Page 71 of His to Ruin

Antonio nods. “Where did they take my brother and sister?”

“Don’t know.” Maroni’s answer is unconvincing, and from the expressions on the faces of the men around me, none of them believe it either. Antonio gives Matteo a nod. He takes a knife from his belt and rams it into Maroni’s shoulder. He screams like the pussy he is.

“Try again.” Antonio’s tone holds a menacing calm.

“Newark,” Maroni spits out. “Some warehouse near the airport.”

“Josef.” I look over to my Bratva brother, who’s already tapping away at the laptop. I turn back to Maroni. “What’s your part in all of this?”

“Joey paid me to get pictures of Liv. He gave them to Balogh to look after. When you killed him, Zita called me. I was supposed to bring Olivia to her. An eye for an eye and all that.”

The temptation to shoot thismudakin the head is almost overwhelming, but we may need more information from him.

“Get him out of here, but don’t end him yet.” Antonio clearly thinks the same as I do.

Jimmy hauls Maroni out of the room. I walk around the desk to where Josef is searching through property records.

“Here.” He taps the screen, which displays an image of a large industrial building. “Registered owner is an LLC owned by Katerina Balogh.”

“Katerina?” I ask.

“Yeah. Zita is a stage name. She used to be a cabaret singer.”

I clap Josef on the shoulder. I’m grateful to have someone who’s so adept at finding information on my side. “Send us the address.”

“Yes, boss.”

As Matteo and Antonio bark out orders to their men, I’m already heading out to one of the waiting SUVs. I’m going to bring my wife home and heaven help any man who stands in my way.

CHAPTER 24

Olivia

With my back to the wall, I face the door and try to work out a plan. The heavy steel door is the only way in or out of this stark little room. The window is too high for me to reach and even if I could get up there, it’s too narrow for me to squeeze through. There are no heating vents that might provide a means of escape and no loose bricks in the wall. Believe me, I’ve checked.

Playing dead as we were driven here allowed me to focus on gathering information that might be useful. The men who took us are Eastern European. They’re doing this for a payday, not because of some loyalty to an organization. That could be useful. Perhaps the promise of cash will persuade one of them to help me. I’d be willing to offer the diamond necklace I’m still wearing as a down payment.

As far as I can tell, there are six people involved in our abduction. Their leader is an older woman with an accent. When I was carried out of the truck, she spat at me and said somethingabout getting payback for her son’s murder. I don’t know who he was, but it’s a safe bet one of my brothers disposed of him.

We’re at a warehouse close to Newark Airport, I think. I’ve heard planes taking off and landing. The time we took to drive here would be about right, and I know we drove across a bridge. I don’t know how long we’ve been here, but I haven’t seen Leo since we arrived. I have no idea if he’s still alive. There was a heart-rending cry of pain a while back that I’m sure came from him and then it went quiet out there. I can’t bear the thought of Leo being hurt or worse, so I do my best not to dwell on it. If I’m going to get out of here, I need to keep calm and look for the right moment to act, just like Jimmy taught me.

If I can get my hands on a gun, I’ll use it without hesitation. In the meantime, the spiky metal heel of my shoe will make a decent weapon if I can swing it with enough force. That might be difficult. My shoulder is bruised from where the seatbelt restrained me in the crash.

I console myself with the knowledge my brothers will look for us. I wonder if they told Piotr what happened. Is he out there frantically searching for me? I hope he is because I know he’ll find me. What happened between us tonight was horrible, but I intend to put it behind us. There will be no recrimination, no postmortem of what was said and done. I want to draw a line under it and move on.

My heart flutters as a scraping of metal signals a bolt being slid across. The door opens and Leo is shoved into the room. Unable to hold himself up, he stumbles forward and hits the floor hard.

“Leo!” I scramble over to him.

“We’ll be back for you soon, princess.” The short, balding creep winks at me.

As he slams the door, leaving me alone with Leo, I quickly scan my brother, trying to work out how badly he’s hurt. He’s only wearing boxer shorts. There’s blood everywhere. The marks on his back tell me he’s been whipped. There’s barely an inch of him that isn’t bruised, and he has several knife wounds. The cuts all look shallow, but his breathing is labored and I’m worried he has internal injuries. His face is a mess.

“What have they done to you, Leo?”

“Liv.” He’s never called me that before and it’s not a good sign. The lack of focus in his eyes as he peels them open tells me he’s in pain, suffering. I grab his hand and squeeze it tight. Leo and I have had our differences over the years. I’ve even claimed to hate him, but that’s all bluster. I love him and seeing my big brother so weak, so helpless, tears me apart.

“Who are these people, Leo? What do they want?”

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