Текст книги "Blood & Loyalties"

Автор книги: Ryan Michele

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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Chapter 19

FIVE FUCKING DAYS, nothing. After spending the night in the hospital because they fucking doped the shit out of me, I had gone through every fucking tape Techie had.

Val had lost the fucking car. Lost it. Techie said the fucking car had disappeared from view, and then it was gone. Sure enough, when I had looked at the damn footage, it was like it had vanished into thin air.

Luckily, Rex was fine with only a few scrapes on his leg from when he had been pulled out of the back of the car. He was working his ass off now, using every connection possible to find Catarina.

Scraper hadn’t fared as well as Rex. One of the janitors had found him bound and drugged in the basement of Catarina’s office building. His face was black and blue, his knuckles bleeding. He had put up a fight and hadn’t been taken easily. After a night in the hospital, he ended up being all right. He was also on a war path to find my girl, and he had a hard-on for finding Ghost—said he was his.

I had heard nothing about Catarina. I paced the floor. I didn’t know if she was fucking alive or dead, didn’t know if he was hurting her. Fucking nothing.

Sal and Vino bit everyone’s fucking head off at every turn, including mine. Ghost supposedly had no family to bring in and interrogate. It was one of the reasons Sal had picked him to guard Catarina. He had only had loyalty to her.

Val was fucking livid, and I had to get Rex on him just to calm his ass down. Rex finally laid him out. Hopefully, that had gotten the fucking point across because I didn’t have time to deal with his shit.

I stared at the tapes for hours and hours, trying to figure out where the fuck the car had gone. We put bounties out on Ghost’s head and searched his files. Nothing.

After digging through Zan’s computer more, Techie had come up with more pictures of this Jake person. My gut felt there was some kind of connection. Between the shit Zan had pulled, then Ghost, and now this mysterious, long-lost brother, it didn’t add up.

The only thing in existence on Jake, or Franco Jacob Maratelli was his birth certificate. Nothing else existed on him. I had even gone so far as breaking my mother’s heart by asking her. She had cried and cried, never thinking my father had been unfaithful to her. It had broken me having to tell my mother about my father. I hadn’t cried in a long damn time, but that had done it. Hearing the pain and anguish over the phone, along with not knowing about Catarina, had done me in.

We’d had guys search every abandoned building and drive through neighborhoods, but nothing. Even Rex had been hot on top of everything with his guys. He had found small bits and pieces, but nothing had led us to my girl.

My gut twisted at the thought of Ghost trying to hurt her. Why? And what if this Jake guy had something to do with it? I fucking had no clue.

Ringing from my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. Without looking at the screen, I answered, “What?”

“Now, now, big brother.”

Blood seeped out of my body, replaced with ice cold menace. There went another puzzle piece put into place. They were working together.

“Figured I would let you suffer for a while, and then I’d give you a call. You wouldn’t want anything else to happen to your woman, would you?”

Fear and anger spiked within me like a dagger to my heart.

“Where is she? What did you and Ghost do to her?” I snapped, unable to rein in my emotions.

“She’s fine. Great little toy you have here. Tastes mighty fine, I have to say.” He slurped his lips, and the plastic on my phone started to crack from the pressure it was under.

“Keep your fucking hands off her!” I roared, walking over to the wall and punching it.

I could feel Techie watching my every move, and I was hoping he was recording and tracing this shit.

“You’ve had her; I just wanted a taste.”

“I want to fucking talk to her. Now,” I demanded.

He scoffed. “Her mouth is a little occupied right now. See, Steve—or as you know him, Ghost—wanted his turn, so being the nice guy I am…”

As he let the words hang in the air, murderous rage consumed every cell in my body. I would fucking gut this motherfucker, peel his fucking skin from his bones while he was alive, and dig out every fucking organ he had.

“You son of a bitch! I will tear you limb from limb. What the fuck do you want?” I barked as my body vibrated with rage.

“Money. The silly thing about this world is it all revolves around money.”

“Fine. How much and when?” Money I couldn’t care less about; getting back my woman and hunting this bastard down was my goal.

“So eager. I’m not so sure I want to give up my play toy just yet. You know her pussy tastes as sweet as honey. I could eat it for days, and when she comes, fuck me, it’s the best thing on earth.”

“Motherfucker, you are dead. Do you hear me? Fucking dead!” I exploded, picking up a nearby chair and throwing it into the wall, not bothering to watch as it knocked down a shelf.

“Tsk. Tsk. Such bad temper. You’d think our father would have taught you better manners.” His voice was too fucking calm, only angering me more.

“You are not my brother! Tell me how much and when!”

