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I shake my head, wincing as I do. “It wasn’t your fault.” It really wasn’t. Whoever did this hates her and Dante. It doesn’t mean any of us deserved what happened.
“Dante, Alessio, Romero, and the other men are out looking for Anthony. I’m going to stay with you,” she tells me.
I frown. “Why?” I don’t understand. She’s the boss. Surely she’d be with them?
“I fucked up,” she says. “It’s not something I admit very often, but with you and Alessio, I fucked up. I had no idea about your history, and I’m extremely protective of my family, Gabby. I needed to be sure Anthony was Ales’.”
I nod, completely understanding her reasons. “That day was emotional for me in more ways than one. I got angry and reacted. That’s something I do a lot. You were looking out for your family. No one can fault that.”
She smiles at me. “Thank you.”
I give her a soft smile in return.
“Can you tell me about the men? Any identifying marks?”
I close my eyes and think back, swallowing as bile rises up my throat.
“They were prepared,” I tell her. “They all wore balaclavas over their faces, hiding their identities.” I curl my fingers. “Ifought one of them,” I say quietly. “I tried to fight to get more time, hoping that the noise would draw attention. But I managed to claw and tear the man’s shirt. He had a spider tattoo on his shoulder. It has a jagged scar running through it.”
“You did great, Gabby. Not many people would be able to fight off an attacker, let alone get some information on their looks. You put up a hell of a fight.”
“I had to do it. I needed to protect Anthony.” I shake my head. “A lot of good that did. They took him anyway.”
She reaches for my hand. “You did everything you could have done. Listen to me, Gabby. You were amazing. You fought hard and you tried to protect your boy. He’ll be back with you soon. Alessio isn’t going to sit on his ass. He’s going to find out who did this.”
I squeeze her fingers. “Thank you,” I say softly. “I really appreciate you sitting with me.”
“You’re family, Gabby,” she says simply.
Tears silently fall down my face, but once again, the darkness closes in.
“Sleep,” she tells me. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
That’s all I need to hear. I succumb to the darkness and let sleep take me once again.
Chapter 25
Alessio
“Alessio?” Joe answers. He’s on alert.
“Anthony’s been taken and Gabby’s in hospital,” I tell him, my stomach clenching with my words.
Fuck. Watching my woman try and fight her way out of that hospital will be with me forever. Beaten, broken, and fucking bloody, she didn’t care. She stood among the nurses who tried to get her back to bed and wouldn’t budge, all so she could find our son.
I love everything about her. She’s mine, and I’m going to enjoy killing everyone who hurt her.
“Is she alive?” he asks after a moment of silence.
“Yes. She’s bloody and beaten, but she’s alive. She wants to leave and find Anthony. We’re trying to find out who did this. We know they’re Russian, but that’s all we have to work off.”
“It has to be someone you know,” he says after I tell him about the shit that’s happened over the past few years. “They’ve targeted your family, Alessio. They told my daughter that they want Dante and Makenna dead. This isn’t a hidden enemy, but a seen one, or someone who knows you.”
I tell him about what brought Nikolai to New York. “We’re at square one,” I tell him. Our number one suspect is also missing.
“So someone who wants to take over everyone. That’s a greedy asshole, Alessio. Someone that fucked up isn’t doing it alone. They’d have spilled to someone. We need to find out who.”
“That, Joe, is what we’re trying to uncover.” It’s fucking frustrating. We have nothing to go off of.
