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"I agree." I don't believe in coincidences and neither does my brother. I have a nasty suspicion the Russians are involved, and if that's the case, I'm going to rain hell down on them.
???
Romano shows me the footage of the van and my girl being shoved inside. If it wouldn't hinder things massively, the monitor would be in pieces all over the floor by now. I want to kill thepezzo di merdawho laid one finger on Cara. Slowly, so that he experiences as much pain as possible.
"Do we know where the van went?"
"I'm tracking it. As soon as I get something, I'll tell you."
I nod. I know my brother is doing his best but the waiting around while Cara is suffering fuck knows what is killing me.
"It will be OK, brother. If anyone can find her, it's me." Romano pats my arm and returns to his screens. He has some complex code running on one of them, presumably the softwareprogram he wrote to track vehicles and people. This isn't my area of expertise but for all his faults - and there are many of them - my brother is a genius when it comes to computers. I just wish he'd spend more time working on this kind of stuff than dancing and drinking down the club. But he won't ever change. Our mama spoiled him and now we all have to live with the consequences.
"I hear Thalia's friend has been taken?" Aroldo stands in the doorway. He doesn't look well. The cancer treatment is wearing him down and the sooner Salvo gets back from his honeymoon, the better. Aroldo has always been strong as an ox, so seeing him this weak is shocking. But I don't make the mistake of letting it show. He doesn't appreciate any of us treating him differently.
"Sì. Romano is tracking the van they used to take her."
"Do we know who's responsible?"
"Not yet."
Aroldo frowns. "It has to be the fucking Russians," he spits. "That asshole, Alexei, he's trying to distract us. I bet they have something big planned."
I try not to roll my eyes. There's a lot of bad blood between our family and Alexei's Bratva, most of it dating back to when Alexei's brother, Sasha, ran off with Aroldo's younger sister, Bianca. The pair of them fell in love and then skipped town to get married, only there was a car accident and Biancawas killed. Aroldo has never forgiven Sasha, and by extension, Alexei. The peace accord we have with the Russians is flimsy at best and it won't take much to blow it to smithereens. If the Russians did take Cara, this would be the end of it.
Nobody wants a war, but I'm more than happy to spill some fucking Russian blood if it means getting Cara back in one piece. And if she comes to any harm, the streets of this city will run red with the blood of my fucking enemies.
"I have something," Romano says. "A traffic cam picked up the van a few blocks away from the college and I got a decent screen grab of the driver. My image recognition software has verified him as Maksim Petrov, one of Dimitri's crew.
Chapter 15
Cara
There's a strong smell of brine when I wake. I have no clue how long I was out, but my head hurts and the side of my cheek feels sticky with blood. At least I no longer have a rag in my mouth.
Fear grips me and I start retching, but there's nothing but bile. Even the smallest movement makes my head pound and I wonder if I’m concussed. People die from concussions. Is this how I die? It's hard to believe so much has happened to me in the last 24 hours. First, the attempted assault in the coffee shop, then my night with Christiano, and now I've been kidnapped.
It all leads back to Christiano, and I can't help feeling like none of this would have happened if I hadn't flirted with him at Thalia's wedding. God, I'm such an idiot. This life isn't for me. Thalia is strong, she can handle anything, but I'm just a stupid girl who's afraid of everything.
Tears trickle down my cheeks and I close my eyes. It's dark in this awful room. Damp and cold. Whoever took me left me lying on a stinking mattress. I'm not tied up, so I assume the room is locked, but my head hurts too much to move right now. I just want to sleep and forget about everything.
It would be so easy to fall asleep again, but there's a niggling voice in my head telling me to stay awake, so I force my eyes open and scan the room. Not that there's anything to look at. The rough concrete walls are stained and there's a damp puddle in the corner. Outside, I can't hear anything but the occasional cry of a gull, which suggests I'm somewhere near the ocean.
God knows how long I'll be kept here, or what might happen to me. I try not to dwell on that. Will Christiano rescue me? My gut tells me he will. There's no way Thalia would let the family abandon me to my fate, not now she's married to Salvatore. Although, she's on her honeymoon so she won't have a clue what's happening.
Time passes. I focus on staying calm and not vomiting, despite the throbbing pain ricocheting around my skull. Thelonger I sit here, the worse it gets until I'm whimpering. When the metal door of my prison cell clangs open, I'm in too much pain to care. Nothing they can do to me will hurt more than the agonizing pounding in my head.
A man mutters something I don't understand and then drags me to my feet. I cry out at the sharp movement and vomit all over his shoes. He curses loudly and hauls me out through the door. The pain is relentless, and my vision goes blurry. I stumble despite the firm grip he has on my arm, and he yells at me.
Under normal circumstances, I'd tell him to go fuck himself, but I'm in no fit state to say anything right now. We pass through another door into a large warehouse. It's drier here, with large wooden crates stacked up along the far wall. There are a couple of guys standing around the perimeter of the space smoking. Another man with a shaved head and ugly tattoos down his neck stands in the center of the room.
"Miss Matthews, nice to meet you."
He has an accent, possibly Russian, but I'm not 100% sure.
I don't answer because I can't. My stomach is roiling again and I'm worried that if I puke on this guy's shoes, he might get angry. Not that there's anything left in my stomach. Shaved head man looks closely at the state of me and curses loudly before yelling at the guy who brought me in. I don't understand a word he says but I do catch the reference to Christiano. Sothey know him, which confirms what I thought: I'm likely here because of him.
"I apologize for the way you've been treated, Miss Matthews," the shaved head man says. "Maksim should not have hurt you." The guy behind me steps back. From the venom in shaved head's voice, I'm guessing this Maksim is in the shit. Good. I hope he gets his fucking head blown off because then he'd feel as bad as me.
