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While I wait, I nod off on the rock-hard bench. There’s a sound, and I feel a hand covering my mouth and nose. My eyes pop open, and I’m looking into the angry eyes of a man I know well. I know at that moment that I’ve made a huge mistake. I should have taken the first bus out of the city. I let myself get too complacent and feel too safe, and now I will pay the consequences. By the look on his face, I know that this will not end well for me, and there will be no forgiveness.
I feel something cold and hard stick into my side. Panic sets in.
“Don’t scream, or I’ll kill you right here.” His cold, hard voice and dead eyes leave no room for question. He will shoot me with the gun he has pressed into my side. I break out in a cold sweat of terror. My first thought is that if I die, I won’t see Gio ever again. Why am I thinking about that asshole right now?
Silently, I stand up and allow him to pull me along with him. I glance over at the ticket desk where the bus clerk was working, hoping that by some chance, she notices that I need help and calls the police. She’s not there anymore. The desk is empty. I’m alone, and there’s no one around that I can motion for help. I know that my only option right now is to cooperate and pray I find an opportunity to escape.
He’s found me, and he’s angry. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I know he’s going to make me pay for running.
Gio
Iuse the rage running through me to propel me into action. Running downstairs, Marcello has gotten rid of Carla and is waiting in the kitchen for me. I should have slit that bitch’s throat and watched her bleed out. If she has cost me Everly, then she’s going to hell, and I’m giving her a free ride there.
Noticing the look of horror on my face, Marcello knows something is wrong.
“What’s wrong, G?”
“Everly fucking ran on me again.”
Clenching my teeth together and trying to stay in control, I try not to let the rage completely take over. I clench my fists until they turn white to stop myself from punching something. Grabbing my phone and keys, I race out of the house.
“I’ve got your back. We’ll find her, Gio. Just calm down and take a breath.” Marcello is following behind me.
“I won’t fucking breathe again until she’s back home where she belongs. Let’s go.”
Once we load up into the SUV, I pull up her tracker on my phone. It shows her at the bus station, and then it moves again. Hoping she doesn’t get on a bus before I can get to her, I drive like a bat out of hell.
“Call my father; get some men together. Let him know what’s going on.”
All of our SUVs have GPS locators on them, so our men will be able to find us and provide backup.
I can’t lose her. She’s become my everything. She’s coming back home whether she wants to or not. When she does, she’s getting punished for thinking that she can run away from me again. If she thinks that I was bad before, she doesn’t know what she’s unleashed in me now. I am going to be a monster, but I’ll be her monster.
I hand Marcello my phone so he can watch Everly’s tracker location, and I can drive without running us into a light pole. I keep my eyes on the road.
“Your dad sounds distressed, G. He is begging us to bring Everly home safe. Your mom was crying in the background of the call.” Marcello frowns.
He’s always been close to my parents, and he can’t stand to see my mom cry.
The fact that my parents are so worried about Everly and have accepted and come to care about her warms my heart. They can’t take losing her either. She’s become part of my family in the short time that she’s been with me.
“She’s moving away from the bus station, Gio. Going toward a neighborhood on the south side of town.”
“What the fuck is she doing? She doesn’t know anyone over there. The whole time I watched her before I took her, she didn’t have any friends or contacts. The manager told us she had only worked at the bar for a short time.”
I’m confused as hell. The only thing over in that neighborhood are drugs, gangs, and crackheads. The houses are ramshackled and decrepit. Everly is not the type of girl who needs to be over there, especially alone. So many questions run through my head, but we continue to drive toward her tracker.
“She’s stopping,” Marcello lets me know and reads off an address. I race toward it, not knowing what we will find when we get there. A few minutes later, we pull into that part of town.
As we pull into the neighborhood, some of my rage turns into fear. What the fuck does my girl think she’s doing over here?
I see gang members walking along the streets filled with trash. Houses that have seen better days. Even a prostitute on the corner. These lowlifes aren’t new to me since I live in the criminal underworld. I’m not scared for me. I fear for her safety since I’m quite a ways behind her, and I have no idea what she’s doing here.
I just want to find her and get her away from here. It’s a dangerous area and definitely not a place for Everly to be. My girl is sweet, kind, and innocent, and she doesn’t even know what I do for a living yet. The most she’s seen was a little bit of blood spatter when I came in from work one night. She never pushed to find out what it was from, and I didn’t offer up any answers. I wanted to wait until she was so attached that she couldn’t leave me. I try to put my guns away when she’s not around so she doesn’t see them. That’s all going to change when we get home. She will find out what it means to be a mafia wife.
Pulling up to the address that Marcello has recited, the house in front of us isn’t suited for anyone to be in. The yard is overgrown with grass and weeds up past our knees. The porch is barely being held up by rotting wood. Paint is chipping away.
I feel Marcello grab my arm.” Gio, think this through before you bust into that house, not knowing what’s going on. You could put Everly in even more danger if we aren’t careful.”
