Lullabye (Rockstar #6) (5 page)

I walk over to him and hug his side. He wraps an arm around me.

“I didn’t want it leaked out, Serafina. There are moles,” gampy tells me.

“What?”

He nods. “We need to be very careful until we can smoke them out of their holes. I trusted no one on that tour.”

“How the hell do they keep getting in?” I ask, frustrated.

“That’s what we intend to find out,” Cage murmurs.

“What about Jana?” I whisper.

“All I know is she’s alive. I don’t know if she’s been—injured,” gampy explains, his expression impassive as always.

“We need to tell them,” I remark. “I am not going to keep this kind of a secret from Jesse, Lucy, and Ben. I can’t and I won’t.”

“Serafina. It is part of the business. This is how things are done,” gampy states. He’s so matter-of-fact about it, it pisses me off.

“You know what, gampy? You can keep your business. I don’t want a part of
this
at the cost of my sister, her husband, and brother-in-law. You
know
better than to do this to Lucy—again. I just can’t and I won’t apologize for it.”

He nods once. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

“You say this is business, but this ‘business’ isn’t just business right now. It’s
family
and I don’t want to jeopardize that. And when they aren’t informed, they’re at risk. Think about this, gampy.”

He just looks at me as Nana looks on silently. Cage still has the tick in his jaw and I can’t blame him. I think if we were anywhere but here, he’d have plenty to say. I wonder what he said to gampy already. I bet he went all Batman on him. I smirk at the thought then pout a little. I missed it. I missed my sexy husband going all alpha male.

“Gio,” Cage says and I perk up. Maybe I’ll get some alpha Batman hotness right now. “She’s right.”

That’s it. That’s all he said, but the way he said it, and the look on his face when he said it has me all hot and bothered. Sheesh. I’m so easy.

“Of course I’m right,” I mock with a roll of my eyes. That gets me a twitch of his lips. Blink and you’d miss it, but I never miss it. I know what to look for and I love that it’s just me and him, sharing secrets, being best friends and lovers.

“Giovanni,” Nana scolds.

Holy smokes.

“You know she’s right. Upsetting Luciana is a mistake. Keeping this from her and those men.” She shakes her head. “It’s foolish and will cause a very big ripple of discord in the family. I don’t ever tell you what to do when it comes to your business, but this is family. This is our Luciana and her family—our family. You need to do what’s right,” she advises.

Rock on, Nana! Mental fist pump action going on here. Hell, I’m starting to sound like Xander—except he’d be doing that out loud. I snort and Cage looks over. I just shake my head and there’s that twitch again. I lick my lips and his eyes follow the movement of my tongue. When his gaze lifts to mine, I smirk and give him a wink. His eyes dance with amusement and I wiggle my eyebrows.

“Yes. All right. As soon as Luciana is well enough, I’ll talk to her. I will speak to both Jesse and Ben in a few minutes. I will arrange to have a private space,” gampy tells us.

“Good idea. I have a feeling there are going to be some Kingston men going ape shit here shortly,” I mutter and Nana nods. See? She gets it. It’s got to be a man thing that they don’t think about
feelings
—although, Cage did think of that. Maybe gampy is just too set in his ways to think of such things but, damn, this isn’t something to mess around with. I pause when I get a thought that gives me chills. I hope my Batman never gets that used to “business” that he forgets to feel. I won’t let him. I’ve taught him how to feel again, how to laugh, and how to be happy just as he taught me. We’ll just have to remind each other what’s at stake when feelings are put in second place to business.

I’ve decided not to speak during this meeting unless it’s necessary—and I have a feeling it’s going to be. Nana didn’t come and I almost wish she had. She’s got that way about her that gets people to listen to reason.

“Gentlemen, have a seat,” gampy offers.

“No, thanks. I’ll stand,” Jesse tells him. “If you’ve called us in here to talk in private, I know it’s not going to be good.”

Ben stands impassively next to his brother. His eyes skirt over to me and I press my lips together. He visibly tenses, bracing himself for what’s to come. My Benny. Maybe I could have loved him if I’d met him first—or never met Cage. No. I couldn’t have. That passion isn’t there. He’s a great best friend, though.

“All right. I’ll just cut to the chase,” gampy begins.

“I’d prefer it,” Ben tells him, getting a nod in return.

“You’re aware we have many enemies.”

Both Ben and Jesse nod.

“Some of those enemies have taken your sister, Jana,” gampy tells them, straight up.

“What?” Ben asks.

“What the fuck? When? How? She had guards,” Jesse growls.

“She did, that’s true. She went off on her own, purposefully losing those guards. We found out she’d been seeing one of the Manzini sons.”

Jesse lets out a string of expletives that’d do a sailor proud.

“She wouldn’t go with him if she’d known,” Ben reasons.

“No, I’m sure not. I’m also sure he used an alias to get close to her, charmed her, and when he learned enough about the guards and her protection, he took her,” gampy tells him.

I clench my fists and unclench them. I
hate
the Manzinis.

“Is she alive?” Jesse asks flatly.

Cage steps closer. “We’re not sure.”

“Give it to us straight, man,” Ben asks, his eyes pleading for something other than what we know to be the truth.

“We’re honestly not sure. Last we heard she was alive. Any other time they’ve kidnapped someone, the person would already be dead,” Cage informs them.

“Christ,” Jesse bites out. He paces the floor then looks to Cage. “What do we do?”

I stand up and walk over to them. “We wait, we hope, and we pray.”

“Not that it’ll do us much good,” Ben snaps. “You fuckers and your mafia bullshit.”

