Текст книги "Exposed"

Автор книги: Ivy Stone

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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

My throat thickens. I cough, trying to swallow past the pain and regain composure.

“Right. Well, you girls have fun tonight.”

Cassidy reaches out and squeezes my arm. “Do yourself and all of us a favor, call her. I know a little girl who also misses Lindsey and would love to see her again, too.”

Charlotte.

“Yeah, maybe.” I force a smile, and glance around for answers, for clues. I don’t know what the fuck for. My heart’s tearing into two with what’s right and what’s wrong, I just hope I can figure it out before she moves on.

Lindsey

Water drops onto my forehead as I towel dry my wet hair on the way out of my en suite. “Ali, did you—”

My blood flows like ice in my veins. My body stiffens unbelievably still as my eyes water with the tears I’m holding back. A lump rises in my throat and, my heart smacks against my ribs as I watch the silent waterfall run down my sister’s face. A hand covers her mouth. Can she breathe? A gun kisses her temple. Her hair sticks to her flushed red face. Her cheeks puff beneath the hand I long to smack away. With her chest rising and falling faster than my own, Ali’s eyes lock on mine. They’re so wide, so scared, and so full of regret. This is it. This is our goodbye. It’s all we will get so I say the only thing worth my last breath.

“I love you.”

The darkness devours me, destroying my strength, absorbing my pain, until all I have left is the bones of my love. The one thing they can’t take from me.

Mason

“Mason. Roamyn. Get out here!”

Roam and I turn to each other, the tone in Elias’s voice hitting us with the force of a bullet and the pain of the blow.

We run, fast.

Elias stands by his desk, phone still in his hand. Anguish in his eyes.

“Giuseppe and Lucio just got out. Charges were dropped. Evidence went missing.”

My lungs constrict, all air supply ceases. Motherfuckers.

“How the fuck is that even possible? Why weren’t we informed this was happening? Fuck!”

Eli’s anger and disbelief mirrors my own, but then it doesn’t take a genius to know they’d have pulled strings and paid off every corrupt cop and judge to not only make this happen, but to keep it from me.

I turn to Roamyn,

“Lindsey.”

“Alison,” we say at the same time.

“Let’s go,” I call out, already running to my desk. I fling open the top draw, grab my gun, and head back out, snatching the keys to the squad car off the board near the coffee machine. Roamyn and Elias meet me outside and we jump in the squad car, sirens on, blasting through the streets way above the speed limit.

“Cassidy’s there. Call her,” I order while twisting down side streets, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles are white. We weren’t informed and every protocol seems to have been broken. I’m sure as shit convinced that Lindsey and Alison won’t have been told about their release either. My heart pounds so fucking heavy, I can hear it thudding in my ears. What if they’ve already got hold of them? My whole body shakes with fear. This was pure fear, the life-ending fear of losing everything, losing a battle one never recovers from.

In the back of my mind, I can hear Elias’s voice talking into the phone, and Roamyn yelling from the passenger seat, but I’m too far away from her loft for their words to mean anything to me. I’m stuck between changing lanes, traffic lights, and the touch of Lindsey’s soft skin under mine, the floral scent of perfume invading my space.

I don’t hear or see anything else, not really, not until I have her safely in my arms.

I pull alongside the curb of the familiar brick building and jump out. The motor hums in my ears as I yank out my gun, clicking the safety off. My feet pound the concrete as I take the steps two at a time while Roamyn and Elias follow behind me. My palms sweat, my heart pounds.

First floor, clear.

Elevator, clear.

The elevator dings. The doors open up and time slows down. Cassidy’s pain stricken face greets us with a whole new nightmare.

Her breathing is shallow and her chest heaves. Her shoulders droop and her voice tremors. “We’re too late. They’re gone.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Lindsey

It’s only been hours, but time has no concept when living in a nightmare. I’ve survived so far, just. And I’ll continue to fight every damn day until I have nothing left in me because I have so much to fight for.

I’ve felt happiness, the real kind.

I’ve witnessed loyalty.

I’ve lived the truth.

I understood love. I loved, Love.

No one would stop me from trying to get that back.

