Elicit (14 page)

“Wife,” I corrected.

His eyes narrowed. “I stopped the ceremony. She isn’t your wife.”

“Wow, hate to break it to you, but she is. Check the files, have one of your minions put their computer skills to the test. We. Are. Married. You kill her, you bring down the Abandonatos on your family. Your funeral, just saying.”

He examined me for a bit then turned and addressed Mo. “Where’s your ring?”

I gave her a reassuring wink.

“The bastard forgot to get me one on account that we got married in such a rush… I’m pregnant.” She glared. “Surprise bitch.”

Oh, God I loved that woman.

I knew we were in a dire situation, but damn I wanted to rip her clothes off and kiss her senseless.

“So you?” Uncle turned and angled his head at me. “Would do anything for her?”

“No shit.”

“Interesting.” He reared back and slapped her across the face so hard she fell to the ground, blood spewed from her mouth.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Hit me, I’ll take her punishment. Damn, do you even have a soul? She’s pregnant!”

“Proof?” My uncle pulled out a knife. “I could easily slice her from gut to chin and kill the spawn of your seed within her.”

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

“You could.” I almost vomited. “But again, you’re forgetting something very, very important.”

“And that’s, what?” He laughed.

“She’s the boss’s sister. And the boss… well let’s just say he’s best friends with the Nicolasi and Alfero Families. Ain’t no way you’re getting out of the country alive, shit, they’d all die in order to kill you. You’d be bringing down the four families, including the De Langes, I highly doubt you want to do that.”

“Sometimes…” He fingered the knife. “A man is desperate enough to take such chances.”

Without any warning he lunged for me and stabbed my thigh with his knife. I didn’t yell. I simply stared at him even though my vision was starting to get spotty.

“I will torture you.” He gave me an evil smile. “Pray you survive it.”

“Oh, I will,” I said hoarsely. “After all, I have an uncle to kill.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Losing someone you love isn’t the hardest thing in the world. It’s watching it happen before your very eyes—that’s hard.

Mo

I
’D NEVER BEEN
in a situation like this before. I’d heard about it, I’d witnessed it, but I’d never lived through it, wasn’t so sure I was going to live through it now. Tex was still bleeding from getting shot in the leg, though by the way he had staggered towards me I imagined it wasn’t as bad as I first assumed. Not that it mattered since he had a freaking knife sticking out of his shot-up leg at the moment.

“So this is fun.” Tex spat out blood onto the cold cement floor, more blood dripped down his chin.

“I agree!” Another slap from his Uncle, followed by laughter. “I’m having the time of my life.”

Tex’s head fell back against the chair for a moment before he blinked in my direction. Blood caked his entire face, but his gaze was unwavering. I held onto the look he gave me, I cherished it, pulled it close and prayed that God would deliver us from the hell hole we were in. One thing I was hopeful for? That they wouldn’t kill us, that they weren’t that stupid, but that didn’t mean I’d escape with all of my limbs attached to my body.

“Twenty years!” his uncle shouted. “Twenty years I’ve waited to take my rightful spot, and your father was this close!” He held out his fingers in front of Tex’s face. “So very close to naming me his second. He was tired, he was ready to step down, and you go and kill him!”

“Aw, shit man.” Tex shook his head. “So you weren’t smart enough to get it in writing or something? Pity.”

His Uncle screamed and punched him in the gut. Tex gagged as his body convulsed. “I am Alfonso Campisi, and I will be the next in line.”

Then he burst out laughing, his head hanging a bit like he didn’t have strength to lift it. “Holy shit, you could have totally starred in Gladiator, ‘I am Alfonso Campisi!’” His voice mimicked Alfonso’s to perfection.

“This—” Alfonso pulled the knife from Tex’s thigh. “—is no game.”

“Good, I freaking hate Monopoly.”

Alfonso lifted the knife into the air. Tex had finally pushed him too far.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Please, just stop!”

The hand holding the knife paused in the middle of the downward stroke as Alfonso looked in my direction. Tex groaned and shook his head at me. The knife impaled itself again into his leg, Tex let out a string of expletives as Alfonso started making his way towards me. I instantly regretted my decision.

