Sold to Moretti Mafia

Lucca

As soon as I arrive, I know something is horribly wrong. Call it intuition or whatever the hell you want, but I know deep in my gut something has happened to Claire. Fuck, I should’ve pushed for her release. Not that Petro would’ve allowed that, but I could’ve tried harder.

My suspicion rises when the guard walking me to her cell won’t even look at me. Like it scares him I’m about to rip his balls off, and I seriously might.

He unlocks the door to her cell, and I step inside. Claire sits on the small cot, her knees drawn up to her chest and bundled up in my jacket. Her head shoots up, and her teary eyes find mine.

My blood boils in my veins when I see her black eye and swollen face. Motherfuckers.

I’m about to spin around and kill the guard, but Claire is already on her feet, throwing herself into my arms. She buries her face into my shirt, her small hands clinging onto me like I’m going to disappear.

Wrapping my arms around her tightly, I hold her to my chest and let her cry. When she doesn’t seem to calm down, I pick her up and sit down on the cot with her on my lap. I stroke her hair and tell her everything is going to be okay until she finally stops sobbing.

“Claire, look at me.” I nudge her to move her head, so I can see her face. Her red-rimmed eyes find mine, and my chest aches. “Who did this? Who hit you?”

Her frightened gaze flickers to the door like whoever did this will be there. “I-I don’t know.”

“Just tell me. Was it one of the guards?”

She nods her head but doesn’t give me a name.

“Did he do anything else? Did he touch you?”

“No,” she shakes her head, “he just hit me.”

I feel a fraction of relief, but not enough to put a dent in the need to kill whoever hit her. No matter if she tells me or not, I will make someone pay before I leave here.

Claire leans her head back against my chest, and I stay a while longer to hold her. I wish I could stay, or better, take her with me, but I can’t. Not yet anyway. After a while, I lean my head down, so my mouth is right next to her good ear.

“One more day, butterfly. You need to make it one more day. Tomorrow, I’m coming for you, and I’ll take you away from here. We’ll go somewhere safe, where no one can hurt you.”

She pushes against my chest, putting enough space between us to look up and into my eyes. There is frantic worry swirling in her green eyes.

“They said they are going to kill you.”

“I know they are going to try, but they won’t succeed. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine and so will you. One more day, and all of this will be a long distant memory.”

She wants to believe me. I can see the longing in her eyes, but fear has a chokehold on her. I know how she feels because I’ve been feeling the same. I haven’t been scared in a long time, but I am now. Scared of losing her, scared of seeing her hurt, scared of failing.

“One more day,” I repeat, praying to a god I don’t even believe in that my words are true.

I give her one more hug and place a kiss on the top of her hair before I tear myself away to rush out of the cell.

My footsteps echo through the long hallway, and I concentrate on that sound and nothing else. It takes everything in me to keep going.

At the very end of the hall, Igor waits for me with crossed arms, leaning against the wall like the world bores him.

When he sees me approaching, he straightens up. “One of my men didn’t follow orders. I was going to deal with it, but then I thought you might want to do it yourself. He is in this room.” Igor points to the door next to him. “Enjoy.”

“That I will.” Matter of fact, I will enjoy this very much.

* * *

I place the explosive in the closet close to the stairs. My hand is shaking, actually shaking. I haven’t been this nervous in a long time, but I’ve also never crossed Julian, or hurt someone I actually cared about either. At least not continuously.

“What are you doing?” Carter’s voice startles me.

I spin around and stare at him as he assesses the situation. “What is that?”

For a split second I think about lying to him, but I know he isn’t stupid. He already knows something is off. The suspicious look in his eyes gives him away.

“Explosives,” I explain, keeping my voice low.

“Why?” is all he asks. One word that holds at least five questions.

Why explosives? Why here? Why are you doing this? Why are you betraying us? Why are you telling me this?

All these unasked questions deserve an equal amount of answers, but again, I only speak a single word, “Sorry.” It’s a half assed response but what more could I say?

Carter studies me for another moment before he speaks again. “What do you need me to do? Let me help?” Young and naïve. He doesn’t even know what he’s asking. Does he want to die? Anger rushes to the surface.

“If you help me, you go against Julian. Do you know what that means? A life on the run… that’s if you are lucky and we get away.”