My head pounds and it’s becoming harder to ignore. The ache thumping against my skull grows louder along with other noises I couldn’t hear before, things I couldn’t feel before. The trademark sounds of the city are close, so close. The low chatter of men’s voices comes from somewhere nearby. My body bounces from a bump beneath me, and I realize I’m in a vehicle. My eyes shoot open as fear pools in the pit of my empty stomach. Where am I? Alison! Oh, God, my home. Lucio and his men, they came for us. Sweat drips from my forehead as my heart rate accelerates to an extraordinary speed. Nothing but blackness surrounds me as I breathe harder and faster. There’s something over my head, over my face. I can’t see, can’t breathe. Claustrophobia sets in, frantically clawing up my throat. I reach for the cover over my head, needing air, needing my freedom, but my arms won’t move. I yank, pull, trying to free myself from whatever is binding my wrists together, but it stings. As I yank back and forward, a scream rips from me when my skin cuts open. Warm liquid trickles down my arms, but I grit my teeth, pushing past the pain. I have to get to Alison.

Mumbling catches my attention and I hear, “We’re two minutes out.”

I yank again. I pull until I can’t anymore. I scream until my throat is hoarse. I kick out with both my legs until my feet hurt from kicking a force I cannot break through. I stop to catch my breath as my heart pounds heavily in my chest. My shoulders scream in pain from the agony I’m causing on my body, but I can’t give up. I won’t. My eyes begin to close again, unconsciousness only one or two blinks away. My head is light, so light I’m floating, yet my limbs feel heavy like they’re ready to shut down on me. But then I hear his gravelly voice, imagine his lips on my neck, his strong arms around me and I force myself to stay alert. I cough past the razor blades in my throat and groan in pain when I change positions, moving closer to where my wrists are bound. I just have to stay focused on the faces blurring in my head. Alison. Mason. Charlotte. Oliver.

I can get through this for them. For love.

It kills me inside to realize how blind I was to believe love would ever be my weakness when ultimately, it’s my power. It possesses me with a strength only love is capable of giving.

Desperation spurs me on and as I open my mouth to yell again a whimper stops me. My ears prick and I twist my head to the left in the direction of the tiny cry.

“Alison! Is that you?”

“Lindsey.” A quiet moan sounds through the truck, the van, whatever the hell it is we are being transported in and I yank again, attempting to pull free and head for Ali. No one yells, or maybe no one cares. But no one says anything about me trying to break free. Maybe they can’t see or hear us.

“Alison, oh, thank God. You’re alive.”

“Barely. My arms are going to fall off. I can’t move,” Ali croaks out.

“Ali, listen to me. Can you see anything, feel anything nearby? Are your hands tied up? I can’t move. I—”

The sound of a hatch and the wind brushing over my skin halts me in my questioning. My heart thunders in my ears as I hear a voice I recognize all too well.

“Well, well, you’re both awake. Just in time for your deaths.” The callous tone of Lucio’s voice sends cold shivers down my spine and I pull on my binds again, making them bite my skin.

A chuckle comes from him. “Oh, little Lindsey, give up now. Fighting will only make it worse.”

“I will never stop fighting,” I spit back.

“Take the hoods off and the cuffs. We don’t need them now anyway,” Lucio says to someone who makes no verbal response, but in seconds, the material over my head is ripped off. Light blinds me, fresh air suffocates me, and I immediately look around for Ali with panic ripping through me.

I catch her scared blue eyes as they lock onto mine. A shudder ripples over me when I take in the bruise blemishing her cheek with shades of red. As I scan over her and see no other part of her harmed, a small relief lifts a weight off my chest.

“Are you okay?” I ask, a slight tremble in my tone. I dread what’s to come, I just have to hope Ali has a reason to fight. She’s been through so much, how much more can she handle?

A sharp pain squeezes my arm and I’m flung around to meet the ferocious brown eyes of a lion ready to kill its prey. His thick dark eyebrows knit together, and his greasy long hair falls to his jaw. I barely register the unfamiliar man beside me holding my other arm and the black bag which was used to cover my head. He must be new. I’ve never seen him with Lucio before.

“Shut the fuck up and do as you’re told. I didn’t tell you to speak.”

I shrug him off me with as much force as I can muster. “Get your hands off me, Lucio.”