“So.” He unchained me, then grabbed me by the hair and dragged me towards Tex. “You must love him… with all your heart?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “Desperately.”

“Then you’ll do anything to secure his safety.”

Yeah, I already had and looked how that worked out. “Naturally.” I lifted my chin and spat in Alfonso’s face. “He’s ten times the man you’ll ever be.”

“So now you challenge my manhood?” Alfonso grinned. “How about I take you up on the offer then?”

“Offer?” I squinted as the light above Alfonso’s head flickered in my line of vision.

“To save your love…” Alfonso tilted his head and reached out, cupping my chin with his fingers, his thumb caressed my lower lip. “What will you give me?”

“Hell no!” Tex shouted, his voice filled with gravel. “I’d rather die than see her breathe the same air as you.”

“That—” Alfonso dropped my chin and sneered at Tex. “—can be arranged.”

“Boss!” One of the men was talking on his phone in hushed tones. “Boss!”

“What!” Alfonso roared.

The guard held up the phone. “Problem.”

Cursing, Alfonso wiped his hands on the rag from the metal table. “Fine, it will give the couple time to say goodbye.”

With a laugh he followed the guard out the door. I slumped against Tex’s chair. “What do you need?”

“Well since you’re taking orders, a hamburger and fries would be killer.” Tex sighed. “Or maybe a milkshake? Yeah I’m changing my order, chocolate milkshake, stat.”

“Tex.” My voice shook. “I can’t joke right now. I can’t, not when you’re bleeding, not when you could almost die, not—”

“I’m not blood,” he said in a hollow voice. “Does it matter to the Abandonato princess what happens to me?”

I awkwardly staggered to my feet and grabbed the rag from the table, wiping his face as I answered, “The same could be said of me, I wiped across his lips, the blood had already started to dry, I’m not blood, what does it matter to the Campisi heir?”

Tex’s eyes fluttered closed for a brief second before opening, nailing me to the spot, consuming my very heartbeat, making my pulse do nothing but scream his name. “It matters.”

I nodded, touching the rag to the corner of his mouth. “It matters.”

I wasn’t sure if untying him would get us in more trouble, so I did the next best thing. I leaned down and kissed him.

Our mouths met in a frenzy.

He tasted like blood.

Which meant he was alive.

My Tex was alive.

And he was mine.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When all hell breaks loose all you can really do is hold on and maybe close your eyes.

Sergio

“
S
TART AT THE BEGINNING.”
Nixon paced in front of me, waving his gun wildly in the air. You know, the gun that he didn’t even have a safety on. When it pointed to my face I sighed and leaned back in my chair. We’d been over it for the past hour. Each detail.

And we still had nothing.

“Clearly I was taken from behind,” I mumbled, embarrassed that I had been taken at all and horrified that someone was able to even sneak by our men, which made me wonder what the hell type of people the Campisis actually were.

Nixon sat the gun at the table and sat in the chair next to me. “Where would he take them? He wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill them.”

Luca and Frank remained silent as they stared at the table. Yeah the table wasn’t going to help us folks. Then again, maybe they were just getting too old for this shit.

I ran my hands through my hair. “
Mo
they’ll let live.”

The room fell silent except for the hum of the fridge and the ticking of the Grandfather clock in the hallway.

Chase drummed his fingertips against the table and pulled out his phone. “Does she have her cell?”

“Given my specific skill set, don’t you think I’ve already gone down every possible avenue of her rescue?” I tried to keep my voice even. “She doesn’t have her phone, Tex doesn’t have his phone, they’re gone and the only way we’re getting them back is if we wait.”

“We are not waiting.” Nixon growled.

Trace put her hand on his back and started rubbing. Nixon flexed and unflexed his fist.

“There is no way to track her.” I sighed. “I’m sorry, Nixon. We wait. We have to.”

“We wait when I say we wait,” Nixon yelled.

I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine, you’re the boss.”

Luca stood abruptly and marched out of the room, cell phone in hand.

“Wayta piss everyone off, Sergio,” Chase murmured.

“This isn’t my fault!” I shouted. “I was taken from behind!”

“You should have been paying attention!” Nixon roared. “What the hell were you doing! Watching a damn sitcom!”

