Page 129 of In Ruins
“I know this is hard, son. But you need to eat something to keep your strength up. You’re no good to her if you starve yourself because you think that’s what’s happening to her,” he tells me.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “I’m fucking worried about her. She’s so close to her due date, and it’s killing me that I let this happen.”
I’m fucking pissed to hell and back. I didn’t protect my wife well enough, and now she’s gone. When I find her, I’m putting a damn tracker in her, and I’m saddling her with twenty guards whenever she leaves the house. I can just imagine the shit she’s going to give me when she learns about my new plans to keep her safe from now on after I get her back.
She’s my lifeline and I can’t—no… I won’t fucking do this life without her. She’s the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me.
“You didn’t let anything happen. I heard about what transpired earlier, so I know you were busy dealing with that situation,” Dad says, trying to make me feel better, but nothing is going to work until she’s standing in front of me again.
“It was a damn setup which led them right to her,” I tell him, still pissed off.
“You know this is the risk involved with being a high-ranking member of the family. And just so you know, you did everything right. She had eight guards with her to protect her. The only thing that really matters now is knowing that we will find her and bring her home. And we won’t stop until we do,” he says, certainty in his voice.
His words help a little, but not by much. I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to keep my head in the game because if I think about the what-ifs, then I’ll drive myself crazy. Though it isn’t easy to let go of the guilt of not protecting my wife better.
“Thanks, Dad. I know we’re going to find her because I won’t stop hunting the assholes until I do,” I vow.
“That’s right. We make them pay for daring to cross us,” he agrees.
“Did Xander tell you about the women and the couple of household staff we found at Salvatore’s?”
“Yeah. Sick fuck!” he grunts. “I had no idea he was into sex trafficking. Then again, I never liked the man, so I didn’t really deal with him much.”
“When this is all done, we’re going to check our city since most of it will belong to us. I don’t want any of that shit in Chicago.”
“I’m with you on that,” he tells me.
“I’m going to go check and see if Xander’s found anything yet,” I tell him a moment later as I stand to my feet. He stands up as well and follows me out the door, heading toward the kitchen.
I’m about to walk past the kitchen and head to the tech room when my mom hands me a plate with some food on it. “Thanks, Ma.”
“We’re going to find her,” she tells me, steel determination in her voice as she places a kiss on my cheek. I nod my head before walking away to check on Xander.
When I step into his tech room, I see he’s busy typing away at his computer. The wall is covered in screens, and all of them show shit, plus code running on them. Some of which I don’t even understand.
The man is a genius when it comes to computers. Which is why there’s a room like this on every property and safe house we own, since you never really know which one you’ll be at in any given situation. So, I make sure he has everything he’ll ever need if we have to hide out somewhere.
“Found anything yet?” I ask. His head pops up, and he does a little stretch before responding.
“Not yet. But I’m close, I can feel it,” he tells me. I see him eyeing my food, and I roll my eyes before handing him my plate. This ass is always hungry. “Thanks!” he says with a huge smile.
Before I can even say anything, my phone rings, and when I take it out of my pocket, I see it’s Aldo calling.
“Are you still alive?” I joke.
“Yes. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He snickers. “But I did run into something unexpected…”
“What?”
“Well, two things really. One, we found some girls who are being trafficked in one of Salvatore’s and one of Bernardo’s warehouses,” he says.
“What the fuck?! So they’re both a part of that shit?” I yell in surprise and anger. “Call Paulie and tell him to get his team and another over to both warehouses. He’s already handling getting some of the girls to safety that we found in Salvatore’s house.”
“On it, boss. And by the way, the second thing… it’ll be better if I show you. I’m on my way over to you now,” he says.
“Okay… I’m in the tech room with Xander,” I say to his cagey ass.
“Got it.”