“Ben,” Jesse mutters softly.

“No, fuck that.” He steps forward toward my gampy and I hold my breath. This isn’t the smartest thing Ben’s ever done. “You know this is bullshit. How do we get her back? Do we know what they’ve
done
to her? Motherfucker!” he shouts, grabbing the back of a chair and holding it so tightly his knuckles are white. “She’s going to be so fucked up if she gets out of this alive.” He looks to Cage. “Right?”

Cage doesn’t miss a beat. “Yes.”

And just like that Ben crumbles. He falls into the chair, his head hanging. “If we save her, we won’t really be saving her. I know what they’re doing to her—torturing her for information, raping her to let her know who’s in charge.” He blows out a breath and looks up at me with imploring eyes. “What do we do, Sera? Do we even want to save her from that? What kind of life will she have? She’ll be broken.”

I walk over and stand in front of him, pulling him forward and hugging him, his arms wrapping around my waist, his head resting on my chest.

“We don’t know anything yet, Ben.”

“But you know what they do, what they’re probably doing,” Jesse states.

I nod. “I do.”

“Straight up, Sera. Give it to me straight up,” Jesse pleads.

I sigh. I hate having to be the one. “If I were to guess, I’d say she met the guy at college. He likely did the whole doting-boyfriend thing, charmed his way into her pants, then got her to trust him. The minute she let her guard down and let him in, he pounced, taking her back to the Manzinis.”

“And then?”

“Jesse,” I say softly.

“And then? What would you do? If it was you, what would you do?” he seethes, and in this moment I’m so afraid he is going to hate me for who I am and what I do.

“And then we’d tie her up and if she was loud or wouldn’t shut up, we’d gag her. We’d make her wait, walking past her with our weapons, intimidating her, making her fear us even more. Then we’d interrogate her by whatever means necessary. We don’t rape as a means of torture, so I don’t know about that at all, but it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

“And the Manzinis are known for that?” Ben asks.

I nod. “Yes.” I look over to Cage, whose eyes soften when they meet mine, his mouth and jaw hard and set in an angry line. “They may or may not rape her. They will torture her, finding her weaknesses if they haven’t already.”

“She doesn’t know anything,” Jesse says, stating the obvious.

“I know. Likely they do as well,” I admit.

“Then what the fuck?” he roars. “Why?”

I meet his gaze and hate my answer. “Because they can.”

He blows out a breath, then lets out an anguished growl before falling to his knees, his head hanging much the way Ben’s was. I go to him, dropping to my knees in front of him, holding him as he breaks down.

His body shakes—hard, and I know there’s more to this than what’s happening now. How long has he been holding this in? I soothe him with a gentle hand rubbing his back, soft senseless words and sounds. Ben walks over, standing behind his brother, looking on in confusion. I just shake my head.
Let him get it all out. He needs to purge this anguish.

When he calms down a bit, I hug him tighter and whisper in his ear, “I will do everything I can to get her back.”

Jesse nods against me, then pulls back to meet my gaze. “Dead or alive. I want her back dead or alive. My baby sister deserves a proper burial if they killed her.”

I swallow down my frustration, fear, and anger. “I’ll do my best, Jesse. You know I will.”

He nods. “But not at the cost of you, Sera. Okay?”

Now the tears fall. “Jesse.”

“No. There’s a choice to be made here. It’s all about choices, right? That’s how life works. Make a choice, right or wrong, you won’t know until it’s already done. Well, this is my choice,” he states, looking at Ben, who nods his agreement. “She’s going to be so broken, Sera. She won’t even be Jana anymore. She’ll be an empty shell. So, I ask you, don’t risk yourself, because if she’s that damaged, she’s going to wish she was dead,” he finishes and I can only stare at him, then Ben.

“Do what you can, but promise us you won’t risk yourself. Not if they did to her what you think they did—what you
know
they’re likely to do. Just—don’t,” Ben pleads.

I nod. “All right. But I am going to kill some Manzini fuckers if they did to her what we fear.”

“Good,” Jesse mutters as he stands, then holds his hand out to me, helping me up.

“We’ll find her,” gampy affirms. “It’s just a matter of time.”

“Time is a luxury we don’t have right now, right?” Ben asks.

Gampy nods. “I’ve got men on it, Ben. The best men we’ve got.”

“I wondered where Damian was,” Jesse mumbles. “I figured he’d be here since he’s half in love with Lucy. He’d worry about her in surgery.”

Cage nods. “Only the best.”

“Then there’s nothing more to do. I’m going to see my wife,” Jesse announces before walking to the door.

“Me too,” Ben agrees.

Jesse looks back at gampy and Cage. “Do what you need to do.”

“Consider it done,” Cage replies.

With a nod, Jesse and Ben leave the room, the door clicking quietly closed behind them.

I look at Cage and Gampy and shake my head, my anger rising up. “If we bring her back, she’s going to be glad we got her out of there, but she’s going to wish they’d just killed her. She won’t make it.”

“No, she won’t,” Cage agrees.

“I can’t handle this,” I admit. “Jesus, this is our family. Why go after a Kingston and not a Russo or Manzini?”

“They couldn’t get to Lucy or you, so they found a weakness, one we wouldn’t expect,” gampy muses. “And now, they’ll pay the price.”

I meet his gaze, his icy and cold. Bad ass gampy is pretty damn scary. I understand now why he’s the Boss.

“Let’s go see the babies and celebrate their innocence,” I urge. Lord knows they won’t have that innocence for long in this family and that thought makes my heart hurt.