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She sniffled once, but as quickly as that sniffle came and went, her face morphed into the deceptively cunning woman who had tried to kill all of us. “I didn’t want to,” she finally said, meeting his eyes. “That’s always been the truth. I thought I had no choice, but I see now that I do. If I stay with you—”
“That’s not an option anymore,” Frankie told her.
“But—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Louis finally snarled, coming forward and getting in her face. “I’ve known something was wrong with you from the start. I’m not going to let you come back into our lives. Even if you somehow manage to manipulate Frankie into forgiving you, I’ll make sure you die the way a traitor like you deserves.” She looked at Frankie as if he would provide some defense for her, but he didn’t say anything. Hurt flashed in her eyes.
“Where is Sierra?” I finally asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “If I did, I’d tell you. I did like her. I even tried to convince her to leave for her safety.”
“Bullshit,” I spat at her.
She shrugged, but I could see the deception in her eyes. I didn’t need to ask her anything to know she was lying to me. I didn’t give a fuck about my relationship with Frankie if it meant I lost Sierra, so I stepped toward her and grabbed her by the throat, shoving her against the wall at her back and trembling from the restraint it took not to snap her neck. Her eyes flickered to Frankie, but he didn’t stop me.
“I’m going to kill her, Frankie,” I told him. “But first, I need to figure out where Sierra is. I know it’s usually your job, but I understand if you can’t do it.”
He said nothing, and I looked at him as Bella jerked and kicked. It didn’t faze me. “I can’t,” he finally said, his voice softer than I’d ever heard it. He’d loved her so damn much, and she’d betrayed him without a second thought. I would have no mercy. “I’ll wait outside.”
He turned his back, and I smiled, releasing Bella. I never thought I’d enjoy torturing someone, but right now proved otherwise. I couldn’t wait to use Frankie’s tools on her and make her sing for me. Shewouldtell me where to find Sierra.
“Wait,” she begged, but Frankie kept walking. “Okay, I’ll tell you. Please, don’t leave me alone here,” she cried.
Frankie stopped, and his shoulders rose with a deep inhale. He finally looked back at her and stepped in her direction. “Tell us about Sierra, and I won’t.”
Bella nodded profusely. “They didn’t plan on taking her until you told me what she heard. I put two and two together and realized that she’d been feeding you information, and I was scared she would learn about me. I had to arrange for her to be taken, or I’d put myself at risk. She—”
“Where is she?” I repeated.
“—came out to comfort me, and I almost didn’t text in the go-ahead. I regret that. I really do. I never thought that any of you would be this decent, or I’d never—”
“Where!” I bellowed, and finally she stopped babbling.
“The manor,” she whispered. “She’ll be taken there long enough to be washed and photographed. Then they’ll assign her to a safehouse where she’ll stay until they sell her. You have to understand that people like her aren’t usually who we target. We chose the losers with no home or family—people who aren’t worth anything anymore.”
“Really?” I asked. “Then why did they try to take her before?”
Tommy and Louis whipped their heads toward me, and it made me aware of what I’d revealed, but I didn’t particularly care—not now that she was in their hands.
“Sometimes people fall through the cracks,” she argued, shaking her head and sputtering utter bullshit.
I turned and strode up the stairs, and I heard as Louis and Tommy followed me closely. I was done waiting. They didn’t expect us to show up and end it, but we’d do just that. I’d kill everyone in my sights to get to her, and I wouldn’t hesitate.
I heard Bella screaming from downstairs, shouting words like “you promised” and “please, don’t leave me.”
When Frankie emerged from the staircase, slamming the door behind him, he looked like he’d aged ten years. His eyes appeared sunken, and grief overtook his face. I wanted to say something, but I had no idea how to comfort a man who had lost his entire life because of a woman he thought he could trust.
I didn’t have to say anything as he spoke first. “We’ll figure out her connection to all of this later. Right now Sierra’s the priority, and we’re going to get her back safely under any conditions. We don’t allow people who are loyal to us to fall victim to people like Virgil Lucchese.”
“How do we want to approach this? She’s going to be guarded, and their people will be heavily armed,” Louis said. I shot my gaze at him, expecting that he’d try to talk us out of risking ourselves. “We might be best off bringing in a few teams to cause a distraction while we go in.” I stared at him, wondering when his view of Sierra had changed. A few weeks ago, he’d been keen on letting her die in the Lucchese house, but now…now he was willing to risk himself to get her out. Did she do or say something to flip his perspective on the situation?
“We can figure it out on the road,” I pushed, moving toward the garage. They all followed me, and I realized exactly how loyal my brothers were at the moment I needed them most. We all piled into a car as Frankie called in two teams of men, giving them orders to plant themselves down the street from the Lucchese house and be on the lookout. We were going to get her back, and only death would stop us from getting what we wanted. After the pain Virgil had caused, I knew that he wouldn’t live to see another day, though I couldn’t decide who would take the kill shot. All I knew was that Frankie and I would be fighting over it.
34
SIERRA
I lost all sense of time as I sat and worked the bindings on my wrists. Apparently they learned after the last time, and had replaced the twine bindings with metal ones. The cuffs tightened each time I pulled, never going loose enough for me to slip my hands free. The ache of hunger had overcome me a while ago, but I pushed it away, not focusing on anything but my escape. But I didn’t think it was possible. I’d been trapped here for what felt like hours, and I had done nothing but figure out the bindings were nearly impossible to slip without a key. Maybe when Virgil came back, I could antagonize him and slip the key from his pocket.
