For the second time this week, I’ve been summoned to my father’s office.
I knock on the door before opening it and walking inside, when he called me and asked me to come over, I figured it had something to do with regular business. Which is why I’m shocked as shit to see both of my brothers and my best friend waiting for me.
Alec has never even been to the estate before—other than the one time for my wedding. So, I’m confused as hell as to why he’s here now, unless this shit with Izzy is even worse than we first thought.
Fuck, what else could she have possibly been up to?
“Sit down, Luca,” Dad orders and I comply, taking a seat so I’m sat facing both him and Alec. The latter glances to my father, who gives him a nod.
“There’s some shit I need to tell you, and you need to keep quiet and listen,” Alec says with a pointed look.
Get the hell on with it, I want to say, but I refrain and give him a nod instead.
“When I built my company eight years ago, I did it with one goal in mind, building it up to the point it could be used as a front for my real plans. Two years ago, I put those plans into motion. Now, you know I’m good with tech, but I still needed help, which was why I reached out to one of the web’s best-known hackers, The Scorpion. They liked the idea of what I was doing and agreed to a partnership of sorts, and we’ve been working alongside each other ever since,” he says and swallows before darting his gaze around the room—seeming to focus on anything other than me.
“We created FreeThem, a platform in which we can track sex traffickers and trace their buyers. My company—while also doing what the public perceives it to do—is essentially a mercenary group focused on wiping the assholes who run the flesh trade from the face of the earth and helping the victims get back to their normal lives or giving them new lives altogether.” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair before taking a gulp from the glass of whiskey that my dad passes him.
“What made you do all of this?” I ask since he’s never once mentioned any of this to me. In fact, now that I think about it, I know fuck all about his childhood. I know his brothers and his mom, but none of them talk about the years that happened before I met him.
“That part is irrelevant for now, what has this got to do with anything Alec?” My father interjects before a pained Alec can answer him and he lets out a breath of relief. Theres a haunted look in his eyes and it makes me wonder just how well I actually know my best friend.
What the hell happened to him for him to go to such lengths?
“Right… remember how I called you yesterday and asked you what Izzy does for work?” he asks, and I nod—still not understanding where this is going.
“It was because I noticed the signature used in the security systems on her laptop.”
What the fuck does that mean?
“Are you telling me that Izzy, my wife, is involved in the flesh trade?” I snap.
Jesus fucking Christ, it’s one fucking thing after another. She deserves some sort of fucking award because she really had me fooled.
“No Luca, your wife has been my partner in bringing them down for the last two years,” he states and even though I’m confused as hell, I let out a breath of relief, it’s bad enough what she’s done to me, but if she was trafficking women and children? I’d have no choice but to put a bullet between her eyes.
“There’s more…” I bring my gaze back to his face and he looks pained at what he’s about to say. “I hacked into security systems and cross checked the images that were sent and the video footage…” he goes on to explain how it seems as though it was all set up to incriminate Izzy and I feel fucking sick.
I’ve spent the last six fucking days cursing her out when it may not even be true, but that still doesn’t explain her little boyfriend that I’m going to stab in the dick for touching what’s mine. I may not own her heart like I thought I did, but she’s still my fucking wife. She bears my name, and it was my cock that was buried deep inside of her every single night throughout our joke of a marriage.
“So, she’s innocent of betraying the famiglia, that doesn’t mean she didn’t run off with her lover,” Marco quips, speaking up for the first time and voices what I was thinking while Enzo has been surprisingly quiet throughout this whole thing.
Alec rubs his eyes, he looks fucking exhausted, and I feel like shit because this has clearly been a lot for him, I really don’t know what the fuck I would do without him to be honest.
“The man in the video was her childhood friend, Alessi Donetti.”
“Impossible, he’s dead,” I say with conviction, but the doubts start to trickle in. Did she lie about his death to throw me off? The pain in her voice and eyes as she told me about him flash through my mind and I internally shake my head. She’s just an expert liar and manipulator.
“Luca… Izzy knew you’d give me her laptop. She sent me a message asking me to send a team to Chicago to stop a ring that’s happening over there and that…” he trails off again and leans forward resting his forearms on his thighs and clasping his hands together.
“And what?” I ask impatiently.
“From what I can gather, Alessi and Antonio Bianchi faked Alessi’s death to isolate Izzy so that when he had the chance to propose an arrangement between your families, she’d feel more alone and go through with it without a fight. Bianchi has moved into the skin trade and I’m guessing he needed your deal so he could send shipments in and out of the state without being questioned.”
