Page 2 of The Prizes We Win
“Enz.” Dante throws Enzo the keys to the truck as we approach it. “You drive.”
“On it.”
And like we’ve done with almost every other mission we’ve gone on, Enzo climbs into the driver’s seat, with me in the passenger seat next to him, and Dante in the back.
Except this isn’t like any other mission we’ve been on.
Enzo places his phone on the dash mount and throws the truck in drive. I pull up the contact information of the person who has become a frequent flier in my “recent” list while the sounds of Dante readying more weapons echo in the backseat.
The phone rings twice before a soft voice answers, “Hey, Luca. Your new brother is currently arm-wrestling your other newbrother because they’re trying to decide which one of them—you know what? Never mind. What’s up?”
“I need to talk to him, Harp. Now.”
“Okay. One second.” Sensing the unusual bluntness of my tone, I immediately hear her move toward Ronan. “Baby, it’s Luca. It’s important.” She hesitates for a moment, and I hear her kiss him softly. “I’m going to go take a bath. Let me know when you’re leaving.”
As Enzo turns toward the East River, I hear him and Mac each say something to her that I can’t quite make out, yet the love and affection in their voices do nothing to soothe the intense aching in my chest.
“Hey, man, what’s—”
“The Bratva has Josephine and Sebastian. They’re headed your way. We’re trying to make our way through traffic, but you guys are closer.”
“Say no more. We’re on our way out.”
“We have to get to them before they get to the tunnel. Once we get into their territory in Brighton Beach, who knows how many of them there will be.” As if in perfect sync, Dante and Mac both chuckle deeply. As if neither of them are even the slightest bit afraid of being outnumbered. “Finn, you have the program installed on your phone?”
“Yeah. We all have it now too. Figured after everything that went down with Harp, it was better safe than sorry.”
“Perfect. His is on. And as long as they don’t split the two of them up, we should be able to get to both of them.”
“What if they do split up?” Enzo asks me softly as he weaves in and out of the slow New York City traffic.
“Then we don’t fucking stop until we find her.”
2
Josephine
Ihave never felt anything like the rage that’s coursing through me as I sit next to Sebastian in the back of this fucking SUV. I don’t know what I want to do more: reach to my right and grab Seb’s hand in mine or reach to my left and deck my dad across his smug fucking face.
But I can’t do either, because one of these assholes zip-tied our hands together. So tight, might I add, that I can already feel the hard plastic cutting into my skin. It won’t be long before I’m bleeding, and I haven’t even begun to struggle.
Do. Not. Struggle.
Just wait.
Wait.
Sebastian’s words echo in my mind.
“Do not fight them. Do not argue. Just do as they say until I say otherwise. Do you trust me?”
Yes.
With every fiber of my being. I trust him. I trustallof them.
But most importantly, I trust myself. I trust my strength. I trust my abilities. And I trust my instincts. I know that we will get out of this, and we will make our way back to them.
To Luca.
