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“Whoa!” the woman officer said. “We’re not talking about the old man. These guys”—she tapped a short-clipped nail on Rudy Gianotti’s mug shot—“are involved with the kid. Mario.”
Witt’s eyes darkened to the color of midnight. He hated the son as much as the old man. “Bring him in, Jack. Let’s talk to him.”
“We will,” Logan assured him, “but first, let’s find Gianotti and Siri. See what they have to say, what they know. Then we’ll round up Mario Polidori.”
“And his old man.”
“Maybe.”
Witt’s face twisted in ugly rage. “He’s behind it, Jack. I told you that from the beginning. He took my little girl and God only knows what’s happened to her.”
“Don’t worry, Wit, we’ll find her.” Logan’s voice lowered and Zach didn’t really care what was said. The room was spinning, his head reeled, and his bones seemed to melt. He blinked to stay awake, but blackness enveloped him. With a moan, he slid from the chair and lost consciousness.
Two days later, Zach woke up in a hospital room, his shoulder on fire, his mouth tasting like puke. He couldn’t breathe right because something—cotton wadding, he guessed—was rammed up his nostrils. Bandages swathed his head and held his shoulder together and everything reeked of antiseptic.
“You look awful.”
He turned quickly at the sound of Jason’s voice. Pain seared down his arm. Memories—Sophia, the thugs, the switchblade, and London—ran through his mind. “You bastard,” he said, his tongue thick. “You set me up.” He tried to rise up, yanking hard on the IV taped to the back of his hand.
“You’ve got it all wrong, Zach, I’m sorry. I had no idea that—”
“Liar!”
Jason squeezed his eyes shut for a second time. “It’s true, I knew I was in a little trouble with Sophia’s pimp.”
“A little trouble—those guys wanted to cut off my balls!” So angry he could barely talk, Zach silently swore at himself for being such a fool, falling into Jason’s lust-filled trap. “You make me sick!”
“I didn’t know they were going to be there.”
“Like hell!” Zach turned away and stared out the window. He could see the sky and the wake of a jet as it streamed across the blue vastness. Jaw clenched so tight it ached, he refused to look at his brother. The pillowcase felt rough against the wounds on his face and his head pounded. God, he hated hospitals. Almost as much as he hated Jason right now.
“Dad thinks Polidori’s behind London’s kidnapping.”
Zach didn’t respond. The feud between the Polidoris and the Danverses had existed for generations. Anything that went wrong in Witt’s life was quickly laid at the feet of Anthony Polidori, deserved or not.
“We haven’t heard anything new. Not even the FBI has an answer. No one’s asked for ransom and Jack Logan’s afraid that London may have been taken by some terrorist group.”
“Logan’s a prick.”
“But he has a point.” Jason walked around the end of the bed, forcing himself squarely in the middle of Zach’s line of vision. “Look, I know this all looks bad, Zach, and I feel…” His face screwed up as he searched for the right word. Shaking his head, he said, “…Well, I feel responsible, I guess.”
“You should.”
“But I really didn’t think they’d come after you.”
“You knew they’d be there.”
“No way, man! I swear. I only knew that Sophia was waiting for me. I had no idea that her pimp
would be pissed off enough to send some goons with switchblades.” He tugged anxiously at the corner of his mustache. “You gotta believe me, Zach—if I’d had a clue, I wouldn’t have sent you to the Orion.”
Zach let out a sound of disgust.
Jason sighed loudly. “I don’t blame you for not believing me, ’cause the truth of the matter is, I’d already decided not to meet with Sophia. I would have avoided the place like the plague, but I didn’t think you’d get cut. I thought you’d get laid, that’s all. I swear it. You gotta believe me.”
Zach didn’t. He’d been a fool to trust Jason the first time and he wouldn’t make that mistake again. He shifted his gaze to the metal bureau near the bed.
“If I could change things, man, I would.” Jason thrust one hand into his pocket and rested the other on the bureau. “You may as well know, things are bad at home. Dad’s on the warpath against Polidori. Kat’s usually either drunk or on sleeping pills and Valium. And Trisha. Well, she’s a basket case, but what else is new?”
