Antonio
There was nothing but broken glass inside my chest, shards slicing my heart into pieces. I was gutted as if my body and soul had been turned inside out.
I wasn’t a weak man. Far from it. But when she held that blade against her wrist, I felt like the weakest man alive. Every ounce of strength instantly drained from my body. Every beat of my heart only spread the fear further through my veins. It scared the shit out of me. The thought of her taking her own life, of her no longer breathing, was the most pain I had ever experienced. I knew she wasn’t bluffing. It was in her eyes. The desperation. The resolve. Something was driving her. Something or someone had her in a corner, and she had no choice. But what?
Think, Antonio. Think.
There was no doubt Vadik was behind this, but she wouldn’t go to him willingly. There was no way she would just up and run back to the devil she feared the most. Something didn’t make sense. If there was something going on, she would have come to me. Confided in me. Unless…unless something was at stake. Like the night at Vertigo. She was willing to go with that son of a bitch solely to save Karina. And when he threatened my little sister, Doe finally snapped, made a complete one-eighty and killed the fucker…in order to save Karina.
“Jesus,” I muttered. “Fuck. Lorik, where’s Karina?”
“She’s upstairs in our room. Why?”
“How sure are you that she’s there?”
“Fuck, man.” He pulled out his phone, his fingers swiping across the screen. “Jesus fucking Christ.” He froze, staring at the phone.
“What? What is it?”
He looked up. “A black heart.”
I frowned. “A what?”
“A black heart. Ever since she got kidnapped by Enzio, we decided to have a secret SOS in case one of us was in trouble.”
I pulled my hand through my hair. “Let me guess, a black fucking heart.”
Lorik didn’t stick around to hear my full sentence. He ran up the stairs and into the house in record time. I didn’t bother following. I already knew Karina wasn’t going to be in the bedroom.
Dante cursed. “What the fuck do we do now?”
I plucked out my phone and called Lucio. He answered on the first ring.
“Track her,” was all I said before I hung up.
There was no need to explain. Dante already knew what was happening.
“I’ll get the car.” He rushed into the house just as Lorik came back out, screaming like a maniac.
“That fucking son of a fucking bitch. I’m going to kill him. If he harms one hair on her stubborn little head, I will fucking kill him. I swear to fucking—”
“Lorik!” I yelled. “Calm the fuck down.”
“How the fuck can you tell me to calm the fuck down when this psycho pervert has my woman, and your woman just ran straight fucking to him?”
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t focus. Everything that was happening felt like a fucking blur, and for the first time in my entire goddamn life, I felt helpless as shit.
My phone rang. “Lucio?”
“We got her.”
“Send it to my GPS.”
Dante pulled up with the Audi, got out, and popped the trunk.
“Jesus, did you rob the military?” Lorik stared at the guns while Dante and I stashed as many weapons on us as we could.
My phone rang, and I answered thinking it was Lucio, but it wasn’t.