Amore (63 page)

She looked up at him. “You care?”

“Don’t do this, Marie. We have problems but we can get past them.”

“I need you to stay with me. I don’t feel good, Lo.”

He kissed her brow. “Sleep.”

She bit down on her bottom lip and didn’t respond. She’d never been so weak. Even with him in the heat of their worst arguments, she never broke. Something was different now. She was emotionally defeated. He kissed her cheek once more, and then her shoulder. He turned her chin and kissed her in the mouth. It was a sweet tease of a kiss. “Marie, when I come back we’ll talk again. Whatever you want.
Ti amo
.”

“I’m tired.” She rolled away.

“We’ll talk again when I come back,” he repeated.

Lorenzo headed for the door. He looked back at his wife. She had pulled the covers over her head and curled into a fetal position. He almost turned back to comfort her. There was love between them, he had no doubt. But something else had moved in to divide them. It was distrust. She shocked him. He’d never seen her so crazed and in so much pain. Maybe it was his fault. He took a lot of things for granted with Marie. He’d have to pay more attention to her now. Find a way to fix what’s broken between them. He loved her deeply, and though her actions gutted him, he’d put a bullet in any man or person that tried to take her from him. They were the same on that score. When the door opened he saw Leo and Umberto headed toward him. He met them in the hall.

“Che cosa?”
he asked.

“Got a call, boss. We have to get to Napoli,” Leo said. “Nico is already gone.”

“
Perchè?
Ciro lost the fight?” Lorenzo asked.

“Ciro is dead. The clans are headed to Venditto’s. Someone took a shot at Giovanni.”

Lorenzo ran down the hall for the door. The men were on his heels. “He has Mirabella with him. Umberto, stay here with the women. Leo, come with me.”

The Dragon

Giovanni paced with his hands to his head. The minutes ticked on in excruciating slowness. Several clans were mixed in with his. The bosses were all shouting at each other. A blatant attack on their turf was unheard of. He looked down at his hands. He could see them tremble as rage vibrated through every sinew, every muscle. It was the only proof that maddening fear gripped him.
Bella was missing! Bella was missing! Bella was missing!
He had to stay calm. He had to keep focused. Santo was with her. Santo would protect her. He reassured himself over and over. Giovanni clenched his hand into a fist to stop the shakes. Nothing worked.

Dominic was now in the room. He shoved his way through several of the underbosses and arrived to the back where Giovanni, Tacchi, Racchini, and Benicia waited. The men all stood. Giovanni continued to pace. Dominic threw Mirabella’s purse on the table.

“Where is she?” Giovanni asked.

“Leonardo, Alexi, and Giulio are dead. The boys found her purse.”

“Santo?” Giovanni asked.

“He’s missing. He might have been ambushed. Renaldo and several of our men were hit. I don’t know who’s alive or who’s dead. The
Carabinieri
and
polizia
are swarming the streets. Doors are closed to us right now.”

Giovanni shuddered with rage. He tightened both his hands into fists. He spoke through clenched teeth to keep the emotion from his voice. Every man, including the clan bosses, understood the dangers of a kidnapping. They’d all been guilty at one time or another of ordering a hit. Rarely was the person who was kidnapped returned alive.

“Who? Who did this?” Giovanni stammered.

“Triad,” Benicia spoke.

Don Tacchi frowned. “We don’t know—”

“We know!” Don Benicia said. “The fucking place was infested with them, like cockroaches. It was the first thing I noticed when I arrived. It’s them!” he slammed his fist into his hand.

“Boss, I shot a few myself, all of them Asian. Chao Lee turned on Ciro in the ring? It had to be a hit,” said one of Tacchi’s men.

“Which means they were after Mirabella. The fight, all of it was a cover. They were after Mirabella,” Giovanni said. “And I fucking handed my wife over to them.”

“How could they get to her? How could they know she’d be vulnerable?” Racchini asked.

“Santo, the
pentito
.” Benicia said.

Giovanni fell forward with his fists slammed on the table and his head bowed. “FIND HIM! Bring him to me. NOW!” He shouted.

**

Mirabella opened her eyes. The darkness surrounding her was impenetrable. She lay on her side with her hands and feet bound. A putrid rag was stuffed into her mouth, and then another was tied around her mouth to keep her silent. She blinked rapidly to confirm her eyes were open and she wasn’t dreaming. The toxic stench of exhaust fumes and motor oil clogged her nostrils and polluted her lungs. She gagged. The side of her head hurt so badly, she kept battling against the urge to blank out once again. But she had to stay awake. She had to fight hard to stay alert.

In flashes she recalled the terror. It was Santo. He killed poor Leonardo and the men she considered family, right before her eyes. Mirabella began to cry for them and her self. She remembered trying to fight, to run, but the rest was a haze of being carried and thrown about. She closed her eyes and wept. She prayed. She waited. Whatever fate lie for her at the end of this car ride, she needed to be ready.

Santo switched the lights off on his car. He coasted along the marina with his foot barely pressed to the gas pedal. There was no one to be seen. Most of the boats docked were silent and unoccupied. And then he saw them. Kei Hyogo stood on the pier with Isabella. Why was she there? That wasn’t the plan. Isabella was supposed to meet with Bonaduce and secure his protection while the Triad warred with
la Camorra
.

