Page 32 of Relentless Refuge

“Interesting…” I pull my phone out, already feeling the tension in my shoulders growing unbearable. I want to warn her, encourage her to stay indoors and away from her phone. They may try to get to her through a Family member too, which I can’t have. She’ll feel pity and compassion and run out to rescue whoever it is they harm, and my enemy will snatch her up.

But the phone, connected to her private line, rings and rings. Either she is having a shower or she’s fallen asleep already. She never ignores my calls. It frustrates me, but I can’t control her actions any more than I can control the outcome of my enemy’s attempt to harm the ones under my protection.

“Go on… When? Where? How?” I slide my phone back into my pocket and glare at him, but he only shrugs.

“That’s all I have, Marco.” He looks fearful, and sweat beads on his forehead.

“Victor? What are your thoughts?” Isabella told me that she spoke with her Family, that they are still rebelling against her, but she promised to make them fall in line. I wonder how she’ll go about that. I asked her if she wanted me to go with her, but wisely, she rejected.

If I stand with her, they will fear me and lose all respect for her. At the first chance, they will rebel against me and overthrow her authority. She doesn’t need me babysitting her. She needs them to recognize her leadership and obey. That won’t happen if I’m there, or my men. After what she’s said, that might only make things worse.

“I think you should just assume control. I think those men are an asset waiting to be tapped, and if you control the reins, they will be forced to submit under threat of death.” Victor sips his whiskey coolly as Schuler pulls his handkerchief out and dabs his sweaty forehand. “If they harm her, her Family will blame us. After all, the D’Angelos have had no problem with the Bratva in the past. Only since marrying you.”

“And if that happens, they will turn against you and bind together with your enemy, Marco,” Schuler adds. “You’ll be fighting a war you cannot win.”

I turn my glare on him and shift in my seat. The leather beneath me squeaks under my weight as I ask, “And how do you know this information? How do you know it’s credible?”

He squirms like a roach under a magnifying glass in direct light. I know he has his own connections of which I’m oblivious, and I don’t care. I don’t need to know how he gets his information, just that it is able to be verified as true and trusted.

“I have a man… He’s on their payroll. He gives me information when he knows it is damaging to you. I can’t sell him out, man. I just trust his intel. He says it’s tonight, so it’s tonight.” Schuler is literally dripping with sweat now, rings forming under his armpits and that light blue shirt he wears, and I am getting nowhere.

“And you don’t know what the hit will be?” I scowl at him as Victor chimes in.

“Seems like kidnapping is their only option, Brother. If they aren’t going to harm her, just scare her Family into submission, then they won’t actually fire a gun or plant a bomb.” His wisdom calms me for a moment. He’s right. They will try to take her and either convince her to work with them or brainwash her into it. Or perhaps they’ll just use fear tactics. If it were me, that’s the route I’d go.

“Tonight? You’re sure?” I think of Isabella as I pose the question to Schuler, who nods. She’s safe inside my home where she should be, but until the threat is neutralized, that’s where she’ll have to stay. They won’t be successful tonight, which means they will be relentless, looking for any opportunity to snatch her up, and I will have to be on my guard.

I have a half a mind to call Nicolo myself and tell him to snap that Family into order so this nonsense stops, but I resist. I can’t throw my weight around, not yet. Not when she wants to do it herself. It’s bad enough that I’m keeping this from her. If she learns I’ve gone behind her back to enforce that her Family follows her lead, she will be enraged. It’s important that they respect her on her own merit, not because a bigger, meaner, uglier leader stands as her shadow whom they fear.

“Then we’ll wait. If her Family comes around her because of all of this, then we’ll have no worries. They won’t allow her to be taken any more than I will, even if they do resist her as their leader. She is one of them. So I think my best move is to go home and talk with her. I can let her know the threat, and she can inform her Family. She can insist that they protect her, and they will fall in line.”

I rise, ready to leave and head home, when my phone rings. I reach for it instinctively, expecting it to be Isabella returning the missed call, but it’s not. It’s a call from my home, but it’s not my number. It’s Warren’s number. I swipe to answer and hold my phone to my ear, but I don’t get a word out before he’s carrying on.

“Sir, she’s gone. She tried to leave out the front door and I told her she had to stay put. She was going to go to her mother’s house. She asked for tea in one hour, but I brought it right away. The window was open, and she was gone.” Warren, one of my best security guards, is breathless, as if he’s been running and searching for her.

“Fuck’s sake. Any sign of where she went?” I move quickly now, heading for the door, and shout over my shoulder, “Victor, load up. We have trouble.” My head spins. This can’t be happening. Why would she leave when she was tired and just wanted to sleep? Where would she go?

“Sir, the motion detectors went off in the back near the patio, then the neighbor’s dogs were going nuts. I think she slipped over the back fence. I think she’s met up with someone.”

“Thanks, Warren, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” I stomp toward the door now, feeling angry that she would disobey my orders. No one disobeys my orders. But more than that, I’m scared for the first time in my life, and that fear makes me want to kill—my enemies, my friends, even my Family—anyone who comes between me and Isabella.

Victor catches up with me just as I’m barking orders to my driver to rush me home. We jump into the car and jet off. I hope she’s just gone to her mother’s house and nothing more. If they’ve gotten to her, I’ll kill every last one of them.

24

ISABELLA

Istruggle against the men holding me down, wrestling to get free. Their hands are strong, gripping my biceps and knees, holding me in place, but they haven’t gagged me or blindfolded me yet.

“Let me go. You have no idea what you’re doing.” I don’t hide my rage from them, though there’s little I can do to fight back. With three of them and only one of me, I’m outnumbered and at their mercy.

“Shh, sweetheart, we’re not going to hurt you. We’re just taking you to our Boss for a little chat.” The man to my right speaks with a thick Russian accent, and I know what this is. Marco warned me the enemy would retaliate. I told him to be ready for this.

This has to be why he locked me up tonight, why he gave his men instructions not to let me out of his house. I’m stupid enough to rebel against him thinking I know better than him, but if he’d just have told me what was going on, I may have stayed put. I would be safe right now instead of in the back seat of a car that stinks of cigars and booze.

“You know who I am, right? You know what you’ve done? My Family will come looking. The Romanos will hunt you down and slaughter you.” I jerk and thrash, but my body is growing tired, and I’m acutely aware that I cannot take a single blow to my stomach at all. If they want to put me in my place, all they have to do is threaten and I’ll cower. My unborn child must be protected and kept secret at all cost.

“Oh, we know exactly who you are and that’s the reason you’re here. You’re going to work with us to bring that son of a bitch down, honey. The Boss will explain it all when we get there.” The driver’s eyes peer at me through my reflection in the rearview mirror. It’s dark out, so I’m certain he cant’ see the hatred in my gaze, but if looks could kill, he’d be dead. These assholes have no clue what storm they’ve started.

---