“Our father was a little careless with one of the housekeepers he had. You should look up Lucia Ramirez. And, no, I don’t have your last name now, but I always knew who my father was. Fucker paid my mother off for me to disappear.” More pieces were starting to fall in place.

“Answer my question.” I really wasn’t in the mood for his history lesson, but the longer I kept him on the phone, the better lead Techie would get.

“Seven million. Wired to this account—got a paper?” I grabbed a sheet off the shelf. “512849554846251HGHUH” I handed it to Techie, nodding. “It’s offshore, so don’t bother tracing it. Also, upon the deposit, it will disperse to several different accounts, so there will be no way of finding it.”

“When?”

“Now seems good. You have five hours, or I fuck her, again, then kill her. I know you wouldn’t want your precious woman to die, now would you?” The phone clicked dead.

I stared at Techie and he smiled. “What!”

“I’ve got it. Seven Twenty-Nine Beachwild Drive. Condo eight. It’s his exact location.”

“Fucking shit! Call everyone. I’m grabbing Dan, Brett, and Rex. We are leaving now. I’ll call Sal. You get me everything you can on that property and send it to me!”

“On it.” He started typing on his computer as I left to find my woman.

 

Chapter 20

MY HEAD WAS fucking groggy, but I could hear that ass-hat talking shit to Jag on the phone. He hadn’t even attempted to fuck me, and that fucker Ghost had disappeared once I had gotten there. Wherever the hell there was. He had threatened to fuck me several times, but he had never followed through, and I hoped it stayed that way.

The room I was in was definitely a guest bedroom, though one for “kinksters” as the bed had damn shackles that my arms and legs were attached to. The windows and curtains were shut, but there were faint outlines of homes coming through with the daylight.

I had tried to come up with some scenario to get myself free. I just didn’t have the energy to fight. The asshole kept coming in and sticking me with a needle, pushing liquid into my veins. Every time he did, my eyes wanted to close and stay that way. It had been like that for days, but I had no idea how many to be exact.

The injections he was giving me didn’t get me high; it was more like a sedative to keep me from yelling. Just moving my body took strenuous work.

The asshole had fed me, but each time I saw the food he had I was terrified it was laced with more drugs, so I only ate enough to stay alive.

Once a day, he placed an IV in my vein, saying it was to keep me hydrated. By the fact that I had pissed my pants several times, and it smelled ungodly in here, I believed him.

I was scared as shit about him putting needles in me, but when I asked him if he knew what he was doing, he merely scoffed at me and said nothing more. There wasn’t anything I could really do about it.

Something loud crashed in the room next to me. Inside, I jumped. Outside, I was worthless. Then the door creaked open, and I cringed. I didn’t want any more of that shit he was putting into me.

“Well, sweetheart”—my stomach roiled at the term—“in just a few hours, this will all be over. I’m going to pack my shit and leave you be.” He moved to the bed and sat down, almost touching my body.

This guy, Jake, had very short brown hair and dark brown eyes. He wore khaki dress pants and a button down shirt. He looked more like a man who played golf and had brunch than a man who would tie a woman up for days.

“While I’d love to play around with you, lucky for you, I’m not into women.” Relief on that comment was there, but I needed to get out and that was my focus.

My words came out groggy, and the bite that I wanted wasn’t there, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. “Jag and my father are going to fucking kill you. You’re a pathetic piece of shit.”

“Now, is that any way to talk to someone who gave you food and took care of you all this time?” He tsk-tsked like a school teacher, infuriating me more.

“You know I’m right. Why the fuck would you come after me?” I tried to yell the last words, but they came out more as a slur.

He reached over to the table, pulling out a needle.

I pulled on the restraints with the small bit of strength I could muster, but nothing happened. I closed my eyes, wanting to be anywhere other than where I was.

He placed the needle in my arm, injecting the fluid into my body, and my head instantly began swimming.

“See, I’ll give you much more before I leave. I’ll even be nice and give you enough that when the place goes boom”—his voice had risen with the word, scaring the shit out of me—“you won’t feel a thing. See, I can’t let you live. I think Jag needs to suffer since he knew our father. As far as you, your father killed mine, so an eye for an eye.”

My eyes widened as much as one can when drugged.

“Yeah, my brother. He won’t have much to live for after this, and I’m hoping I time it just right that he’ll be here when the blast happens, but that part isn’t one hundred percent quite yet. I’m working that out. I wanted your father here, but knew he’d be harder to get. You’re the substitute.”

The guy was fucking nuts. Of course, I already knew that, given my present situation, but now… Shit.

I tried to speak, my words coming out mumbled from the injection. “Don’t kill us,” I pleaded, knowing it fell on deaf ears. He was too far gone in his mind to care about anything I had to say.

