I take in my surroundings since I’m not looking at my feet anymore. We’re in some kind of cabin. It’s dark outside the windows, so I can’t see anything beyond the glass.
The knots holding me in place are solid. One of these fuckers knows what they’re doing. At least it’s me here and not Ariana. I know Marco will do whatever he can to get me out of here. So will my dad, Mia, Lil, Ford, and Parker, But most of all, my sweet Ariana.
Which scares the shit out of me because she’s going to think of me instead of herself. I close my eyes and silently hope she stays safe. She’s reckless and unpredictable, and right now, that terrifies me.
“Oh, look at that. Marco is very upset with us for taking his nephew slash son-in-law. What a strange dynamic that must be. Anyway… boys, why don’t you each take a turn roughing Luca up a bit before I take mine.”
Gino punches me in the face. Wade goes for my ribs. I can’t do anything but take it.
Fred holds a knife in his hand. “It’s going to be a long night. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything too serious. Not yet, anyway. Maybe later, I’ll break your hands or cut off a toe. But for now, I’m going to make you bleed a little.” He smiles as he sinks the blade into my side.
Chapter 83
We ride at... whatever the fuck time it is
Ariana
Every crew in the area has men out looking for Luca. Not only has Dad kept the peace between them for twenty years, but I’ve helped almost all of them out at some point. They’re contacting anyone they can find with ties to the two men who seem to be working with Fred. If a woman dated Gino or Wade in high school, someone’s talking to her tonight. Doc is here sleeping, ready to hop in a car at a moment’s notice.
I refuse to try and find a distraction. Lil has to be talked out of drugging me multiple times. I sit in Dad’s office, wearing one of Luca’s t-shirts over my tank top. It smells like him.
There’s nothing for me to do but sit and wait, and it’s driving me mad. Mom and Becca wander in and out of the room. There’s not really anything for them to do, either. Lil’s focusing her energy on me, hardly leaving my side. She makes sure I have something to drink in front of me at all times. She asks me if I’m hungry at least once every half hour. She brought down my favorite blanket and covered my legs with it.
I don’t need any of it, but she needs to do stuff, so I let her. Ieven try to take small bites of the food she brings me. Luca would want me to.
Dad’s phone goes off constantly, with both text messages and calls. It goes off so much I almost miss it when he gets something important. For just a moment, the mask falls, and fear mixed with anger shines through before he cools his expression once more. It’s fleeting, and I only see it because I know his face so well.
“Daddy.” His eyes snap to mine. “Tell me.”
He sighs. It’s no use trying to talk me into staying out of the mess.
“It’s a picture and a message that says, ‘I want one hundred million if…’” he pauses and waits until I nod, telling him to continue. “‘If Princess wants him back.’”
I concentrate on dragging air into my lungs. On the memory of Luca’s voice reminding me to breathe.
Money’s not a problem. It’s a huge jump from what Fred asked for last week, but we expected a jump. Maybe not that much of a jump, but still. I stand and walk to Dad, Lil’s hand in mine. “Show me.”
He holds my gaze for a moment but knows there’s no fighting me on it, so he turns his phone. Luca’s mouth is swollen, both from the teeth being extracted but also from a bruise on one side of his jaw. But he’s alive. And fuck does he look pissed off. Is it possible for a heart to break and soar at the same time?
Dad turns the phone back toward him and responds to the message. My grip on Lil’s hand tightens.
Because Fred’s an asshole, he waits at least an hour to send his next message. This one says he wants ten million wired to ten different accounts and an extra million in cash. There’s another picture of Luca, but now he has a black eye forming, and there’s blood on his shirt from what looks like a stab wound. I ball my fists.
Over the course of the next five hours, Fred sends more photosbut doesn’t send a meeting place. It’s clear they’re using my husband as a punching bag and a knife block. I force myself to look at every photo. His eyes tell me more than anything. He’s in more and more pain each time. And he’s losing hope of getting out of there alive.
Mom and Becca have been going around to all the safes in the bedrooms and grabbing the cash out of them. It’s all wrapped and marked, and with Lil’s math skills, they’ll figure out how much we have on hand and if we’ll need to get more from the bank. It being a Sunday won’t matter, not when a DeVille calls the manager.
Every time we get a new picture, there’s another bloody spot on his shirt. His nose is broken, both eyes are bruised and swollen, and I’m pretty sure there’s a couple of cigarette burns on his neck. Dad’s mostly calm on the outside. But he opens and closes his fists over and over, fighting the memories of when he was getting pictures of me like that.
I’m silently freaking the fuck out in my head. I’m barely holding my shit together right now. The locket is constantly in my hand, sliding along the chain. I want to go grab one of Luca’s hoodies and drink in Lil’s closet until I pass out. But I can’t do that. Not yet. Once he’s back home, once I have him in my arms and know he’s okay, maybe. But until then, I have to keep grasping at the frayed threads I’m clinging to so I don’t unravel. I can’t unravel when he needs me to be strong. He told me that I don’t need to be strong all the time, but I have to be right now.
But it’s so hard to be strong right now. Even with Lil by my side. I need them both. We all need each other.
The sun is up when the money is ready to go in a bag. As it turns out, we had more than a million in cash stashed around here. Anything is possible at the DeVille house.
It feels like we’ve been waiting here for years. This time, when Dad’s phone dings, he looks at Anthony after reading the message. “Let’s go.”
I jump up to follow, but he stops me. “Ariana, you can’t go, sweetheart.”