Lucio has a temper worse than any I’ve ever seen. I unleashed a ticking time bomb. I should have known better.

“What is it you want, bitch? You want to die sooner? Because you’re heading in the right direction. I should just end you now.” He hisses, pulling a gun out from behind his waist and aiming it between my eyes.

I take a step forward, butting my forehead up to the barrel of the gun.

“Now, now Lucio. Daddy won’t be very happy if you take away his fun now, will he? Besides, you won’t pull that trigger and we both know it.” I taunt with a sinister smile on my lips as I poke the psychopathic son with his daddy issues. Lucio may want to kill me, but he wants his father’s approval more than anything. Killing me will only anger the man further and we both know he doesn’t want to do that.

Lucio’s hand flies up and pain sears my cheek as it splits open from the backhanded hit. A cry sounds from Ali as I huff and swallow the pain of the blow.

Leveling my head again, I stand taller, shoulders back. “You can hit me. You can break every goddamn bone in my body, but you will never break me.”

He may have hit me, but he didn’t shoot me. His actions told me everything and now I have the upper hand. I just have to get these damn cuffs off.

“We’ll see, little Lindsey. We’ll see,” he mumbles, walking over to grab Ali. Turning around, he pulls her forward and heads for the abandoned warehouse we’re parked in front of. The man beside me shoves a gun at my waist and pushes me forward with the hand he’s using to grip my arm. I could disarm him and take him down. But I have to be smart. I have to play this right or we really will die here today.

Sirens register in the distance and I turn back around to see if they’re in sight, but they’re not. Only similar warehouses and factories fill the streets. There is no one around, no one to yell to for help. Surely Cassidy would be at our place by now. She’d see we aren’t there and hopefully realize something’s wrong. She’ll call Mason. Hope flutters in my stomach. Yes, he’ll be coming for us. I just have to distract Lucio long enough.

Hope subsides quicker than I can blink because when I turn back around, Giuseppe Marino’s face lurches bile right up to my throat. There he stands with two associates in the doorway of the shabby graffiti-covered warehouse with some of its windows missing. Smoke fills my lungs as we close in on him.

“Lucio, about time, boy. Took you long enough. Girls, come in.” He throws his cigarette to the ground and steps to the side, gesturing a hand out in front of him for us.

A rough shove from Lucio’s lapdog sends me over the threshold and into an empty building with plaster peeling off the walls and concrete beams scattered throughout the level. Every step we take echoes, each breath loud in my ears, and as I’m pushed down to the floor, I stare out the dirty glass windows, hoping, praying we’ll make it out of here alive and not in body bags.

My knees fill with pain as they slam to the floor, and I hunch forward to lean on my hands. “You asshole. Want to be any rougher?” I snap back at the lapdog, but he says nothing. He must know to say nothing if he wants to keep his job.

“Ah, so good to see you in fine form, Lindsey. I see nothing has changed over the past few months.” I lift my head and meet Giuseppe’s smug face, smiling at me with fondness. I grimace.

“Fuck. You,” I hiss.

He runs a hand through his salt and pepper hair, which is perfectly aligned as it is every day. He bends down, undoing the button on his suit jacket as he moves. For a man who kills for leisure on a daily basis, there isn’t a drop of stained blood on his expensive suit.

“You ungrateful bitch. After everything I have done for you. After all these years of leading you down the right path, setting you up for a future in our world and you go and fuck it all up over your junkie sister who can’t stay clean.” A chuckle falls from his lips as he stands back up and he pulls a gun from inside his jacket, waving it around as he continues speaking. “You know, I always thought you were a smart girl, Lindsey. But what you did in court, not so smart. Now you will pay, both of you will.”

A cry rips from Ali’s throat beside me. “No. Please. You can’t. Not now, you can’t kill me now.” She shakes her head, lowering her face into her palms as she curls her body over, bringing her hands and face to her knees. Her whole body rocks as she sobs.

Lucio groans and paces the room, gun still held tightly in his hand. “Oh, enough already. Come on, Papa, just get this done already. I have to go meet Cannon in ten minutes.”

“Would you shut your fucking mouth, boy? Listen to yourself. You talk too fucking much in front of people,” Giuseppe yells at his son, his Italian accent thick and loud.

