Chapter Eighteen
The two Hispanic men spoke rapidly in Spanish, and Zane wondered if they were runners for the cartels. The last thing the city needed was for the cartels to make their way into their town on top of the Russians.
The men looked over to him, and after checking out their expressions, he could tell they weren’t much different from him. They had been both roped into doing shit they didn’t want to do.
“Please. We need to get her to the hospital,” said a woman’s voice.
“I said shut your fucking mouth,” responded a man.
Zane’s heart jumped at the sound of the first voice. He’d know that voice anywhere. They had Ellen.
He cursed quietly and hoped his concern didn’t show on his face.
Zane turned and started to walk toward the sound of Ellen’s voice. Maybe if he got there first, he’d be able to do something about it.
As he reached the corner, he could see a man held Ellen at gun point. Two others were carrying Zoe. Something was wrong with her though. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were half-closed, like she’d been sick or something.
Stefano came up beside him. “What is going on?”
Zane had to act now. The only available action was likely going to be the craziest thing he’d ever even thought of before. But there wasn’t a choice. It was either do something, or they were all fucked, and the woman he loved ended up dead.
One hand quickly reached into the back of his pants while the other grabbed Stefano by the neck. He easily placed the kingpin in a headlock with the barrel of the gun pointed at his head.
“What the fuck!” Stefano shouted. “You are so fucking dead, asshole.”
Zane shook him a little. “Tell them to let the girls go.”
The two men holding Zoe carefully placed her on the ground, but the man next to Ellen continued to keep his gun trained on her.
“Put the fucking gun away,” Zane shouted to the guy. “Or I blow Stefano’s head off.”
The piece of shit only laughed.
Zane squeezed Stefano’s neck a little. “Tell your friend to put down the gun.”
Stefano waved a hand at the other man. “Put the fucking gun down, Billy. We’ll take care of him later.”
Zane watched as Billy did as he was told. The whole time his gaze remained fixed on him.
Motioning to a little alcove, Zane said, “Now, all of you move over there.”
Slowly the men moved into the alcove, and out of the corner of his eye, Zane saw Ellen race to her sister.
“Zo?” She tapped her cheeks a little. “Zo, honey?”
“Now, maybe you let me go?” Stefano said. “You don’t want to make this even more bad.”
Zane shook his head. “Not until we get to a car,” he said. “I just want to take the women and leave.”
Stefano laughed. “Leave? You think this is a fucking game? There is no leave.”
He could hear the threat under the laughter. Stefano wasn’t going to just let this go. Now it was a matter of necessity. He’d seen too much.
Zane moved closer to Ellen and Zoe. “What’s the matter with her?”
Ellen looked up to him with tears in her eyes. “It’s an overdose.”
He stared down at the very pale woman.
“I can’t lose her,” Ellen whispered.
Suddenly, Zoe started to shake violently. Her whole body convulsed as Ellen struggled to hold on to her. It was at that moment Zane realized his fatal mistake.
Not keeping his eyes on the switch-blade snake from before.
A hard blow to the head from behind knocked him to his knees. The second came in the middle of his back, and for the first time in ages, he saw stars as he fell.
Ellen cried out as Zane fell to the ground next to her. Zoe’s seizure just then started to subside.
Stefano stood over him, pure hate in his eyes. He spit on Zane and kicked him hard in the ribs.
“I told you. There’s no leave,” he shouted and kicked him again. “You think you can come here and fuck with me?” he screamed, delivering another series of vicious kicks to Zane’s body and head.
Ellen felt bile roll up into the back of her throat as she watched the man she loved be pummeled by the mob boss.
Stefano’s lackey pulled out a gun, but he shook his head.
“No, he lives,” he said with a smile.
Stefano leaned down to stare Zane directly in the eye.
“He lives as we fuck the two women. As we all take turns fucking them until they beg for us to quit. Then we kill them.”
She shook as he spoke and pulled Zoe as far away from the monster as she could.
“But him, we cut off his cock and make him eat it before sending him back home.” Stefano grinned. “Good lucky day, right? You get to live.”
She heard Zane yell before she actually knew what was happening.
Stefano jerked back, holding his nose, his face gushing blood.
Ellen could see the red spot on Zane’s forehead where he’d slammed it into the mobster’s nose.
“You fucking cunt,” Stefano shouted. He slammed his foot into Zane’s ribs with a loud crunch.
He wiped some blood off his face with his sleeve and turned to Ellen. His face was covered in blood.
“Come here, bitch.” He grinned.
