Page 93 of Because I Need You
A pause. “No. She never showed up at the bar. I assumed she ran out of time and went straight to the club.”
My heart stopped.
“G? Is something wrong?”
“Where’s Loren?”
“Driving us over to—”
“I need to speak to him.”
“Yeah,” Lorenzo said.
“Something’s wrong. Isabel went to visit her grandmother with Joey and Petra, and none of them are answering the phone.”
“Maybe they’re on their way back. Don’t they have to cross the bridge to get here?”
“It can’t be cell phone reception. It doesn’t take that fucking long to cross the bridge.”
“In traffic?”
I tried to reason that, breathe through it, but I couldn’t help the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
“Fuck.” He exhaled into the line. “I’ll call you back.”
I walked back around my desk and slammed my fists on it. I didn’t even know what the fuck to do. I had John going to the nursing home. Maybe that would bring answers. After a moment, I made a call to Dominic, Dean, and Rocco. Rocco hadn’t been here long, he’d just moved from Rhode Island, but he’d been in the life since he was a kid and was well acquainted with Silvio and Charles before he passed. None of them had answers for me, but they promised they’d look, they promised they’d call, they promised they’d fight, if it came down to it. I hoped it wouldn’t. I started running through worst case scenarios and couldn’t land on any specific ones that were a possibility. She had two of my best soldiers with her. There was a slim chance shit could go sideways while visiting a nursing home. Unless something was wrong with her grandmother? Maybe she’d died while she was there, and her phone ran out of battery? That was a possibility. I knew Isabel would hate me for thinking it, since she was all about saving lives and shit, but I hoped that was the reason behind this. Her grandmother was old, and not Isabel. Maybe that made me a bastard, but I didn’t care. I wanted her safe and with me. My knee started bouncing under the desk. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this out of sorts. Maybe the night I killed that disgrace of a human being. Maybe afterwards, when I was still running on adrenaline and anger. It was nothing to what I felt now, though. My phone buzzed on the desk. John. I answered.
“This place is crawling with police officers and ambulances.”
“What?” My stomach dropped. “Can you get in there? Do you see the SUV anywhere?”
“I’m going to check for it now. I don’t know if they’ll let me in. I have to look for a side door.”
“Do it.”
“I’ll call you back.” He hung up and I wanted to scream at him to stay on the phone with me, but I knew that would only make him move slower. I stood up and started pacing the room.
Finally, I called Nico. “Have the car ready. We need to go.”
By the time I went downstairs, Nico was waiting with the car running. We headed straight to the nursing home. On our way, Tony called and said the apartment was empty. The knot in my stomach grew tighter. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this kind of fear. When my sister was kidnapped by Vinny. That had been the last time. And even then, I knew Vinny and what he was capable of. I knew that underneath his anger, he wouldn’t hurt Catalina. He may not have ever been in love with her the way he was in love with his wife, but he loved her nonetheless. He’d been our brother once. I’d never spoken to him after the fact since I had nothing to say to him and I was liable to shoot him on sight for what he’d done. Now that I was convinced he wasn’t the one behind any of this, I wish I’d had him in my corner. He was just like Frankie. The same bullseye, fearless, mentality. I’d run into a burning building if it meant rescuing someone I loved, but I didn’t do shit like that for the fun of it, the way Frankie had and Vinny had. The only other person I knew who was crazy enough to run into burning buildings for kicks was Dominic. Jesus. What was the world coming to, that I had to turn to Dominic De Luca, of all people?
39
GIO
“Any info?” I asked as I answered Dean’s call.
“You still on your way to the nursing home?”
“Yes. We were stuck on the bridge for forty-fucking-minutes.” I clenched my jaw, trying not to kick and punch the doors of the SUV like a child, even though that was what I felt like doing. “Any news?”
“Based on logic, Silvio is the only one who could be behind this,” he said. I shut my eyes. I was really, really, hoping it wasn’t him, but fuck it.
