Hunter (30 page)

“Get as close to the Hamptons as possible and call Angelo to see if we can get her out.” He shrugged. “We can't do anything unless Enzio is here, which he isn't yet. Apparently he knows that she's there and is coming home today. Angelo couldn't put it off anymore.”

I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my hand across my face. All the fucking apparentlys were driving me insane. Knowing she was down in the basement cells beneath the house—fuck, it ate at me. I knew what they were. I'd seen them. I'd fucking killed in them.

If Gaige had any idea how shit those places were, he'd be a lot more agitated than he was. He looked calm. Like he'd wait for the storm to come to him.

Fuck that.

I was the storm, and I wanted to be headed right through the Hamptons.

It was then, in that moment, looking at him sipping coffee and scrolling on his phone, that I knew.

He couldn't have her.

Whether I deserved her or not, he couldn't have Adriana.

She belonged to me.

I'd kill him before I'd let him touch her.

“Then let's go,” I said, swallowing that resolve and standing.

He looked up. “Right now?”

“No, next fucking week, you prick.”

“Hey.” He stood and squared up to me. “Calm the fuck down, Carlo. We're both trying to do the same thing here.”

“Yeah? You think? Because you seem real fucking calm, Gaige. She's in a tiny room without a bed. She'll be lucky to have a pillow or more than two blankets, and that's if they don't have her tied up. If your brother really is helping her, then she's eating, when he can smuggle it down to her. She might not even be drinking. You have no idea what could be happening to her right now.”

“Angelo will take care of her.” He was certain. “He won't let anything bad happen to her.”

“He won't have a choice!” I clenched my fist and then pushed my knuckles into my temple before I stepped back. “Do you not understand that? Is your life in Los Angeles so fucking cushy that you have no idea how it works when you're kidnapped by the mafia, huh? You know how Enzio's men usually punish women, Pontarelli? They rape them. Numerous times. Numerous men. Over and over until they're broken spirits on the ground. If they want to do that to her, Angelo can't do a fucking thing about it, and we're still two and a half hours away from her.”

His eyes widened.

Yeah. He'd lived a fucking easy life in California, for sure. Running drugs. The occasional woman passing through. He had no idea what it was like to be in the middle of it.

“I don't know about you, but I'll be fucked if anyone touches her like that. And if they do, I'm gonna break their bones one by one, and I'd rather not wait. So let's fucking go.” I left the coffee on the side, grabbed my bag and my gun, and left the room, tucking the weapon into my jacket once more.

I meant it, too.

If anyone touched my girl, I'd shatter their bones so slowly and painfully they'd beg for death with every breath they took.

No questions asked.

“Give me the keys,” I demanded as we reached the car Gaige had hired.

He stared at my outstretched hand. “Why?”

“Have you ever been to New York? Ever driven to the Hamptons?”

“No.”

How the fuck had he never been to New York? Oh, yeah—the Pontarelli prince had a fucking cushy-cushy life. “Then hand 'em over now. I'm not being your human fucking GPS.”

He threw them to me and walked around the car. I still didn't trust his ass, but he'd already followed me across the country because he didn't trust me. I figured it was easier to keep him close because he'd sure as hell follow me across a state.

Once he'd figured out where to go, that was.

Idiot.

When I got in the car, his thumb was moving across the screen of his phone. I stared at him until he realized I was looking. It took him several minutes.

“You know someone could kill you and you wouldn't even realize they were there?” I asked him.

“I knew you were there. I was just ignoring you.” He tapped on the screen and showed it to me. “From Angelo.”

Enzio lands 3hrs.

That was all it said. “Right. We need to leave.” I shoved the key in the ignition and turned it harshly. The engine roared to life, and I was already talking before I'd pulled out of the parking lot. “Isaiah will collect him from the plane to bring him back to the house, along with a new security team. The house will be unmanned from the back, so Angelo needs to get as many people away by saying Enzio has ordered everyone out. They'll go. Clearly he has them all convinced he's on their side, and I didn't even know he was pretending to be a part of the family.” I snorted. I'd be pissed off if I wasn't kinda impressed at his secretive skill. “We need to get Adriana out of the basement and somewhere she can't be cornered.”

“I could take her away. Get her completely out of the house.”

“No. She's determined to be the one to pull the trigger on Enzio, and I respect that. She stays with me.” My grip on the steering wheel tightened.

She always stays with me.

***

The roads were long and familiar. I knew every one like I knew the lines of my palms, probably better. I'd driven them more times than I could count, but this time, they felt wrong.

I didn't want to be on them for the first time ever. I wanted to turn around, but I couldn't. Not without Adriana.

Fuck, I wanted to go in, get all this done, and then take her somewhere. Some remote island in the middle of the ocean where nobody could ever touch her again.

The guilt and regret I had over letting her go held onto me with an iron grip. I couldn't shake it. If it was true and Isaiah had been waiting for her to be alone, if I hadn't have let her go, she might have been safe. She might have gotten through her stupid mission without being taken from me.

Of course, I still let her go. I still had to live with that.

I just wanted her back. Right here where she was safe with me. Because that was all that mattered. That she was safe.

With me.

I used that thought to soothe my guilt. It didn't work. It took away the sting, but there was no soothing. I needed to see her, and I needed to see her soon. I needed to see her with my own eyes and touch her with my own hands and make sure she was okay.

Possessiveness ripped through me. I'd never felt so protective over someone that wasn't right by my side. Hell, even in my whole life, I'd never felt this protective over
her
. That was saying something given how often she seemed to walk blindly into trouble when we were kids.

I fought the smile that tried to form. Gaige already thought I was mad—I didn't need to reinforce that by smiling to myself as I drove. He hadn't said a word since we got in the car two hours ago, and now we were almost there, the most he'd moved was to check his phone.