Lucio throws his arms up. “They’re about to die. What the fuck does it matter what they hear?”

It’s like whiplash, back and forth, back and forth. The two Marino men argue and I sit in silence with my mouth closed, thankful for the distraction because it’s buying us time. Ali is still sobbing, with her head down, hands wrapped around her middle. My heart aches at the sight and my fingers itch to comfort her.

I slip my hand out to her and rub her back. I then stick my neck up to look further out the window again. Come on, Mason.

“All right! Enough! It’s time.”

Ali and I both jump, startling at the rough outburst from Giuseppe.

Nausea twists up my insides as Giuseppe points his gun at Ali’s head. He turns his face toward me and a quiver runs through me when I realize what he’s about to do. His lips curl into a smile and my pulse quickens.

Ali whimpers, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

“No! Don’t. Don’t kill her,” I choke out, my voice breaking. I clutch at my throat. I’m choking and I can’t breathe. He can’t shoot her. I won’t let her die.

“Don’t worry, I’m not yet.” He tilts his head to the side, eyeing Alison as he speaks. “One last person wants to see you, Alison,” he announces, his voice so smooth like he isn’t about to end another human’s life.

The rhythmic sounds of heels travel toward us until I’m greeted with long black hair swishing in the air over a skinny olive-skinned shoulder.

“Oh, shit,” I whisper.

Alison gasps. “Adriana.”

She smiles at her father, greeting him the same way she would at any family gathering. “Princess.” Giuseppe envelopes his daughter with a care and love he had shown me once upon a time, and I shudder at the thought of his hands on me.

“Papa, why don’t you let me do the honors with these two? After all, Ali was my best friend.” Adriana lays out the palm of her hand and Giuseppe slips his gun in proudly, knowing exactly what she is asking for. How could she? My mind spins to come up with answers, but nothing makes any sense.

“Make it clean, Adriana. We don’t need a big mess to clean up.”

“What? Adriana no, please. Don’t do this. I’m sorry, okay. So sorry I betrayed our family,” Alison begs, her body trembling.

Adrenaline flies through my veins. Fuck, is she really going to do this? I can’t move. There are two lapdogs with guns trained on me, and Giuseppe’s men are right behind him ready to strike. There are too many people in the room with weapons. I can’t take them all down, even if I wanted to, not without someone ending up shot or dead. I can’t risk it. I won’t risk Ali.

Sweat drips down my back as Adriana stands tall, posture stiff, legs apart, eyeing me while turning the gun on her best friend.

“Are you ready, Lindsey?” she asks, and I frown, glancing around for answers.  What the hell is she talking about? Am I ready to watch my little sister die? No, I’m certainly not.

I didn’t have time to think, only time to act.

Adriana turns the gun on her father.

Bang.

He falls to the ground with a loud thud. Blood runs down his forehead and for a moment, time stops. Everything stops as I soak in the cold, dead eyes of the devil himself. No momentary relief soothes me, happiness doesn’t engulf me to see the man who deepened my connection with the underbelly of New York City dead. I feel nothing but a calming silence before the storm.

Bang, bang.

The silence ceases, reality bringing with it the thunder. Shots ring out from another shooter and Giuseppe’s two men fall to their deaths in front us. I jump to my feet, my heart racing. I dive for Alison when the lapdog who held me before gets between us. He pushes me away and I pull my arm back before swinging forward, aiming to do some damage to his face. Blood gushes out of his nose as he grabs it, moaning in pain. The gun slips from his hands and I sweep it off the floor bringing the butt of the gun down on his head, knocking him out cold.

“Lindsey.” A muffled cry screeches through the room as I spin around. My chest heaves, my ears ring, and my body shakes. It all happens so fast. No.

Lucio is dragging Alison away, kicking and screaming. My heart quickens. He’s getting away.

I run, but my scalp screams in pain when I’m pulled back by my hair. Using all my strength, I push back against the assailant gripping my hair, but he doesn’t let go. Instead, we both fall to the ground in a heap.