Carter straightens, standing a little taller. “I know what it means, but I also know you. You wouldn’t do this if you didn’t have a good reason. Plus, I’ve already seen you, so there is no way out for me now. Either way, I’m an accomplice.”

“I could knock you out.” Carter snorts at my remark. “I’m serious. You could tell them you tried to stop me and I knocked you out. No one would doubt that story.”

Another snort. “Sounds a bit unbelievable to me, old man. Now tell me how I can help.”

Asshole. I hate bringing him into this, but he has a point. He’s already seen me, and knocking him out would be a risk. I’ve done a lot of really fucked up shit, but to let Carter get killed because of my own doings? I don’t think I could live with myself.

“Make sure all the other guards are occupied.”

The rest of this fucked up mission goes smooth. We leave before anyone knows it was us. My phone keeps ringing, but I ignore the constant buzzing in my pocket for a while. I know it’s Julian, and I know what he is going to tell me.

My phone rings again, and I finally find the courage to pull it from my pocket. Julian’s name lights up the screen and the pit in my stomach grows. I know I can’t ignore his call forever, so this time, I accept it.

“Hello,” I answer, knowing that this will probably be the last time I ever talk to Julian.

“Where the fuck are you?” Julian screams into the phone.

“I’m sorry… I had no choice,” I say with a heavy heart.

“You fucking betrayed me! You let them in, didn’t you?” Julian rarely lets his emotions show, and even though I can’t see him, I can hear the disappointment and hurt in his voice. He’s given me everything, and I betrayed him.

“I’m sorry,” I repeat honestly. I am really fucking sorry. “They have someone I love.”

“That’s no fucking excuse!” Anger overtakes his sorrow. “You vowed to protect this family. You vowed to protect Elena with your fucking life! You took an oath, Lucca. A fucking oath.”

“Long before that, I vowed to protect someone else.” I drop the phone from my ear and disconnect the call before he can say anything else. I know everything he was going to say anyway… I will kill you, and you are going to pay for this, are on the top of that list.

Part of me wishes I could make him understand, make him forgive me for my betrayal, but I know there is no going back now. Julian won’t tolerate a man who betrays him, he won’t see past this. He will hunt me down for the rest of my life, and I don’t really blame him for it.

I just hate that Carter got mixed up in all of this. He involved himself by pure accident.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

If it wasn’t for him finding me, everything would’ve gone off without a hitch. Now he is in the same boat as I am. Running for his life.

Thankfully, he got a head start. I shoved a stack of cash into his hand and told him to drive south and don’t stop.

I’ll contact him as soon as I can, but until then, it’s better to stay apart.

I pull up to the Volocove compound. Right away, I know something is off. There are no guards stationed at the front. The normally shut and heavily guarded gate is now hanging wide open.

My hand tightens on the steering wheel. I drive through the gate and park outside the steps that lead to the front door. With my phone and gun in hand, I jump out of the car. I run toward the front door, and I’m surprised to find it unlocked and ajar.

A warning bell goes off in my head. Something is wrong.

Shoving the door all the way open, I slowly walk inside. This might be a trap, so I walk in with my guard up and my gun drawn. After doing a quick walkthrough of the foyer, I find the area deserted. Fuck, this is worse than I thought.

I don’t think twice about my next move. I can only hope they left Claire here before disappearing. I jog to the basement and descend the stairs as fast as I can.

I just want her to be in her room. I want her to be safe, but the closer I get, the more my heart sinks, and when I come around the corner, I see the open door of her cell. There’s a tightness that develops in my chest that spreads outward like a slow-moving cancer.

Fuck. They took her.

Shoving my gun into my holster, I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial Felix’ number.

“I told you they would move,” Felix says as soon as he answers, knowing what my question was before I could even speak.

Anger and fear rush through me, fucking with my head. Focus. Time is everything in this situation if I want to save Claire.

“Tell me you know where they took her.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got the location. Sending everything to your phone.”

I sigh, literally fucking sigh. “Thank you.”

“Thank me by not contacting me again. Julian already hates me. I don’t need him to add another reason to kill me.” The line goes dead, and I make my way back to the car.

My phone buzzes again. Felix delivered a location. Now it’s time to go on a killing spree.