Dante (29 page)

Dante flinched. “Lucian—”

“No, shut the fuck up. I don’t care about whatever goddamn problem you’ve got with this. I don’t. My wife won’t even speak to me right now because of this. She blames me, Dante, and she doesn’t even realize the shit going on inside my head. Jordyn looks at me like she hates me and it’s killing me. And you know what, fuck you for thinking it would be okay to sit around and take the time to consider whatever it is you’re considering. This is my son, not any other kid.
Mine
.”

“My wife,” Dante murmured. “I’m considering my wife.”

Cat’s spine straightened at her husband’s omission.

“She fucking caused this!” Lucian roared.

Michel started in Cat’s arms at the sudden change in noise level. Before she could stop him from crying, or even hide from view of the office, Michel wailed. Fat tears slid down his cheeks as Cat bounced him in her embrace and patted his back, shushing into his ear soothingly.

When he calmed, sniffling away his cries, Cat turned back to the brothers. All eyes had turned to her in the doorway.

The defensive stances Giovanni and Lucian sported eased at the sight of Michel.

“Good morning,” Cat greeted.

“Morning, Catrina,” Giovanni replied.

Lucian didn’t say a thing.

“I’m sorry for all the worry my choices have caused you, Lucian,” Cat said, wanting him to know. “I never thought Bruno would go so far as to take another man’s child, and that was my mistake. I misjudged his cruelty and there is no excuse or apology worthy of your pain.”

“You’re right, there isn’t,” Lucian stated coldly. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t try at all. I don’t want your apologies, I want my son. As does my wife.”

Cat flinched on the inside, but she knew she deserved every bit of his anger and resentment.

“He’s fed, bathed and ready for you,” Cat said quietly, meeting Dante’s gaze.

“So this is him?” Lucian asked.

Dante waved at Michel who was twisting around to find his father’s voice. “This is him. Michel.”

“Marcello,” Giovanni said for his brother when Dante didn’t tack on Michel’s surname.

“Well, unofficially,” Cat said.

“At least until I get his documentation,” Dante put in. “Then he’s mine through and through. Ours, I mean.”

“He’s a handsome thing,” Giovanni said, grinning. “Nobody’s ever gonna believe he came from you, man. Not with looks like those.”

Dante laughed. “Fuck off, you asshole.”

“Little ears,” Cat warned.

“Sorry,
bella
.”

Lucian cleared his throat, still eyeing Michel. “He does look like Catrina, though, except for those brown eyes. Even his hair is a little red in the light.”

“A little,” Dante agreed.

“That’ll help your story of him being hers, anyway.”

“That’s the plan.” Dante smiled though it faded fast. “
Dolcezza
, could you give us a few minutes?”

“She should know, Dante,” Giovanni insisted.

Dante flicked his younger brother with a look. “Shut up.”

“But—”

“Shut up,” Dante repeated, firmer the second time. He turned back to Cat. “Please give us a few minutes alone to chat.”

“Know what?” Cat asked.

“Bruno is in the city, too,” Giovanni blurted out, refusing to look at Dante.

“I don’t know how Dad never killed you for disobeying every fucking thing he ever told you, Gio,” Dante growled.

“You’re late to the game,
cafone
. Get used to it,” Giovanni snapped. “I’m not changing and a new boss isn’t going to make a difference.”

Cat ignored their exchange. “I’m not surprised Bruno is in the city.”

Lucian was the only one who noticed Cat’s comment. “Why is that?”

“Because Marc couldn’t wipe his own ass without Bruno’s permission. I couldn’t imagine him coming to America and Bruno not following behind.”

“Why didn’t you mention this to me last night?” Dante asked.

Cat shrugged, letting Michel nibble on the tips of her fingers. “Maybe I assumed you would already know that, Dante. Do you send your very best men off without you?” 

“Point taken.” 

“Yes, well, how did you find out Bruno is in the city?”

Dante’s stare cut to Giovanni quickly. “Keep that mouth of yours shut.”

“She deserves to
know
,” Giovanni said again.

Cat wasn’t in the mood to dance around stubborn men, so she turned to Lucian instead. He was angry with her, but if he had information for Cat that might help bring Johnathan home, he would tell her.

“Know what, Lucian?”

“Lucian—” Dante didn’t even get to finish his sentence.

“One of Gio’s men was killed last night near the area we believe the men who took John are hiding out. When his body was found by his partner who had been chatting with a few people in the district, there was a note in his pocket.”

Cat didn’t blink at the terrible story. Men died. It was an unfortunate part of their business. “What did it say?”

“It said if the Marcellos wanted their
principe
back, their queen needed to be the one who came for him.”

“And we know which warehouse they’re in?” Cat asked quietly.

“Yes, now,” Dante said, his jaw clenching tight. “Essentially, they hid in plain sight, but it worked until they didn’t need it to anymore.”

Cat faced her husband with a steeling resolve. His words the night before flooded her thoughts and heart, but she didn’t have a choice. No doubt, Dante knew it, too.

Please don’t argue with me so I won’t have to let you win.

Her blood, his hands.

“I’m sorry,” Cat told her husband, seeing the pain flickering in his eyes.

“Don’t argue with me, Cat. Not on this.”

Too late.

• • •

“He’s terribly angry with me.” 

It hurt when Dante was angry with her.

“He’ll get over it,” Giovanni replied.

Cat didn’t think so.

“Kim didn’t mind watching Michel?” Cat asked, needing to get her mind off Dante for a moment.

“Of course, not. She loves kids, you know.”

