Page 47 of Nick

“Did you know this is my wedding day?”

“I heard. I’m sorry you had to leave your bride.”

“Yeah, me too.” I pulled my beanie down over my eyes and got some sleep.

I woke up when the plane landed. “We’ll go to my home. We can set up base there while we are here.”

“That sounds great. Thanks.”

When we arrived at my condo, I thought about when Opal was here. I walked into my room and opened the drawer. When she dressed and left early without waking me, I found her panties in the bed. God, I missed her. I took out my phone and called her.

“Hello,” she answered.

“Hey, sweetheart. I wanted to call and let you know we made it. What are you doing?”

“I’m making bread. I hope you find your friend fast. I miss you.”

“I miss you too. Don’t work too hard.”

“I won’t. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I can. Goodbye, honey.”

“Goodbye, Nick.”

I looked at the others. “We’ll dress in black before we leave. We don’t want anyone to notice us. If someone asks you a question, ignore them or slug them in the face like you are a worse bastard than they are. It’ll keep someone from confronting you again. Do any of you speak Italian?”

Everyone did, which was surprising. I looked at Matt. “So every time I cussed you out in Italian and you laughed, you were laughing at me.”

“Yep.”

I laughed so hard that I had everyone laughing. It felt good to laugh, knowing we were about to embark on a dangerous mission to find our friend.

Ryker stepped up next to me. He still had a wide grin on his face, “Nick, we'll follow you since we don’t know this area.”

“Let’s get ready. We’ll drive until we get near their territory, then we’ll continue on foot. You have to remember one thing: Lose all the politeness you have in you while you are here. Become as rude as you can be. That’s how we will treat these dogs. When a woman comes up to you, remember she is one of them. And she will rip your guts out with the sharp knife she carries. So I know it goes against your grain, but if a woman walks up to you, tell her to get the fuck away or do what you have to.”

We took the elevator down to the garage and climbed into my big black vehicle. “First, we’ll drive through the area so I can show you the places where they kept me. I don’t know if Ethan is there, but he might be.”

“Will they know your vehicle? They could quickly get your license plate number.”

“I don’t carry it on my car. I have it in my console. We won’t have to worry about them following us. We have to stick together. If you feel someone pushing against you, they will try and separate us.”

I drove until we entered the Bellos area. “I take it was here,” Lincoln said, looking up and down the streets. People were burning fires in barrels, and all of them were watching us. They couldn’t see us. My windows were black so that no one could see inside.

“We have a tail,” Matt said.

I looked in the rearview mirror. “That was fast.”

“Are you going to lose them?”

“We’ll let them follow us out of here.” I drove around and showed them more of the places they held me.

“How did they transport you?”

“We walked. There are no police here. The Bellos run their own area.” We drove out of the area, and they kept following us. I drove to the police station and parked. “They’ll think we are the police.” We watched them drive by and turn down a road. I waited, and sure enough, we saw them park a half block down from us.

Thirty minutes later, they left. Not long after that, we left. We parked half a mile from the Bellos and walked. We stayed in the shadows as much as we could. When a man stepped in front of me, my fist landed in his face, and he fell to the ground.

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