Julia’s car.
I parked behind it and jumped out, racing over to the driver’s side. I peeked into the car and saw the ripped seat belts, but they were nowhere in sight. Julia and Matteo were gone. Already in the grasp of Stefano.
Then, my phone rang in my pocket.
I looked around the docks as I pulled it from my pants. I held it to my ear, knowing exactly who was calling. I gritted my teeth as I answered the call. I could hear Julia’s muffled cries.
“Hello, Romeo. How nice of you to pick up.”
“What do you want, Stefano?”
“You screwed up my plans,” he said.
“You did that yourself the second you thought you could take over my business,” I said.
“But that doesn’t explain Julia’s sins, now does it?”
I heard Matteo sobbing in the background, and it broke my heart.
“What do you want?” I asked again.
> “I want you to know how wonderfully well-connected I am. I’ve been planning this for years, Romeo. And my brother almost messed it up for me. Wanting to reach out and seek peace with your father. It was sickening. My brother ran the most ruthless crime syndicate in the city! Then he weakened when he had a grandson.”
“That’s what children do to men who have hearts,” I said.
“And I’m counting on you to have one. I know you broke Johnson. And he’ll pay in his own right. Everyone has to pay for the sins they commit.”
“If you lay a finger on them, I’ll slaughter everyone in your regime.”
“I’m having a hard time not taking out my ungrateful niece and her snotty son.”
“I swear to hell if you touch them—”
“You’ll what? Take me out? You had your chance twice to do that, and you didn’t. You wanted to play the long game, but there’s a problem with that plan.”
“What?” I asked.
“You’re trying to use legality with a man who has no use for it.”
I heard a gunshot go off and Matteo screamed. Julia cried out, yelling for Stefano to stop. The problem was, I couldn't hear the gunshots. I couldn't hear Julia screaming or Matteo crying anywhere near me.
The car had been a decoy.
They weren’t on the docks.
“Don’t hurt them,” I said.
“Are you going to say ‘please’?”
“Will you let them go if I do?”
“No,” he said. “But I will let them go if you give me what I want.”
“Name your price,” I said.
“I want control of every illicit business the Martine family has. The legal ones too, in fact. I want it all, Romeo. You don’t deserve it. Your father never did. I almost had my brother convinced to take it all from you sorry sacks of shit until you knocked up my niece. That boy changed everything, but they won’t stand in my way.”
Another gunshot popped off. Julia shrieked.