“Jaxson, your crazy ass sister got the four of us abducted by Benjamin Ryan. We’re in the back of his white van and according to GPS, heading northeast. I don’t know how long we’ll have our phones. Please call us.”
“Daddy,” Izzie said, reaching for my phone.
I hung up the call. “I’m sorry, sweetie, Daddy didn’t pick up.” I turned my phone on silent and shoved my phone into my fashionable boots.
Izzie trembled in my arms and clung to me even tighter, her hold making it hard to breathe.
Gently, I caressed her back, trying to ease her fears. The girl had been through enough already in her short lifetime.
Skylar stared at Izzie. “I’m sorry. It was never my choice to be here either.” Her gaze met my stare. “I know you think Ben is the monster. You probably think I’m one too, but you haven’t even come close to discovering whathe’scapable of doing.”
“Who?” I asked. If she wasn’t referring to Ben, then who was behind our abduction. Who did Ben work for?
“Don DeLuca,” Skylar whispered.
I’d barely heard her, and I certainly didn’t recognize the name. She kept her stare averted.
Skylar wrung her hands together before she focused on her fingernails and picked away at the light pink nail polish.
“Is that name supposed to mean something to me?” I asked. I glanced at Hazel and Harper. Not that I expected them to recognize the name, but maybe they were aware of something I hadn’t been knowledgeable about.
“Shit,” Harper whispered.
“What?” I glanced at her. What did she know?
“DeLuca works for Don Ricci,” Harper said. “Well, works for is a strong term. After I discovered Enzo’s background, I did a little digging.”
“Digging?” I asked.
“Yes, I hired a private investigator to find out who I was married to and why he’d been in Vegas. When I saw on the news that Enzo was wanted for a slew of crimes, I thought he was the only mob boss.”
“Mob boss?” Hazel whispered. “If they know my last is Agron, they’ll kill me.” She pulled her knees to her chest, her eyes wide. I could feel her tremble beside me in the van.
Hazel’s eldest brother was head of the Russian mob in Chicago, but he was dead. We hadn’t kept up with who had risen in power, but Hazel was likely still a target of the Russian mafia. They’d left her alone after her betrothed, Franco Ivanov, had been arrested, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out for getting revenge if DeLuca had ties to Chicago.
“Turns out that Angelo DeLuca runs the Nevada and Southwest ring. They’re enemies, at least they were. But Lincoln has been keeping tabs on Enzo. He doesn’t trust that he’ll leave me alone.”
Maybe Lincoln was right, and Ben hadn’t snatched the four of us because of me. That didn’t make me feel the least bit better.
Could it have been because Don DeLuca was trying to get Don Enzo’s attention with Harper? Did he think the baby was Enzo’s?
“What do we do?” I asked, glancing from Harper to Skylar.
Skylar stared back down at the floor. “I can’t help you. Don DeLuca expected three girls by midnight. I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered. Her voice sounded strained, like she was fighting back the tears.
I’d never seen Skylar cry. She’d been moody and difficult, emotional on a scale of bitchiness. But filled with concern, that wasn’t a Skylar who I was familiar with seeing, ever.
The vehicle came to an abrupt halt.
The engine died.
Why were we stopped?
I wanted to grab my phone and glance at the GPS to determine our location, but the van door squeaked and slammed.
Ben was on the move.
Any second he’d be opening the van door, and I couldn’t risk him discovering my phone.
Ben jerked the handle and slid the van door open. “Out!” he demanded, waving his gun at us.
“I want to go home,” Izzie said, clutching me tight.
Already she was in my arms, but her hold on me didn’t seem enough. “I know, baby girl.” I wanted to go home, too.
I’d lay my life on the line to protect Izzie. She had become as much my daughter as she was Jaxson’s.