“Three minutes, Mrs. Ricci. Then I’m coming in.”
“Okay, three minutes. But seriously, I want to know your thoughts on the muffin.”
The restroom is not too far from where I like to sit, which I’m sure, made Lorenzo somewhat a little less stressed. My hand pushes on the black door, letting myself inside the two-stall room. The same indie music is playing on the speakers in the very standard public bathroom. Both stalls are open, and I use the one farther inside to relieve myself. I hear the door open then the stall next to me.
I exit the stall, stop at the sink, and place my purse down on the counter before I go to wash my hands. The hair on the back of my neck stand up, and my body feels warm. It’s the feeling I had with Gianna and at the club. My heads move up slowly to meet my gaze in the mirror, trying to see if the person I heard come in is still in here. There’s movement in the stall. My heart is racing a mile a minute, and chills are running down my spine, and my hands are shaky. Mentally I’m screaming at myself to leave as soon as possible.
I grab my purse and go to leave when the stall door pushes open. My eyes widen at the person standing in front of me. Ian. I am looking at a ghost with haunting dark green eyes. He wasdead all those months ago at our wedding. I saw him die. This is not happening. This cannot be happening.
Those cold, soulless green eyes meet mine. His dark hair is perfectly styled without a hair out of place. He has a sly grin on his face like he is hunting his prey. I release that I am is his prey.
“Hello, Isabella.” The hatred and anger in his voice stops me in my tracks from moving at all. I’m frozen. “My fiancé has been busy spreading her legs when she should be spreading them for me.” He steps closer. My eyes dart to the door to see if I can be fast enough to run. “Tisk, tisk. That is not very lady like of you. It’s very slutty, you whoring yourself out. Your father promised me that you were to make me even richer, but now you will make me some money. Your father is a tough man to work with, but of course for the right price, it was easy enough to get him see my families side of things. Lucky for you, your husband is too busy finding who is tampering with his shipments.” I hate how he says my husband. It sounds dirty coming from his mouth. He stops in front of me, and I can feel the hotness of his breath. I want to turn my head and look away, but my body won’t move. “But now, I plan on seeing what the big hype is myself when I fuck you, and I will make sure it’s in front of Enzo before I kill him.” He laughs deeply. “The last thing he will see is me fucking you.”
He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a cloth, and covering my mouth. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion, and I couldn’t stop him.
“Nighty night, Isabella. You’re mine…again.” Ian says, but I feel like I’m under water with how muttered it sounds.
Then everything goes black.
My feet are planted on the cold concrete floor of the warehouse watching my men bring in the containers of the latest shipment of guns from Sicily when I hear the back door slam shut, and the sound of heavy footsteps has me spinning on my heel. Over my shoulder I see Angelo barreling toward me with his face blank. My body shifts where I stand to face him and with our eyes locked, I know deep down something is wrong. I can feel it in my bones that whatever news he has to tell me is not going to be anything I want to hear.
“Spit it out, now.” I grit through my teeth.
His face softens when he says, “It’s Isabella. Someone took her.” Hearing the words leave his lips is a knife to my chest. My eyes are locked on his mouth, watching it move but all the words sound as if I’m underwater.
“Enzo!” he yells, snapping me back to him. I reach into my pocket to pull out my cell phone and open the tracking app I have on her phone.
It has not moved from the coffee shop. I can see the blinking red light still showing her there. My heart is beating so hard inside my chest, and it feels tight as it breaks into pieces not knowing where my wife is. I can feel my stomach lurching up my throat, burning with the bile that threatens to escape. I push it back down.
“I need every fucking detail, right now,” I roar with my voice bouncing off the cement walls.
“All Lorenzo knows is that she went to the restroom, and never came back out. He went to go look after three minutes but she was gone.”
“Where is Lorenzo now?” I ask, seething. “And Nico?”
Angelo drags the palm of his hand down his face with worry written all over it. My stomach sinks. “They canvased the whole coffee shop, the alley and three blocks. Nothing. There was no trace of her being taken. It was as if she had vanished into thin air, Enzo.”
“What about the security footage from the shop?”
“They don’t have any that show the back of the shop.”
I run my hand through my hair, pulling at the strands with the need to feel something else other than the anxiety coursing through my body. “I want them both in front of me in the next five minutes or there will be a bullet through each one of their skulls.”
“They are waiting in your office upstairs.” I don’t even stop to think as my body moves on its own accord through the warehouse to the stairs on the other side of the building. I take the stairs two at a time with reaching the door in a blink of an eye. My hand twists the knob, ripping open the wooden door.
I stalk to Lorenzo. My hand wraps around his neck and pushing him against the wall. “This is the third time that my wife has been under your protection with something happening to her. Tell me why I should be putting a bullet between your two fucking eyes? Tell me why I should not gut you like a goddamn fish and send you home in pieces to your family?” I growl at him with my nostrils flaring as I squeeze harder against his windpipe.
He does not even fight me as he tries to speak with the little air I give him. “Boss, I’m sorry. She said––”
“She said what? I would be careful at what you say next,” I growl.
He takes another gasp of air. “After she ordered herself and me a drink, we went to sit down. But she said she had to use the restroom. I know we are supposed to follow her but she insisted that I did not follow her, but she said you wouldn’t want me near her with her pants down. I swear I did not think this would happen. Otherwise, I would have gone to stand guard outside.”
I drop my hand from his neck. He stumbles a, gripping his throat, coughing as he takes in air. “How did someone get passed you?”
Nico chimes in with his voice flat. “Not a clue, boss. I stood by the entrance the whole time and saw no one as a threat.”
Between coughing, Lorenzo says, “Boss, none of this makes any sense. Something feels off.”
