My knees gave when I laid my eyes on it. I slapped a hand over my mouth and couldn’t help my tears. “Jo…”
My dad pulled me up and embraced me. Then he held the back of my head and pressed our foreheads together. “We’ll find her. Wherever she is, we’ll bring her back home safe, her and the baby.” He squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll find her, Rex.”
I nodded. “Yes. Let’s go.”
Whoever the fuck thought about taking the love of my life and the mother of my baby were going to wish they were dead before I found them.
CHAPTER 23
Jo
Shapes of black and silhouettes formed around me. I couldn’t make out anything. This couldn’t be just because of the dark. I’d lived in the dark for years. My eyes were accustomed to see better in the dark than in the light.
I squeezed my eyes and tried to reopen them, but then I realized the rough fabric against my eyelashes. A blindfold?
What the fuck happened to me? I jerked my arms. They wouldn’t move. My legs, my toes, everything was numb. Where was I? What was happening to me?
The last thing I remembered was getting out of the ride near the plane landing location Michele sent me. I texted Furore and Tirone as I walked and switched off my phone. I was putting it in my purse when—
A crushing weight shattered my heart as it all came back. There was another car. Men in masks circled me in no time, and then their hands were on me, on my mouth, on my back, on my ankles. They were dragging me, but I fought.
I pried the hand on my mouth off, but more came. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t scream. I pulled and scratched at their wrists, kicked my feet in their groins, clawed at their masks, twisted and jerked my body until I got one of them in the eye. Enraged, he slapped me, and then something hard fell on my head.
Pressure mounted in my skull, and my vision blurred. All my happiness and hope was reduced to dust. All I could think of was the tiny bean in the ultrasound, and how I had to protect it no matter what.
A surge of panic shot in my body as it flew through the air, and my head cracked against something hard. Then there was darkness, just like the one surrounding me now.
Footsteps.
My head whipped right and left as I listened to them getting closer. My breathing quickened as my heart banged against my chest. My brain focused only on the one thing that mattered to me. Was my baby all right? Could I protect it from whatever evil was coming with those footsteps?
They stomped closer until a door screeched open, bringing a wave of heat in. Were we still in Texas?
I held my breath. “Who’s there? Who are you and what do you want?”
More footsteps joined. They couldn’t belong to one person but several. Male Footsteps. Heavy and firm like soldiers’. Boots? As in biker boots?
I felt movement around me. Something touched my face, and I flinched. “Don’t touch me.” My body was still numb. I couldn’t feel any rope or ties on me, though. Why could I not move?
A calloused finger dipped between the blindfold and my eyes, and then a spot of light flared in my gaze. I squinted, my face contorting with pain. A tall male figure appeared, the light behind him creating a silhouette. Several others were on either side of him and me, their faces covered with ski masks. I tensed. Who were these men? Why did they kidnap me and bring me here?
The tall figure came closer, and the light fell on his face and suit. I’d never seen him before in my life, still he looked familiar.
“Jocasta,” he spat on the floor, “Lazzarini. We finally meet.”
My heart sank to my feet when I heard his accent. Irish. Another surge of panic hit me. I squirmed to get out of those invisible chains, and he laughed. “Save your energy, lass. The drugs we gave you will take much longer to leave your body and make you move again. You’re quite feisty.”
You sons of bitches, my baby. What if the drugs hurt the baby?
He bent forward and stared at me. His eyes were as light as mine. His hair was brown with a reddish hue. His nose and mouth were too familiar. Exactly like my father’s. I gulped. “Who are you?”
“Family, lass. I am family. The last one standing. My name is Jason Larvin. Your half-brother.”
I stared back at him, frozen yet my head spinning. I wasn’t stupid or naive. I knew this day would come, when payback for what we did to the Larvins and the Lanzas was due. But it’d been the Night Skulls and the Bellomos’ mission to stop that day short before it’d begin. I knew I had two half-brothers and four uncles that each formed their own crime family. Most of them had reunited with my father in a slow, ongoing war with Tino Bellomo and his allies. The rest had fled to Ireland to start a new kingdom with their ancestors.
As far as I knew, the ones who escaped wouldn’t dare set foot back here. A silent agreement of sorts in which they’d get to do business in Ireland without any interference from the Bellomos as long as they kept it there and never came back.
My fear had always been of the Lanzas because they wouldn’t bow to the Bellomos. I never imagined one Larvin coward would be the one holding me hostage. Unless these men surrounding my so-called brother were Italian, none of this made sense.