“So, Izzy was in on it the whole time? That’s why she left?” I ask, trying to ignore the pain in my chest that’s been present since the second she left.
“For fuck’s sake, she didn’t leave man. She was taken.” He gives me a sympathetic look and the world blurs around me.
She was taken.
She was fucking taken. Kidnapped. She didn’t fucking leave. And while I’ve been drowning myself in whiskey, thinking about all the ways I’ve planned on punishing her. She’s been going through who the fuck knows what. Jesus fucking Christ.
Where did they keep her? What did they do to her? Did they fucking torture her? Thoughts of Izzy hurt and beaten swim around in my mind and my gut tightens.
I dart up from the chair and hunch over the trash can just in time to empty my stomach into it. This time, instead of pushing the pain of Izzy being gone away, I let it consume me. I let all the emotion hit me at once. It’s the fucking least I deserve for turning my back on her when she needed me the most. For not trusting her when all she ever did was open herself up to me. All she ever did was love me, and I left her to the wolves.
“Fuck!” I roar, I swing towards my father and brothers. My dad and Marco are both pale, probably thinking the same thing as me. While Enzo glares at me from the corner. He doesn’t need to voice his thoughts. He’s been the one saying she was innocent all along and I’ve been too much of a dick, letting my hurt pride and ego get the best of me instead of listening to him.
“You lot can go to Chicago and deal with everything while I stay here and keep an eye on things,” he says with no emotion in his tone before walking out of the room without a backwards glance at the rest of us.
“She’s been held at her father’s estate for the last six days,” Alec says, and me, Dad and Marco immediately spring into action, preparing a team and planning the best way to approach the situation.
Alec gets ready to head out but clears his throat, so we all stop what we’re doing and turn to him.
“There’s something else, she wanted to give you a message…” he says while keeping eye contact with me. “She wanted me to tell you to… to go fuck yourself for ever doubting her.” He squeezes my shoulder in a show of comfort while I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
I’m so fucking sorry, baby.
Though I know, in the very depths of my soul that sorry will never be enough. In fact, I think I may have lost her for good, and it’d be exactly what I deserve. I failed her. I failed us.
We make it to Chicago within three hours, which still isn’t quick enough in my opinion. I’m fidgety as fuck as we pull up to the Bianchi home. I couldn’t sit still the whole flight here, I ended up pacing back and forth the aisle the whole two hours we were in the air, unable to think of anything other than the horrendous ordeal Izzy must have endured these last six days.
I’m opening the car door and climbing out before Marco even has the chance to stop the car. We brought forty men with us in three separate jets since we’re not sure of the security my asshole father-in-law has around his home.
“Everyone remember the plan?” I ask and there’s a breakout of murmurs around me.
We decided to have twenty men surrounding the property to keep an eye on things and to be on standby in case we need them while me, Marco, our father lead another twenty men inside.
My father, brother and I lead the men up the steps towards the entrance, the former steps ahead of Marco and me and uses a battering ram to breach the front door. My dad may not be as young as he once was, but he never turns down the opportunity to jump in and get his hands dirty, especially when it comes to his family.
We enter the home and are immediately hit with the sight of three dead guards laid out in the hall, all lying in a pool of their own blood. My brow furrows and I look towards Marco.
What the hell is going on?
Panic hits me at the realization that someone could have attacked the compound and taken Izzy. If what Alec said was true and Antonio is, in fact, involved in the flesh trade then this could be a revenge hit, and who the fuck knows what someone would do with the daughter of a slimy fuck like Bianchi.
“Luca,” my dad says and my head snaps towards him to see him holding out a note that contains one word. Basement.
I rush forward and make my way towards the basement; we studied the blueprints of the house when we were setting up the plan, so I know exactly where to go. I swing open the door at the end of the hall and run down the steps with my gun raised and a heavy feeling of dread setting in my gut. At the bottom of the stairs there’s a large metal door that’s been left cracked open.
I inch forward and slowly open the door while attempting to prepare myself for whatever the fuck I’m about to find inside.
I step inside the room and my gaze focuses on the two figures who occupy the space. I was preparing myself to find my wife injured, beaten, or fucking dead.
What I did not fucking expect to see was my father-in-law tied to a chair or that little bitch Alessi strapped to a table whimpering. I let out a breath of relief before the realization that I have no fucking clue where my wife is hits me.
I walk over to Antonio and slap him, so he wakes up. His eyes pop open as soon as I make contact and he lets out an aggravated groan.
“Where the fuck is Izzy?” I bark.
