Adriano Rossi
“You stole January.”
I try to focus on Bobby’s face but my vision blurs to gold and glass.
“You stole January,” he says even louder. “Now she’s gone and her fucking Zia is dead because you brought her here.”
Here. I force my eyes to blink, to concentrate on my surroundings. I’m on a bed with crisp white sheets, still fully dressed. That means ‘here’ is still St. John’s Private Medical Center. Here is where Parker found us. Here is where I was shot; a bullet in the side, another grazing my skull. But it didn’t kill me. Nothing ever kills me.
“We’re… in the hospital,” I manage, though my tongue is thick as a steak in my mouth. “I’m in a hospital room.”
“Eh mannaggia,” says a low voice.
Eli. I turn, but I can’t see him.
“Parker,” he says in his accented voice. “You need to trace Parker.”
“For the hundredth fucking time, we are,” Bobby says.
“Is he taking her to the compound?”
“No, traffic cams showed his limo getting on the interstate and—”
“There’s no point talking to him, Basher. He’s fucking high.”
A new voice. Doc is at my shoulder, his butterfly knife turning in his hand.
“What’s up, Doc?” I ask.
He jabs the blade at me. “Stop smiling, you fucking clown. If you were anyone else, I’d gut you.”
“Okay,” I say and bite the inside of my cheeks. Then a thought comes to me. “Wait. Why are you all here? Why aren’t you going after…?”
I can’t say her name, but even with all the drugs the doctors have pumped into me, I still see her clearly. Those round green eyes and pink mouth. Her dark hair rippling as she flashes me her ingenuous smile.
“Fucking hell,” Bobby says. “We are trying to find her.”
I blink. He’s sitting at a table in the corner of the room, his laptop in front of him. “So why are you still here?”
“Don’t answer,” Eli says.
I turn my head right. There he is. Standing by the window, his hands in his pockets. A stranger would think he was calm, but I see the rage burning in his eyes.
“What was January wearing, Adriano?” Eli says.
“When?”
Doc swears.
“When you brought her here to see her Zia. Do you remember anything? Her hair, was it up or down?”
I screw my eyes tight. Picture her beside me in the elevator. “It was… down. And she had your necklace on.”
“Her St. Christopher?” Bobby asks. “She put it on my chain?”
“No. Eli’s necklace. The fancy fuckin’ necklace with all the rubies.”
“Je-sus,” Doc says. “You were gonna let her steal Morelli’s jewelry?”
I shrug and my fractured rib shifts inside me. “Dunno.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Eli says. “This is excellent.”
“Because you have so much money, you can piss away rubies?” Doc asks.
“No.” Eli points to Bobby. “Go into the security program and trace VellutoTaylorTwenty.”
Bobby’s already hammering at the keys. “Passcode?”
“Seventeen-Q-eighty-J-nine hundred and four.”
Bobby gives a sharp laugh. “Got it. Holy shit. There’s audio and visual.”
Doc cackles. “You put a camera on whatever chick wears your necklace? Morelli, you fucking stalker.”
“It’s for security.”
“And knowing she’s not blowing her ex-boyfriend downtown never came into it, I’m sure.” Doc looks over Bobby’s shoulder. “Have you found January? Do we have a location?”
“Hang on.” Bobby types frantically. “Hang the fuck on, we’re almost in.”
I close my eyes. My head is mossy with painkillers. I want to sleep, but powerful things are winding under my thoughts, straining at the flat surface of the medication. Rage. Fear. And something else, something that gnaws like a beast.
I should never have brought the girl here. I betrayed my brothers. I betrayed her. I don’t deserve to live.
I force my eyes open. “I’m getting up. I’ll get her back if it kills me.”
“It’ll just kill you,” Eli says. “Harvey is coming in the chopper. You’re going to Velvet House and awaiting orders. Bobby, what the fuck is happening with the necklace?”
“I’m in.” Bobby pushes back his chair. “No audio but we’ve got visuals. She’s in sunglasses and a hat and… where the fuck is she?”
“Has the limo stopped?” Doc asks. “Is Parker taking her to the airport?”
“No,” Bobby says. “She’s not… I don’t think…” He turns to Eli. “Could Parker have taken the camera out?”
“I doubt it. It’s embedded in one of the rubies.”
“Where is she?” I say, my voice stupidly slurred.
