help,” Matteo said the words I’d been pondering ever since stepping foot into his apartment and finding Maurice bleeding out.
“I should have stayed away,” I gritted out, fists clenched painfully at my sides. “I should have fucking stayed away from her.”
“Come on, cous, don’t do this. You couldn’t have known Luca was involved. None of us could.”
Before I could stop myself, my fist shot out and collided with the wall. Pain ripped through my knuckles, zipping up my wrist but I welcomed it. I’d welcome a whole lot more than that if it meant getting Nora back in one piece.
I’m sorry, Gattina. I’m so fucking sorry.
“Better?”
“No,” I grunted. “But I will be when we find this motherfucker and end him.”
“I think we’ve got to assume he isn’t working alone. He had to get Nora and our guys out of here somehow.” His brows crinkled but then his eyes widened. “We checked La Stella’s security feed, but we didn’t check La Luna.”
“Shit, you’re right.” La Luna was Roberto’s second building in University Hill, the one across the street with line of sight to its sister building.
Matteo pulled out his cell. “Tristan, yeah, sorry to call so late… We need a favor. Can you call security over at La Luna and tell them we’re gonna need to take a look at their security feeds for the last two hours.” He gave me a sharp nod. “Appreciate it, man. And yeah, we will.”
“He’s going to hook us up.”
“What’s that?” Nicco came back inside, alone this time.
“Tristan is going to call the security guys over at La Luna and have them pull the security footage of the last two hours. Whoever helped Luca had to have a vehicle which means we should be able to see something.”
He nodded, his eyes narrowing at me. “You good?”
“What do you think?”
“We’ll get her back.”
“We have to.” Because anything else wasn’t an option.
“We will. Nora isn’t the target—”
“No, she’s the fucking bait.” I stormed out of there, needing air.
Crashing through the main doors, I pulled out a smoke, and waited for my cousins to join me, knowing they would be right behind me.
Sure enough, a minute later, they spilled out onto the quiet sidewalk.
“Should we call my dad?” Matteo asked. After my father, Uncle Michele stepped up as Antonio’s second. So with Uncle Toni out of action in the hospital, all decisions were supposed to go through Uncle Michele. But time was against us.
“You can update him, but we do this with or without him. I’m not waiting.” The words vibrated deep in the pit of my stomach. “That fucker has Nora, he has my woman.”
And I intended on her getting her back, consequences be damned.
We walked the short distance to La Luna in thick silence. One of Roberto’s guys met us at the door.
“Mr. Capizola called ahead. Please, follow me.”
“Have you pulled the footage?”
“We have, and you’ll want to see this.” He guided us to the security office.
Another guy looked up from the screen. “A black van left the underground parking lot about forty-five minutes ago. Drove right on out. Looked to be in a rush too.”
“Fuck.” My fist slammed against the table, making the computers screens rattle and shake.
“Relax.” Nicco pulled me back, moving around me to get a closer look. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. “Tommy, sorry for the late-night call. I need you to run some plates for us. I suspect they’re fake or cloned but see what you can find.” He started reeling off the license plates. When he was done, he hung up. “Where do you lose them?”
“Right here.” The guy pointed to one of the grids on the screen. “The police department might be able to track him on their cameras though.”
“Thanks, we appreciate it.” Nicco went to walk away but I stalled closer to the monitor.
“Wait. When did we see the van arrive?”
“We didn’t run the footage that far back, but we can look.”
“Do it.”
“What are you thinking?” Nicco asked me.
“Something still doesn’t add up.” We’d found nothing. Not even a speck of blood. It was as if they were never there. “We’ve all met Bianco. He might be hiding something but he’s not capable of this. He’s just the puppet.”
I’d met the guy toying with us, been right up close and personal with him. It definitely wasn’t Luca, so what was the connection?
“He’s working with whoever is coming after us,” Nicco said.
“That’s my bet.” I nodded, my jaw working overtime as I tried to