Page 1 of Captivated with Them

Chapter One

Kodee

––––––––

THE APARTMENT FELTempty with only the two of us here.

Me and Ryan. That was all.

It was our home, but it no longer seemed like home. How could it, when two of the people we loved most in the world hadn’t made it back with us?

Someone had clearly been in here while we’d been gone. The door had been forced open, and we were going to need to get the lock replaced. The mess Dillon had created the last time we’d been here was still exactly as we’d left it, only now we had extra to deal with.

Whoever had been in here definitely hadn’t had any respect for our property. Tables had been overturned, couch cushions shredded, pictures torn off the walls. My bookcase, which took up much of the far wall, had been emptied, my prized collection of books scattered across the floor, many of them fallen open, the pages ripped.

The door to our office also stood open. I crossed the apartment to check. At only the lightest touch of my fingertips, the door swung open. I was surprised to see our office had gotten off without too much damage. In fact, everything looked much as we had left it.

I wondered why no one had stolen our equipment, but I guessed if this was the Capellos’ work, they would have known it was more use to them in our hands than someone else’s. Forgery was a delicate art, and they wouldn’t have been able to simply grab the gear and get one of their other men to whip up new identities. It needed skill and finesse, and sometimes, it felt, like a little bit of magic.

Ryan’s voice came from over my shoulder. “Is it all still there?”

“Yeah, looks like it.” I stepped back from the office and turned around. “They made a helluva mess of the rest of the apartment, though. I’m surprised the neighbors didn’t call the cops.”

“Maybe they were warned not to,” he suggested.

I nodded. “You’re probably right.”

The Capellos held great sway over this city. Most people would know not to screw with them—something I’d warned Dillon about, though it was a warning he’d ignored. I couldn’t hate him for it, though. If he hadn’t, he’d never have brought Rue into our lives.

Not that it had done any of us much good in the long run. I imagined a parallel universe where Dillon had never messed around with the Capello brothers. Rue would have still been on the path she was on, while we’d have continued our lives, unknowing. Maybe we wouldn’t have been in danger, but having her with us had given our lives meaning.

My stomach knotted in fear for Rue and Dillon. They were being held by the Capello brothers. I understood exactly why Frankie Capello had done what he had. They needed Rue to testify against rival gangster Joe Nettie, and keeping Dillon meant they could be sure Ryan and I behaved ourselves.

Ryan paced the apartment, his limp more pronounced than I’d ever seen it.

“Sit down,” I told him. “You’re not helping anyone by not resting.”

The massive hike through the forest had taken its toll on him, but he’d done better than most people with two fully working legs would have, and I was proud of him.

I just wished things had turned out differently.

He spun around to face me, his fingers knotted in his blond hair, his blue eyes flashing with anger. “How can I sit around here, when we don’t even know if Dillon is still alive, or if Rue is being raped by those sons of bitches right now?”

“Dillon is alive. They won’t gain anything by killing him.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because the only thing that’s stopping us from getting our hands on some guns and going straight back over there to get Rue back is not knowing where Dillon is. If he’s dead, we’ve got nothing left to lose.”

“And Rue?”

His words were accusatory, as though I, alone, were responsible for this situation. Maybe I was. I’d always taken on the role of looking after them all, and I’d failed.

I felt sick at the thought of what Rue might be going through. Even though it was nothing new to her—being sold and used was the only life she’d known before coming to us—I’d had the stupid idea that her time with us had somehow cleansed her of all that.

“I don’t know any more than you,” I replied, trying to keep my voice level. We weren’t going to help anyone by fighting each other. “We just have to wait for the Capellos to contact us and take it from there.”

“You know what these passports are going to be used for, don’t you?” Ryan asked.

---