For Luca (Chicago Syndicate Book 2) (32 page)

After I make my way to an area away from where Fallon is hiding, I lean back against the cold, uneven surface of a tree and try to catch my breath. Once my breathing slows, I can clearly discern the footsteps of at least two people. Two people coming at me from opposite directions.

“DeMiliano.” A male voice I recognize taunts. “Michaels, come out, come out, wherever you are.”

I’m fucking sending a prayer up above that Fallon stays put. The wind brushes past me, making my teeth chatter from the iciness as it cuts into my skin. Suddenly, a ray of artificial light shines through the trees and blinds me, so I duck and round the tree.

My forehead is banged against the tree from behind. The gun drops out of my hand, and I fall to the ground on my knees.

“Got him!” he yells to his co-conspirator while his arm chokes me around my neck.

I pull on his arm helplessly, bewildered from the blow. My arms are wrenched back and tied together by the wrists as the second person, the one holding the flashlight, joins us. As I’m heaved around, my head is pulled back by my hair, and I come eye to eye with Ashton and his companion, the blonde hostess, both on their haunches.

Ashton kisses the blonde on the lips. “Thanks for blinding him, sexy. I knew you would be helpful.”

So he and the hostess have an intimate relationship.

“Finally, we meet again. I’ve been waiting, not so patiently, for you and that bitch to leave town so that I could get you alone.”

I remain silent except for my superficial breaths and lift a brow uninterestingly, which earns me a blow to my jaw, causing me to fall back on my ass, and my teeth cut into my bottom lip. As I spit out blood, Ashton retreats in a quick reaction, giving me room to kick him in the stomach from my sitting position on the ground.

Grunting, he comes at me and crushes my jawbone in his fingers, showing me how strong he is, but a rush of worry about Fallon shoves the pain away.

“Where. Is. She?” His voice flattens with disdain.

I don’t give a damn what happens to me as long Fallon is safe. I would rather die before he ever touches or sees her again.

He removes his hand, and I throw out my right foot to kick the legs out from under the blonde, and she stumbles back on her behind. Ashton just smiles snidely and doesn’t give her the time of day.

“I know she’s here.” But his belief in his statement wavers as I keep my face impassive once again, making his annoyance rise. “I will not let that fucking cunt get away with Alex’s murder! And she’s dodging every trap I set up. CONSTANTLY!”

The woman resumes a standing position and directs her flashlight around, looking for any signs of Fallon, I presume. Ashton stands back up too while holding his handgun and towers over me, pointing the gun at my foot. “Fallon, DeMiliano is too good at taking blows to his head, so I might just put a bullet in him now!” he yells and gestures for the blonde to keep moving the flashlight around.

Please stay put, dolcezza.

Crunching in the distance has the two of them whipping their gazes behind the tree.

No! I told you to stay put!

My stare is glued to Ashton’s aim, which is moving from me to the noise, so with all my power, I try to stand up, failing, and then jump up to slam my body against him as he fires his gun.

“NO!” I shout.

We fall against the blonde, who shrieks, and I roll off Ashton onto my back.

Crimson pools in the chest area of the woman’s coat. The bullet hit her, and the flashlight is on the ground still lighting the area around us, but I can’t see Fallon. Wasn’t she coming toward us?

Ashton retaliates at once, digging his shoe into my lower stomach. “You idiot, it was just an animal, and now you killed
her
.” He laughs as she bleeds to death right next to me and does nothing to help her.

My muscles tighten in discomfort, and the breath is knocked out of my lungs when he stomps on my stomach. Heaving and grumbling in agony, I receive another kick to my temple, which splinters through my head and blackens my vision.

Stay conscious!

“I’m going to beat the shit out of him if you don’t come out!” His frustration is conveyed in firmer kicks to my throbbing body.

I’ve reached my limit. “Shut the fuck up!”

“Or is she in the cottage?” he suddenly mentions. “Because I can’t imagine that bitch could stand to hear you slowly dying. You two fucking ruined my life…”

I’m passing out, losing consciousness as his ranting becomes distorted. Opening my eyes, I feel blood trickling behind my ear as I look directly into the barrel of his gun. My inability to move from the sheer pain has me realizing that this is the end.

This is it. It’s over.

There’s nothing more I can do except hope that she will stay put.

And at the end, I only think about the beginning with Fallon.

I lock eyes with the woman across the room, intrigued and mesmerized by her huge, radiant eyes, in a dress that’s incredibly sexy without revealing too much bare skin. She traces her lips with her finger, smearing lipstick down her chin so innocently that it has me smirking, but her friend is pulling her attention away from me.

Ashton pulls the trigger.

CHAPTER 32

Fallon

Pitch black. Darkness.

This isn’t happening.

Hunched like a ball with my knees pulled up, I’m stuck in this scant place, crammed in here with the lid pressed against my back. Sweat seeps along the contours of my face as I try to turn my head slightly. I dig my teeth into my knees to keep from making a sound, but my own heavy, trembling breaths are deafening, feeding my fear. 

Oh my god. NO
!
Stop!

The blaring pain in my back is surpassed by the unbearable anguish I experience from hearing the constant blows and an incensed male voice. I shut my eyes tightly, and tears mingle with cold sweat as panic gnaws at my insides.

This isn’t real.

I hear Luca coughing and grunting in pain, and I can almost sense his suffering burning through my body while I have to listen to him being beaten, over and over again.

Someone’s yelling, and I want to help Luca, but I’m afraid to leave this space, so I honor the last promise I made to the man I love while the life is being beaten out of him.

After what feels like hours, but is probably mere minutes, of shouting and fighting, the sudden stillness thunders my fear to unmeasurable heights.

At least two shots were fired, but it could have been more. I clearly heard a shot being fired just now; it sounded weird, muted, but it was definitely a bullet leaving a gun.