“Ali!” I yell as we struggle, but it’s no use. Lucio is about walk out the door with Ali and I can’t reach her. My restrainer is too strong, too heavy on my limbs. She disappears from the warehouse along with Lucio, her screams and the last of my hope to get out of this nightmare in one piece. But I won’t give up. I can hear the sirens growing louder, closer. The police are coming.

Cries charge the building amongst the grunts and groans from the bruising of flesh.

Punch after punch.

Blow after blow.

Bullets fly, orders are shouted, blood decorates the walls with misery.

My lungs work in overdrive to survive as the hands around my neck crush my windpipe. I claw at his grip, gasping for another second of air before the blackness creeping in sucks all life out of me.

His skin bleeds beneath my fingertips and one by one, I pry those motherfuckers from my neck.

I scream, finding the last push of strength I need to rip them away completely when a bullet ricochets through the room and blows half of the man’s head off. The force of the bullet pushes him to side and he falls beside me, thankfully not on me.

My hand flies to my chest as I drag in as much air as my overworked lungs will take. The haze before my eyes dissipates and my savior comes into view.

Black eyes as dark as death.

I smirk. I should have known. But what the hell is going on?

Enzo Rossi stands just meters away, grin on his smug face, black hair short against his head with his hand out, offering to help me up. Hesitantly, I grab onto him and he hoists me up with ease as though I weigh no more than a feather.

“Thanks,” I mutter, my voice raspy.

Turning back around, I stare at Enzo with utter confusion as sharp pangs of pain shoot through my chest.

I shake my head. “I don’t understand. I don’t get it, but I don’t have time. I have to get Ali.”

His white teeth shine as he smiles, and it still gives me the fucking chills. “You’ll understand soon enough, Lindsey. You can thank me later.” He winks, and I stand there, mouth open and ready to speak but no words come out while my mind scrambles to make sense of what’s happening here.

He looks sideways to where Adriana sits by her father’s lifeless body. She killed him in cold blood, yet she’s curled over him, tears streaming down her face. I have no clue what the hell is going on but two things I know for sure.

The kingpin of the Marino Crime family is dead and my sister has been kidnapped by a psychopath.

I bolt to the door of the warehouse as fast as my legs will take me and as I reach outside, I scan the open space for Ali, but she’s nowhere in sight. I bend over, leaning my hands on my knees so I can catch my breath. I hear Enzo’s voice behind me. “Adriana, we have to go now. Cops are nearly here.”

“Okay. Let’s go,” she replies.

I turn my head to see them jogging toward me, Adriana still sniffling.

“Wait.” Adriana halts. She grabs my hand and squeezes it in hers. “Just know how sorry I am. For my father, for my brother, for my entire family and the world of hurt they’ve caused you. All those years ago when we met, had I known my father’s intentions for you both, I would have told you both to stay away. I’m so sorry I dragged Alison down. If—” She pauses and coughs. “When you see her, tell her I love her. And I hope one day you can both forgive me.”

“Come on, principessina,” Enzo whispers softly into her ear as he pulls her close.

I nod. “I will. And thank you, both of you. I don’t understand, but thanks.”

Adriana gives me a tight-lipped, pained smile while Enzo sends me a sharp nod before disappearing into the quiet street.

I scan the area again before running back inside and stopping at the sight of the lifeless criminals lying in pools of their own blood. Goose bumps rise on my skin. That could have been me, could have been Ali. I’d survived, and now Ali’s future lies in the hands of her enemy. I should have been more prepared. I knew they’d come for us. I had no doubts. But the chair beneath me had been knocked away, rendering me defenseless against everyone, including myself. My secrets and lies from the past intertwined with my present. They tangled with my future, hoping I’d believe there was no hope of stealing back what they’d taken from me. But in those few defining seconds when I believed this was it, I was going to die, Alison was going to die, I realized no matter how hard I fell, no matter what my stepfather and mother took from me, and despite everything the Marino family gave me, I have something they can’t control: my will to survive.

The willpower of a child who had her family ripped into an irreparable mess.

The willpower of a confused teenager who would do whatever it took to wake up the next morning.

The willpower of a woman who would fight until her last breath for her family, for her life, for love.

No broken bones, no cuffs, or threats were strong enough to take me on and win. Even if my body repelled against the fight, my mind won’t let me down.

