Page 34 of Dangerous Vengeance

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MATTY

Isit across the desk from Detective Akers, a new name on our roster. His daughter got tangled up with our family in a nasty way and thanks to that, he’s now on our payroll. I’m certain he doesn't like it, and I’m certain Dominic has already ordered him to not help me, which is why my loaded gun is pointed at his chest. He watches me reluctantly as he runs the trace on the number with which Natalie has been communicating with me. If I knew how to do it myself, I would have, but this is easier. The only drawback is that Dominic will find out and if this jerk tells him where Natalie is, I’ll only have moments to arrive first to get her.

“It shows she’s here,” he says, turning his computer screen to face me, “down by the Night Hotel on Broadway. Man, your brother is going to kill you.” He leaves the screen as it is, and I memorize the location. Dominic won’t lay a finger on me, because I won’t give him a chance.

“You let me worry about my brother, and you worry about you. He’ll murder you if you tell him you helped me.” I lean back and holster my gun. I think the man has the point that he’s already in too deep. “Just remember to deny everything. The less you tell him the better. Because I’m his blood, and you’re just a reluctant prisoner to his plans.” I stand and button my jacket over my holstered weapon.

“Matvey, you can’t just leave me like this. If he finds out I helped you he really will kill me. You have to back me up; I did this for you.” His voice cracks as he speaks. There’s nothing worse than a weak man, but we don’t get to choose who we put on payroll sometimes. This man was a necessary evil, so now he’s going to pay off his debt to my family by helping me. And if he takes the fall for my insubordination, so be it.

“Keep your nose clean, Akers.”

With a new bead on Natalie’s location, I head out. When I decided to seek help in the form of a trace on her line, I knew Akers was the only one to call. Our other cop buddy, Sergeant Monroe, is too close to the family. He’s been around too long. Dominic and him are almost friends now, and I’ve seen him turn one too many of our men in for stupid shit—petty shit.

Traffic is heavy this morning, foot traffic even more so. I scan the crowds for her but don’t see the familiar navy pinstripe skirt anywhere. Natalie may as well be a needle in a haystack. I can’t run a continuous trace, so I only have the one ping to go on. It leads me to a coffee shop. There is no parking, so I just stop in the street with my flashers on as I enter the tiny little storefront with four booths and one table.

The middle-aged woman behind the counter scowls at me as I approach. It feels like a typical New York greeting. No one in this city is ever happy unless they know you personally and even then, not this early in the morning. Akers certainly wasn’t, but then I woke him up at six a.m. to get to work for me.

“What do you want?” she snarls, and I’m not impressed. Natalie is not here and that means she left only moments ago.

“I’m looking for a woman, dark brown hair, brown eyes. She’s wearing a navy-blue pinstripe suit. Have you seen her?” I don’t have any pictures of Natalie to show her, otherwise I would.

I don’t think that would matter anyway. This woman isn’t very helpful. She says, “What does this look like, the fucking Fifth Precinct? Go file a missing persons report already. What is it with people and problems this morning?” She doesn’t even take my order; she just turns and uses a towel to polish her espresso machine.

I have a mind to tell her off, but that won’t help me find Natalie. I start toward the door when my phone begins to ring. I pull it from my pocket and see it’s the same number she has been texting me from and I answer immediately.

“Natalie?”

“Matty, help me, please,” she cries, and I can tell she’s out of breath. “He’s chasing me.”

“Where are you?”

I hear a commotion, some shouting and a few whimpers. Her panting makes it difficult to hear what else is happening. She’s been running a while; I can tell by how winded she is. “Corner… of…. Seventy-third and Broadway…” she manages before the line goes dead.

“Shit,” I hiss, racing back to my car. It’s only ten blocks from here. She’s in trouble and I don’t know what sort of trouble it is, but she would never call me willingly. She knows she needs help, which leads me to believe one thing. She’s gotten herself tangled up with my enemies.

I put the car in gear and pull a U-turn, whipping back into traffic as quickly as I can. The southbound lane is moving so slowly, I’ll never find her, so I turn up the northbound lane, going the wrong direction and accelerate. Cars swerve and maneuver out of my way, honking horns and screeching tires. I lay on my horn too, pushing the car as fast as I can safely go. I nearly hit a pedestrian and have to swerve again, causing another car to crash into a city bus. Horns go off everywhere, but I have to get to her.

My eyes are peeled, scanning the crowd moving both directions on the sidewalk. As I approach the corner where she said she was, I see nothing, but I keep going, searching, and there I spot her. Her dark brown hair flows behind her as she runs. I see the man approaching her too, though he isn’t what I expected. I see an opening in the crowd and turn my wheel just in time to clip his right hip. He spins around and slams into a light post and falls to the ground as I stop and throw the car in park.

“Natalie!” I scream as I jump out of the car. My heart is pounding. I have her. She’s here. “Natalie!” I shout again and she turns, and as she does, she begins to slow down.

“Oh god, Matty,” she says sobbing. She covers her mouth and nearly falls over trying to catch her breath. As she starts toward me, I walk her direction. I’m not sure what the man wanted with her, but I will find out as soon as she is safely in my car.

I wrap my arms around her and hold her to my chest as she heaves, sucking in air. I’ve never felt more protective over anyone my whole life, not even my family. Natalie is different and I can’t even say why. I just know she’s mine and no one is allowed to touch her but me.

“Let’s get out of here…” With an arm around her waist, I guide her toward my car. The door is open, the engine still running. It’s time to get her off the streets and back to the safety of my house before someone nastier than the street thug comes after her.

“He was… My god…” she sobs, still trying to catch her breath.

“Look, you’re safe for now. We have to get you to my house.”

“Looks like someone is causing a bit of trouble, Tony.” The voice that cuts me off chills me to the bone. The thick Italian accent sets the tone for the conversation. I know we’re well within Italian territory and I’m not here to cause trouble. I just want to get Natalie home. I reach for my weapon, but it’s not there—perhaps it fell off when I was weaving gin, and out of traffic.

“Yeah, Gio, I think we ought to teach this guy we don’t want trouble on our streets.” The second voice comes from a man in a dark suit wearing a black hat and sunglasses. I recognize him because of multiple run-ins with this family. With the tensions already thick between us, I know we’re not safe.

“Get in the car, Natalie,” I tell her, pushing her that direction, but the men have no interest in letting us go safely.

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