The sun was coming up, and I was no closer to finding Mia. My jaw ached from clenching my teeth.How was it possible that she was there one minute, and not a single person had seen her leave?
Ricco was the only one spotted in the club. Joey and Guido were nowhere on the premises. Somehow, Ricco had taken her. And this time, he would die.
Throughout the remainder of the night, Enzo and Adriano had searched through a camera feed they were able to access online with the help of Hailey, Trey’s wife, who was back in Chicago. She had managed to find a brief snapshot of Ricco with Mia, who was unconscious. But that was the extent of it. With all the chaos, they’d been lost in a sea of panicking clubgoers, Torrid’s staff, and pedestrians.
Stefano had tracked down Joey and demanded Mia’s return, but her father swore he knew nothing of her abduction. And in turn, he’d called for the return of what had been stolen from him after Mia had fled, which made little sense to us—but Dante had stiffened. He’d played a role, for sure, but that wasn’t our concern.
Sofia had done what she could to keep me calm until exhaustion claimed her. It had helped, at least outwardly. I was a bundle of nerves and rage inside. I couldn’t help but think of worst-case scenarios. The only thing that kept me sane was that Ricco, Guido, and Joey all wanted to use her, so they would keep her alive.
It was tense in the Verretti household. We were in a Manhattan building owned by Dante’s family. Tony was in surgery in one of the rooms. The longer it took, the more anxious everyone became. I glanced at Tom, who often got Sofia duty when she was younger and who all the women in the families swore resembled an older and much larger Jensen Ackles. He spoke in hushed tones on the phone to Nicole, Tony’s mom.
My sister was curled up in Enzo’s lap, sound asleep. Emiliana and Stefano had their heads bent together, whispering. Marco and El had volunteered to comb the streets and requestion the guards in search of a clue about Mia’s whereabouts.
That left the Verretti brothers. I sank into a chair at the dining room table, where Adriano stared at his computer screen. Cal leaned over his shoulder, and Dante hadn’t taken his eyes off me the entire time.
“You care about her.” Dante’s deep voice boomed through the hushed group.
I pivoted to glare at him. “She’s my wife.” I had nothing to prove.
Unfazed, he leaned back in his chair and continued to regard me. “I’ve known Mia her entire life. We all have.” He nodded toward his brothers. “We care about her and will find her.”
I leaned down, my palms flat on the table between us. “If you care about her so much, why did you let Ricco terrorize her when she was younger? And how about how her father locked her in the house for most of her life?”
“You’re aware of how some of the others in the Chicago Mafia were treated by their fathers. Maybe not then, but you are now. Did you help them?”
He meant Stefano and Lil. It was a fair point, but I wasn’t in the mood to agree. “You were given an opportunity to help her. You turned it down, which I’m glad you did. It brought her into my life. But because of that, I don’t believe that you have her best interests at heart.”
“There are circumstances”—he shared a look with his brothers—“we’re still unsure of. The evening Mia and I had planned to raid the trucks was when I would get her away from the Tucci household.”
I called bullshit. “And how would you do that? She answered to her father at that point, not you. By taking her, the Verrettis would have declared war on her family.”
A muscle jumped along the side of Dante’s jaw, the only visible sign that I’d hit a nerve. “It’s something we should have done years ago. But it wasn’t until recently that we learned more about her situation.”
Closed doors could hide a lot. Lil had shared her experiences with my sister, and Emiliana had learned as much about Stefano. I opened my mouth to question what he’d learned when Trey appeared.
Exhaustion painted deep half-circles beneath his eyes as he grabbed a tumbler half full of whiskey out of Stefano’s hand and slammed it back. None of us said a word, preferring to give him a moment before he told us Tony’s prognosis.
Trey dropped to a chair and rubbed a hand over his face before he raised his eyes to meet ours. “He made it.”
Half the fight drained from me at his words. Tony had been a difficult man to like for a long time, but after Max returned, everything changed. Then Antonio Caruso was killed, freeing his wife, Nicole, and son from his iron-fisted control. Tony became one of us, whereas before, we’d tolerated him only because we had to.
“When can he go home?” Stefano stood, pulling Em to her feet.
“I want to give him a few hours,” Trey said. “He’s stable, but it would be better to wait to move him.”
Sofia blinked sleepy eyes at our brother before sliding off Enzo’s lap. “Enz and I’ll sit with Tony so you can get some sleep.”
“We’ll wake you if there’s any change.” Enzo clasped Sofia’s hand as they left to sit with Tony.
“We can leave late afternoon,” Trey said to Stefano before turning to Dante. “Where can I crash?”
“I’ll show you to a room.” Cal unfurled himself to his over-six-foot height before leading the way to the hallway, where there were several bedrooms.
I glanced at Stefano. “Any news from Marco?”
“No.” Stefano looked as angry as I felt. “He and El are on their way back.”
“I’ve got something,” Adriano interrupted, his gaze glued to the laptop’s screen.