“I know, I just…” The rest of my words trailed off when my cell phone beeped, telling me that I had a text message. I swiped my finger across the screen and then opened my message app. I immediately frowned.
Thai Rose Delivery. ASAP.
What the hell did that mean, and why was Lyn being so cryptic? Was he trying to schedule lunch or asking me to bring food home from the Thai Rose Restaurant?
Wait…I tapped my earpiece once and immediately heard a cough.
That wasn’t good.
I wrenched the front passenger door open and climbed into the seat. “Marcus, get us back to the estate as quickly as possible. There’s something wrong.”
Marcus jumped into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle. “Shouldn’t we tell Sal where we’re going?”
“No.” I frantically shook my head. “He needs to concentrate of rescuing my mother.”
“What’s going on, Lany?” Vinnie asked.
“Lyn just texted me that there was trouble at the house, most likely involving guns or hostages or both.” At least, that was my take on his text message. The Thai Rose was the restaurant where we’d been taken hostage at gunpoint after all.
If he was ordering dinner, I was going to smack him.
Vinnie, Barak, and Dmitri climbed into the backseat. The tires spun as the vehicle took off. I knew Sal was going to be pissed that I headed home without telling him, but our kids were there. Our friends were there. I needed to make sure they were okay, and Sal wasn’t available to do it for me.
Besides, if this really was just Lyn ordering dinner, I didn’t want to bother Sal with it. I needed to see if there was a true emergency or if my paranoid delusions were playing tricks on me.
“When we get to the house, don’t go in through the main gate. Just park down the street or something. We can get in another way.” One that hopefully wouldn’t let us be seen.
“As long as you don’t mind getting a little wet, we can use a water entrance,” Marcus told me. “I’m sure we can find a boat at the marina that we can use.”
“I have a boat at the marina a couple of miles from the estate,” Vinnie said. “We can use that to get to the waterfront access to the estate. If we park the boat at the far end of the estate, we can use the tree cover to get to the pool house and garage.”
Sometimes I forgot that Vinnie used to live at my estate.
“I need directions to the marina,” Marcus stated.
Vinnie gave them out, and then we were speeding down the street headed back toward the estate. Every few minutes I tapped my earpiece, hoping to hear a cough, and I was both scared and relieved when I did.
When we reached the docks, Vinnie hurried to let us into the private marina and then led us to his boat. Luckily, it wasn’t a yacht, just a simple high-performance speed boat. It could go fast, but I wouldn’t want to spend the night on it.
“Why do you have this?” I asked as I climbed onto the boat after him.
Vinnie chuckled. “The boys like going out on it because it goes really fast.”
Okay, that made sense.
Teenage boys and fast vehicles either on land or on water.
Yeah, the boat ride was wet. Water sprayed up on either side of the boat, droplets scattering over every surface. There was a part of me that was refreshed by it. Another part wanted nothing more than to curl up to my hot Italian stallion and warm my frozen, wet ass up.
I endured because I had to. By the time Barak brought the boat to a stop not far from the shoreline, I felt like one big frozen Popsicle. I groaned when I realized we were far enough away from shore that I’d have to jump into the water and wade in.
I was not happy.
Dmitri was the first one off the boat. Luckily, the water seemed to only go up to his knees. He quickly moved to the trees on the shore and then crouched down. Marcus hopped off the boat, making a bit of a splash, and then reached back and grabbed me. He slung me over his shoulder and then waded through the water until he reached dry land.
When he set me on my feet, he pointed a finger at me. “You owe me.”
Yeah, I probably did. My shoes didn’t squish when I walked.