Shivering from the cold, yet sweating from fright and from being huddled in this small space, I wonder what to do. I have no idea what’s happened to Luca, so how long do I wait? Why is it so quiet? Is Ashton gone? The attacker had to have been Ashton, but in my panic, I was unable to recognize the voice.

I count to one hundred and eighty to try to keep some sense of time. Oh my god, I just want to stay in here and cry, but I can’t. Not hearing Luca anymore worries me. I have to get out.

Get out! Help him!

Rounding my back, I slowly lift the lid until I can look through the opening, but it’s no use because all I see is pitch black with a blue hue in the distance where I think the cottages are located. I’ll have to rely solely on my hearing now, but my own irregular breathing is still deafening me – I need to calm down.

My chest constricts in warring sensations as I open the lid and climb out, trying to make as little noise as possible. I scan the area, but I don’t see any lights. Ashton must’ve had a flashlight with him; how else could he have found Luca among these trees? Holding my breath, I stand completely still to focus on the sounds around me, but all I can hear is the wind, so I decide to head back to the cottages.

Branches and dirt crunch beneath my shoes, and my ear-splitting, uneven breaths roar in my ears as I step forward with my hands out in front of me, feeling my way through the darkness. My head whips back and forth, and angst blazes through me while branches cut open the skin on my quivering hands as I unsteadily tread through the trees.

The silence is equally unsettling. Where’s Luca? Where’s Ashton?

I breathe a sigh of relief when the moonlight starts to shine through the trees more and more so that I can finally see the open space that will lead me to the cottage. None of the other cottages are nearby, so I’ll have to chance it and go back to ours to get to a phone. Breaking out in a run, I reach the cottage’s back door and listen for any movement inside. Silence. I open the door and grimace when it creaks on its hinges. Quietly, I tiptoe to the hearth but drop down when a slam outside warns me of company. Broken glass cuts my palms as I crawl to the window on hands and knees, but I bite through the pain. I glimpse outside and see Ashton occupying the driver’s seat of a car behind Luca’s Maserati.

I need to get to a phone, but mine is in my purse in the Maserati. Turning my head, I spot Luca’s jacket in front of the hearth.

Please let his phone be inside the jacket!

I check the pocket, and thank god, I’m touching the cold surface of Luca’s smartphone. I haven’t heard Ashton drive away, so I crawl to the back of the cottage and call Adriano, trying desperately to keep the phone from slipping out of my trembling hands.

“What up?” he greets cheerily.

“A- Adriano…help me.”

“Fallon? What’s wrong? What’s going on? Where’s Luca?” He’s instantly on alert.

“…Don’t know.” My chest rises and falls while I desperately try to concentrate and give him useful information.

“I’m tracking his phone right now. You’re at Cottage Woods in Lake Forest? Take a deep breath and then tell me exactly what happened.” I hear him giving out orders. “Damian, go to Cottage Woods. Now! I want someone there within fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, cottage. Ashton is out front…I-I think he and Luca fought in the woods, and I heard gunshots. I don’t know where Luca is,” I cry and sniff.

“Fallon, where are you right now?”

“Inside the cottage, by the back door.”

“You need to leave the cottage, okay?”

“Nooo! Don’t make me go out there again; it’s so dark.” I wipe my nose with my arm.

“Ashton could come inside at any moment, and it’s going to take me twenty minutes to get to you. I need you to be brave and sneak back out, okay? When you get outside, cover the phone with your hands, run toward the woods, and hide behind the first tree you see. But
don’t
disconnect our call unless you see him following you; then you must disconnect it so the light of the screen won’t give you away.”

I nod through my trembles.

“Talk to me,” he coaxes in a gentle tone, laced with concern.

“Go back outside, and run to the woods?” I ask hesitantly.

“Yes, but don’t go too deep into the woods,” he warns. “Hide behind the first large tree you see. Now run away from the cottage.”

I take off as Adriano instructed and round the first tree I see. He stays on the phone with me, consistently calming me down, until he finally tells me that he’s arrived.

“I’m inside the cottage now. Ashton is gone, and I’m going to walk through the back door. Three other soldiers are with me, so don’t panic when you see us. Do you see me, Fallon?”

A tall shadow appears in front of the back door of the cottage.

“I’m waving now. Do you see me? Come to me.”

I dash back toward Adriano, who meets me halfway when he spots me, and I jump into his arms.

“You’re fine now. Breathe.” Adriano strokes my hair and pulls back. “Where did you last see Luca?”

Other men holding guns and flashlights are behind Adriano.

“He hid me.” I distinctly remember that when I left my hiding place, I walked toward the cottage in a straight line, so I pull Adriano forward, and we find the open lid of the underground space quickly.

Flashlights are scanning the area to try to find any trace of Luca.

With quivering lips, I inform, “They were fighting near where I was hiding. I could hear them, Adriano!” I point my unsteady fingers to my ears as tears pour down my face. “I heard gunshots!”

“Adriano,” a male voice shouts. “Over here.”

He takes my hand in his, and we run toward the other man. My heart drops to my feet as I fall to my knees.

“NO! Luca, you can’t leave me alone!” I scream and cry uncontrollably when I see Luca’s body on the ground with blood covering his face and chest. Adriano picks me up before I can touch him and holds me against his chest. His arms and sheer exhaustion immobilize me. “Is he alive?”

“He’s in bad shape. We need to get him out of here,” he answers me and barks orders to his men. “You know the drill. Doc and an ambulance. Doc will take care of everything at the hospital. I’m taking her myself. Bury the other body.”

There’s another body? I didn’t even notice that. “I want to stay with him,” I whisper so softly, but he hears me.

“We need to let the others do their work. We’ll go straight to the hospital, and you can see Luca there.”