A gunshot echoes through the streets and I jump. My heart smacks against my ribs. I run. I run for the freedom I’ve spent years trying to find.

My thighs burn as my legs move fast through the open warehouse door and down the street. My bare feet splinter on loose gravel beneath them. I’m so close. I round the corner and relief washes over me. I smile as I spot the police cars coming for me, and I wave my hands in front of me. Cars screech to a halt and a few men, all in black with NYPD in thick white letters on their chests, run toward me, shouting as they see me, but I can’t concentrate on them. I’m locked onto the indigo eyes piercing into mine.

“Lindsey.”

“Mason,” I whisper under my breath.

I fly into his rock-hard chest. His strong arms lift me off the ground. I clutch my sweaty hands around his neck and I close my eyes, his scent filling me with familiarity.

His arms squeeze me and I wince, the tightness aggravating my battered body.

“I got you, sweetheart. I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner. So fucking sorry.”

I pull back as the crushing of my heart threatens to break right through my chest. Ali, we have to find her. Get to her before Lucio tortures her and kills her.

I pull at Mason’s vest and stare at him with wide eyes. Words fly from my mouth, but I don’t hear a thing. Am I coherent? Is he listening to me? Why isn’t he running? Why aren’t we already searching for her? I’m hitting his chest while still locked onto his eyes. Water is dripping down my face but it’s not raining.

“Alison. She’s gone. Lucio has her. He got away. We have to find her. I need to make calls, we’ve got to go. Now.” My voice cracks to unrecognizable. It’s screeching, feral but now I can hear it. Loss squeezes my racing heart and I double over in agony. It’s too much.

Mason pulls my face into his hands, trying to calm me, but I can’t stop shaking. My entire being trembles as the tears fall freely.

“Sweetheart, listen to me. Ali is fine. We got her a few streets away. Lucio was getting away on foot. The tires on the car out front were slashed. He was never going to get far. Roamyn has Ali. She’s okay. Elias has been shot and Lucio still escaped, but we got her, Linds. We got her.”

I frown back at him, trying to process his words as he stares down at me with nothing but truth in his eyes.

“Wh-what?” I stammer.

“We got her, sweetheart. You’re safe. Ali’s safe. Right now, that’s a win in my book.”

I stand in shock, unmoving. “Ali’s okay? Where is she?” I swing my head around searching for her through the mass of law enforcement and emergency vehicles scattered through the street.

“She’s being checked over by the paramedics. Roamyn is with her and he isn’t leaving her. That I can promise you. Come on, I’ll take you to her.”

I nod at Mason and allow relief to slowly take hold of me as his words echo in my head. Ali’s safe. I’m safe.

My hands dig into my dad’s dog tags as they hang down the front of my tank top. There are men and women everywhere watching me as I search for the familiar face of my little sister, while I’m clutching onto their colleague’s hand. I don’t care that they’re staring at the two of us. I don’t care I’m only in my cotton pajama shorts and a tiny tank top. My focus is on one person and one person only.

My heart leaps into my throat. I drop Mason’s hold on me and bring my hand up to cover my mouth. “Ali.”

I pound the pavement all the way to my sister, who sits in the back of an ambulance talking to a paramedic.

Her head jolts up at my voice, eyes shining. “Lindsey.”

She reaches out to comfort me as I stop in front of her and I embrace her tiny body into a long hug.

Her shoulders bounce as she sobs into my shoulder. I soothe her with whispers and kind words as I breathe in fresh air and turn my head around to find Mason. He’s already staring at me when I catch sight of him through the thick of the commotion, the criminals, and the cops. He glances around then back at me and a smirk appears on his gorgeous face, warming me up on the inside. My lips curve up into a bright smile and I don’t know how long we stand smiling at one another, but the silence passing between us says so much more than any words are capable of.  We fell in love despite corruption. We lost each other in spite of treachery. We found each other again within the chaos.

I want nothing more than to pull Mason’s lips to mine and kiss away the past. I want to close my eyes and dream of our future while he holds me close. But I can’t do either of those things. I can’t erase what I’ve done. I can only accept responsibility and let go of who I was so I can become who I want to be. And maybe if I can forgive myself for all the bad choices that led to this day, Mason might be able to forgive me too.