The First Sin (Sins of the Past 1)

“Sonny, knock it off!” I tried to elbow him in the stomach and missed.

He gripped me harder, cutting off the circulation. I leaned forward to press my palms to the mattress and pushed back, but it did nothing to help me break free. When I grabbed the comforter, it flew off the bed and hit the lamp on my table. Glass broke and fell to the floor, taking a few items along with it.

“Let me go,” I yelled.

No sound. Nothing. The house was unusually quiet. I felt him reach into his pocket, his muscles brushing against my side. Then, he jammed a needle into my neck, the pain so sharp it made my skin burn. I tried to fight it with everything I had left in my body, but the drugs won out.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Angelo

Around two o’clock in the morning, the doorbell blared throughout the house, ripping me from my nightmare. I had nodded off on the recliner in the corner of my temporary bedroom. My dad had forced me to spend the night. He went on a rant after Lorenzo left about how we have to stick together in times of war. I was shocked when he said he would smooth things over with his oldest friend. My father wasn’t the second-chances type.

I pushed myself up from the chair, wiping the sleep from my eyes, and stumbled downstairs. Loud voices penetrated my eardrums, followed by Ma screaming. I kicked my ass into gear when I heard her sobs and found Ma hugging herself in the living room. Dad was still in his dark suit and wingtips, sitting on the sofa across from Lorenzo. I went to my mother and wrapped my arms around her to comfort her.

“What’s going on?” I asked, surprised to see Lorenzo again and at this hour.

“Gianna is missing,” Lorenzo choked out, his eyes red and his olive skin blotchy. “Someone took her.”

“Enzo,” my father growled. He balled his hand into a fist on his lap and spoke through clenched teeth.

My heart sank into my stomach when his words finally hit me. I removed my cell phone from my pocket and dialed Sonny. Nervous energy shot through my body as each second ticked by. I got Sonny’s voicemail and left him a message to call me back, told him that Gia was missing.

How could Gia go missing on Sonny’s watch?

He would never hurt her.

Would he?

I was so confused, my mind wracked with guilt and confusion. I should have been there. Instead, I acted like the good son and followed my father’s orders. Pete and Marco were still at the strip club, though I doubted ei

ther of them would care to help me find Gia. Marco, maybe, but Pete, fuck no.

I stood in front of Lorenzo with my cell phone in hand and sent Sonny another unanswered text message. “What happened? Where’s Sonny? He was supposed to be at the house with Gia.”

“Sonny was gone when I got home. So was Gia. I didn’t even notice they weren’t there until I went into her room to say goodnight and stepped on a broken picture frame on the floor. Then, I turned on the light and found her lamp smashed into pieces on the floor. Her comforter was on the carpet along with some of the knickknacks she keeps on her bedside table.”

A chill ran through me. My girl put up a fight.

“Did you check the security cameras?”

Lorenzo looked up at me. “Yes, I ran through the film three times. There are blank spots. About ten minutes of footage is missing. The weird part is that all the doors and windows were locked, as if nothing had ever happened. If the person who took Gianna had the sense to clean up her room, I would have thought she was out with Sonny, or even with you.”

Whoever kidnapped her knew what they were doing. Sonny was my oldest friend in the world. I wanted to believe he had nothing to do with Gia’s disappearance. But I was growing leery of everyone but Ma and Gia. They were my only constants in this fucked world I lived in.

Lorenzo looked over at my father with his face in his hands and bloodshot eyes. “Please, Angelo. Help me. I need your help.”

My father smirked, his deep brown irises full of pure evil. He was the devil in a nice suit.

“You know my conditions.”

Lorenzo sucked in a deep breath and let it out, wiping a fallen tear from his eye. “Whatever you want. It’s yours. Just get my daughter back.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gia

I opened my eyes to the darkness that surrounded me, nothing but black. Blinking a few times, I refocused my gaze and saw nothing, no one. A blindfold covered my eyes, the material taut against my skin. My head pounded as if a jackhammer was drilling into my skull. Waves of nausea washed over me every time I was rocked from side to side.