the ceiling and tiny.”
“Nice. He sounds like a right fucking party.”
“If the party is a funeral,” I muttered. “What's your plan for today?”
“Get as close to the Hamptons as possible and call Angelo to see if we can get her out.” He shrugged. “We can't do anything unless Enzio is here, which he isn't yet. Apparently he knows that she's there and is coming home today. Angelo couldn't put it off anymore.”
I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my hand across my face. All the fucking apparentlys were driving me insane. Knowing she was down in the basement cells beneath the house—fuck, it ate at me. I knew what they were. I'd seen them. I'd fucking killed in them.
If Gaige had any idea how shit those places were, he'd be a lot more agitated than he was. He looked calm. Like he'd wait for the storm to come to him.
Fuck that.
I was the storm, and I wanted to be headed right through the Hamptons.
It was then, in that moment, looking at him sipping coffee and scrolling on his phone, that I knew.
He couldn't have her.
Whether I deserved her or not, he couldn't have Adriana.
She belonged to me.
I'd kill him before I'd let him touch her.
“Then let's go,” I said, swallowing that resolve and standing.
He looked up. “Right now?”
“No, next fucking week, you prick.”
“Hey.” He stood and squared up to me. “Calm the fuck down, Carlo. We're both trying to do the same thing here.”
“Yeah? You think? Because you seem real fucking calm, Gaige. She's in a tiny room without a bed. She'll be lucky to have a pillow or more than two blankets, and that's if they don't have her tied up. If your brother really is helping her, then she's eating, when he can smuggle it down to her. She might not even be drinking. You have no idea what could be happening to her right now.”
“Angelo will take care of her.” He was certain. “He won't let anything bad happen to her.”
“He won't have a choice!” I clenched my fist and then pushed my knuckles into my temple before I stepped back. “Do you not understand that? Is your life in Los Angeles so fucking cushy that you have no idea how it works when you're kidnapped by the mafia, huh? You know how Enzio's men usually punish women, Pontarelli? They rape them. Numerous times. Numerous men. Over and over until they're broken spirits on the ground. If they want to do that to her, Angelo can't do a fucking thing about it, and we're still two and a half hours away from her.”
His eyes widened.
Yeah. He'd lived a fucking easy life in California, for sure. Running drugs. The occasional woman passing through. He had no idea what it was like to be in the middle of it.
“I don't know about you, but I'll be fucked if anyone touches her like that. And if they do, I'm gonna break their bones one by one, and I'd rather not wait. So let's fucking go.” I left the coffee on the side, grabbed my bag and my gun, and left the room, tucking the weapon into my jacket once more.
I meant it, too.
If anyone touched my girl, I'd shatter their bones so slowly and painfully they'd beg for death with every breath they took.
No questions asked.
“Give me the keys,” I demanded as we reached the car Gaige had hired.
He stared at my outstretched hand. “Why?”
“Have you ever been to New York? Ever driven to the Hamptons?”
“No.”
How the fuck had he never been to New York? Oh, yeah—the Pontarelli prince had a fucking cushy-cushy life. “Then hand 'em over now. I'm not being your human fucking GPS.”
He threw them to me and walked around the car. I still didn't trust his ass, but he'd already followed me across the country because he didn't trust me. I figured it was easier to keep him close because he'd sure as hell follow me across a state.
Once he'd figured out where to go, that was.
Idiot.
When I got in the car, his thumb was moving across the screen of his phone. I stared at him until he realized I was looking. It took him several minutes.
“You know someone could kill you and you wouldn't even realize they were there?” I asked him.
“I knew you were there. I was just ignoring you.” He tapped on the screen and showed it to me. “From Angelo.”
Enzio lands 3hrs.
That was all it said. “Right. We need