Jason and Elaine eyed me warily. “Nothing?” Jason prompted.
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s like they fucking vanished. We checked all of Las Serpientes known hang outs. The whole fucking gang has gone a ground.”
Jason swore and shook his head. “And the Seratelli’s?”
I leaned back against the couch and shrugged a shoulder. “They’re helping, they’re doing everything they can. The extra manpower has been amazing, but still, it’s not enough.”
“Kevin called his brother, Jack. Apparently, he’s some big tech guy in Chicago. He’s searching the dark web for Hillcrest.”
I felt my spirits lift a bit at the news. “Yeah?”
Jason nodded. “Kevin said Jack was the one that helped them find Kara. So he should be able to help this time around.”
“Thank fuck,” I sighed, letting my head fall back against the couch and closing my eyes.
“When you say, ‘the Seratelli’s’” Elaine’s voice broke through my thoughts. “You mean, the mafia?”
My eyes snapped open. Fuck. I had forgotten she was in the room.
“Yeah,” Jason answered, before I could respond. “The Don is Nico’s cousin.”
I shot Jason a look that said,what the fuck dude?
Jason shrugged a shoulder.
Elaine nodded, as if she expected that. “Well, let’s hope they can help. Now, the air mattress is in the hallway closet. Marcos, you’ll have to grab it. It’s much too heavy for me. You can set it up in Luke’s room, but I’m sure Jason would feel better sleepingin the recliner. I know when I had my shoulder surgery, laying down made the pain worse. I slept in that recliner for weeks.”
I felt dumbfounded by Elaine’s easy-going demeanor and acceptance to the news of the mafia helping to find her daughter. The woman sitting before me was a far cry different from the one that used to berate and belittle Maya growing up. “Right.”
“Come on, the sooner you get the air mattress set up, the quicker you can relax.” Elaine stood from the loveseat and limped toward the hallway.
I stared after her in shock.
“She’s right,” Jason grunted.
Shaking my head, I got to my feet and followed after Elaine.
Nico
Ipunchedandjabbedandpunched the bag in front of me. Each hit making my knuckles bloodier. Each hit reverberated through me, the pain in my knuckles echoed the pain in my heart.
Our search had been fruitless. We had searched the neighborhood for forty-eight hours straight, taking shifts to sleep, eating only when someone shoved something at us. In the end, Leonardo had called off the neighborhood search. He ordered his guys home and told me to do the same.
I had argued immediately. I had gotten in my cousin’s face, almost ruining the tentative relationship we were reforming. In the end, Leo had pulled me into a tight embrace and told me to fight it out at the gym. So I found myself at the family’s boxing gym, sparing with a bag for the for the first time in years.
I’d hung a punching bag in my garage at home, but I’d fallen out of practice. Now I was hurting in all the right places, bleeding out, just like my heart.
Forty-eight fucking hours without the love of my life. I couldn’t imagine the hell Maya was facing, enduring. I was living in a nightmare every second that passed by without her in my arms.
Fuck my cousin for calling off the neighborhood search. Fuck Marcos for agreeing.
We needed to keep going, keep pushing on. Someone somewhere was bound to crack. They had to have seen something. No one in that neighborhood had loyalties that couldn’t be bought. That’s what we needed to do; we needed to announce a reward for any information on Maya’s whereabouts.
“Nicolai!” Leonardo’s deep voice rang out from behind me. His yell indicating he’d been trying to get my attention for a while now.
I stopped hitting the bag, but didn’t turn to face my cousin. I grabbed the bag to stop it from swinging and rested my forehead against it as I panted hard and caught my breath.
“Nicolai. You’ve been here for hours. You need to go home.” Leonardo’s voice was soft and gentle, yet firm. He was used to getting his way and expected everyone to listen to him, family especially—family specifically.
