Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
I had no doubt this was the Santini brothers. The one choice I had was to contact them. Offer to buy her back if I could get them to admit they had her.
I dragged a hand through my hair in frustration.
A knock at my door made me look up from my desk. “In.”
The door opened, and Aldo walked in, tanned and relaxed-looking, his large frame filling the doorway. “What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised. “You’re not due back for days.” I hugged him. We had grown up together, and he was my closest ally and my right hand. I trusted him as much as I trusted Luca.
“I was getting restless. Vi thought we needed to come home early. From the look of you, I’d say I made the right choice. Gordon says you’re furious over something, and you look as if you’re about to explode.”
“I fucking am.”
He shook my shoulders. “Tell me.”
I poured us a scotch, and he listened to what I had to say. He sat on the sofa, his large frame taking up almost half of the space. Growing up, we had always been similar in our build. But when we turned sixteen, Aldo hit a growth spurt and packed on muscle and inches. I was tall at six foot two. He hit the six-foot-five mark and outweighed me by forty pounds. He was a deadly shadow, at my side whenever I needed him.
When I finished telling him what had happened, he frowned.
“Atrocious, I agree. But when have you bothered before, Roman? We’ve seen and heard lots of horror stories. You walk away.”
“I caused this.”
“You care about this woman?”
“I care I destroyed her life for no reason other than my stupid mouth.”
“You had no idea her sister was that horrendous.”
“She is diabolical. Psychotic, I would say.”
My intercom sounded, Gordon’s voice filling the room. “The chip just came online.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Aldo came with me, and we rushed to the computer room. “Can you get a lock on it?” I asked as I hurried in.
“I’m trying.”
He tapped away, doing whatever computer geniuses did. He moved from keyboard to keyboard, mumbling to himself. “Just a little longer.”
“I got the area. Not a good part of town. Way toward the west.”
“Not surprising.”
My phone rang. My personal cell phone. The one very few people had the number for. The caller ID said unknown number and I was going to ignore it, but knowing I had given it to Effie the day before, I glanced at Gordon. “Trace this. It could be her.”
I waited until he nodded, and I answered.
“Costas.”
“We have something of yours.”
The voice didn’t belong to one of the Santini brothers. It had no accent, and he was too young. I decided to play along.
“Something of mine?” I questioned.
“She says she’s yours,” he responded.
“If that something is five foot nothing with dark hair, it better be unharmed.” I paused. “Or you’re a dead man walking.”
“How much is your fiancée worth to you?”
I blinked. Fiancée?
“What is your price?” I asked, realizing Effie had told them we were engaged. It was probably the one thing she had to bargain with. My name.
“The people who want her won’t be happy if they don’t get her.”
“Not as unhappy as I will be,” I ground out. Gordon indicated to keep talking. “What is your price?”
“We’d have to disappear.”
He had no idea he and his accomplice would be disappearing permanently. As soon as I was close enough to put a bullet in their heads.
“We’re not greedy. We just want to live comfortably. Two million.” He paused. “Each.”
Aldo’s eyebrows shot up.
“It’ll take me a little to get the cash.”
“We’re supposed to deliver her at six a.m. tomorrow.”
“You’ll only be delivering her to me. I’ll have it by midnight. You can get a red-eye anywhere you want to go.”
“We’ll call with the meetup address.”
He hung up.
I looked at Gordon. “Tell me you have that.”
He nodded. “I assume whoever you’re looking for is being held at 188 Warrington.” He brought up an image. “The cell phone and chip both agree.”
I stared at the run-down house. It was falling apart. I could see the basement windows were boarded over. The front door hung on one hinge.
“We’ll be meeting sooner than that, boys.” I glanced at Aldo. “You with me?”
He looked grim. “As if I’d miss this.”
At nine-thirty, we drove past the house slowly, circled the block, then pulled up a few spots before the driveway where they couldn’t see us. The neighborhood looked mostly deserted, but I wanted to be careful. The SUV had blacked-out windows so no one could see in, and with darkness encroaching, it was the perfect camouflage. I glanced at Aldo. “You ready?”
“Yep.”
I turned on the video in the car parked two streets over. It was old and had a fake pizza delivery sign on it. “Set?”