Cane

I sat on the couch beside Adelina with my arm draped over her shoulders. We were both watching TV, but I knew neither one of us was really thinking about the content on the screen. I risked my neck to save her life, and when I told her what she meant to me, she didn’t feel the same way back.

It fucking hurt.

I had been certain she felt the same way, thought I felt it in every kiss she gave me. She had just returned from a gruesome captivity, and she didn’t refrain from touching me. She wanted me all over her, my lips sealed to her mouth.

But that didn’t mean anything.

Now here we were—in painful silence.

My phone rang, and Pearl’s name was on the screen. I hadn’t spoken to her since the raid, so I assumed it was important. I took the call and pressed the phone to my ear. “Hey, I—”

“Crow has been captured.” She spoke a million miles an hour. “Tristan took him from the house, and now they’re heading east. Get him, Cane. Now!”

My reflexes were quick, and I was on my feet instantly. I darted for the pistol sitting on the counter and shoved it into the back of my jeans. I grabbed the bulletproof vest still sitting out. “I’m moving.”

“Hurry!”

I hung up and strapped on the vest as I headed out the door. My pulse was thudding in my ears, and I could barely hear my surroundings. The sounds from the TV disappeared and Adelina said something, but I couldn’t make it out. I grabbed the machine gun from the closet and bolted out the front door.

“Cane!” Adelina ran after me. “What’s going on?”

“Stay inside.” I didn’t turn back to her as I ran to the car. “I have to go. I can’t talk.” I cranked the engine and sped off, heading toward Cane’s house on the other side of the fields. I made a call to Bran on the way, telling him to gather up everyone he could and head to my tracker point. When that was done, I pulled up Crow’s location on the center screen.

It was still working.

Thank fucking god.

I hit the gas harder and sped nearly a hundred miles an hour down the empty roads. It was almost midnight, so no one was on the streets, thankfully. Now I knew Tristan was alive, and this time, I wouldn’t let him slip away. He would regret taking my brother when I beat him to death with the end of my shotgun.

I followed the tracker and tried to gain on them, but they were driving furiously just the way I was. They were heading east, which told me they intended to stay in Italy. There was no chance they were taking Crow on a plane unless they had a private one. But even then, that seemed unlikely.

Bran spoke over my phone system in the car. “We’re ten minutes behind you. What’s the plan?”

“Haul ass. Tristan is alive, and he has Crow. They must be returning to their base, and they have no idea we’re tracking—” The dot with Crow’s position suddenly disappeared. The map was completely blank. The vicinity where he had been was now empty.

“Cane?” Bran said. “You cut out.”

I refreshed the page and pulled the map back up on the screen.

His coordinate was gone. “Fuck…”

“What?”

I slammed my hand so hard against the steering wheel I nearly broke the bones. “They found the fucking tracker. Jesus Christ.” Tristan must have run a scanner across his body the second they were on the road. They obviously found the transmitter and cut it out.

Pearl must have just seen the same thing.

“Shit,” Bran said. “What do we do?”

I didn’t have an answer. I never panicked in stressful situations, even if they were a matter of life and death. But this was my brother, and losing him scared me far more than losing my own life. The whole reason he was captured was because of me. I should be the one tied up in the back of that car—not him.

I couldn’t handle the guilt.

I couldn’t face Pearl.

I couldn’t face myself.

“Cane?” Bran repeated.

I kept driving even though I no longer had a destination. “They were headed east. If they were planning on flying out, they would have headed to Florence. They must be going to Rome or somewhere in that vicinity.”

“What’s the description? What kind of cars are we looking for?”

“I…I don’t know.” I had no idea what happened at the estate. Pearl made it sound like they snatched Crow and left. There wasn’t a single witness to help me.

“Cane, I need something more than that.”

“I know,” I hissed. “I don’t have anything, Bran. I just know we need to find Crow as soon as possible—” My phone started to beep as someone called me on the other line. It was an unknown number, and due to the situation I was in, I thought it would be stupid to ignore it. “Hold on, Bran.” I hit the button and switched over. “Cane.” My tone immediately changed, turning defensive in preparation for whatever would happen next.

“Hope you’re enjoying my whore as much as I did.”

The voice was unmistakable, and it didn’t take me longer than a nanosecond to figure out who it was.

“And I’m enjoying your brother. Not in the same way, of course.” He added a sarcastic chuckle, enjoying his revenge thoroughly. I hadn’t said a word, but he knew I was panicking in my silence. “Now that the tracker is gone, you’ll have a very difficult time finding us. If I were you, I’d save the gas money.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I wasn’t letting my brother die. I wasn’t letting him suffer when this was all my fault. I wasn’t letting Pearl become a widow and single mother. Not gonna happen.

“So, let me save you some time. Give me what I want, and I’ll hand him over.”

I knew he was going to ask for Adelina. I didn’t want to give her up, even if she didn’t love me. She was an innocent woman who deserved to be free. But Crow was my brother, my blood. I was a dick to him, but that didn’t change how much he meant to me. I loved him from the bottom of my heart. It made me sick to my stomach, but I’d have to hand over Adelina to get him back. He was family. I wouldn’t turn my back on him and Pearl like that. Adelina would understand.

“Give me Pearl.”

My hand gripped the steering wheel tighter, and I swerved slightly as I drove down the street. It was dark in the countryside, and I could see the lights from Florence up ahead. Pearl was the last person I expected him to ask for.

“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to think it over. But you better give me the answer I want to hear—or he dies.”

“Why do you want her?” I demanded. “I’m the one who killed your men. I’m the one who stole your woman. Let me take his place, and you can get the revenge that you deserve. Beat me, torture me, and kill me.”

He chuckled. “As tempting as that sounds, my idea is much better. I know how you Barsettis work. It’ll hurt you much more knowing all the horrible things I’m doing to him than anything I could physically do to you.”

Fuck.

“But I want Pearl so I can hurt both of you. Ever since I laid eyes on her, I’ve thought of all the things I want to do to her. That flawless skin, those bright eyes… I can’t wait to snuff the life out of her just the way I did to Adelina.”

I squeezed the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.

“Give her to me, and Crow walks free. I’m a merciful man. I’ll allow you to save your brother—for a price.”