Page 53 of The Don's Prisoner

“If there had been someone in there, we would know, but we tore everything apart and didn’t find anything. Besides, if there was, there would be no way anyone could survive that. If they were inside, they would have been crushed.”

“I’m telling you, she’s here,” I insisted, and the white hat guy looked annoyed.

“And I’m telling you there’s no fucking way there was anyone here. Now please leave or I’m gonna call the cops.”

I balled my hand into a fist and Logan reached for me, setting a hand on my shoulder to keep me from punching this guy. Felix stepped forward then and, in his best salesman voice, tried to reason with them.

“Look, you are probably right, but if we don’t let him have a look around now it’s just going to get so much worse. He needs to see that she really isn’t here. Please, it will only take about ten minutes or so of your time, and then we will leave. Let us walk around?” he asked and I hated how he had to do that, but I also understood. I was too gruff and too on edge right now to be reasonable, which was why they weren’t going to listen to me in the first place.

The man in the white hat thought for a moment and looked at his guys. Then, he looked back at us and shrugged.

“Fine, ten minutes, and then I want you the hell out of here. This is a demo zone, not a playground,” he mumbled. Felix shot him a delighted smile and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Thank you so much! I can’t even tell you how happy I am that you are being so kind and allowing us to look. Now, I have a question that may seem a little strange. Did Rex say anything to you about the place? Any parts you couldn’t go in, any special instructions that sounded weird? I wouldn’t ask, but it will save us time if you can think of anything,” Felix conversed, and I cheered inwardly at his ability to manipulate people like that.

“Well… there was one thing,” the man in the white hat said. “He insisted we demolish that portion last,” he said and pointed at the bit that was still left standing. “I assumed it was because of the basement, but it was still really strange. Usually, people who hire us just let us do our thing, but it was very important to him.”

“Thank you!” Felix said as I started walking towards the part he had pointed to, my heart pounding in my throat. Felix hung back and kept talking to the white hat while Logan and Robby flanked me as I started climbing over the rubble. Someone called out to us not to climb on stuff, but I didn’t care. I needed to find her, and if Rex was very specific about saving that part for last, then that was where she had to be.

I climbed over a pile of concrete and scaled several large iron beams until I saw a hole in the ground. It looked like it had a mostly intact ground floor, except that part of it had caved in. I looked down into it and saw that it led to what appeared to be the basement. If there was a basement, it would be a great place to begin looking. Where else would he be able to hide someone without drawing attention?

I circled around looking for a set of stairs or another way to get down safely when I saw a place in the floor that had one of those beams sticking out of it. The beam had crumbled the floor it had hit, so there was a huge open space that led down into the dark. I called out to the guys and hugged myself to it before dropping down into the basement.

It was a rather clear space considering how much was on top of it, but I got the distinct feeling that whatever I was going to do, I needed to hurry. The remaining ceiling above it was not going to stop that much weight from crashing through for long. I needed to get out before I became an Italian pancake.

I looked around and, at first, I didn’t see anything because of all the dust and the dark of night. But as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I thought I saw something off in the corner. It looked like more metal beams, which I considered ignoring, figuring them to be more rubble, but then I looked closer and saw that they were thinner and more regular than the beams I had been seeing. They were smaller too and looked like they belonged there.

I approached them cautiously and saw that part of the ceiling had fallen in, bending the bars. It took a long moment for me to figure out what it was, but when I did see it, I realized that it was a cage, and inside was the form of a person lying on the ground.

“I found her!” I yelled out to the guys topside and bent down so I could duck under the broken piece of cage wall.

I was immediately at her side, checking her for vital signs while thanking every god I could think of that she was there. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it looked like she had gotten banged up pretty badly. Her arm was at an angle it shouldn’t have been, and her face was covered in something dark. I touched her face, and it felt sticky. I didn’t have to see the color to know it was blood.

“Victoria… darling,” I whispered to her, pulling her into my lap and cradling her face to me. She didn’t respond, and my heart stopped. Was I too late? Was she gone already? Had I failed her?

I brushed her hair off her face and kissed her forehead gently. She let out a soft moan, and I sobbed out a breath of relief.

“You’re alive!” I gasped and hugged her closer to me. “Oh, thank God, Victoria. I’m here. You’re going to be okay. Everything is going to be alright, baby, just hang in there, okay? I’ve got you.”

“Gio…” she whispered and I cried. Tears of relief and stress rolled down my cheeks, and I didn’t even care. She was alive, she had said my name, and that was all that mattered.

“I’m here, darling. I’ve come for you.”

“I love you,” she whispered in the darkness. “I wanted… I’m sorry I didn’t say it… before…”

Her chest stopped moving up and down, and her whole body went still.

Chapter nineteen

Victoria

I stood staring at myself in the mirror, amazed that I looked as good as I did.

It had been a rough few months since Gio, Robby, Felix, and Logan had found me in the basement of the demolished warehouse. I didn’t remember much about the rescue, but they had recounted the story many times. Gio had stopped at nothing to find me, even after being told that there was no way I could be down there. He went in anyway and found me on the floor of the basement, covered in blood.

I had a vague recollection of Gio from that night, but my memories essentially went from Rex being on top of me in the cage and smacking me to waking up in a very white bed surrounded by sterile white walls and an obnoxious beeping noise in my ears. Gio’s hand was clasped around mine while he slept in the chair next to my bed.

Apparently, they had called an ambulance, and Gio performed CPR until they could get me out of the basement and into the rig that drove me to St. Mary’s Hospital. There, it was deemed that I had a broken arm, three broken ribs, a concussion, and a crack in the back of my skull as well as many, many bruises. One of the broken ribs had punctured a lung, which was why I had passed out on poor Gio.

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