingers. Apparently, he was in no hurry to speak. He stared in the distance as if he hadn’t even noticed Drew standing before him with clear embarrassment written on his face. He threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushing it with his expensive, polished shoe. In the end, his eyes fell on the boy, and the remnants of smoke escaped his lips.
“Look, kid. My daughter is everything to me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. But the time has come when I must let her go. And now that I do, she must be with a man, not a boy. Someone who can keep her safe.” His voice was rough and deep. Terrifying.
“I love her.”
“Yes, I‘m sure you do. I can’t argue with that. But I know people like you. In fact, many of them work for me. You feel privileged. You think you're better because you can make a girl fall in love with you. And later, you will break her heart, thinking that what you guys have has gone too far, and nobody else will want her. This cannot happen. I will not let my only daughter end up this way.”
“You don’t know anything about us.”
“I don't want to. I allowed her to keep her secrets. She was hiding seeing you. Contrary to appearances, I can be forgiving. That is why now you will get in your car, go home, tell your father that you have no more contact with Lynette and you will never come back here. Because if I see you again, it will end badly.”
The man wouldn’t let the seventeen-year-old say anything more. He turned and disappeared behind the gate, which had immediately begun to close as soon as he’d walked back onto the property. But Drew, even if he’d wanted to listen to the girl's father, and get in the car to go back home, wasn’t allowed to.
CHAPTER 31
Lynette
Lynette had been sitting for more than an hour on the floor in her room, staring at the bookshelf. Ever since she’d got the last message, she hadn’t been able to focus on anything else. Evidently, whoever had followed and kidnapped her wanted the girl to know their identity. However, she didn’t intend to ask her father or any of his employees for help. They already knew enough, and she wouldn’t be surprised if they'd already seen the text. Severo had probably started tracking down her phone to see who she was contacting and who was contacting her. But looking for the kidnapper was like looking for a needle in a haystack. When she’d asked Isaac for help, she’d known the extent of his abilities with a computer and that he could do things that some might only dream about. Of course, half of them w
ere illegal, but that wasn’t a problem for the boy. If he hadn’t succeeded, even Made Men with a lot more contacts wouldn’t manage to do much else. It was, after all, something she needed to find out on her own.
She wasn’t stupid, but frustration was slowly beginning to overpower her intelligence because she still hadn’t been able to find a connection between her books and the kidnappers. She looked through each one from one cover to the other, searching for some sort of clue, but it was useless. Apparently, it wasn’t about the books’ content. But at the same time, she didn’t know what was really going on.
“Lynette, did your father mention that he was going somewhere?” Uncle Emilio entered the bedroom.
The girl shook her head. Normally, it wouldn’t bother her that Severo wasn’t at home, because he was more often than not away on business. What did disturb her was that Emilio himself, as the Seattle underboss, had no idea where his Capo was.
She pulled out her phone, dialing her father's number, but it went straight to voicemail. It was even stranger, considering he never turned his phone off. He knew perfectly well that situations could arise that would require his immediate intervention.
“Maybe he had something urgent to do and he didn’t have time to let you know,” she thought but only received a snort in response, suggesting that such things didn’t happen. And certainly not with Severo.
“And what are you doing?” asked the man, further entering the room. He pointed to the pile of books laying on the ground. “Are you sorting them or something?”
Before the girl could answer, an idea came to her mind. She rapidly rose from the floor, going to see the messages on her phone. She went to the desk and wrote all of them down, telling Emilio not to leave in the meantime.
The man approached the teenager, looking over her shoulder at what she was doing.
”How stupid am I?” she grumbled, not taking her eyes off the sheet of paper.
She wrote the first letters of the initial words from each of the messages, then moved a little to the side so that her uncle would also have a chance to look at them. Maybe he would be more fortunate in arranging them in the right order.
Meccuci muttered different versions of the letters under his breath, every now and then in new arrangements, until he fell completely silent, freezing over the paper. All the blood drained from his face. He raised his head, looking at his niece. His eyes darkened and at that moment he looked as if someone had told him the worst possible news.
”Mailo Venas,” he whispered. He pulled the pen from the girl's hand and scribbled the letters in the right order.
M A I L O V _ N A S
The last letter was missing, but all the rest checked. This time, Lynette was also terrified. She didn’t know much about what had happened between her father and his former accomplice, but whatever it was, it was apparently echoing in her life now. Did this mean that Venas was not as dead as it had been believed? Trying to get revenge for the past? Trying to get to Severo through his daughter?
Lots of questions and no answers.
Emilio ran out of the bedroom, calling out all the employees who were at the Selvaggio home. He ordered to track Severo’s phone, search for all information about Mailo Venas and whatever was related to him, ordered a few soldiers to get ready and call for reinforcements.
