Page 4 of Deadly Sins: Greed

Sniffling on the other end of the line, then, “Sloane?”

It was Giovanni’s sister. “Daniela?”

“Yes, it’s me. I need your help.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything.”

“Tell me what has happened. Is it Giovanni? Is he all right?”

Cade bristled at the sound of Giovanni’s voice the way any man would after hearing the name of his fiancées ex.

“I ...I don’t know,” Daniela said.

“What do you mean? He’s either okay or he isn’t.”

“We don’t know where he is. He was ...well, we think he’s been taken.”

Taken?

I was shocked.

“Back up to the beginning. Tell me everything.”

She informed me that a couple hours earlier, Giovanni had left the house with Marcelo and another boy, his cousin Luca. Not long after, Giovanni called a man Daniela referred to as Falcon. I assumed he worked for Giovanni, but his name didn’t ring a bell. Giovanni told Falcon he believed he was being followed. Then the line went dead. Falcon and Salvadore found Giovanni’s car abandoned on a street near the house, the driver’s-side door still open, car empty. Blood was found on the driver’s seat, peppered across the floor mat, and smeared over the steering wheel.

“It’s so strange; 9-1-1 received a call from a blocked number reporting an accident. When the ambulance arrived, they found Marcelo and Luca, but not Giovanni.

I pressed a hand against my lips. “Is Marcelo—”

“Marcelo will be all right. But the other boy ...my nephew Luca ...he’s in critical condition. They’re operating now. We’ll know more in a few hours.”

“What can I do to help?”

“I need you here, need you to find my brother and the son of a bitch jacking with our family.”

I was surprised she’d called me. The Luciana family had their own people to handle things of this nature. By people, I referred to family—and not just any family, a mob family, or “crime family” as they were commonly called nowadays.

“I’ll do whatever you need,” I said. “But why me? Don’t you have men to handle this kind of—”

“What’s happened ...it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know who to trust right now, Sloane. I need you and that creative mind of yours.”

“You have no idea who took Giovanni, or why?”

“We don’t have a beef with anyone right now, and only a complete imbecile would harm the children. Everyone knows they’d have two families to answer to if they did—ours and the Romanos.”

The Romanos. Marcelo’s mother, the late Valentina Romano, had married Giovanni several years earlier. Not out of love, but as a favor to her father, who wished to unite the two families. Over time, it had proven to be more problematic than fortuitous.

“I thought there was bad blood between your two families,” I said.

“That’s all in the past now. Valentina’s father, Joe, called a truce about a year ago.”

Having placed the call on speaker when I’d first answered it, I glanced at Cade to gauge his reaction. His arms were crossed, head shaking in disapproval. I didn’t blame him for not wanting me to get involved. Aside from my history with Giovanni, I’d be putting myself in danger. In many ways it was the very kind of danger that I lived for, my addiction, my crack cocaine. I didn’t want to disappoint Cade, but I knew I had to help. “How soon do you need me?”

“Can you be ready in four hours?”

“I can. Why?”

---