“Can you see in the car?” I asked, hoping for something to tell me she was all right.

“No.”

Fuck. Anger and frustration rode me hard.

I grabbed my gun, needing something to hold. When the car stopped, I would fucking kill him.

“You’re almost to them. They’re on Allison right now. Get there.”

Dan veered the car off in that direction. Up ahead, we saw the shiny black car.

“There it fucking is! Do not lose it!” I banged my fist on the seat, gun in hand, ready to blow the fucker to pieces.

“Turn left on Moffet,” Techie’s voice barked from the speaker. The car veered left. “Now right on Stenger.” Even though we could see the car, I still wanted Techie’s eyes. He could see more than we could through the security cameras along the roads. Thank you city of Rapid City, Rhode Island for providing them.

“He’s going into a high traffic area. Watch yourself. Cars are everywhere.” Techie’s voice reverberated with excitement while I sat with impatience.

The car jerked left and right, surprisingly not catching the eye of a cop.

“Left on Baker.” The car jolted.

Cars were everywhere, and they were not giving a shit where they were. Looking ahead, the black car was four cars ahead of us and gaining distance.

“Get around these slow motherfuckers!” I barked to Dan.

“I’m fucking trying.” He blared the horn. “Stupid son of a bitch!” My eyes never left the black car, but it was getting farther away.

“Techie, what the fuck?”

“Still on the same path. Expect to turn soon.”

Suddenly, horns began blaring and a loud crash hit the side of the car, propelling me against the window. The impact jostled the shit out of me.

“Boys!” I barked.

“Fine, boss,” they both answered.

“Techie?”

“Shit, you guys all right?”

I groaned, my neck feeling the pain of the blow. Smells started floating into the car.

“Fine. Where the fuck is the car?”

“Val’s on it.”

“You do not lose that car, Techie.”

The phone went dead as smoke and gases began hissing and leaking from the car, smelling of gas. Shit.

“Get out now!”

I only had one way out. I scrambled, pulling the door handle, but nothing happened. Both Dan and Brett were climbing out of Brett’s door while I starting kicking the door with all my force, freeing it and flinging it open. Dan and Brett were there, grabbing my body and pulling me away from the car just as it combusted in flames.

 

Chapter 19

FIVE FUCKING DAYS, nothing. After spending the night in the hospital because they fucking doped the shit out of me, I had gone through every fucking tape Techie had.

Val had lost the fucking car. Lost it. Techie said the fucking car had disappeared from view, and then it was gone. Sure enough, when I had looked at the damn footage, it was like it had vanished into thin air.

Luckily, Rex was fine with only a few scrapes on his leg from when he had been pulled out of the back of the car. He was working his ass off now, using every connection possible to find Catarina.

Scraper hadn’t fared as well as Rex. One of the janitors had found him bound and drugged in the basement of Catarina’s office building. His face was black and blue, his knuckles bleeding. He had put up a fight and hadn’t been taken easily. After a night in the hospital, he ended up being all right. He was also on a war path to find my girl, and he had a hard-on for finding Ghost—said he was his.

I had heard nothing about Catarina. I paced the floor. I didn’t know if she was fucking alive or dead, didn’t know if he was hurting her. Fucking nothing.

Sal and Vino bit everyone’s fucking head off at every turn, including mine. Ghost supposedly had no family to bring in and interrogate. It was one of the reasons Sal had picked him to guard Catarina. He had only had loyalty to her.

Val was fucking livid, and I had to get Rex on him just to calm his ass down. Rex finally laid him out. Hopefully, that had gotten the fucking point across because I didn’t have time to deal with his shit.

I stared at the tapes for hours and hours, trying to figure out where the fuck the car had gone. We put bounties out on Ghost’s head and searched his files. Nothing.

After digging through Zan’s computer more, Techie had come up with more pictures of this Jake person. My gut felt there was some kind of connection. Between the shit Zan had pulled, then Ghost, and now this mysterious, long-lost brother, it didn’t add up.

The only thing in existence on Jake, or Franco Jacob Maratelli was his birth certificate. Nothing else existed on him. I had even gone so far as breaking my mother’s heart by asking her. She had cried and cried, never thinking my father had been unfaithful to her. It had broken me having to tell my mother about my father. I hadn’t cried in a long damn time, but that had done it. Hearing the pain and anguish over the phone, along with not knowing about Catarina, had done me in.

We’d had guys search every abandoned building and drive through neighborhoods, but nothing. Even Rex had been hot on top of everything with his guys. He had found small bits and pieces, but nothing had led us to my girl.

My gut twisted at the thought of Ghost trying to hurt her. Why? And what if this Jake guy had something to do with it? I fucking had no clue.

Ringing from my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. Without looking at the screen, I answered, “What?”

“Now, now, big brother.”

Blood seeped out of my body, replaced with ice cold menace. There went another puzzle piece put into place. They were working together.

“Figured I would let you suffer for a while, and then I’d give you a call. You wouldn’t want anything else to happen to your woman, would you?”

Fear and anger spiked within me like a dagger to my heart.

“Where is she? What did you and Ghost do to her?” I snapped, unable to rein in my emotions.

“She’s fine. Great little toy you have here. Tastes mighty fine, I have to say.” He slurped his lips, and the plastic on my phone started to crack from the pressure it was under.

“Keep your fucking hands off her!” I roared, walking over to the wall and punching it.

I could feel Techie watching my every move, and I was hoping he was recording and tracing this shit.

“You’ve had her; I just wanted a taste.”

“I want to fucking talk to her. Now,” I demanded.

He scoffed. “Her mouth is a little occupied right now. See, Steve—or as you know him, Ghost—wanted his turn, so being the nice guy I am…”

As he let the words hang in the air, murderous rage consumed every cell in my body. I would fucking gut this motherfucker, peel his fucking skin from his bones while he was alive, and dig out every fucking organ he had.

“You son of a bitch! I will tear you limb from limb. What the fuck do you want?” I barked as my body vibrated with rage.

“Money. The silly thing about this world is it all revolves around money.”

“Fine. How much and when?” Money I couldn’t care less about; getting back my woman and hunting this bastard down was my goal.

“So eager. I’m not so sure I want to give up my play toy just yet. You know her pussy tastes as sweet as honey. I could eat it for days, and when she comes, fuck me, it’s the best thing on earth.”

“Motherfucker, you are dead. Do you hear me? Fucking dead!” I exploded, picking up a nearby chair and throwing it into the wall, not bothering to watch as it knocked down a shelf.

“Tsk. Tsk. Such bad temper. You’d think our father would have taught you better manners.” His voice was too fucking calm, only angering me more.

“You are not my brother! Tell me how much and when!”

“Our father was a little careless with one of the housekeepers he had. You should look up Lucia Ramirez. And, no, I don’t have your last name now, but I always knew who my father was. Fucker paid my mother off for me to disappear.” More pieces were starting to fall in place.