Everything happened so fast that the sixteen-year-old had no idea what to do. She walked all over the house, trying not to get in the way of Made Men, but too curious not to eavesdrop on them or look back to Diego from time to time, as he was trying to find out where the kidnappers might be at the moment. She only hoped her father was not with them.
She also tried to call Jason, hoping that he would come and help them, but his phone was also turned off, which only intensified the girl’s anxiety. She prayed that nothing would happen to them and that it would turn out they were somewhere doing business together, but she doubted it more and more with each passing second. Her thoughts were running on dangerous tracks. She imagined them in some kind of basement, completely beaten, barely conscious, not to say barely alive.
Tears walled up in her eyes, and her heart quickened as if it was about to jump out of her chest. The two most important people in her life. Men whom she could not imagine life without.
Dialing Carnovale again, a message was sent to her cellphone. She opened it at once, coming face to face with the worst information she could have got. This time she looked like her uncle had just a moment ago, if not worse.
From unknown: Empathy is your bread and butter. Especially when you have to choose between your loved ones. Am I right? Choose wisely which one is to survive.
A photo appeared on the screen, with her father, Jason and Drew sat on chairs, tied up. In the background, there were boxes full of goods, aircraft scraps and the unmistakable shadow of a plane, which suggested that they were somewhere in the airport.
Her hands shook and the phone dropped from her hands. She knew exactly where they were.
CHAPTER 32
Lynette
Something was wrong. She knew that it had been too easy for her to reach the private part of the airport. It was as if the customs officers and security guards were expecting her. Nobody stopped her, checked her documents or even paid her any attention. It was true that it was not the first time she was there, although she’d always gone through private check-in before boarding her father’s jet. This time, she ran toward the aircraft hangar, where her father was probably being held along with Jason and Drew.
It was open and no one was guarding it from the outside. However, with each step further the girl was able to see more. There were at least ten Made Men in the middle, guns tightly held to their chests. They were dressed in bulletproof vests, but even after spotting the girl, none of them moved from their place. They only watched her from a distance.
Another thing that she noticed was the three closest people to her, tied up with thick ropes near her father's plane. In front of them, there was a blonde woman whom Lynette recognized at once as an FBI agent, the partner of Mark Ryder. It took her off-guard because it hadn’t once crossed her mind that the whole situation could be organized by the government agency. And surely, agents couldn’t look like these men that were carrying weapons typical for gangsters. Something very wrong was going on here, and the girl couldn’t connect all the dots herself.
However, she didn’t have time to think about it. She’d come here completely helpless and alone, hoping that the kidnappers really wanted her. And her alone.
When Severo spotted his daughter, he immediately began to struggle against his bindings, wanting to stop her from coming inside. The man's initiative met with Martha's loud laugh. She looked at the girl, a malicious smile clouding her face.
Lynette felt as someone grabbed her arms, dragging her back. She began to struggle, wanting to land a blow to the person who had come from behind her. She lifted both elbows and hurled them backward, striking at the tormentor's stomach. It allowed her to get out of the grip and turn around. She swung her leg, aiming at the hip. It wasn’t until the man fell to the ground that she recognized her attacker. Marco Falcone.
Before she could react to the reveal, the man had already risen. It was evident how furious he was, but he was also confused by the fact that the girl knew how to defend herself. He had a gun with him, but for some reason, he didn’t take it out. Instead, he moved quickly towards her, swinging his right hand. Lynette dodged the hit, taking advantage of the fact that the man didn’t move fast enough, grabbed his hand, turned her back to him with a shapely movement and in a surge of adrenaline, she threw him over her shoulder without much trouble.
Marco spat out blood from his mouth, having trouble getting up. He looked at the girl and began to hysterically laugh, having difficulty to draw in a breath. The sound was a little high pitched. It confused the girl even more. Seeing, however, that the man was in no hurry to get up from the cold floor, she moved towards the blonde.
The woman apparent
ly didn’t want to get her hands dirty. She pulled the gun on her, making her stop halfway. Martha didn’t look as happy as Falcone. More frustrated and annoyed.
“Did you have to train her so well?” Marco finally said to Jason, getting up to his feet.
“She’s even better with knives, so I advise you to be careful,” Carnovale acknowledged.
“Enough with these chit-chats,” the woman snarled. She pointed to the chair that was next to Drew’s. “Sit down!”
The girl was able to assess the situation. She didn’t have the slightest chance of getting to the agent before she could pull the trigger. She gave in, as her driver Ricci approached her with a rope in his hand. He stood behind the chair and tied it tightly around her body, giving Lynette very little opportunity to even draw a deep breath.
“Let her out! What the fuck do you want?” Severo shouted.
“Now that we are all set, we can lay the cards on the table. But first, someone has to make a choice here,” Marco urged, looking at Lynette.
“You wish,” she spat on Falcone, for which he harshly slapped her on the cheek.
Pain pierced through the girl, but she didn't want to let it show. Not at the moment when their fate was on the line. And she’d survived much worse.