Kei took a step forward. He had changed into what looked like a long black silk shirt and trousers. The wind tussled his hair in his face. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back. This was it, the point of no return. Giovanni would have been told by now. He had to see it to the very end. Santo had been friends with Giovanni since they were kids. He’d loved him like a brother. Even when hatred festered in his heart he had regrets for what they had become. Santo opened the car door and stepped out into the night.

Kei’s man stepped to him. Tall, with a shaven head of tattoos, he patted Santo down and removed the two guns he had on him.

“Do you have her?” Kei asked.

“She’s in the trunk,” Santo said.

The man looked back to Kei and nodded that he was clean. Santo waited as Kei Hyogo approached.

The car stopped. Mirabella blinked several times unable to focus. She heard the car door open. There were voices. She wanted to scream but the gag on her mouth was too tight. She struggled to get free. Maybe if she could release her hands she could find something to use as a weapon. And then she thought of her gun. Giovanni pleaded with her to keep it with her, and she had been foolish enough to actually believe she would never need it.

Mirabella felt hopeless.

Kei walked around to the back of the car. He waited for Santo to release the trunk and open it. The inner light flashed on. Mirabella lay still. Her eyes were closed. She had a gag in her mouth, and her hands and feet were bound.

He looked to Santo for an explanation of the blood on Mirabella’s face. “Did you touch her?”

“She tried to get away. I only—”

Kei slammed his iron fist into Santo’s face. Santo staggered and lost balance as his mouth poured blood. Kei stepped over him, flexing his iron fingers that had ripped flesh from the side of Santo’s face. He spoke in Mandarin of his wishes to his men, who picked Santo up by the arms and dragged him away. The muffled cry behind him drew his attention. Mirabella was struggling against her restraints. He nodded to his men. The closest one to the car reached in and brought her out. Mirabella fought as best she could. Kei removed a blindfold from his pocket. He walked over. She hung upside down. He tied the blindfold over her eyes as she struggled harder. He then took her into his arms.

She froze. Did she recognize his touch or was it his imagination? She didn’t resist. He kissed her cheek and she mumbled something under her gag. She turned her face away from him. Kei had no choice but to put her over his shoulder to carry her. He started for the boat.

**

“The marina,” Dominic said.

The men looked up. Giovanni was now seated with the clan bosses. Unbeknownst to them he was too weak with grief and worry to stand. Trapped in his head were all the wild imaginings of what was happening to his wife, while he sat on his dick being fucking useless. There were raids going on now. The
polizia
were snatching his men off the streets. It made any plausible search impossible.

“They had to take her there. The only way to get her out would be the marina,” said Dominic.

Giovanni nodded in agreement. “Send my men. Get them in the water,” he managed to say. The other bosses looked at Giovanni and nodded in agreement that their men would join the search.

**

Mirabella was carried. She could smell the dank fishy water of the sea, and feel the bob and wave when they transferred her over to what she guessed to be a boat. She knew who had her and it only further confused and terrified her. The moment Kei spoke she recognized his voice. And when he spoke in Mandarin it was confirmed.

The only answer she could summon would be revenge. Giovanni told her Kei was connected to a crime syndicate. That he was not the man she fell in love with. It couldn’t be him, her heart said, but her mind knew the truth. She was then set down on something plush. It felt like a sofa seat. Her captor untied the blindfold. She squinted at the harsh glare of light. It took only moments for her sight to focus. Shocked she stared up at him.

“Miss me?” Kei smiled.

**

The wait was the hardest. He couldn’t return home. Not without his Bella. What would he tell his children? The ambush had divided the clans. Many were back in the streets raging war, slaughtering anyone who looked like they would be associated with the Triad. So many of his own men were in the wind, arrested, or dead.

Giovanni paced. No news came. The clan bosses kept glancing toward him. He knew what they were thinking. When was his mad obsession with his wife and family going to surface and break him? They waited for any sign of weakness, like vultures ready to pick at his bones. And he suffered, just not the way they hoped.

The door opened. Lorenzo stalked in. His gaze landed on Giovanni first. He nodded at him. “Let’s talk, Gio,” Lorenzo said.

The two left out of the side door. They entered the kitchen. Venditto’s, a family owned and run restaurant, was closed. Alvo Venditto’s mother was in the kitchen cooking for the men. She got out of bed when she heard the news of the attack against
la Camorra,
and the kidnapping of Mirabella. He stopped and greeted her. He kissed the old woman on both cheeks and hugged her. Lorenzo walked to the pantry. It was a large room where all the dry food items and pasta were stored.

“What do you know?” Giovanni asked.

“Nothing helpful. Carlo is in jail. They said he took a real fucking beating, but those cock-sucking bastards won’t get him any medical attention. I think he murdered the boxer. Nico is in the streets, no word from him. Renaldo is alive. I think. He was taken to a hospital. One person tells me he’s dead. Another said he’s in surgery. And a fucking other person said he walked out with nothing but a bruise.”

“No. He was hit. I saw him take the bullets to the chest and back. He saved my life.”

Lorenzo sighed. “I don’t know which hospital. The boys are hitting up each hospital to try to find our wounded and account for them. The others called from the marina. No sign of her. But they think they found Santo’s car. Gio, there was blood near it and in the trunk,”

Giovanni closed his eyes to the news. “Continue.”

“I’m sorry, brother. That’s it. We have nothing else.”