The brothers seemed slightly empathetic when I told them how she’d gone along with Antonio’s demands and worked for years before learning that he’d killed her father the very night she was kidnapped. I thought it might help them understand why she’d gone into his accounts and moved his assets, but I was wrong.
They were pissed that she was so close to being free of him, only to throw it all away with a hasty act of vengeance. I was in the midst of trying to defend her when my cell phone started to ring. I looked down at the screen, and when I saw that it was DeLuca calling, I stood and shouted, “It’s him.”
The room immediately fell silent, and everyone listened as I answered, “You’ve got Billy.”
I put the call on speaker, so everyone could hear as he asked, “You want to play?”
“No, I’m afraid I’m not up for games today. I’m looking for my daughter.” I did my best to keep my voice calm and steady as I asked, “Would you happen to know anything about her whereabouts?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” He sounded quite pleased with himself as he added, “She’s sitting right here next to me.”
“If you lay one hand on her...”
“What? What are you going to do, Billy?” he scoffed. “You’re a cleaner. Not a killer.”
“That was before you decided to kidnap my daughter.”
“Oh, the big, bad butcher seems upset. What shall we do about that?”
“Let me talk to Kiersten.”
“I don’t think so. You’ll just have to trust me.” Evil dripped from his words as he sneered, “You have something of mine as well.”
“Just tell me what you want, Antonio.”
He sounded so vile, so fucking arrogant, and sick in the fucking head as he snarled, “It’s simple, Billy. I want a trade…your girl for mine.”
It was at that moment I realized that this was real. DeLuca had my daughter, and he wanted me to make an unimaginable choice. Just the thought of it made me want to reach through that phone and rip the guy’s throat out. I couldn’t let him know that he was getting to me, so I tried to play it cool and asked, “What girl?”
“Oh, come on, Billy. Don’t play me for a fool,” Antonio grumbled. “You have twenty-four hours to bring Everleigh to me, or your daughter is as good as dead.”
The line went dead, and it was all I could do to keep myself from throwing my phone across the room. I was absolutely distraught, and I was struggling to know which end was up. I ran my hand down my face, trying to get a grip on myself, but it did little to improve my state of mind.
Thankfully, Viper was there to keep me from completely losing it. “Damn, this guy is a real fucking prick. I’ll enjoy putting a bullet in his head.”
“Damn straight,” Country agreed.
“We need to talk to Everleigh. It’s time to see what she knows.”
When Viper announced that he wanted to talk to her, I was apprehensive, but I couldn’t refuse. There were questions that only she could answer, so I remained silent when Lynch got up and went to retrieve her from the family room.
Seconds later, she walked in and looked positively terrified when she saw all the big, angry bikers staring back at her. They watched her like a pack of angry wolves as she made her way over to one of the empty chairs next to me.
As soon as she sat down, she turned to me, hoping for some reassurance, but the second she saw my face, she knew something was wrong. Worried, she leaned toward me and whispered, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“DeLuca called,” I answered. “Seems he’s looking to make a trade.”
“What kind of trade?”
I didn’t see any reason to worry Everleigh with all the details of our conversation, so I simply told her, “You for Kiersten.”
“Oh...”
The thought of her being back in DeLuca’s hold had bile rising to the back of my throat. That was the last fucking thing I wanted to happen, and I had no doubt that she felt the same way. Hoping to ease her mind, I reached over and placed my hand on hers. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this thing out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out, Billy.” She inhaled a deep breath, then muttered, “I have to go back.”
“No, we’re not giving in to him.”