It was a pointless thing to do. Angelo would only message him if he could, and if he was still trying to send people out of the house on 'Enzio's orders' then that could take forever. Most of the guys who spent time at the Romano house were stubborn motherfuckers.

I would know. I was one of them.

If they knew what I knew, I wondered if they'd stay. Wondered if they'd be on Enzio's side or Adriana's.

A war was brewing in the Romano family. It had been for ten years.

All I had was hope that Adriana was strong enough to survive it.

Deep down, I knew she was. She could weather any storm that was thrown her way, because that was what she'd been taught. Her mother was a pillar of strength, and I knew that Alexandria had given every ounce of that to her daughter.

Adriana also had a hefty dose of attitude, so I was more than a little afraid that she'd mix that with her strength and get herself more stupidity than anything. Lord only knew she was pretty fucking impulsive and tended to act before she thought sometimes.

I glanced to the side at Gaige. He was staring out of the window, and I wondered how impulsive she'd be if he challenged her once in a while. From what I'd seen and she'd told me, he was quick to do whatever she wanted.

Like leaving her house the first time we met, right after she tried—and succeeded—in throwing me into the pool. If I were him and I'd just found the chick I was in love with close to another guy in a pool, I sure as fuck wouldn't be leaving the house. She would have had to try and physically shove me off the property, and even then, I'd probably find myself a way back onto it.

“Angelo messaged yet?” I asked, finally sick of him pressing the button to brighten his phone screen and check.

“Nope.” He clicked his tongue and put his phone face down, only to check it again a minute later.

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes and glanced at the time. We were just approaching the Hamptons, and I knew that if the house wasn't clear, I'd be emptying my gun faster than I'd anticipated.

“Can you text him? I need to know how to get in.” I was getting impatient. Our time was limited as it was.

Wordlessly, he tapped at the screen.

Fuck, I hate this guy.

I rolled my shoulders as we entered the Hamptons and studiously avoided looking at him. If I had to go in there and shoot every motherfucker I came across, then it was gonna be a bad fucking day for them, wasn't it? I was getting to Adriana, and I didn't care if I'd be covered in blood by the time I did. I just knew I was getting there. I'd run out of fucks to give and there was no two ways about it.

I was getting my girl back.

“It's not clear,” Gaige said, looking at me.

“What a fucking shame,” I replied in a flat tone.

I was disassociating myself.

I was switching from Carlo to Hunter.

From man to assassin.

From lover to killer.

The two pieces of me split apart, ripping down the center. Like two rough edges, they fit together, but like polar opposites, they couldn't touch.

Gaige stared at me as I focused on the road ahead. “You're going in there anyway?”

“Is Adriana stuck in a basement cell?”

“Yes.”

“Then there's your answer.” I turned the car. “There isn't a person in that house that can kill me before I kill them, but I'd like to see them try.”

“You're real confident, Rosso.”

“You call it confident, I call it knowledgeable, Pontarelli.”

“What if they get you?”

I slowed the car and looked at him. “Then you're gonna have to grow a fuckin' pair, aren't you?”

“I'd do anything for her,” he protested.

“Except die.”

He didn't reply.

I knew it.

I'd give my life for hers.

He wouldn't.

The difference between us glared.

The house appeared in the distance.

He ground his teeth.

I touched the gun at my waist. “You know you might not make this out in one piece, don't you?”

Slowly, he turned to face me again. “Will she?”

“Yes.”

“Then, yes. I know.”

I killed the engine. “Let's go.”

I lolled my head back against the wall.

It was cold, so cold.

I was cold.

Everything was cold.

Angelo promised help was coming. He promised I wasn't alone.

I felt alone.

Felt it as it pumped through my veins, slid through my arteries, drained through my bones.

Felt it everywhere.

Alone.

Cold.

Where was everyone?

Why was I so alone?

Hunter.

Heartbreak.

Darien.

Anguish.

Hunter.

Where was he?

“You have to be careful,” he whispers, pushing my hair from my face. “People want you, my
bella principessa.
”

“I know, but I just wanted ice cream. Besides, you came with me.” I look up into his pretty silver eyes. “You said it was okay.”

“I know.” He sighs, then wipes a little blood from the small cut on my cheek. “I hope this doesn't scar.”

I shrug. “I don't care. We sure kicked their butts, huh?”

His grin lights up his face. His smile tells me he did it all, but his eyes scream that he's proud of me for booting that
idiota
in the balls. “Sure, Addy. We kicked their butts real good.”

I reach forward and wipe my thumb across his bottom lip. The cut is bleeding, so I grab some tissue and press it there for a moment. “
Cacciatore
. You keep bleeding,” I whisper, dabbing at it.

“
Principessa
,” he responds, wrapping his strong hand around my much smaller one. “It's just blood. You're okay. That's all that matters.” His hand travels to my cheek. The warmth from his rough palm travels across my skin, and I close my eyes for a second. I open them in time for his next words. “I will always protect you. No matter where you are or what trouble you've gotten yourself in. I will always be there to save you.”

But he wasn't.

Where was he?

Why wasn't he here?

My eyes burned.

He promised.

He promised he'd always protect me. He promised to always save me.

Where was he?

“Hunter.” It was the barest whisper, but in the darkness of my prison, it screamed, echoed of every single wall.

He wasn't here.

I'd been here forever.

Why wasn't he?

I needed him. I didn't care he'd lied. I didn't want to be here anymore.

I wanted him.

Needed him.

Hunter?

“Stop,” I hissed to Gaige.

He was moving too fast. He didn't know this property the way I did. We needed to go slow, get in when no one could see us. It was already bad enough because I knew Addy was so close. She was so fucking close that if I ran, I could be with her in mere minutes, but it wasn't that simple. Going too fast would only put her in danger.