“How the fuck should I know where my bitch of a daughter is? She’s the one who fucking killed half of my men, mirrored the marks on that sack of shit that he gave her…” He gestures towards where Alessi is tied to the table. “And then tied me to a fucking chair like a pig. The little cunt is fucking crazy, muttering to herself about how she wanted to leave you a fucking divorce gift,” he says shaking his head and staring at me expectantly, clearly waiting for me to untie him and let him go. By now, Marco and our father have joined us in the room, but they stand back, letting me take the lead.
I have to force myself not to think about what he said about Izzy mirroring the marks Alessi gave her. The thought of her being hurt makes me want to burn this entire godforsaken city to the ground. And divorce? Over my dead, mutilated fucking body will that ever happen.
“Don’t look at me for help, you piece of shit. You kidnapped my fucking wife, and what? Fucking beat her… I’m gonna do so much fucking worse to you. Hell, you deserve to lose a limb or two for daring to call the most fucking precious woman to walk the earth a bitch and a cunt.”
Not like you didn’t call her that and more over the last few days.
You’re just as bad as them.
You don’t deserve to avenge her.
Her life would be better off if you weren’t in it.
No. Nope. Fuck that. I only have one reason for living, and that’s her. I’ll carve my own goddamn heart out before I ever let anything happen to her again.
My gaze flicks over to the asshole who stabbed Izzy in the back after letting her believe he was a man she could depend on for most of her life and this time, I let the rage take control.
I stroll towards him and take in the bruises and wounds that mar his body. I swallow down the nausea that threatens to make an appearance for the second time today at the sight of him. Not because I give a fuck about him, but because I know that Izzy also has the same marks covering her body.
A body that should remain encased in glass, which should be fucking worshipped and not scarred.
“You did that to her?” I ask while gesturing to his body and he looks up at me with wide eyes. Now that I’m closer and able to see his injuries properly, I can see how his shoulder is dislocated, he has a black eye and blood dripping from his forehead. His arms and legs are covered in tiny slices. His shirt has been ripped open and he has bruises covering his ribs and torso.
My breath catches in my throat, thinking about how alone Izzy must have felt while locked up down here. There’s a chain attached to the wall and blood on the floor in the corner of the room and I know, I just fucking know, that it’s hers, that this was where she was fucking kept.
I’m also stuck by a bolt of pride that she was able to single handedly take down her father’s men and free herself. It really shouldn’t surprise me, she’s the fucking strongest person I know.
“Please… I was just following the Dons plan,” Alessi whispers and he’s either a stupid fucker he’s got balls of steel since he’s blaming Bianchi while he’s also in the room, but then I realize I don’t really give a fuck which he is, he’s going to die either way.
I’ve thought about killing me man laid out in front of me a thousand times over the last few days, I pictured torturing him, dragging his death out for days and doing every sadistic, twisted, fucked up thing imaginable to him. But now that he’s in front of me? I realize it’s not worth it, I just want to end this and get the hell out of here so I can find my wife and beg her for her forgiveness.
I reach down to my ankle and grab one of Izzy’s knives from the sheath. I brought a couple of them along so I could have a piece of her with me, and I think it’s fitting to kill this asshole with something that belongs to her, she did do all the hard work of getting him in this state, after all.
I bring the blade to his neck and slice, watching as the life fades from his eyes, as he fades from existence.
I turn around to face my dad and brother, silently communicating with them that we need to fucking hurry this up so I can get out of here. They both give me a slight nod and I look at my father, tilting my head towards Bianchi in a silent question.
In normal circumstances, we’d just fucking kill him. But he’s the Don of Chicago, and I can’t just kill him without thinking about the effect it will have on us. Technically, if he’s dead, Izzy is next in line—not that anyone would accept her because they’re all sexist, misogynistic assholes, so the role would go to me. And like fuck am I moving to another fucking state.
My dad shrugs before pointing his gun at Bianchi. “You had the nerve to fuck with, kidnap, and hurt my daughter,” he hisses, and warmth spreads through me at my father addressing Izzy as his daughter. “You’re lucky I care more about her than dragging out my revenge.” Before I can even blink, he pulls the trigger and lands a shot between his eyes.
“We’ll figure out the Chicago situation later, let’s go find your girl,” Marco says and pats my back before we make our way up the stairs and towards the exit. Just as I’m about to pass through the door that leads outside, I see an envelope lying on the table with something resting on top of it.
The pit returns to my stomach as I slowly approach it, and I blink rapidly as I realize it’s Izzy’s wedding and engagement rings resting on top of a letter that’s addressed to me.
