*Elio*
Damnit.
This was not how I wanted my day to turn out.
Leo and I had been in the middle of eting with one of our clients when the ssage ca in from Franky. My stomach felt like it had hit the floor. My expression almost faltered, which would have undoubtedly ruined the eting.
The fucking Ghost had taken another one of our n.
Leo gave a strange look in response to my unsightly reaction. I rely shook my head and played it off like it was nothing until the eting finally ended. I wasn’t going to run the risk of speaking out loud. He and I both got into our cars and headed toward the warehouse.
Leo arrived just a short mont after . As soon as he parked his car, he jumped out and rushed up to my side.
“Alright, wanna tell what the fuck that was back there?” he asked.
Leo knew better than anyone how unlikely it was for to ever let my true emotions show. When it ca to business, I always managed to keep my calm and my expression resolute. Truthfully, I didn’t know why I had let my control slip like that.
Maybe it had sothing to do with Cat and the incredible news she shared with not even twenty-four hours prior. She was pregnant. The love of my life was pregnant, and I was going to be a father.
I was beyond ecstatic. I was so happy that I felt as if I had been walking on a cloud since Cat and I got off the plane earlier that morning.
But seeing Franky’s ssage was like receiving a harsh slap to the face. It felt like an ice-cold bucket of water was being dumped on my head, instantly tearing from my blissful fra of mind.
It was a clear reminder that Cat and I were far from our safe and happy ending. And I had let it get the better of .
I turned my head and spoke to Leo.
“Franky sent us a ssage,” I said lowly. “It seems that another one of our guys has been taken.”
“Oh, shit,” he cursed under his breath.
I glanced down at my watch and noted the ti. Cat should have already gotten out of class by now.
“Go on and tell Franky that we’re here. I’m going to call Cat and tell her to et us here as well,” I instructed.
Leo nodded his head while I reached to pull out my phone. I called Cat’s number and waited as patiently as I could for her answer.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
Her voice was filled with exuberant joy that it crushed to have to put a pin in it.
“Artem struck again,” I told her pointedly.
“What?” she gasped fearfully. “Oh my God, w-who—”
“I’m not sure, but I’m about to find out. Franky ssaged earlier and I’m at the warehouse. Can you get here as soon as possible?”
“Yes, I’m on my way.”
***
Cat’s car pulled up to the warehouse where I was already outside waiting for her arrival. She hastily grabbed her bag and rushed out of the car to et . I found myself catching her in my arms as soon as we ca face to face.
I didn’t need to see her expression to know that she was terrified.
“What have you found out?” she asked weakly.
She and I started to head back toward the main doors as I began to explain what Franky had told .
“His na is Louis Carter. Apparently, the guy was taken soti last night,” I said. “His body still hasn’t been found dead yet, but we suspect that he’s long gone by now.”
Cat’s expression was pinched with disgusted disdain. I mindfully guided her through the main room and up one of the side staircases to bring her to where Leo and Franky were waiting for us.
“Alright,” I spoke out.
Both Leo and Franky glanced up from a large printed out map of the city that had been laid out on the table, the very map that we’d be using to keep track of the specific locations of each kidnapping since the very beginning of this fucked up nightmare.
Much to my dismay, there were three red X’s on the map now.
“Tell us exactly what you’ve discovered about this one,” I told Franky.
The man shared a glance between Cat and before lowering his head in shaful bitterness. I couldn’t imagine what he must have been going through. Granted, I treated his n as though they were mine, but I knew that Franky took responsibility for each of them on a personal level. These were the n that he had co to the US with.
And now, this was the second man we had lost to this psychopath.
“It’s nearly the sa as what happened to the others,” he explained while pointing his finger to one red X on the map. “He was taken at this location. And just like the others, only the car was left behind without so much as a single trace or indication that anything had happened.”
I watched Cat out of the corner of my eye move closer to the table to gain a better look at the map. Her eyes followed the random trail of X’s with heavy intent. She remained quiet while I continued to question Franky.
“What the hell was he doing alone?”
Leo chid into the conversation with curious distress. “That’s right! We purposely made it clear to everyone that they were not to be out on the streets alone. So, what the fuck happened? Are you telling us that this Artem Katz managed to slip under the noses of three n in order to take one of them for whatever fucked up reason?”