“Sorry, honey, but for sure, you’re gone. Jag would be a bonus.” He stood. “All right, gotta run. Be back in a bit.”

Despair filled my heart. I tried again to tug on the restraints, but my body didn’t want to move.

There I was, trying to protect my family when I should have spoken up. All I could hope for was that Jag didn’t get there before the blast. At least I was still protecting those I loved. It would only be me going down.

Tears consumed me as the pain crushed my heart. I was going to die, never having told Jag how I felt about him.

 

Chapter 21

PULLING UP TO the condo, I saw everything looked peaceful and serene. The brick layout of each house made everything look cookie cutter with kids out playing in yards. Even 729 was well put together. No one would ever think anything was wrong.

The guys were on their way, and we would surround this fucking place in the next five minutes.

My phone rang.

“What?”

“Brother, didn’t our father ever teach you manners?”

“I’m not your fucking brother. Learn that shit right now,” I growled.

He sighed dramatically. “Do you have the money?”

“It’s getting routed.”

“Good. When it’s done, I want you to call me at this number. I will give you the address where you can find your woman, and I’ll be long gone.” He chuckled.

Fucker didn’t know it, but his time was up.

“How do I know this isn’t a line of bullshit? How about this? Once I have Catarina in my arms, then I’ll send the money.”

He laughed. “No way. I wasn’t born yesterday, big brother.” Every time he said that, I wanted to fucking kill him even more. “See, if you want your woman, you’re going to have to trust me.”

“I don’t fucking trust you for shit.”

“Smarter than I thought. Truth is, I set it all up for Sal to pay for killing our father, but since he’s hard to get, I’ll take his daughter. Now I just want the money. Tormenting you was Zan’s idea, and I went along for shits and giggles. I don’t care about you or your ways. I just want to live free.”

“You working with Flynn, too?” I wasn’t sure where that came from, but as soon as the words left my lips I knew the answer and my gut fell before he spoke.

“Oh, that’s the best part. Flynn and Steve, or Ghost … Oh … scary”—he chuckled again, further pissing me off—“they happen to be brothers. I don’t give a shit what happens to either of them. I paid them a lot for their help, and I’ll be so far gone no one will find me.” Brothers? You have got to be shitting me. There’s no fucking way. Techie found no links to Ghost having any family. How the hell was that missed?

“Fine. I’ll call you in an hour.”

“Oh, early, I like it. Fine. I’ve gotta go tend to the woman.” He clicked the phone shut.

“We’re not waiting. Let’s fucking go now,” I barked, grabbing my guns, cocking them before putting them back in the holsters.

Dan’s cell rang. “Yeah.” He paused. “Boss, they’re ready. Surrounding the ground floor.”

I turned to Rex. “Are your guys on the roof?”

He flipped his phone shut with a click. “Yep. We are good to go. All curtains are closed around the perimeter, and no cameras were detected.”

Fuck yeah.

“Let’s go!” I called out, tucking my guns away.

Walking up to the house was eerie with fucking kids playing and cars moving around like absolutely nothing was wrong.

Dan, Brett, Rex, and I took the front. I didn’t bother knocking on the door. I turned it slightly, noting it was locked. I presumed the deadbolt was, too. I quietly picked both locks, hoping the asshole wasn’t close enough to hear the damn thing click, but breaking down the door would cause too much attention to come our way.

As I opened the door, Dan sent a text to the others, saying we were going in.

The house was quiet, new, and smelled like bacon. We broke off, each going separate ways. I took the long hall to what looked like a kitchen. Nothing. All three of the guys nodded their head as we unlocked the door for the rest of the guys, who came piling in.

I nodded to the two sets of stairs, one up and one down. Val and his crew went down, mine up.

Quietly moving through the house, the distinct opening and shutting of drawers caught my attention. I used my hand to signal the door I thought it was coming from. It was wide open, and the man’s back was facing us.

“You must be Jake.”

His body stilled. My gun was aimed right at him.

“Jag, you’re a bit smarter than I realized. How’d you find me?”

“Phone, asshole. Turn around.”

He tsk-tsked. Pussy.

“Damn, Steve was supposed to put a bug in that phone. Oh, well.” He turned around, quickly pointing a gun in my face.

I didn’t hesitate, shooting him in the chest. His gun went off as he slumped to the floor, the gun clattering across the hardwood. Fire burned in my shoulder, but I didn’t take my aim away from him while the guys ran inside the room.

“Where the fuck is she?”

His hand came up, covering his wound as blood poured out of him. I shot him again, right next to the previous entry, and he screamed.

“Answer me!”

“Found her!” was yelled from the hallway.

“Is she okay?” My eyes never left the motherfucker for a second.

“She’s bad, boss.”