Gio didn’t take his eyes off the laptop he was working on. She didn’t have the first clue what he was doing, but she knew it had something to do with security cameras, wireless transmitting, and hacking. Beyond that, Cat didn’t understand his earlier babbling when he explained what he was going to try to do.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Giovanni muttered.

Cat’s heart found her throat. “What?”

“Nothing, just hit the wrong security set up, that’s all. Next one, I hope.”

Cat checked her watch, noting it was almost eleven in the morning. Twisting in the passenger seat, Cat surveyed the warehouse buildings in the thick of the shipping district. Each held a different security system keeping it safe and most were run off wireless wavelengths, so it wasn’t a surprise others would jam up Giovanni’s program until he hit the correct one.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Cat asked.

“Dante is—”

“No, Johnathan.”

“Oh.” Giovanni’s typing stopped for a brief second before it resumed. “He better be.”

Cat cringed. “Lucian would kill me if not.”

Giovanni hummed noncommittally. “He’s in panic mode. John is fine. These people aren’t stupid enough to hurt him, and if they are, I sincerely hope one of our bullets takes them out before Lucian gets a hold of them.

“If John’s fine, which I believe he is, then I still hope the fucking idiots die before Lucian catches them. Because that man is serial killer material when he wants to be. He seems calm on the outside, and he’s sweet with his wife and his mother, but privately inside his head, he can be a little scary.”

A shiver wracked her shoulders. “Thank you for making my worry worse.”

“Lucian might be angry with you right now, but he would never hurt you, no matter what the outcome of this shitty day is.”

“Funny, I don’t believe you.”

Giovanni gazed up from the laptop, leveling Cat with a single look. “You should. Dante loves you and he considers you the mother to a child he wants the rest of the world to see as his son. You’re family—a Marcello. Nothing is more important to us than family. Lucian would never hurt you. Stop fretting. Pretty soon this will all be over.”

Cat chewed on the inside of her cheek, unaccustomed to feeling as nervous as she did. “
Grazie
.”

“You’re welcome.”

A few more minutes passed in silence before Cat asked, “What exactly is the plan after I approach the front of the warehouse?”

“Someone needs to run this and keep an eye on everything while maintaining communication with Lucian and Dante. Not to mention, if there are cameras outside, there are cameras inside. I might be able to locate John in the warehouse. While I hate to be the sorry fucker left out of all the fun, I’m the only one of us three brothers who knows anything about this kind of shit, so that’s my job.”

“What about Lucian and Dante?”

“A guy scouted the building before we got here from the roof of another for entrances and exits. There’s a main one in the front, two loading docks in the back, and an exit door on the side. You’re going to the front, Dante is going to the side, and Lucian is going in through the back.”

“That doesn’t tell me a lot about the plan, Gio.”

“Because we don’t have one.”

“
Perfetto
,” Cat hissed. “Sounds brilliant and completely infallible.”

“It’s like this,” Giovanni replied, never taking his eyes off the laptop, “… we don’t know what’s inside, how many, or if John is even in there. When I have more info, we work from there. If we can get it done just the four of us, even better. Sorry if it doesn’t work for you, but that’s how this is going to go.”

Then, his features brightened. “I think I got it … shit, yeah, I got it.”

Cat leaned over the seat as the screen popped up with several different camera sights and angles. Giovanni clicked on one in particular, zooming in as close as he could get before the screen began to blur with pixilation. A white car looked like it was inside the building, too, but Cat didn’t understand how it would have gotten there.

“Black hair, six foot tall, tattoo that shows on the back of his neck above the neckline, and built like a brick house?”

“Bruno.”

“Yeah, well, he just put a black duffle bag into the back of that car, so he’s getting ready to leave or do something.”

Giovanni turned his cellphone on and hit a button. In the next car, Cat watched as Lucian put a small earpiece into his ear, nodding when Giovanni said, “Show time; connect Dante to the call, too.”

Reaching over, Giovanni opened the glove compartment, pulled out a pair of large framed women’s sunglasses and handed them to Cat. Her confused expression must have caught his attention.

“They’re my wife’s but with an added addition.”

Cat twisted the black glasses around in her hands, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. “Like what?”

“Here.” Giovanni twisted the glasses around and pointed to the inner piece that would rest just behind Cat’s ear. There, he pointed to a small black circle that looked built into the glasses. “GPS. Kim was nice enough to let me steal her favorite sunglasses for the day, so thank her.”

Cat was aghast. “You track your wife?”

“Not like you think, but if someone took her, she always keeps these on her, and she’s aware there’s a chip in them. Just wear them.”

Cat put the glasses on, pushing them high on the crown of her head. “Why would I need these, anyway?”

Giovanni shrugged. “Just a precaution. Ready to draw him out?”

“
Sì
.”

“I’ll see you in a few, then.”

Cat got out of the car and was met by her husband. The scowl Dante sported spoke entirely of his anxiety and pain. “You know the rules,
Amore
.”

“Don’t go inside the building. If I get the chance, take him out, but only if it’s going to be clean.”

“And don’t make any stupid moves or let him lead you away,” Dante added, arching a brow.

“Yeah, I got it,
bello
.”

“We’re a couple of buildings over, so it’s a little walk.” Dante shot a glance down at Cat’s boots. “
Cristo
, woman. Heels, really?”

“Anything else isn’t my style,” Cat said, grinning.

Dante’s severe expression melted away. “I love you, huh?”

“I know. I love you, too.”

“Don’t be stupid, Cat.”

“I didn’t get this far in my life by acting like a fool, Dante.”