Chapter Six
I trust you.
Those three words almost dropped Gino to his knees and made him feel ten feet tall at the same damn time. He’d hauled her into his arms and kissed her, unable to hold back from showing her how much her words had affected him.
“Thank you,” he’d whispered when he’d let her breathe once more.
He had no idea how he’d managed to get so damn lucky, but he wasn’t going to do anything to lose her. The next hour passed quickly as he, Gavriil, Tony, and Nico hammered out a plan. It was no surprise that Hernandez was holding Rosa’sabuelain a property owned by the Battaglias. It was obvious that the cartel was firmly in their pockets. The matriarch of the family, Victoria Battaglia, wanted vengeance on the entire Carlisifamiliaafter the deaths of both her youngest sons, and she wasn’t above working with the likes of Hernandez to do it.
When they left Marissa’s place, Rosa was under strict instructions not to leave the property. Gino had promised her he would bring her grandmother back, and he would remember forever the look of hope, adoration, and love that shone on her beautiful face at his words.
“Gino,” Tony said as he strode toward him. “Sofia’s in the house, Gavriil has her, but Eduardo’s nowhere to be seen.”
Gino frowned as he stared up at the large house they believed Hernandez to be in. “What the hell? He set up this time and place to meet with Gavriil, and the fucker’s not here?”
Tony shook his head, turning to watch as Gavriil strode through the front door of the house, a short elderly Latina woman striding through the door beside him, her face so much like his Rosa’s that he knew he was seeing how she would look in fifty years’ time. Sofia didn’t look frail or unwell as they’d been led to believe. No, she looked pissed.
“Where is my granddaughter?” Despite her strong accent, there was no missing the demand in her tone.
Gino stepped forward. “We left her somewhere safe while we came for you, ma’am. We’ll take you to her now.”
“Idiota!” Sofia snarled, pointing a finger up at him. “All of you are idiots. This was never about me, or Eduardo getting my Rosa back. This is about money, and the greed the man I unfortunately gave birth to has for it. Three years ago, he took out an insurance policy on Rosa. If she dies, he inherits a small fortune. One he can use to rebuild his drug empire, and I will not allow either of those to happen. I have not spent the last two years cutting that man off at the knees, ruining his deals, and biding my time to end him, all of which I had to do knowing that my Rosa was being held against her will by a fucking criminal here in Chicago. Now that I am in a position to make a final strike,youput my baby right in the path of that prick.”
Gino felt like he’d been struck in the face by a two by four. “No, we are keeping her safe, she—”
The crack of Sofia’s hand meeting his cheek was loud, and Gino held up a hand to stop Tony and Gavriil from advancing on her further than the step they had each taken. He looked closer at Sofia and he realized that the rage she was showing masked another emotion, one that was just as strong and one that had his stomach turning.
Fear.
“Tell me.”
Sofia visibly swallowed. “He left here an hour ago. He’s had a couple of his men watching some house not far from here. Jorge, one of Eduardo’s enforcers who has always had a crush on my Rosa, told him he knew where she was, and how to get to her. If you’velefther somewhere, then Eduardo already has his filthy hands on her.”
A shrill noise came from behind her, and Gavriil cursed. “Blyat!That’s the panic alarm at Marissa’s.”
Gino turned to sprint for his car, allowing the ice he was known for to flow through his veins. He needed to be cool and calm so he could get to Rosa quickly, and when he did, he was going to bathe in the blood of her father, and any other dumb bastard who dared get in his way.
****
Rosa held completely still as she watched her father stare at her from across the room. The age-old fear that would fill her as a child rose as she faced him. She still wasn’t entirely sure how he came to be there. One minute, she was in the kitchen with Marissa, trying to distract herself from what Gino had gone to do, and in the next, five of her father’s men stormed the kitchen. She’d frozen as soon as Eduardo entered the room. She could hear screams and gunshots from elsewhere in the house, so she knew there were more of his men on the property.
“Rosa, come here to your papa.” There was no missing the smug satisfaction that practically dripped from his tone.
Rosa hated the fact that she actually took a step toward the man, trained as she was to obey his every command, but cheered silently when she held her ground.
Eduardo quirked a brow. “You have not seen me in three years. Surely you’ve missed me.”
Rosa felt a welcoming wave of anger building within her. “Not so much, no.” She was proud of the fact that her voice remained level. “I was being held captive by a family of criminal assholes who used me as a slave, had me cooking and cleaning for their entire fucking crew, and being raped by the son on the odd occasion when he could be bothered and actually managed to get it up. Missing you was simply not something I had time for.”
Eduardo’s eyes widened. “My, my. Has my daughter finally grown a backbone? I should have traded you sooner.”
Rosa shot him a withering look. “Perhaps so.”
More gunfire sounded near the front of the house, more screams, and oddly, a sharp, shrill whistle seemed to come from that same direction. Rosa heard Marissa inhale sharply.
“You three.” Eduardo signaled to the men closest to the kitchen door. “Go and see what the fuck is going on. The others should have had everything out there under control by now.”
The men filed out, and only her father, Jorge, and one other man remained. Rosa felt her skin crawl at the way Jorge was looking at her, and he was much too close for her liking.
