Page 22 of Unbound

Fuck!

He considered Holly his property, without a doubt, and he wasn’t about to voluntarily part with that property. This would have to get dirty.

“What condition is she in?” I pushed, leaning toward the phone.

He didn’t answer. I wasn’t surprised.

“Let me rephrase,” I bit off, losing the thin thread of control I still had, but he cut me off again.

“I will allow Tessa to see her briefly so that you may put your wife’s mind at ease.”

“What about allowing Holly and her sister to meet?” Zack offered.

“We can discuss that at a later time. After your business in the East with our other acquaintance is done.”

Did Romero know that we were about to take Kruna down? Who did he know there? I looked at Zack. I couldn’t read him.

“Can Dario speak to Tessa briefly? It’ll put minds at ease,” Zack requested.

“All right. A minute.”

We waited for at least five minutes.

“Hello?” Tess called, her voice trembling.

“Tessa?” I asked.

She started to whimper and it cut like a fucking knife. “Dare?”

“You okay?”

“I wanna come home.”

“Zack is coming for you tomorrow. He’ll bring you to Tommy. I gotta go out of town but Tommy’ll be there. You ever meet Zack?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, everything’s fine. The girls are all looking after your boys. They miss you but they’re not frightened. They’re getting spoiled by all their aunties. Okay? They’ll be there when you get to Tommy. Everything’s gonna be okay, sweetheart. This guy’s got you safe and comfortable?”

“Uh, yeah–” Her voice trailed off and Romero was back on the phone.

“Ferrano? Your sister was…” He stopped and I heard what sounded like a door close. “I don’t know who, I didn’t ask many questions, but someone who took her violated her. She has not been touched since she came to me. We’ve given her medical attention, but her arm is going to have a nasty scar. I gotta end this call now.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Lex,” Zack said. “Thanks man.”

“You will.”

The line went dead.

My eyes moved to Zack and my blood was thundering in my veins, my ears. Violated her? To what degree? I clenched my fists. I had to put that aside for the moment, until I knew more.

“What’s the deal?”

Zack blew out a slow breath and then called up something on his laptop and tilted it towards me.

It was a candid photo of a good-looking guy with dark hair and dark eyes, maybe around Tommy’s age, maybe between us in age, dressed in a nice suit. He had a ‘don’t fuck with me’ expression on his face as he was in a doorway of what might have been a hotel. He was lighting a cigarette.

I needed a goddamned smoke. And to put my fist through a wall.

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