“You show up alone, no backup, and then one of our warehouses gets raided.”
“The fuck are you talking about? You told us to only have one person show up.”
“Yeah, so none of you Americans would steal from us,” he snaps. “And you did anyway. Clearly your boss thinks you’re disposable, since no one has come for you in three days.”
“Three days? I’ve been out for three days.” My stomach drops.
“Long enough.” His smile is thin. “Now you’re going to give us what we need to take Gino Esposito down.”
My pulse spikes. Vanessa must be losing her mind right now. I knew something was wrong the moment they rushed us out to lunch. Italians love to talk. They would’ve kept me in that office for hours if this were real.
“Listen, I don’t know what the fuck is happening, but believe me, Gino wouldn’t raid you.”
Vanessa would kill him if he even thought about it. I keep that part to myself. She’s been spending more time around us on her days off, learning the business, and she has a way of spotting problems before anyone else does.
Lorenzo studies me for a long, quiet moment, then turns and walks out.
Fuck.
When he comes back, he’s wearing a black apron and pushing a metal tray. My stomach twists. I tug uselessly at the tape.
“That won’t work,” he says calmly. “It’s been on you for days.” He lifts a knife from the tray and steps closer. “We don’t like being double-crossed, and we especially don’t like it when Americans do it.”
“Lorenzo, I swear I don’t know anything about a raid,” I say, my voice tight. “Gino would’ve told me.”
My shirt is torn and stained with dried blood. He drags the knife down my chest, pressing just hard enough to draw fresh red lines.
“I could kill you right now,” he says. “But you’re Gino’s right-hand man, so we’re going to get something useful out of you first.”
He moves behind me. I hear the scrape of a chain, then the cold bite of metal as it locks around my ankle. With one swift cut, he slices the tape off my wrists.
“You’ll stay here until we need you,” he says. “Don’t try to run. There are men outside who will shoot you without hesitation. We’ll bring you food and water. Be grateful we want information, or you’d already be fucking dead.”
He leaves. Another man comes in, drops a tray of food and a jug of water on the floor, and slams the door. The lights go out again, plunging me into darkness.
My body barely wants to move, but I force myself toward the food. Sitting on the cold floor, I eat slowly, my thoughts spiraling around one thing.
I just need to see my wife again.
TWENTY-FIVE
VANESSA
It’s been two weeks since my world turned upside down. I keep trying to hold on to a smile, hoping everything will be okay, but with every day that passes, that hope thins.
When I walk into the hospital with Alonso close behind me, I spot Lauren at the front desk and know exactly what’s coming. She looks up, says something quietly to the receptionist beside her, and then walks around the desk with that same soft, sad look I’ve been getting for weeks.
“Hey,” she says gently. “Do you want to talk for a minute?”
“Yeah,” I whisper.
We head to the break room, the door clicking shut behind us. We sit across from each other, and for a moment neither of us speaks.
“Any news?” she finally asks.
I shake my head.
“Vanessa, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” she says carefully, “but I think you need a real break. Take some time off. You need space to think about what you want to donext. Mateo might come back, but you have your babies to think about now.”
