Page 117 of The Heir

Chapter twenty-seven

Everyone Involved

"Where the fuck is she!"I roar.

I'm in the foyer, where I've been the last hour since Dennis called me in a panic telling me there were three people shot on the sidewalk outside a client's house where Isobel was last seen, Xavier included. But my wife was nowhere to be found.

I'm on a rampage.

Gustavo hurries to the door, flinging it open just as Pablo rushes in Isobel's mother and Melody who are both looking confused and scared. They're clutching each other's hands for all they're worth.

"Sir, so far all I've gotten is Xavier was shot two times and left for dead in the street. One bystander who saw her snatched up also sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder but she's conscious. She's reported that Mrs. King was drugged before being thrown into thetrunk of a black car that headed to the south end of the street." Gustavo's speech is rapid, as he holds a phone to his ear.

My eyes widen.Oh my God. No. Not my baby.

I'm shaking so hard, my heart alternates from racing away in my chest, to crawling to a dead stop at the thought of what Isobel might be going through right now. If she…oh God…

If she'salive.

Gritting my teeth, I stab my phone a few times. Hearing it ring once before Joaquin Balducci answers it.

"King-"

"I called you almost an hour ago,"I growl into the phone. "Where the fuck are you?"

"Outside the front of your house. It takes me almost an hour to get to you, brother. I dropped everything to come," he says back calmly.

In this moment I'm thankful that he's not meeting my violence with his own. A second later he walks through my front door with ten other people. All security. He walks straight to me and yanks me to him, patting me on my back hard. Overwhelmed, I sag against him.

"We're going to get her back, brother. I've called all my contacts. I come bearing good newsandbad news," he says gruffly, pulling away to look at me. "Are you good, or do you need a shot of whiskey first?"

My eyes bug as I stare at him. Putting a hand to my jaw, I turn to the side and fight with everything in myself not to haul off and punch him. I throw him a filthy look, trying like hell to maintain a grip on sanity that's barely hanging by a thread.

"Joaquin, do not fuck with me right now. My wife isgoneand you're asking meIF I WANT A FUCKING DRINK?"I roar at him.

If I don't get her back I'm jumping off my skyscraper.

"Okay, okay brother… well…" Joaquin looks over at one of his men, and I see the color rise in his face.

"I swear to God," I growl at him. "You take too much longer and I'll kill you, Joaquin, right here in myfucking foyer."

All ten men draw their guns and aim them at me, but I only have eyes for Joaquin. There's a tense few seconds where my chest is heaving and we're just staring at each other, before he holds his hand up. The men lower their guns, only halfway.

"The Cali mob report that Claudio went missing about three weeks ago, and apparently there was a deal brokered where he arranged the marriage of Isobel to our rival family, the Scogmigilio's, in order to join their ranks at a higher level than where he was in Cali. I've been doing my best to get in contact with them, but they aren't very receptive. I'll have to go intotheirden in order to sort this out. Because God knows they won't be coming to mine."

It goes so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Now, I know fuck all about how the underground families of the mafia work, but I have enough sense to know that my friend walking into the lion's den of the Scogmigilio territory means death for him.

"Can I pay for a meeting thatdoesn'tend in a bloodbath?" I implore, my eyes wide as I stare at him.

He tilts his head to the floor and rubs at his eyebrow in a anxious gesture that I'm sure many people don't get to see. He exhales on a sigh, a muscle twitches in his cheek. "Brother, you don't know what you're asking of me," he says quietly.

"I know damn well what I'm asking of you," I respond, swallowing hard. "But, I love her enough to ask you anyway."

I hear Marianne from somewhere behind me start to weep quietly.

"Get out,"I shout. "Go somewhere else, Marianne." I order sternly.

Before I start crying, too.

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