Page 58 of Taken By the Mob Boss

Marco stands then, his eyes burned into my mind. He heads back to the door of the shipping container and knocks twice. I remain frozen. The door opens and he steps out into the darkness beyond. A light turns on somewhere, the shadow hiding half of his face. He flicks a switch and the lights inside the container turn off. “But you won’t be alive to see that, Sophie. There’s hard work to be done before then.”

The fact that I’m going to be locked back in this darkness unlocks my frozen body. I scream as the door is slammed shut and locked. I rage in the darkness that Marco has left me in. I bounce about and try to get towards the door. A rope somewhere behind me goes taught and pulls me back. I fall over again and the metal floor bashes against my skull. Drowsy, I scream anyway. I scream until I’m hoarse and out of breath. I scream until I pass out, dreading what is going to happen to me.

Chapter 24

Luca

Iscreechtoahalt in the driveway and get out of the car. The front door is wide open and the light is spilling out onto the small path leading in. My heart is in my throat and I fumble out of the car and stumble through the door and find the house completely trashed.

Someone has gone at the walls with a sledgehammer and the glass has been broken in every window. I run through calling Sophie’s name, even though I know it’s pointless. Every room is empty and the house echoes back nothing but silence. Every corner is bare. The chairs are upturned and the drawers have been emptied. Her luggage is gone and so is any sign that she'd ever been here. I go back into the living room, the last moments I’d seen her replaying in my head.

Marco screaming and lunging for her. Me defending her …

Yet I’d believed that she may have been guilty too, in some small part of my heart. Shame envelopes me. How could I have been so blind?

It’s all Marco’s manipulation. That’s the truth. All from the one man I’d trusted. Only for him to turn on me. I turned around helplessly and spotted the broken picture of my parents, mashed into the floor. What normally hung in the hallway had been mashed into the carpet by the heel of a boot. I pick it up and hold the photo in my hands, brushing the bits of glass away. How has this happened? Why? Something like this should’ve always been more protected—

Protected …

“The fucking app!” I take my phone out and go to the app. My body is shaking with a mixture of fear and shock, I tap through the settings and find the search bar.

But it doesn’t matter, Sophie is where I am. I took her phone.

“The phone!” I run to the bedroom and turn to the corner, only to find the board opened and the phone out and broken.

There isn’t any way to find her now. Marco has thought of everything.

All hope is completely draining away. The anger that normally comes with my vulnerability is gone. I feel completely blind sided. I slump against the island. There’s no need to lie to myself anymore. I’ve been doing it long enough, but with her nowgone, there’s no point continuing. My love is gone. The woman I envisioned a future with. The woman I even thought of having a child with. She’s gone. And she even was pregnant! She was—

I see the blood on the floor by the sink.

I lunge for it, looking for any other clues. My anger ignites all of a sudden, thinking that Marco has hurt Sophie.Sophie, who is pregnant.In the sink is a broken mug. Most of it has been washed clean, but there is a section where blood has seeped into the ceramic joins.

My blood really does boil now and my anger blinds me. I scream and grab the broken shard of the cup and hurl it at the wall. I can’t calm this rage anymore. I feel so stupid. How could I have been manipulated so easily? I grab one of the broken stool legs on the floor and begin bashing the kitchen cupboards with all my might until I swing too low and bash the front of the microwave.

The glass shatters and shows the meal Sophie heated up just a few hours ago.

It grounds me and I reverse all emotions again completely one eighty degrees.What the hell is this? I can’t even control my feelings anymore.I collapse against the counter and slide down and sit on the ground. I take my phone out and find Tommy Russo’s number. But I hesitate to call.

I need to call him but I feel so ashamed of myself. That I’d suspected her in the first place—What kind of leader am I? How blind have I been to everything let alone the other businesses? Marco was able to manipulate me for months, years probably. I groan and hit call.

Tommy picks up quickly.

“Luca,” he says.

My voice is dry. I can’t get anything out.

“Luca, are you there?”

My tongue won’t budge from the roof of my mouth. I feel strange all of a sudden. I see visions of my father in my head and it’s like I’m talking to him. How do I tell him the bad news? How would Sophie tell my father, had it been reversed?

“Sophie,” I croak.

“Sophie what?” Tommy says, urgency in his voice. “Sophie what?”

“Is gone,” I manage. My legs are drained of feeling and I’m grateful that I’m sitting.

“What do you mean?” Tommy says. “Gone like she left you? Or gone like she disappeared?”

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