“She was with Tex!” I jumped up from my chair. “She was safe!”

“She is never safe with Tex.” Nixon jabbed his finger in my chest pushing my legs back against the wooden chair. “Never, do you understand? From here on out, you’re her freaking shadow. I want to know how many times she tosses in her sleep, I want to know how many eye lashes she loses per hour. When we get her back, not if, but
when
we get her back, her life is more important than yours. Do we have an understanding?”

Rolling my eyes wouldn’t be effective, but that’s exactly what I wanted to do. And this was why I hated working for the family. I bit my tongue, allowing myself a few moments of sanity before speaking. “We have an understanding.”

“Good.” Nixon popped his knuckles and picked up his gun again.

“Put that down before you hurt yourself,” Chase whispered then gripped Mil’s hand and whispered into her ear, “They’ll be fine, Tex is an animal.”

“That’s the problem,” Nixon interjected. “He’s an animal I can no longer control.”

“You don’t know that,” Frank piped up. “You know nothing of what happened.”

It was true, even the camera system had somehow been overridden so we were literally blind on all fronts. How the hell had they infiltrated so quickly, the thought that it was planned entered my head probably the same time Nixon’s cold gaze met mine.

“No.” I shook my head. “Tex wouldn’t do that.”

“Would he?” Nixon whispered. “How else would they be able to infiltrate the house? It’s a fortress.”

“Nixon—” Trace held out her hands in front of her. “No, we’re talking about Tex, your best friend Tex!”

“The world is an ugly place,” Nixon spat. “You of all people should know that, Trace. After all, Phoenix was my best friend too, and look how that turned out.”

“Enough.” Frank entered the room again sliding his phone back into his pocket. “They’re fifteen miles south of here.”

“What?” We all said in unison.

My eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “How do you know that?”

Luca met Frank’s gaze. It was tired; hell they both looked like they needed a vacation. “Oh, Sergio, I know a great many secrets. This one, I just hoped to keep a little longer.”

“All good things,” Frank whispered.

“They must end,” Luca agreed. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The kiss of death—what a way to go.

Tex

K
ISSING
M
O WAS EASING
the pain. Had I been dying, this was exactly how I wanted to go. With her tight body pressed against mine, with her hot breath tickling my lips, with her tongue teasing every inch of mine until I was ready to go insane.

I wanted to wrap my hands around her, but they were still tied behind me and it wasn’t some crazy BDSM shit that had them tied. Nope, just my crazy family. Hell, I’d always envied Nixon and his family. I fought against the zip tie. Yeah, envy officially gone.

“Tex.” Mo pressed another lingering kiss to my lips. “I have to tell you something, it doesn’t matter anymore because—”

Shots started firing from the outside.

“Get behind me, Mo.”

“No!” She crossed her arms. “I’m not using you as a shield!” Her eyes widened in horror.

“I said. Get. Behind. Me. Now.”

She looked between me and the door. “Look, if I pull the knife from your thigh you may bleed like a bitch but at least I can get you loose and—”

“Mo!” I wasn’t above begging. “Please, for the love of God, just let me do my job, let me protect you, this is all I have, my body as your freaking shield, alright? My soul for yours. That’s what I have right now. That’s what I’d give to keep you safe, so I’m not asking you, I’m telling you, I’m demanding you get behind me before I He-Man my way out of this binding and rip off my damn hands in the process.”

With a stunned expression she hobbled behind me.

“Crouch,” I instructed. “I want them to see me first, not you, if shots are fired, at least it won’t hit your head.”

The shots kept echoing outside the door. Whoever was out there was seriously having a hell of a good time with their semi-automatic.

More shouting and then complete silence.

I counted to three before the footsteps started.

Funny, how counting to three used to be something I was taught when I was little and had a tendency to go all rage-oholic.

Nixon had been the one to teach me to control the rage. He’d always said the most powerful men in the world weren’t the ones who were angry but the ones who knew where to direct their anger.

I wanted to be powerful.

So I learned to direct.

I learned to collect the emotions and then use them to my benefit.

So right now, I wasn’t scared.

I was pissed.

Beyond pissed.