Cat gently shook her head. “There’s no way,” she whispered.
“Caterina is right,” Franky noted. “He wasn’t with anyone else. Hell, the guy wasn’t even on the clock at that point!”
We all fell silent, giving our absolute undivided attention to him.
“According to what his wife told us, he was out running a quick errand to the store. She said that it shouldn’t have taken him any longer than thirty minutes total.”
“Clearly, that’s all it took,” I muttered darkly.
Franky nodded his head stiffly. “Half an hour passed, and she grew worried. She’s reached out to a few of the others before I was personally notified, and we had to call it in.”
“That’s terrible,” she said. “That poor woman.”
Cat sunk herself down into one of the chairs at the table. She fisted her hands into her lap, trying to conceal the fact that she was trembling.
‘Fucking hell,’ I thought wildly to myself.
Of course, this was affecting Cat strongly since the sa situation had happened to her own mother a year ago.
Matilde had gone out to the store after dinner. Cat had beco a nervous wreck when she noticed that her mom had been gone for over forty-five minutes. Little did any of us know that it was because Junior had been tracking Cat’s car and ended up taking her mother instead of her.
I unconsciously reached out to rest my hand over her shoulder as a way of letting her know that I was here for her regardless of where we were.
This entire situation was not sitting right with . It was like an irritating buzzing in the back of my head that kept growing louder and louder.
It was as if this guy Artem knew about the plan we’d set in place. Sohow, he knew that we’d implented the three-man set-up to prevent any further kidnappings.
A disturbing feeling crept over . There wasn’t much of a mystery to it. The answer was practically staring at us in the face, and none of us wanted to acknowledge it.
“This wasn’t just another random attack,” I stated.
Leo, Franky, and even Cat turned their heads to look at . Their similar expressions were all pinched and wanting an explanation.
“Louis’ trip to the store was too random to be planned out,” I said.
“But it’s like this creep was just waiting for the right chance to snatch him,” Leo added.
I let out a long sigh and then turned to face Franky directly.
“Tell , did Louis and the first man that was taken... did they work in the sa part of the business?”
“Yes,” he answered. “They all worked on the shipping. Shit, even the guy who was under Alessandro was part of the sa area back over in Italy.”
Cat squared her shoulders back and lifted her head up. “Sounds like this guy has a very specific preference when it cos to his victims lately.”
We all nodded our heads in agreent.
It wasn’t so random after all, I thought, but why focus on the n who were involved in shipping?
“Franky, how many n are left in that departnt as of now?”
“Two.”
I raised a brow. “Then one of them has got to be our rat.”
Leo’s eyes widened. “Wait. What?”
I shook my head and pointed to the map again for all of them to see.
“Think about it. When the first guy was taken, he was placed at a predetermined location that the others in the shipping departnt already knew about. It would be easy to hand over that kind of information if need be. Now, I can’t entirely pinpoint Alessandro’s man exactly. Chances were that soone must have slipped Artem that info even then. But Louis... the man was at ho when he took that trip to the store.”
Leo sagged his shoulders back in defeat.
“So, what you’re saying is that in Louis’ case, the Ghost had to have been following him from the house?”
I slowly nodded my head. “If it ant gaining the opportunity to snatch him in a place that was less likely to raise suspicion, then yes. In order to do that, he would have needed the address to Louis’ house.”
“Which ans that one of the two guys that works in shipping must have given it to him,” Franky concluded solemnly.
As grizzly and unsettling as the situation was, at least we’d finally managed to break down the source of our problem. It was soone on the inside.
But now what we needed to do was set a trap in order to snuff the son of a bitch out.
“We need a new plan now,” Leo said.
“We need a way to set the two of them up into thinking that they’re in possession of so kind of valuable information, the kind that would send them running to Artem at the quickest opportunity.”
Franky suddenly spoke out. “I’ve got an idea. What’s important to bear in mind is that we still need to appear oblivious to the truth. Let whoever it is believe that we know nothing and suspect nothing. The three-man rule will still be implented. But with Louis gone, I will be the one to take his place.”
For a mont, I was taken aback by Franky’s suggestion.
“You want to be the bait for the next potential kidnapping,” I stated.
Franky firmly nodded his head while a devious smile started to curve at the corner of his mouth.
“This ti, I’ll be the bait.”
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