jacket aside, my white shirt was bloodstained and torn and the cops were screaming instructions at me to back the fuck up, but I was beyond listening. My ears were ringing with the sound of Winter screaming my name. Every time I closed my eyes I could see her being dragged away from me.
The taser hit me in the side and I fell back against the bars of the holding cell they’d tossed me in as I was momentarily paralysed by the electricity slamming through my body.
Darkness curtained my vision and I almost fell to the floor, but I gripped the bars beside me with a snarl of rage. I couldn’t manage anything more than that as the pain of the strike blinded me and I forced my breath in and out through my teeth.
By the time I could move and think again, the cell door was crashing shut and the three assholes I’d just beaten the living shit out of were being dragged over to a different cell. Someone really should have realised that putting me in a cell with other people was a bad idea.
I started pacing like a caged animal, glaring at the officers on duty beyond the bars while they eyed me warily. Which they should. No one got between me and my girl.
“I have an amazing memory for faces,” I said in a deadly tone. “And names too,” I added, looking pointedly at the name badges they were wearing as they shifted uncomfortably.
“We’re just doing our jobs, Mr Vitoli,” one of them said nervously. “I’m sure your lawyer will be here soon.”
“Romero,” I growled at him and he blanched, picking up the phone on his desk and dialling out to check on my lawyer.
Before he got an answer, Enzo’s voice reached me from somewhere beyond the holding cells. “You’re lucky our father is out of town tonight or you’d have a real problem to handle,” he said loudly.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard one of them yelling something, but it was the first time it sounded that close.
Two of the officers headed away to see what was going on out there and I gave the last one a death glare as he squirmed in his chair.
My brothers appeared a moment later with a woman who I guessed was the lawyer, the police captain trailing along in their wake too.
“What has my client been charged with?” the middle aged blonde asked, her gaze sweeping over my bloodstained appearance for a lingering moment before she turned away again.
“Let’s discuss this in an interview room,” the captain replied, scraping his fingers through his beard as he gave me a rather more concerned look.
Frankie crossed the room to look through the bars at me. “We’ll find her, fratello,” he said to me in a low voice. “Just play nice so we can get you out of here, yeah? We’ll figure it all out. You’ve just gotta trust us.”
I grunted an answer. I’d sated enough of my rage on my cellmates to remain calm long enough for that. Hopefully.
Frankie nodded to the lawyer while Rocco crossed the room to peer in at the criminals I’d beaten up. They were all slumped against the walls, groaning in pain and covered in blood within their new cell, but it didn’t make me feel much better.
“Any of you boys pressing charges against our brother?” he asked, the threat in his voice clear.
The three men hastily refused, claiming they’d started it, one of them even saying he’d fallen over and hit his face on the bars. The police officers who’d witnessed the whole thing frowned, but apparently they weren’t dumb enough to add anything to the exchange.
“Let’s get this over with then,” the lawyer said, beckoning for me to follow her even though there was still a locked door separating us.
The captain nodded and one of the officers hurried to unlock my cage. He reached for the handcuffs at his belt and I snarled at him as the lawyer protested. None of the officers seemed happy about leaving me un-cuffed, but none of them seemed to want to be the one to try and get them on me either so they abandoned the attempt.
I followed the lawyer, the captain and my brothers away from the cells and down a long, grey corridor to an interview room where I dropped into the seat with my arms folded and my muscles twitching with the desire to get the fuck out of here and find my