“Why the fuckareyou here?” I let go of his neck but grab his shirt and pull him up with me then throw him back on the couch. “Why would they take you to her and then let you go but not release her? Make it make sense, asshole.”
“They took me there to try to convince her to…do what they want,” he wheezes.
“Which is what?” Blood is dripping down the side of my face, and I swipe it away.
“To marry me, you fuck. To have my baby and marry me.”
I want to vomit. It’s not just rape. They’re trying to get my girl pregnant.
“Of course you had to rape her,” I growl, grabbing him. “Because there’s no way she’d fuck you voluntarily, right? Because she doesn’t fucking want you!”
“I didn’t fucking do it,” he snarls.
“Fuck you. They brought you there for a reason. You went voluntarily, didn’t you?”
“I want to live, asshole,” he hisses at me, and I shake him.
“Fucking with my woman is not the way to achieve that goal.” I punch him in the gut again and let him fold over on himself on the couch. “Why the fuck would you come here?”
“I came here because she wanted me to tell you—” He breaks off into a fit of coughing.
“She wanted you to tell me what?” I’m instantly alert, every cell in my body on edge, waiting.
“She wanted me to tell you where she was, but I didn’t know. Then when I saw her yesterday, she said…” He winces, squeezing his eyes closed.
I grab him, shake him. “What the fuck did she say?”
“She said she loved you.”
Fuck. That hurts me more than Antonio ever could. “She told you that?” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “She was out of it. They’re drugging her. She was talking to you like you were with her, telling you that she loved you.”
I can’t speak, grief flooding through me. My sweet girl is being tortured, and in her delirium she’s still loving me.
Antonio’s heaving in breaths, watching me. “I would have come to you sooner, but I thought they’d let her go quicker. They didn’t even take me to her until she’d been gone a week.”
“Where the fuck is she?”
With every fiber of my being, I want to strangle this fuck, but if he has anything to get me closer to Gi, I can’t.
“I don’t know, Tommy. It took about 20 minutes by private plane to get to her, but other than that, it’s an island I’ve never been to.” He pushes his fingers through his hair and sits forward, his elbow on his knee and wincing as he touches his ribs. “The last time they took me there was yesterday. She looked bad. Really bad, Tommy. Skin and bones. I lost my shit. Beat the shit out of Berto, two of the guards. I told them to take care of her, but Aurelio wouldn’t let me stay with her once he figured out that I wasn’t…doing what he wanted.”
“You left her there alone?” I growl.
“I didn’t have a fucking choice. They forced me there, and when I saw her and tore the place up, they dragged me out at gunpoint. Aurelio wants me dead.”
I grunt. Finally something my father and I can agree on. “I saw the fucking videos, Antonio. The fucking texts you sent.”
“I didn’t fucking send them! You’re wasting time. Stop being so fucking Tommy for a second, and listen to me. You spend another second chasing my shadow, and Aurelio’s going to rob Luminous. And when Lorenzo retaliates? Giovanna’s dead. Aurelio will gut her just to make the point.”
“I fucking know that, which is why I need to find her before that happens.”
“Berto is your best shot,” Antonio says hoarsely, holding his side. “He’s Aurelio’s golden boy now. If you want to find Gi, put a tracker on him. I’m sure Valentina will help.”
“Berto?” That guy can’t find his ass with both hands.
Antonio nods and rolls his eyes. “I know. Fucking moron. But he follows orders, and that’s all Aurelio cares about right now. I’ve seen a few of the other guys around too: Jimmy, Dante.”
