Page 84 of The Woman in the Warehouse

I didn’t wait for an answer before I hung up.

“Fuck,” I roared, storming back into the main area of the warehouse.

“Focus,” Miko demanded. “There’s no signs of struggle in here,” he reasoned.

“I want to check out the studio myself,” I said, rushing to the street to throw up my arm for a cab. Matej and Miko climbed in with me, leaving the Morellis to tell their cab to follow us.

The ride felt like it took for-fucking-ever, but, finally the cab was dropping us off, and we were all running down the street toward the studio.

“Whoa,” Gio said, pulling up short at the sound of frantic barking.

“That’s Fury,” I said, seeing the pittie near Saylor’s black SUV parked on the other end of the street, pacing and barking, panting like she’d been doing exactly that for a while. “Hey, girl,” I called, trying to force some calm into my voice to offset her panic. “What are you doing here?” I asked, catching sight of Venezio and Brio walking down the street toward us.

She must have decided to bring Fury with her back to the studio for company. Then, I realized with growing panic, she must have been grabbed right off of the street.

Because Fury’s leash was still attached.

“Matej,” Gio called. “Where do you think your brother would take Saylor?”

“He had nowhere. Nowhere but my house,” Matej said.

Gio looked to Elio. “Any chance someone saw you or Matej at the house? That they know he’s not chained in the basement like he’s supposed to be?”

Was that possible?

That they’d grabbed Saylor, then taken her back to Staten Island, where we’d just fucking been, as we galavanted all over the motherfucking city?

“Let’s focus. Maybe she’s not taken. Why would they take Saylor?” Elio asked. “They have the weapons. What’s the motive?”

“I don’t know. They found out we were staking them out?” I asked. I mean, Saylor had to leave multiple times a day to take care of Fury. And I sometimes went with her.

We were careful to leave through the back door, and we sometimes even wedged the door open, so we could come back in that way. But sometimes, we had no choice but to go through the front. If someone had just been looking out the window at the right moment, they could have seen.

Maybe Jan had wanted to eliminate her as a threat?

Or maybe he was holding onto her to use her against me? Against the Family?

I had no fucking idea.

I just knew she was gone.

And the only person I could think of who might have her was Jan.

If he’d decided to take her to Staten Island for… whatever reason, he would quickly learn that the house was cleaned up. And Matej was missing.

“I’m going back to Staten Island,” I declared, thrusting Fury’s leash at Brio, who I knew could handle her, even as she snarled at him, then rushed back to the cross street for a cab. “Do you know Keith? The hacker,” I said, looking at Miko, who seemed to know everyone.

“Pizza roll guy? Yeah.”

“See if Venezio can get any cameras or something on this street,” I said, waving down toward it.

“On it,” Venezio said, nodding.

“And we’re coming with you,” Gio said, moving into the street to throw his own arm up as Matej came with me into the waiting cab.

If Jan had taken Saylor to Staten Island, the only way he could have done so was to drive. Which maybe gave us the only bit of good luck we had so far.

Because the ferry was faster.

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