Page 99 of Ties That Bind Us

“I want to know why,” I hissed. “I want to hear it straight out of your fucking mouth—why my wife is gone and my child is dead.”

Alessandro chuckled and shook his head. This guy really had a death wish. “Contrary to what you think of me, Nick, I never meant to hurt my daughter. I set out with the best of intentions. I wanted her with you because I knew you would protect her and give her what she needed. God knows I never could.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He really had this caring father act down to a science. If I didn’t know him better, I might fall for it.

“Ava has always been strong willed, I should have known from the start she would never agree with my plan. Like you know, I overpromised the Russians. They were breathing down my neck trying to get answers that I didn’t have, and the entire time this was going on, Ava was falling more and more in love with you. When I found out you were married, I knew I needed another plan. I knew if anything happened to you and Leo, Ava would assume responsibility since she’s your wife.”

“That’s what the accident was about,” I said flatly.

Alessandro nodded. “You have to understand Nick, I never expected her to be in the car and I certainly never expected that she was . . .”

Pregnant. He couldn’t even say the fucking word.

Alessandro paused, chewing on the inside of his cheek, overcome with emotion. I wasn’t buying it. He had no idea what he had done. Ava was gone, our baby was gone, there was nothing else I cared about. I could do this all day. I knew Alessandro wasn’t walking out of here alive and I wanted to be sure I got every last answer out of him that I wanted.

“I screwed up, Nick. I admit that. I hurt Ava in more ways than I would ever like to admit, but you have to believe me—I never meant for any of this to happen. Not the accident, not the baby, certainly not being kidnapped.”

It took me a minute to process his words. Did he just say . . .

“Kidnapped?” It was like a stab to my heart saying that out loud. Someone had taken her?

Alessandro sighed, slightly confused. “I got a call just before you came this morning. Alek picked her up last night. He sent me a picture, you can check my phone. I thought that was why you had taken me, because Alek is going to kill Ava. You didn’t know?” Confusion blanketed his face.

“Where the fuck is your phone?” I hissed, throwing him out of the chair. I didn’t want to believe it; I had to see it for myself.

“My back pocket.” Alessandro groaned in pain.

I ripped the phone out of his pocket and searched desperately. Just as he said, there was a picture of Ava from an unknown number. She was passed out on the floor of some cell, motionless and unconscious. She was bruised and bloody, and had fresh drag marks all over her legs. Consider us even. That was all the text said.

All the air was sucked out of my lungs. Alek had taken her last night; he must have gotten to her when she left. I had wasted all this time on this prick while Ava was in the hands of one of the most ruthless men in the world, who had a vendetta against both me and her father.

I dropped Alessandro’s phone and whipped the gun off of my hip. “You son of a bitch.’

“Tell her I’m sorry, Nick. Go find her and tell her I’m sorry. And that I love her.” His voice was shallow and it seemed like a struggle for him to get the words out. Before I could even pull the trigger, Alessandro slumped over, life completely drained out of him.

I was shocked that it had happened so suddenly, that he was gone. Dead from his injuries and blood loss. I should sort this out, but the only thing on my mind was getting to Ava. I had to find her, and on the way there, I had to pray to God I wasn’t too late.

Chapter 41

Nick

Within minutes of leaving Alessandro I was sitting in front of an abandoned warehouse in the Meatpacking District. Leo had traced it to Asnikov, and considering the only other property he owned was his house, I assumed this was where he had Ava. It made sense. It was decrepit and far away from any buildings that had actually businesses in them. He could work out of here without fear of being bothered or seen by someone. There weren’t many exits. I knew that because I had been sitting here pouring over the blueprints Zane had sent me, planning my ambush.

I was a ball of angst, bouncing and fidgeting as I waited for the backup my dad was sending. I’d promised him I would wait until they got here before going in, but that was proving hard to do. I had no idea what was happening to Ava inside of those walls, and it was absolutely wrecking me.

When I finally couldn’t take it any longer, I crept up to the side of the building and peered into a window. Fuck waiting for my dad, I needed to get my girl or die trying.

Just as I was about to go in, my dad and Leo pulled up with several other men, ready for a battle.

“I sure as hell hope you weren’t about to go in there yourself, Nick,” my dad hissed, slapping a bulletproof vest on and throwing one to me.

“Nope, just scoping things out,” I lied, buckling the vest on. If I was being honest with myself, I would have been grossly overmatched if I had busted in there alone. I felt much better about getting Ava back now that I had reinforcements. “So what’s the plan?”

“Bust through the door, charge our way through until we find Ava, shoot anyone who gets in the way.” Leo smirked, making it sound as easy as pie.

My dad groaned, shaking his head at Leo. “Infrared is showing three men at the back entrance. The last fifteen minutes of each hour, one of them goes on break. That’s our window of opportunity. They’re most likely holding Ava in one of the front holding cells, which is in the opposite corner of the entrance. We’ll send Vance and Joey around this side, you and Leo will go the other way,” my dad said, pointing and directing the group.

“Once we’re inside, we’ll have about ninety seconds before their backup gets here. We need to move fast. If they have Ava in the front, you’re not going to be able to get to her and then get her out in that amount of time.” He slapped a grenade into my hand. “You get her and you blow the side out of the building, and you get her out. Once we get the confirmation that everyone is out, we’ll blow everything. We have to move, we’ve got eight minutes tops for all of this to go down.”

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