Ellen scooted farther away.
Stefano marched over to her and grabbed her hard by the hair. With a mighty swing, he tossed her hard against the ground. Her head bounced, and the world went black for a moment before she knew just what was happening.
“Ellen,” Zane said. His breath was short, and she could hear he was struggling. She wondered if Stefano had broken a rib and punctured one of Zane’s lungs.
Her eyes blinked open, but it took a moment to remember what had just happened.
“Get the gun,” Zane said.
She sat her head up a little and could just make out Stefano in a blurry sort of way. He was taking his jacket off to reveal the god-awful blue shirt he’d worn.
“The gun,” Zane said again.
This time she registered what he was saying. She’d been thrown to where Zane’s gun had fallen. All she had to do was reach out.
Ellen shifted a little and felt her stomach lurch at the movement.
Push through. She just had to push through.
Her hand found purchase on the gun just as Stefano grabbed onto her feet and dragged her across the pavement.
She moaned loudly at the friction burns on her arm.
“Yes, baby,” Stefano laughed. “Moan for me.”
Ellen rolled over as quickly as she could and tried to take aim before firing the gun, but she knew there wasn’t much point so she closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.
The shot was loud and exploded in her ears.
“You shot me,” Stefano screamed. “You fucking shot me, you cunt.”
Ellen opened her eyes and found him holding his arm. That hadn’t been what she was hoping to hit, but it was something.
Stefano took a step forward, but she held up the gun from where she was, and he froze.
“Kinda looks like you should do what the lady says.”
Ellen turned and was both surprised and relieved to see Reece and Bryce standing with a few other people, guns out, surrounding all the mobsters.
Reece motioned with his gun. “Lower your fucking weapons.”
Zane looked over to where Reece was standing and had never been so glad to see him.
“How did you—”
Bryce stepped forward.
“Charlie called Reed who then filled in Cage and Meg about the tickets. Meanwhile, we stopped by Tanya’s earlier, and things with your woman just weren’t adding up so we put all the clues together after your crazy-ass text.” He shrugged. “We had some guys make a commotion up front and slipped back here.”
Zane laughed, though it hurt his chest a bit to do so. He’d spent so much time trying not to rely on them when they were the best detectives he knew. It was no wonder they figured out his situation and dropped everything to come and save them.
“Can you stand?” Ellen asked.
He nodded and watched as she and Meg pulled Zoe off the ground and helped carry her to a nearby car.
“Now here’s the deal,” Cage said to Stefano. He stepped out from behind the other men and handed Zane a gun. “You’re going to let my friends here go and just call it a day. We don’t want the cops involved anymore than you do.”
Stefano gave a harsh laugh. “Did your whore mother drop you on the head as a baby? The bitch shot me, and he crossed me. You want me to stop, you have to kill me.”
Zane held up his gun and pointed it directly at Stefano. “Don’t fucking tempt me.”
The man’s face dropped this time, likely seeing that Zane was more than serious about following through with that threat. Self-preservation was an amazing thing.
Cage shook his head. “I think you’re going to let my friend go, and we’re going to just stash away all the records my amazing little sis was able to hack into. Or we can turn them over to the FBI. I think the best thing is we both just call it a draw and go on our merry way.”
Stefano snorted. “You get nothing. You full of shit.”
It was Meg’s turn to step forward. She now held a small laptop.
She stared at Stefano. “Really? So you wouldn’t care if I sent the feds a folder called Volk?”
Stefano stilled and looked over to Yegor who had previously looked like he’d rather go down without a fight.
The Russian spread his arms out. “Then we part for now,” Stefano said. “You keep my business away from others, and I look the other way about those who angered me.”
Zane nodded. He could see in Stefano’s eyes that this was far from over, but he doubted Stefano would make any blatant moves against him or Ellen as long as they had that file to hold over him.
If they did leak the file though, the Russian mafia would probably descend on them like a plague. A stalemate, but at least one that kept Ellen safe.
It may have not worked out quite like he wanted, but it did fall under his original plan: make a deal with the mob.
Cage nodded. “Then we’ll be going.”
Zane climbed into the car next to Ellen. Zoe lay still on her lap. “Will she live?”
Ellen turned to him, her face nearly as pale as her sister’s. “We need to hurry,” she whispered.
Bryce climbed into the front with Reece, and as soon as the door was closed, they were moving. Zane watched the Russians in his window, thinking over the van of drugs they’d had to let go in order to just survive.
He shook himself. It might be a win, but it didn’t totally feel like it.