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Give her back or we’ll hunt you down one by one.
I close my eyes and rub my temples, groaning in my mind. I’ve been repeating the words over and over in my head, trying to find a loophole. Right now, the choice seems to be pretty straightforward.
If I decide to follow Gerardo’s demand and show up with Jacinta, I’ll put an end to the bloody conflict and save the reputation and lives of the Messina Clan. But then, I’ll lose the only woman who has ever touched my heart.
If I ignore the message and keep Jacinta for myself, the Mexicans will unleash their fury. It means more blood, deaths, and firefights on the streets of Chicago—but isn’t that exactly what runs in the veins of this city? The war will take away any remnants of our peace and balance, but we barely have any in the first place.
Being a part of the Mafia world means facing danger every second of our lives. Another war will only make it more complicated, but it will give us a chance to win once and for all.
I hum under my breath, staring into the distance. Is that it? Is that the answer? It sounds like the best solution, but I still feel the itch of doubt at the back of my mind. I could lose even my own life in this bloodshed, after all. And what then? What—
“What? Where did they go?”
I blink out of my thoughts and look up. I guess I missed the moment Matteo received a call, but my mind instinctively picks up the displeased notes of his voice. He meets my gaze for a moment, and the grim look in his eyes makes me sit up.
Something’s wrong.
“Okay, I got it. Yes, follow him.”
As soon as Matteo hangs up, I jump up on my feet. Shit. I don’t like his frown. “What happened?”
“Louis has taken Jacinta and our men from the mansion. Marco is tailing them.” Matteo nods at the piece of paper in front of me. “It looks like they’re going to the meeting.”
What the hell? My whole body freezes in shock—before it explodes with a wave of heated anger. That son of a bitch! I growl under my breath, curling my hands into fists, and bolt to the door only to stop there for a moment and glance at Matteo.
“Send two cars after us. Now.”
The meeting promises to be brutal.
Nothing else stops me, so I run to the parking lot and take the fastest car available, cursing under my breath as I take off into the darkness. I can’t believe that bastard tricked me like that. Who the hell does he think he is? Louis may be my cousin and Riccardo’s best friend, but he has no damn right to make decisions for the whole family.
I grasp the steering wheel tighter, staring at the lights of the city in front of me. If something happens to Jacinta, I’m gonna fucking kill him. God, what if they’re already there? What if Gerardo is gonna steal her from under my nose? I clench my jaw and press the accelerator harder, weaving in and out of the late-night streets of Chicago.
With a few traffic laws broken, I get to the park on the outskirts of the city only four minutes late. There are plenty of cars already surrounding an empty circle in the middle, and my headlights flash over the Mexican and Italian faces that turn to look in my direction. But I only pay attention to the man on the edge of the circle and the young woman a few steps away from him.
It punches a breath of relief out of me as the tires of my car screech against the road. Jacinta is still ours. I still have a chance to get her back. I get out of the car even before it comes to a full stop and rush to Louis with steaming adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I hiss and push Louis in the middle of his chest, forcing him to stumble back against the side of his car.
But Louis doesn’t flare up in response. He keeps himself cold and collected, and only I can see the anger in his eyes when he meets my gaze and says in a low, threatening voice, “I’m doing what’s right for our family and not your fucking ego.”
“Paolo?” I hear a moment later and glance at Jacinta. Her voice is quiet, muffled with the gag in her mouth, her arms are held by Hector, and her eyes are covered—but she still recognizes me, and something in my chest aches in response.
“Get back into the car.” I turn to Louis with a threatening glare, reaching for the gun in my inner pocket, and he follows the movement with raised eyebrows.
“So you’re ready to go that far, huh?” Louis chuckles, but I can see a glint of steel in his eyes when he looks up at me. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Are you done yet?”
I catch a movement from the corner of my eye even before the voice with a heavy Spanish accent interrupts us. Shit. I almost forgot that the Mexicans are here as well.
I tighten my fists and turn to the other side of the circle where the Mexicans are spread around their cars, glaring at us with menacing eyes. It’s the first time I can actually look at them—not as my hostages or targets of my gun—but it doesn’t make me think any better of them. The Mexicans look exactly like they sound—a band of mobsters in worn clothes and without a glint of intelligence in their faces.
The only men that look relatively smart are the ones at the front—an old man in a white suit and with a mustache, studying me with a squint, and a younger man in overly stylish clothes by his side. That one looks almost indifferent to everything around him, and I don’t recognize him—but he doesn’t really matter.
It’s enough for me to know the older one, and judging by the confidence with which he holds my gaze, Gerardo Escarra recognizes me as well.
“As if it wasn’t enough for you to steal my only daughter from the safety of her home, you force her to stay in the cold while bickering in front of us like two roosters.” Gerardo looks at Jacinta and purses his lips, ruining the perfect facade of his calmness. “Let her go—and then, we can talk.”
