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I put him on speaker.
“Report.”
“Boss.” His voice is thready and weak, and for the second time in my life, absolute terror runs through my veins. “Took her.”
“Report, soldier,” I say calmly, trying to make Bacon calm too. “What happened?”
“Hit. Had to get Charlie from school. Two cars hit us. Killed Ricky, I was unconscious. When I woke up”—he grunts, and I can hear him trying to shift—“Rina was gone. Someone took her.”
“Fuck,” Mateo growls.
“Where are you now?” I ask, but Julian’s already trying to locate him on his phone, since those seem to be working again.
“I’ve got him,” Julian says.
“Where’s Charlie?” I ask.
“School. Said he was sick.”
“I’ve got my men going to the school,” Rome says, also working on his phone.
“Never heard from you,” Bacon adds. “Fuck. Thought it was just the phones.”
I should have sent men home.
But everything has been a clusterfuck for almost twenty-four hours. Which is exactly what the motherfucker wanted. To confuse us, to scatter us, so we couldn’t focus.
And I let it fucking happen.
“Got an ambulance on the way,” Julian says. “They’ll be there in three minutes.”
“I want eyes on that intersection,” I bark out. “I want to see who the fuck took my woman.”
“I don’t know if we have—”
“GET ME EYES!” I yell, cutting Julian off. “Because I swear to Christ, if they hurt her, I’ll burn the rest of this city to the ground.”
Forty-Seven
RINA
When I come to, I’m still in the trunk of a car, and all the events leading up to this moment run through my head.
I want to panic.
I want to panic so fucking bad. Because the last time this happened to me, I lost everything I loved for seven fucking years, and that cannot happen again. Jesus, no. I just got my whole family back.
But I take a shaky breath, coughing from the exhaust that’s heavy back here in this tight space. The thing is, I know I can fight back. That doesn’t worry me, except that guy that dragged me out of the car was fucking huge, but I’m fast, and I can fight.
Our guys made sure of that.
But I forgot to grab my weapon before I left the house with Bacon and Ricky. I didn’t think I’d need it. It was supposed to be a quick trip to the school and back.
The school!
Is my boy really sick, or was that a ruse to get me away from the house so someone could take me?
I nibble my lip and wince when the asshole driving hits a bump, making me hit my tender head.