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LUCA
“What if they caught her? I want her back!” Unhinged didn’t begin to describe my state. I paced Matteo’s office like a mad-man.
Arianna called from an unknown number hours ago with the news of what happened. When I heard she had last seen Becka stuck on the other side of a locked door with three men running her down my stomach dropped to my feet. Cold dread swept up my spine strong enough to knock me to the ground.
Becka was missing. And no matter how anyone looked at it, the realistic outcomes were sickening.
Everyone had more than a good idea who was behind the attack. The thought of what they would do to Becka if they caught her made me die inside. I was holding onto my sanity by a thread.
There had been no call from the Russians claiming they’d taken her, demanding ransom for her return, but it didn’t mean they didn’t have her. Wanting payment would be the best case scenario. There remained a very real possibly they would send a bloody message by raping her, torturing her, and then leaving her dead body in front of one of our businesses. The image made my stomach curdle, causing vomit to climb my throat.
I hadn’t experienced anything like this in decades. My reaction to the possibility of Becka in any way suffering only confirmed what I had been trying to resist. Becka meant much more to me than just lust and desire. She’d needled under my skin like a tattoo, there to stay.
Fierce possessiveness washed over me. She belonged to me. And no one touched my things. No one hurt the people I cared about. Until that moment the list included Matteo, Lorenzo and Arianna. But Becca had inked her name to the list without me even knowing.
I have to get her back. I can’t loose her too.
Dark, distant memories blasted to the front of my mind from another time when the people I loved were snuffed away in the night, and I could do nothing to help. My body felt cold, pulling me deeper into the frigid waters of my past.
Visions of Becka alone, hurting, crying out for help, shredded my brain like a wood-chipper. Would she call out for me? Flashes, with bits and pieces of the worst things I could imagine blurred my vision.
I wanted men to go out looking but Lorenzo refused to allow it. He’d shown up at Matteo’s house minutes after Arianna returned home. Matteo and I had been at a meeting in Nico’s office at one of our strip clubs when she’d called from an unknown number, almost too hysterical to explain what was happening. The only reason Matteo answered the phone was because she’d called five times.
When Lorenzo arrived my living nightmare escalated.
“I don’t give a shit if they have caught her!” Lorenzo’s yelling shook the walls of Matteo’s office. “If they haven’t killed her yet, then they will. Because if they demand a ransom they won’t get it. No one is allowed to give them any method of payment! She was a liability and now the problem is solved. And if she wasn’t caught, guaranteed she has gone to the cops!” He was livid. Lorenzo remained positive that Becka would run straight to the cops now that she wasn’t being caged.
“She’s my wife!” I roared furiously.
“She was nothing until I gave her to you! You can find another wife. Don’t forget your place boy. I spent twenty years making you, but I can unmake you in less than twenty seconds.” He pointed an angry finger at me. “Do not forget where you came from.”
His words slashed into me like a hot blade. I’ve given most of my life to serving Lorenzo, had even come to look at him as a father of sorts, because that was the way he always treated me. Now, he was showing me just how fragile our relationship really was.
Matteo stood next to his desk without comment, looking completely vexed with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He was Underboss, but his father’s word was law. I could tell he was struggling with the situation almost as much as me. From what Arianna said, Becka saved her life, and Matteo was grateful beyond words. But if she went to the police he would be forced to punish Arianna in some way. Or Lorenzo would threaten to do it for him.
“We don’t even know if she was caught, or that she went to the cops. She had no way to contact anyone.” I mentally kicked myself in the gut for not returning her phone to her. “She is probably trying to come back, she wouldn’t risk her life to save Arianna, then betray her.” Please don’t let that be the case.
“Of course, she will go to the authorities! No one would give up a chance to escape. She is probably already being hid away. Because if she had talked to someone on our payroll they would have brought her back already. If we don’t get a ransom call or find a body, then she went to the cops. In which case I will have her found and you will put a bullet in her head.”
No, I fucking won’t. There is no way she went to the cops. Right?
Doubt crept in. Had I been played? The past few days I let myself feel something for Becka because of the way she drew me in and cracked my walls with nothing more than a touch of her finger.
Was it all an act?So as soon as she gained my trust she could bolt? I wanted to believe no; on account Arianna was at stake, but couldn’t be sure. People stabbed each other in the back all the time.
Becka had appeared to be different. But maybe that’s all it was, deftly manipulated appearances.
I saw red. Lorenzo’s anger fueled my own doubts into aggression and suddenly I was riding the edge of control. I still couldn’t stand the thought of anyone hurting her, but if she had played me…
I raked my hands through my hair, my body primed to kill. My nostrils flared with restraint.
She made me vulnerable without me noticing, and the realization that she did it so easily made me shake with fury. Damn her. The notion of her betrayal felt similar to grinding my heart in broken glass. If she played me, there will be hell to pay.
“Boss.”
“WHAT?” Lorenzo roared loud enough to shake the foundation. A guard stood in the now open doorway.
The man didn’t reply, he simply stepped aside to reveal a disheveled looking Becka. She stepped into the room and the guard closed the door again.
