Page 120 of The Mafia's Broken Vows

“Gone.” Nico inclines his head tightly. “Taken by the Irish.”

Nico pauses, and I can see him steeling himself for what comes next. “Addy too, I’m afraid.”

The words hit me like a punch to the face, and I stagger backward, my hand finding the doorframe for support. Beside me, Sal’s sharp intake of breath is the only sound in the suddenly airless room.

“What the hell?” The word comes out as a strangled whisper; I hardly recognize it as my own voice.

Aydin’s sobs grow louder, and suddenly, everything clicks into place.

“What the actual hell?” This time it’s a roar, the sound tearing from my throat. Rage and anguish propel me toward the woman on the floor.

Nico moves swiftly, pulling Aydin roughly to her feet and pushing her toward Sophie. “Get her out of here, now,” he growls.

Nico grabs my shoulder, his hold on me restraining and comforting as Sophie quickly leads Aydin away. Sophie’s golden eyes are huge and pleading as she trains them on Nico, mouthing something that sounds like ‘call him, please,’ but I can’t hear over the roaring in my ears.

I struggle to breathe, to think. The world has just tilted on its axis, and nothing makes sense anymore.

“How?” I manage to push past the tightness in my throat, a single word laden with a thousand questions.

Nico’s voice is clipped, emotionless. “They picked up Kira from her concert in Boston. She confessed that Addy is alive. They threatened Aydin to give up Addy in exchange for her daughter and so she convinced Addy to leave. As soon as your woman left, Aydin confessed to Sophie.”

Each word is a nail in the coffin as the future I dared to dream of crumbles before my very eyes.

“I’m getting her back,” I say, my tone brooking no argument. “Tonight.”

“Dante—” Nico starts, but I cut him off.

“Tonight!” I roar.

Nico sighs, running a hand through his hair. “We don’t know exactly where she is. Although Aydin gave Addy one of our trackable phones.”

Sal moves to one of the laptops on the conference table and starts typing on the keys. He finally straightens. “It’s no longer live but it was last in O’Hare airport.”

Nico leans over to peer at the screen, too. “She must have been taken back to Boston.”

“Then Boston we shall go—” I begin, but Sal holds his hand up, cutting me off.

“Hold on,” Sal continues typing on the keyboard. I peek over his shoulder to see that he appears to be chatting with someone. “She might not be in Boston, Dante.”

When Nico and I simply look at Sal, he explains. “It looks like the deal with the Shadow gang is being struck today. Sounds like the top guns of the Mob, including Benjamin O’Shea, are in Philly tonight.”

I nod, but it still doesn’t make sense. I rake my hands through my hair and grab hold of the strands. “If they’re wrapped up in a crucial deal tonight, how the fuck do they have time to pull something like this today of all days?”

“Because they’re desperate to take their only leverage against us?” Sal replies. “With Kira and Red Wine in their grasp, they could ask us to fall on our own swords, and we’d do it.”

“Or,” Nico levels his gaze at me as he voices the worst possible scenario, “it could be that they need Addy for the deal.”

An unnatural chill settles inside my bones. What I feel is beyond rage. Beyond despair. It’s a cold, monstrous vengeance demanding blood. A reminder of why I would choose this life over and over again. The freedom it gives me to create my own justice.

I will personally flay every inch of skin off the bones of anyone who so much as touches the mother of my child.

I pull up a chair and make myself sit because giving into a fit of anger will achieve nothing. Instead, I let all the rage coalesce into a hot, tight ball in the pit of my belly.

Sal taps a few more buttons, pauses, and then starts up again. Finally, he straightens from the laptop and confirms. “Confirmed. Half of Mob are in Boston, the other half is at a wedding in Philadelphia.”

I huff out a bitter laugh. A wedding, huh? She’s about to become a widow.

Between Sal and me, it’ll be a piece of cake to locate Addy, considering the Shadow gang isn’t the most innovative.

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