“Guess we all go boom,” Jake said, right before I put a bullet through his head, killing him instantly.

My stomach dropped. “Get her and get the fuck out of here. The place is gonna blow!” I yelled, barreling down the hall.

Walking into the room, I saw Catarina’s body laid out, unconscious. My heart stopped in my chest as breathing became difficult. Her beautiful hair was matted, and with each tug Val gave, pulling her out of the cuffs, she didn’t move. She had on the same clothes she’d had on days before, her body dirty with wet spots around her and the potent smell of urine coming off of her. The son of a bitch hadn’t let her use the bathroom.

“Is she alive?” I asked, almost too scared to know the answer.

“Yeah. Track marks in her arms. Fucker gave her something, but she’s breathing.” Val unlatched the final chain.

I rushed to her side, picking her up as gently as possible. Her entire body was still, not reacting to my touch. She was completely unconscious. Fear gripped me.

“Gotta get out of here; the place is going up. I don’t know if it’s on timers or what, but let’s go.”

We rushed down the stairs and out of the house. I was careful not to hit Catarina’s head as I bounced out of the place as quickly as I could.

Stepping out into the light of day, nothing happened. We moved to the car, expecting the whole fucking place to blow any second. Nothing.

“Don’t give a shit. Gotta get her to the hospital.”

“Boss, I know an explosives guy. I’ll take care of it,” Rex said, opening the car door for us.

I nodded as we sped off.

***

For two days, I had been sitting in this white hell hole, but at least I was holding my girl’s hand. Doctors had performed all kinds of tests to find out what she had been given. They thought it was a mixture of different drugs. The good thing was that all the tests came back good. Her brain was doing whatever the hell it was supposed to do. The doctor didn’t suspect there would be any side effects from the drugs, but he said he would keep a close eye on her for a while to make sure.

She had to be put on serious antibiotics because of an almost deadly bladder infection. I guessed lying in your own piss and shit for days after attempting to hold it would do that to someone. Again, doctors said she should be fine, just in pain for a while.

I had been waiting five hours by then for her to wake up. It had been said the drugs were totally out of her system, but her not waking up was a concern.

No fucking shit it was a concern. I couldn’t eat, sleep, or move from her side. My insides were shredded every time I looked at her. I wasn’t a praying man, but I fucking prayed every minute I could. I just wanted her to open her fucking eyes. To come back to me.

I wiped my hand over my face. I was so fucking tired, but nothing I did would allow me to sleep. I didn’t deserve to sleep, anyway. Not until my woman woke up, until we could sleep side by side again. Then I would sleep.

Rex defused the bomb that was big enough to blow the whole block. When I told everyone about Flynn and Ghost being brothers, shit hit the roof. No one believed it, but when Techie really started digging deeper, just focusing on those two, he found it. They were in fact brothers, same father although Ghost’s mother never put it on his birth certificate. No, the confirmation came from Flynn’s mother. Once Techie got an exact location, we sent out guys to investigate. They let themselves in and found an old box with one small letter inside of it. In that letter was the confirmation we were looking for.

We got a hit on Ghost and Flynn’s whereabouts via Rex not even ten hours later. He and his men worked fucking fast. They had better fucking be in the little town in South America as expected since I had talked Vino and Sal into sending Rex, Val, and a few enforcers to take them out. I could have waited. Shit, I wanted to wait so I could pull the fucking trigger, but being in the hospital with Catarina was more important. I only prayed I got the fucking call soon. That this nightmare was over. I wasn’t giving them time to run again.

Mumbling from the bed had my attention turning to it. Catarina’s head moved from side to side, exactly like it had a few times over the past few hours.

I moved up and rested my hand on her forehead. “You’re all right, dolcezza. I’ve got you, baby.” I repeated the words over and over to her, not knowing if they made a bit of difference.

When her eyes fluttered open, my heart stopped, and breath was hard to come by.

“Catarina?” I breathed.

Her hand moved to her throat, no doubt dry as a bone.

“You’re okay. You’re in the hospital. Safe.”

I replayed the moment when the doctor told me she hadn’t been raped in my head. I had never been so fucking relieved to hear something in my life. That stupid son of a bitch had played me, and I was glad the fucker was gone.

Her head shook from side to side. “Blow,” she croaked out, her voice sounding nothing like her own.

“Rex took care of it. Nothing blew.” Questions rose in her eyes, but before she could talk, I answered for her. “He’s dead. Gone.”

“Ghost?” Her eyes closed as exhaustion took over.

After all of this, I realized just how much I loved this woman, and I would do anything and everything to make sure she knew it every day for the rest of our lives. I evaded her question not wanting her to worry. “You have nothing to worry about.”