––––––––

“SPIT IT OUT!” I COMMAND, gripping the guard’s lapels and slamming him against the wall when my control snaps and I must know my wife’s whereabouts.

“She isn’t in the club, sir,” he responds, and I release him when I hear shouting outside the back entrance.

Quickly, I close the distance to the door and storm through it into the alleyway.

Logan’s holding a man captive, his arm hooked around his throat as Adriano flashes his Smith & Wesson before his eyes, threatening, “If you don’t tell me who sent you, I’ll kill you now.” And he presses the barrel of it against the man’s temple. “Speak!”

“I-I don’t know his name. I just got orders to go with two men to Club 7, and I was the lookout.”

“So two intruders are inside the club?”

“Yes, probably. Or they left through the front entrance.”

“Who gave you the orders?”

“I don’t know his name, only the place where we met.”

Adriano then glances sideways as I approach them.

“Fallon’s gone,” I grit out, stashing my gun just as the back door opens again and Henry signals to me.

“I checked the security tapes. Fallon and Tez were on the underground floor trying to get away from two men.”

“So there were two other intruders in the club,” Adriano muses aloud, realizing Logan’s captive told the truth.

“Where does the underground eventually lead to? And didn’t we brick that route over already?” I question.

“It leads to the L station. And no, I never had it bricked over.”

“Then we’re going there now!” I order, pointing to the guy. “He comes with us.”

“No,” he protests but stops when I cup his chin, digging my fingers into his cheek.

“You chose to come into my territory and endanger my wife,” I hiss. “So I’m going to keep you close until I find her. And if she has even one scratch, I’ll burn you alive.” Shoving his face away, I stride to my car parked at the curb. “Now let’s move!”

Logan and Adriano lock eyes and Adriano nods, knowing I won’t rest until I have Fallon. I fish for my keyless entry device in my pocket and click it when I reach my car, ripping open the door and jumping inside. Adriano occupies the passenger seat and Logan pushes our hostage into the back as I fire up the engine and jam the gearshift into drive, stepping on the gas and leaving the alleyway with screeching tires.

Without hesitation, I turn left toward the station, changing lanes to skate through traffic. I can see Adriano studying me out of the corner of my eye as I loosen my bow tie and fling it aside, feeling more suffocated every second Fallon’s not with me safe and sound.

“Luca, she’s with Tez. She’s not alone. We’ll find her, amico mio.” My friend.

I meet his empathetic stare, realizing he understands perfectly well that there’s a storm brewing inside me. Adriano would go mad if his wife was on the run.

Ignoring a red light, I grip the steering wheel and maneuver my vehicle through the icy January streets. When I reach the train station, it’s packed, so I park at the curb when Adriano motions out the window. “The underground corridors end somewhere around here.”

Leaping out of my car, I survey the area, checking the street for manholes, and beside the second one I pass, I see something glistening from the light of the yellow street lamps. I bend down and pick up one of Fallon’s gold drop earrings.

“Luca, what is it?” Adriano inquires as he stops beside me, and I unclench my hand to show it to him.

“It’s Fallon’s,” I almost shout in frustration, scouring the area but not seeing her, the earring scalding my skin as my panic triples.

Then, without thinking, I retrace my steps to the car and Adriano follows me. After we get in, I start it, checking my rearview mirror and pulling out onto the road as I ask our captive, who Logan’s holding at gunpoint, “Where did you meet to receive your orders?”

Logan slides his finger over the trigger. “Answer him.”

He brings up his palms in surrender. “A-at a bar on Monroe Boulevard. He gave me my instructions in his office in the back.”

I take the turn and race through an intersection, going five more blocks and parking when he gestures toward the glass doors of a stylish establishment called Nostalgia, which isn’t what I was expecting.

“Logan, stay with him,” Adriano commands before we both get out of the vehicle.

Upon entering the swamped bar, I march toward the back, to the office of the person I need to chat with, and I bang open the door, which Adriano closes behind me.

An overweight black-haired man lurches up from behind his desk as I go to him, pushing him down into his seat with a palm bracing his neck.

“Who the hell are you?!”

Lightning fast, I reach inside his pocket and take out his leather wallet to throw it to Adriano, who catches it in one hand and flips it open.

“Mr. Rudd, we need to talk,” Adriano starts, flinging the wallet onto the desk and glancing sideways to a sabre hanging on the wall. Then he grins maliciously and takes it down, and I know precisely what he’s thinking because in our world where only the toughest survive, I’m used to exercising power with violence. This is what Adriano and I thrive on.

Adriano strolls back to stand in front of the desk, yielding the long silver sword and aiming the sharp end at Rudd’s chest as he continues with an exasperated expression on his face, “We have a problem. Why did you send three men to Club 7?”

