Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 111537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 446(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 446(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
I pull out my phone, texting Marlena back. I’m at home. Where are you?
She doesn’t answer. I can’t tell if that means she didn’t get the text, or she doesn’t have her phone. With no one able to tell me what’s going on, I can only assume the worst. If Andretti has her again, I’m going to go ballistic. I realize there’s one person I can ask, and that person is locked in my trunk.
I storm back outside to get to the bottom of this. “Open the trunk,” I say to my man.
Luca is there, smoking a cigarette by the garage. He straightens, crushing half of the smoke beneath his heel. Giovanni comes out the front door, alerted by the scene I caused in the living room. They both look confused, so I don’t bother to fill them in. There will be plenty of time for explanations after I’m satisfied Andretti doesn’t have my wife.
The driver comes around with the key fob and clicks the trunk open. I reach for it, but the metal comes up of its own volition. Before I can stop him, Marcello leaps from the trunk, brandishing a tire iron. He smacks the driver in the side of the head, sending the man thundering to the ground. He takes a swing at me and misses, almost connecting with my rib cage.
I reach for my weapon, and he lobs the tire iron at Giovanni. We’re all shouting and pulling out our guns. Any minute now, Marcello is gonna be full of holes. But the bastard sees the writing on the wall and decides to take his chances. I don’t want to shoot and accidentally kill him before I have the chance to find out if he knows what happened to Marlena.
He runs away from the gate, around the house, and into the backyard. Giovanni, Luca, and I take off after him, each of us firing insufficient shots at his retreating form. I curse the gun range and its stationary target. It’s so much more difficult to hit a man who’s weaving left and right.
He darts around toward the garden shed, where I catch him out in the open. I fire a warning shot at the shed, tearing apart the wall and causing splinters to rain down on my enemy. Marcello throws up his hands to protect his eyes, turning to face me.
“Where’s my wife?” I demand.
Marcello laughs, as if it hadn’t even occurred to him that Marlena would run off again. “You’re just a stupid old man!” Marcello taunts. “She’s only interested in your money!”
“Where is she?” I repeat myself.
“Probably halfway to Hawaii,” Marcello snaps. “She probably came to her senses and decided to skip out on you.”
“You’re a dead man if you don’t tell me the truth,” I swear.
“I’m a dead man anyway!” he shouts back.
That much is true. There’s no way I can offer him the carrot of a long and prosperous life. The best I can do is promise not to torture him, not that I would keep my word after his betrayal. “If you tell me, I can promise you I’ll make it quick,” I say.
He sniffs, looking around as Giovanni and Luca flank me with their guns drawn. “If I knew where she was, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“What’s going on?” Giovanni asks.
“Marlena is missing,” I say. Those are the hardest words I think I’ve ever said in my life. I’m on the threshold of falling apart, and Marcello is my only link to sanity. If I can’t get him to talk, then I’m going to die trying.
Marcello starts to laugh. “Why would you ever think she could fall in love with the likes of you?”
My finger itches to pull the trigger, but my brain is screaming not to. I need the information he’s got to rescue my wife, and it would be shortsighted of me to kill him now.
“He doesn’t know where she is,” Luca says coolly.
“Yes, I do,” Marcello claims.
“Where?” I demand.
“She’s with Andretti making sweet love,” Marcello says with a laugh.
That’s all I can take. His taunt flips a switch in my head, and I lose sight of the bigger picture. I can feel myself depressing the trigger an instant before I do it, but there’s no stopping me now.
The bullet screams out of my barrel, digging its way into Marcello’s skull. Giovanni and Luca open fire beside me, and together, we fill the bastard full of lead. I won’t get any information from him now, but he wasn’t going to tell me the truth anyway.
I’m sure Marlena hasn’t gone to Andretti to seek comfort. We had a plan. I was going to send her to Italy to be safe. But that doesn’t mean that Andretti hasn’t kidnapped her again. For all I know, he could be holding her somewhere, ready to trade his future security for hers.