“He wouldn’t? I bet there was a good reason for that.”
“Just a warnin’, they fed him a bunch of jelly beans to keep him distracted.”
She rolled her eyes as she straightened. “Candy is the least of my worries right now.”
“Just sayin’. You gimme shit for givin’ him sugar.”
“Who was it?”
“You were right. Sorta. The Sicilians.”
Her brow furrowed. “Why would Sicilians take us?”
He frowned at her. “Us?”
“How do you think I got here so quickly? They took us both from my driveway, pulled a hood over my head and zip-tied my wrists when I scratched one of them.” She held out her arms to show him where the plastic ties had marked her skin.
For fuck’s sake.“They dropped you off here?”
“A block away. I ran to find you as fast as I could.”
Now her appearance when she’d barreled through the door from the kitchen made sense; her hair standing on end, the flush in her cheeks, the beads of sweat, her struggle to catch her breath.
The Mafia used Kyra to deliver the message.
Their method had been goddamn effective.
“Zeke, what did they want from you?”
More of his brothers were piling outside to see what was going on.
“Wanted a word.” He didn’t want to discuss it out in the parking lot and in front of everyone. He hoped to get together some sort of plan first.
“Had to be helluva fuckin’ word for them to take your kid,” Zane said softly next to him.
“It was.” He turned to his younger brother. “We need to have an exec meetin’. Not tonight. Not tomorrow, but right fuckin’ now.”
That made anyone within the sound of his voice pay attention.
“But why did they take Ledger?”
“To make sure I’d show up,” he answered Ky. “Need to have a meetin’ but I don’t want you leavin’ ’til I’m done with it. Wanna hear everythin’ from the second they grabbed you to the second you got here. Also gonna explain who they are and what they wanted, but not now.”
She stared at him.
Dread filled his chest when he saw the wheels turning in her head.
She tugged him a few feet away and whispered fiercely, “I don’t want to live my life needing an escortor having to look over my shoulder all the time. Or worry about my son being taken on account of who his father is.”
“Too late to choose his father. He’s stuck with the one he’s got.”
Fuck.Today might have put a big fucking kink in getting back together with her. The last thing he needed was for her to take their son and disappear again with the excuse of keeping him safe.
The motherfucking Mafia was going to fuck him one way or another.
He unclenched his teeth. “Just askin’ for you to stick around ’til I’m done with this meetin’. Then gonna take you and Legend home.”
Her eyebrows slammed together. “Legend?”