Rudd tries to wrench free from my hold, and I dig my fingers harder into his neck.

“Ahhh! Tell your guy to back off,” Rudd rasps.

“No,” Adriano answers evenly, sabre in place but not piercing the man’s skin. “Why did you send men into my club?”

“Okay, okay. It wasn’t my doing; we’re just the middlemen. I was simply following orders.”

“From whom?” I demand.

“I don’t know who the client is. There have been elaborate anonymous communication channels put in place, and I was given an envelope to give to three men who were to execute the instructions inside without a hitch.”

“Execute what instructions?” Adriano asks, perplexed, before I get a chance to.

“I don’t know,” he protests, testing my ability to stay calm.

I grab Rudd’s hair, tugging it back and stretching his neck as Adriano skims the sword up to his throat, and I speak in a low voice, “Don’t lie to us. You must know something about the man who contacted you.”

Rudd’s heavy breaths become more sporadic, but he remains quiet, earning him a blow to his nose, and blood streams down his lips and chin as I release his hair.

Adriano lets the tip of the sabre rest on the desk and stares off into the distance, gritting out, “Luca isn’t a patient man, so I’d answer if I were you. Your men have gone after his wife!”

Rudd grimaces from the pain. “I have nothing to do with that. Who the fuck are you?”

I crack my knuckles, still standing next to Rudd’s chair.

“It doesn’t matter who we are,” Adriano states. “I need information or you’re coming with us until we find my friend’s wife. And I’d advise you not to underestimate the lengths we’ll go to for her.”

Rudd’s about to protest, so I grab his collar and haul him up, crashing him against the wall. “Who fucking gave you your orders?!”

“I-I don’t know,” he stammers, sticking to his story, although I’m not sure he’s not being honest.

My fist connects with Rudd’s mouth. “Do you know now?”

Rudd spits out blood. “No...”

I pull him forward slightly and punch him once more before letting him go, and he slouches against the wall as Adriano throws the sword aside, making it clank on the floor.

“We’re taking him with us,” I grind out.

Rubbing his palm across his jaw, Adriano nods and reaches around his waist to retrieve his gun before he goes to Rudd and presses it into his side. “Move or I’ll shoot you.”

I open the door and indicate for Rudd to go out with us as Adriano adds in a menacing tone, “Don’t even think about signaling anyone, because I will shoot you in the crowded club. Because we’re the Chicago Syndicate, motherfucker.”

Rudd’s eyes widen so that whites are entirely visible, and with a grunt, he trails me while Adriano pushes his pistol into his back, walking close behind him. Due to the swarm of people, no one pays us any attention and we quickly slip out of the building, turning left toward my car where Adriano shoves Rudd into the back seat. Then he and I jump in and Adriano turns to keep his aim leveled at Rudd while Logan continues to hold the other man at gunpoint.

After pulling out onto the road, I speed back to Club 7 under the dark clouds of an oppressive night, and I call Henry to ask him if either Tez or Fallon has returned, but much to my chagrin, both of them remain missing.

By the time I park at Club 7’s back entrance, clashing emotions rage a war inside me as Adriano and Logan get out and take the hostages with them. Irritated, I follow them back inside.

“Lock them in separate rooms downstairs,” Adriano orders two guards as he and Logan hand over the prisoners.

At that moment, the door to the main club opens and Henry appears. “What happened?”

“We don’t have Fallon yet,” Adriano answers.

“Shit. If I stay any longer, we’ll have to tell Mary.”

Adriano raises an eyebrow in question, and I shake my head that I can’t go in and act normal right now.

“Okay, go with Mary. We’ll say goodbye in a hurry, so she won’t even notice Luca and Fallon’s absence.” Then Adriano addresses me, “Luca, stay here. I’ll be back in five and we’ll talk about a plan of action,” before he eases through the doorway.

I run both my hands through my hair, spinning around when the back entrance opens to see Tez shifting inside slowly while carrying Fallon in his arms, her head lolling back. And as I rush toward them, my world slows and comes to a full stop, my heart ceasing to beat.

“What the hell happened?” I demand, loathing that another man has his hands on my wife. So I take her from him, noticing how heavy she feels, like she’s unconscious or maybe worse.

“Fallon?!” I shout, falling to my knees with her in my arms.

“She hit her head and it knocked her out,” Tez explains, hunching down before us and reaching for Fallon’s mahogany hair, but my hand shoots out to capture his wrist and I warn, “Don’t touch her!” Then I let him go and steady her on one arm, cradling her face that’s stained with streaks of dirt to check her pulse.

“Is she breathing?” Tez asks.

Tears blur my vision as unparalleled terror courses through me.