“About an hour from here on the highway,” Bobby says. “But she’s not in Parker’s limo, she’s at a rest stop. In a men’s room, it looks like—”
“What?” I try to jerk my legs sideways to stand. Nothing moves. “Who’s she with? Parker?”
Bobby hammers on the keyboard. “I don’t think so. Another guy.”
“Show him,” Eli demands. “If he’s one of Parker’s men, Adriano might recognize him.”
Bobby almost drops his laptop bringing it over to me. I sit up straighter, feeling my rib scrape. “The meds are wearing off.”
“We’ll top you off at Velvet House,” Doc says. “Focus.”
The back of a huge blond man is hustling through a truck stop.
“Dunno,” I say. “Could be anyone.”
“Look harder,” Eli demands.
I squint just as the blond turns and looks right into the camera. “I know him. He works for Parker.”
Bobby lets out a breath. “What’s his name?”
“No name. He was the one who hit me.” I gesture at my broken nose.
None of the guys say anything, but I feel their secondhand embarrassment. Still, I don’t have the right to pride, not while January’s missing. “He’s alone,” I say. “Why’s he alone with her?”
“Maybe she needed the restroom?” Bobby says.
“The men’s restroom?”
“Shit,” Doc snatches up the laptop. “Dolph Lundgren’s not taking her to Parker’s limo. He’s got his own car.”
“Maybe it’s part of the plan,” Bobby says. “A decoy ride?”
“No way. Look at him. Look at how freaked out he is and he’s dragging January’s arm. He’s taking her.”
“Another abduction?” Eli says. “How is that even—Doc, what are you doing?”
Doc tosses the laptop onto my bed and heads to the door. “We know where she is. We know who she’s with. I’m leaving.”
“We need a plan,” Eli says.
“So come up with one while I’m driving. January’s already been double abducted by some Russian boxer. I’m not gonna waste time sitting around.”
“No, you’re going to cowboy your way into an early grave.”
I unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Let him go. We need someone after her.”
“You,” Eli glares at me. “You lost the right to contribute the moment you took that girl.”
“So, kill me once she’s back,” I say. “Bobby and Doc can go out together and you can focus on—”
A sickening wave rolls up my body and I fall back into the pillow.
“…passing out…” Bobby says.
“…call the goddamn doctor…”
My eyes scrape open. A man is floating over me. Not a man I know. I try to swat him, but my arms are like logs.
“January,” I mumble. “Where’s January?”
“Easy, Rossi,” Eli murmurs in my ear. “We’re getting you out of here.”
I tilt my head and see Harvey holding my stretcher. Sal has the other end. I’m rolling down a hallway, harsh lights flashing like UFOs.
The man I didn’t recognize is running beside me, arguing with Eli. “You can’t remove a patient without my authority.”
“I think you’ll find I can.”
“But the police want to interview him and—”
Eli shoves a wad of bills at the doctor. “Mr. Mills is going to a different hospital, and he won’t be filling out your forms. Is that understood?”
The doctor looks down at the bundle of cash. “I still think—”
“Either take the money or give the speech,” Eli says. “You don’t get to do both.”
The doctor scurries away.
“Are we heading for the chopper?” I ask.
“We are.” Eli looks me in the eyes. “Did you fuck her?”
I tilt my head back. Harvey and Sal’s faces are blank but I can tell they’re listening.
“I’m waiting, Rossi.”
I shake my head.
Eli’s gaze bores into mine. “Then why?”
I think of the way January looked as she danced in her cage. Terror and control and magnificence. It’s humiliating. She’s a beautiful young girl and I’m… what I am. But I can’t deny it. Not now she’s been taken from all of us. I let Eli read the answer on my face.
He lets out a long sigh. “You of all people?”
“Yes.”
“So, you didn’t want to kill her?”
“I did and I didn’t. I do… I don’t know.”
“It would have been easier if you’d just killed her,” he says wearily, but I know he doesn’t mean it. There is no life without January Whitehall now. Not for me or Eli, or Bobby or Doc. But I don’t say that. We can deal with who loves who and what to do about it once we have her back. Because if we don’t get her back…
A red haze washes over my brain. I’m going to pass out again. “Are Doc and Bobby…? Where are Doc and Bobby?”
“On the road. Getting closer to her every second.”
Fear drills at my inner ear. “If we don’t find her…?”
“We will.” A cool hand rests briefly on mine. “Sleep, old friend, and pray we don’t kill you when you wake up.”
I try to smile, but my face won’t move. Then I’m gone.