Castiel
“Cupcake?” Rage and fear fight for dominance as I listen to my daughter's, my baby girl’s, tear-filled voice tell me what she can.
“The accents, they’re foreign. Uncle Danny might know them. We drove west for about an hour. I can hear the seagulls but no water. They keep saying, il capo la vuole incolume e carina. I think I got that right. Capo, that’s Italian mafia, right? The way they look at me, Daddy, I can’t fight them off. I’m not strong enough.” Her broken sob cracks a hole in my fucking chest.
“I’m coming, Hadley. You give them one hell of a fucking fight, and when I get there, I’ll tear their fucking heads off.” I did worse for her mother, and I know that as much as I hate to admit it, my daughter's man will want to take more than their heads.
“Tell him I love him, okay? Mama too.”
“Hadley?” The line goes silent, and I’m unsure if she hung up or muted it. I hand it back to Ashton, and I can tell he’s a caged beast ready to kill for his woman. “Keep it open. She didn’t hang up. You tracking her?” I look to the bodyguard, and he nods. “Follow me.”
Ignoring the officers around us, I walk straight to Danny-boy. He knows the mafia better than anyone. “Who’s here from the Mediterranean?”
“Who isn’t is the better question.” I can tell he’s not trying to make a joke.
“Il capo la vuole incolume e carina. What’s it mean?”
“Whoa. 'The boss wants her unharmed and pretty',” he answers with a frown, reaching back into his SUV for a laptop.
“So, who the fuck wants her?” Ashton thunders, as impatient as me. I’ll be slicing throats for this. For years, we worked to keep the girls protected. We failed Aria, Lake, and Scotlyn but thought we’d fucking won with Hadley.
“Al Riina,” Daniel says, and I stop cold.
“Who the fuck is that?” Ashton asks. When none of us answer, he loses it. “Who the fuck is Al Riina?”
“A cold-blooded killer. He likes to make wigs out of the pretty blonde girls he takes.” Danny-boy swallows. “He skins them alive.” Everyone is looking a little ashen at the news.