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“You’re a freaking genius, Marty,” Amerie praises. “By the time we call Alessandro, he will be more than ready to pay the ransom. We can leave bread crumbs to those two initial soldiers. Let them take the fall for this. This was originally their plan, after all.”
“On it. With any luck, this video will be just in time to make tonight’s news.”
My damp clothes are thrown in the tub with me before they lock me in the bathroom. I waste no time putting them back on. I’d rather be wet and cold than to have my naked flesh in contact with the grime for a second longer. I get back into the tub, the better alternative than the floor, and just cry. I don’t know how much more I can take.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lennon
I’m beside myself with worry. Kai has been here at my penthouse since last night, trying to talk me off the fucking proverbial ledge. We combed the streets last night looking for clues to where she could have gone. We went to that shitty as low budget motel first and nobody had seen her. I put one of my guys to sit on the plaid just in case. I wanted to beat down every door, but Kai convinced me otherwise. I read the note she left for me over and over, wanting to believe that she didn’t betray me the first chance she got. I foolishly abstained from putting security outside the door because I wouldn’t be gone long, and nobody was supposed to know she was here.
“Try not to beat yourself up, brother. We’ll find her,” Kai assures.
His words are not comforting. He and I both know how royally I fucked up. “Is she even with Amerie, or was that I lie too?”
“I called, and Amerie left Texas, so that leads me to think that the two of them are indeed together. Amerie was left alone to stay in the mother-in-law quarters behind the main house. We had no reason to think she’d run after we rescued her. It was in her best interest to stay put,” Kai explains. “Marjorie think she may have stolen some things from the house to buy herself a bus ticket here to New York.”
Marjorie and John are an older couple who are the relatives of one of Kai’s comrades. Nobody knows who they are, and he knew she would be safe there. Only she and Aurora have schemed to get her away from me.
Kai’s phone rings, and my ears perk up. He says a few words and then he pushes past me to turn on the television. It’s fucking Aurora. She’s curled into a ball, hiding from the camera as some asswipe demands ransom. I see the different shades of purple bruises already forming on her skin and guilt gnaws at me for my first thought being that she betrayed me. The news lady reports that they received the video anonymously, and that if anyone had any tips, call the number on the screen to the NYPD. Fuck the police. I’m going to find and kill these bastards.
“She didn’t betray me,” I growl. “I need to find her now!”
“I know, brother,” Kai says. “That was Matteo calling me. He thinks these people have had her all this time, and they’re finally going public with their plans to ask for a ransom.”
“He used the burner I gave her to make calls,” I say, suddenly realizing their first mistake. “He used it to record the video of her.”
“We already tried to track that phone. It wasn’t active to trace.”
“They’ve used it once. I’d put money on it that they used it to make the ransom call. Once they do, we can triangulate the call, but we won’t have long. Get Alessandro on the phone. I have an idea.”
We use Kai’s above board occupation as a bodyguard to the most elite politicians and celebrities to fabricate some secret access we have to technology not otherwise available to civilians. We do have said technology, but we’re able to speed up the process because I have the details of the burner phone that he would be using since it’s my fucking phone.
We need to hide the real reason we know about the burner phone and our ability to track it. I’m the one who purchased it and set it up. I tell Alessandro that we’re coming over to Matteo’s house, but we need to be in a central place for when the ransom call comes through so I can quickly trace the call on whomever phone the call comes to. We’ll only have one shot at this. I hope they don’t get the call before I can. Kai and I are in my car in minutes.
“Keep your head, brother,” Kai reminds. “Otherwise, Matteo and her brothers will be on to us. You’re too invested right now. Your feelings are showing.”
I switch lanes to speed up, zigzagging through tonight’s light traffic. “What feelings are you talking about? I’m pissed that she was taken on my watch. I didn’t protect her from her own gullibility,” I say, getting angrier by the minute.
“That too. But somewhere along the way, you fell for her. You don’t have to dissect that right now, but if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see I’m right. You, my brother, are one ruthless motherfucker. You gave Aurora that freedom because you wanted to earn her trust. She is no longer something for you to conquer for the sake of gaining power. She became human to you, and that allowed you to love her.”
“Look. I don’t know what the hell I feel or how we got here. I admit that I care about her, but those goddamn feelings are how we ended up in this mess. When I get her back, I’m going to fuck her senseless, and then I’m not going to let her out of my sight again.”
Silence falls within the car for the rest of the drive. Kai is right. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized I do love her, and it scares the fuck out of me. She’s been changing me one layer at a time for a minute now. I’ve given up my self-induced penances for her. I’ve allowed myself to be in the moment with her and enjoy her responses to the little romantic things I’ve done for her. It’s all so out of character for me, yet her happiness has come to mean so much to me. I never even noticed that I was slowly becoming a different man for her, but Kai has.
“You need someone like her to give you balance out your savage. And she needs a man like you to love and protect her. I know I give her shite, but it was only to test you—to get you to react. She will be the happily ever after that you didn’t know you needed or wanted,” Kai says once we arrive at Matteo’s place. “Now put your fucking mask of indifference on, and let’s work with her family to get her back.”
“You’re one mushy fucker,” I tell him. “But I agree. Let’s get her back so I have another shot to do this right.”
* * *
As anticipated,the dumbass uses the burner phone I gave Aurora to call her brother. Alessandro puts him on speaker and drags out the conversation long enough for me to use the software I connected to his phone via c port adapter. They’re at the motel dump across from the one Aurora told me she was meeting Amerie at. We just don’t know which room. The guy asked Alessandro to meet him in the alley just a few short blocks away to make the drop in two hours. He would then have his partner release her. He is supposed to go alone.
“I’m pretty sure I recognize that voice,” Alessandro says once he ends the call. “That was fucking Lorenzo. He talks really fast and has a distinctive lisp. He and his brother Enzo are two of our soldiers.”
“So you’re telling me this is the work of two of our own?” Matteo booms.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Alessandro confirms. “It makes sense because not many knew about Aurora outside of our family. I just don’t know why they waited so long to try to collect payment.”
