Top Dog

My tires squealed as I came around a corner hot. The road was a one-way street—I was going the wrong way. I blew my horn while Matteo’s sobs turned to shrieks, and my heart shattered into a million pieces when I took a look at his face in the rearview mirror.

He was petrified.

“Julia!”

“Yes?” I asked breathlessly.

“I’m going to hang up the call, but don’t you dare turn off your phone. Stay away from those SUVs. Give me ten minutes. I’ll be there with you. I’ll rescue you.”

“Romeo please help us!”

More bullets whizzed by my car, shattering my side windows and forcing me down another alleyway. I crashed through a gate and tried to keep control of the car. I could feel it scraping against the brick buildings before we dumped onto a back road.

“Okay,” I said. “Okay. Ten minutes.”

CHAPTER 31

ROMEO

I barreled out of the police precinct and ran for my car. Fuck whatever the hell it was they were doing. Stefano already knew. None of what I’d originally planned would work. The love of my life and my son were in trouble, which meant they took priority above all else. I jumped into my car and cranked it up, speeding out of the parking lot before anyone could catch up to me. I got on the road toward Central Park and opened my phone, then pulled up an application I had hoped I wouldn’t need.

It was an application I’d paid for when I took over my father’s seat. It allowed me to enter a cell phone number and lock onto the location of that cell signal. I’d never had to use it. I didn’t have a reason to. I wasn’t going to micromanage people like my father had. If they double-crossed me or tried to undermine me, I fired them. Simple as that. And if they wanted to go work for a competitor of some sort, then I’d do what had to be done to silence them so they couldn’t trade secrets.

It was the cost of trying to do business like this legally.

I entered Julia’s phone number as I drove around the city. I had to get within five miles of her car to have an accurate cell signal. The outright terror in Julia’s voice kept echoing off the corners of my mind. Matteo had been crying so hard I could hear him in the background. My son. My baby boy. The light of my life. He was terrified. And his mother was racing around town with no way to protect themselves if Stefano’s goons caught them.

I knew what Stefano was capable of. The torture he would easily dole out. People thought we removed fingernails and busted knees, but that was the old school way. That was the way my grandfather did things. But not Stefano. He was much worse. He played with his food. Played his psychological games. He wouldn't hesitate to slowly kill my son in front of Julia’s eyes and allow her to wallow in the pain. The misery of her life without Matteo.

I had to get to them.

I had to save them.

I raced past Central Park and gritted my teeth. I needed a fucking signal. I needed to figure out where the hell in the city she was. I drove down back roads and alleyways, trying to get a fix on her cell signal. Trying to figure out where a panicked woman would drive next. The honking of horns was distracting, and every time I raced around a corner, I prayed a police officer didn’t clock my speed.

But the screeching of tires in the distance caught my ear.

I whipped my car around in the middle of the road and clipped a minivan in the process. I raced in the opposite direction, driving as quickly toward the sound of squealing tires as I could. The crunching of metal sounded in the distance, and the closer I got the better the signal became. The second I blew past Central Park again and came around the corner to head back into downtown, the cell signal locked. The blinking red dot that showed me Julia’s location was on my phone.

And I was only four miles out.

The red dot began to move. I moved in tandem with it. I raced down back alleys to try and get closer. At the very least, to not lose the signal I’d found. The car was moving at top speed toward the outside of the city. Toward the warehouse district that sat along the water. My stomach fell to the floor. They were no longer trying to outrun someone.

Because someone had already taken them.

Stefano had my family.

That was his signature. Always at the docks by the water. That was another reason why it would’ve been so easy to pin this all on him. But I was way past that plan. I kept ignoring phone calls from both Bradshaw and Langley, hoping they wouldn’t interrupt the signal I’d locked onto. I kept drawing closer the faster I went. The red dot stopped moving at the edge of the docks. I was close. Within two miles of where that car was.

My only hope was that this wasn’t a distraction.

I slowed my car down as I went through the busted gate that led to the abandoned warehouses. I was in the right place. My head was on a swivel as my car approached the red dot on my phone. I was practically on top of them but frustrated that I couldn't see anything.

“Come on,” I said. “Where are you?”

I shoved my phone into my pocket and began looking around. I drove up and down the lengths of abandoned containers, hoping I would see something, anything that gave away where my family was. My heart slammed against my chest, and it was hard to breathe. Panic was rushing through my veins as my hands gripped the steering wheel. I turned and rode down the last aisle of abandoned containers and hope slowly began to fade.

Until I saw it.