We made our way out of the house, and I almost ran into Zoey, who was coming in.
She looked at us with furrowed eyebrows. "Why are you guys in such a hurry?" she directed the question to Samantha.
"Oh, we need to take care of something." Samantha responded.
I had no time for their chitchat and tried to move past her when I felt a hand discreetly brush against mine in a seductive manner. I turned to look at her, and she bit her lips with a smirk on her face.
I clearly wasn't seeing well; this was Zoey I’m talking about. She has no feelings for me whatsoever. The thought of Mani being missing was really messing with my brain. I made my way to my car, getting in the back seat with Samantha, Luca, and Alesso in the front seat. Luca had already informed our trusted men like Mateo, who would trail behind us.
Alesso sat in the driver's seat, turned on the GPS, and drove out of the house. We kept driving for close to an hour. We passed the payphone, asking people around if they had seen any with the Mani description. The majority of them pointed in the direction of the wood, saying they saw her running out of there.
They had alerted the police, but when they came, she was nowhere in sight again. We got into the car and drove into the woods to an abandoned house that seemed to be falling apart. I wasted no time getting out of the car alone with my men.
We looked around the house before entering just to make sure no one was lurking outside. It was dark inside; it looked like the power had been cut. I brought out my phone, turning on the touch to use as a source of light. I also took out my gun; there was blood at the passage, and it was still fresh. We got into a room that looked gross. There were chairs at the center with a loose rope on them. This confirms it all; she was here.
I kicked at the chair in frustration, and for the first time since my dad died, I prayed. I prayed to God, whom I never really believed in before, asking him to keep her and our baby safe and praying for the blood in the hallway not to be hers.
"See if you can find out where she has been taken." I ordered Alesso. Luca opened his mouth to say something, but I couldn't care less as I stormed out of the room and out of the house to where the car was. I punched the windows of the car and kept hitting them as the cracks kept expanding.
I felt myself being pulled back. I turned to see it was Luca. I threw him a glare then got into the car, slamming the door shut. The rest of them got into the car; no one said a word. The ride back to the house was in silence; I could tell what everyone was thinking but no one could say it.
Was she still alive?
"Since we are going to find her, it's going to be okay." Luca said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I was tired of hearing that word. "It's going to be okay." "It was beginning to piss me off." He and Alesso keep saying it. It's not going to be okay; it's never going to be okay. It's just going to keep getting worse till I have my Amore back in my arms again.
"I should have listened to her when she asked me too, given her the benefit of doubt, but no, I cared only about how she had hurt me, and now her life is in danger." I whispered more to myself, but loud enough for them to hear.
No one said a word; Luca already took in my expression to know that right now no comforting words were going to work. Samantha hasn't said anything at all; I think she's still petrified.
These past three days have been hell on all of us. Alexander has taken the Mafia work from me for now so that I could focus more on finding Mani. I had told only Alexander; I told him not to let my mom or sister know. I didn't want to worry about them, though I doubt my sister would be that worried since she doesn't like Mani.
I pulled into the house, and I got down, slamming the car door shut. I went up to my room, which still smelled of her, walked into the closet, and took out a cloth that belonged to her. I slowly slipped down to the ground, sniffing at the dress. The tears I tried so hard to hold fell from my eyes. I sat there crying for some time before getting up to shower and freshen up.
After feeling a little bit refreshed, I went back downstairs to my office, where Luca and Alesso were. Alesso walked up to me; his face told me he had some beneficial information.
"I ran the address of the place to see who it belonged to, and what came out was the name Russo."
"Russo," my jaw clenched. I looked at Luca, and he nodded, confirming my thoughts.
My eyes darkened.
♤♤♤♤
Mani’s pov
I was weak; I could barely move a hand or even blink my eyes. I was tied to a chair just like before, with dried blood plastered on my face. My head felt heavy, and my ears rang. I slowly began to regain consciousness, and my eyes finally opened.
I was in a different room, and I'm guessing a different location from before. This room was dark, like the last one, but had no window. The only source of light was the white, dim light that kept blinking constantly.
It looked a little cleaner than the last place I was kept, and it looked more like a basement. Because of how closed off the place was, I couldn't tell if it was morning, evening, or what day it was, but one thing was for sure: I have been passed out for some time, sipping in and out of consciousness.
I can’t believe I was caught and kidnapped again after being this close to freedom. My throat hurt so much that I could hardly speak, and my body kept shivering due to how cold the place was. The smell of blood wasn't making it easy, but I'm guessing it was mine since I had blood gushing out of me in so many places.
My body felt so drained out that I even ran out of tears to cry. Each time I made a small move, my body hurt like hell, and my breath was a little bit shallow as I struggled to breathe because I had a life to protect. I close my eyes, taking a deep, painful breath. I tried to convince myself that I was going to make it out alive, if not for me then for my child, but that didn't stop the fear from sinking in, knowing very well that I have a tiny bit of energy left in me. But I didn't give up, even though I feel like I'm setting myself up to fail.
My eyes slowly opened when I heard the sound of the door being opened and footsteps drawing near. It was like Deja Vu all over again. The light kept on flickering, making it hard to see who the person was until the footsteps came forward, stopping a foot from me.
"I see you are awake." I recognized the voice as belonging to Stefano, but I couldn't see his face clearly due to how dim the light was, and it didn't help that my vision was still a bit blurry or that my head kept pounding repeatedly. It felt so heavy; it was worse than the first time, and I winced at not being able to bear it.
"ple..please. Please just let me go." I manage to whisper it out.
"You know I can't do that, and let's not forget the fact that you killed Marcos yesterday," he responded in a cold tone.
Marcos
Surprisingly, I felt nothing about his death; I knew very well that it was just self-defense. I should have felt something, even if it was guilty, but instead I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing, because there was no need to sugarcoat it, I had wanted to kill him when I repeatedly stabbed him, even after he was done. I felt this fire in me that needed to be quenched, and I knew I would do it all over again. I guess I was becoming more and more like Sin, and right now I didn't care about what I was going through.
"He could rot in hell for all I care." I’m surprised at how bold my voice sounds, contrary to how I feel, and I wasn't the only one because when the light showed on Stefano's face, he looked shocked as well.
My eyes started spinning; I shook my head, trying to get rid of the dizziness, but that just seemed to worsen the case. I kept getting drowsier and drowsier till I finally fell into darkness.
When I came through again, I saw a pair of red heels standing in front of me just like the ones Zoey wore two days ago, or was it three, four days ago? I wasn't sure. I took my time lifting up my head till it finally got to her face, which had a victorious smirk on it, and just like before, her hands were crossed together.
"Oh, poor Mani, tsk tsk tsk. It looks like you will be taking your last breath any moment from now," she pouted.
She placed a hand on my face, moving it backward to my neck, and she grabbed a handful of my hair in a tight grip, worsening the headache I felt and making it very unbearable for me. I winced in pain.
"If only you had known your place and hadn’t taken what was mine," she spoke again.
The more I looked at her face, the more I felt betrayed and the more angry I got. She was the one person I never thought would do this to me, someone I had once considered a good friend.
She was the first friend I had after being kidnapped and taken into an unfamiliar world. The one person I trusted in the mafia world apart from Sin, Samantha, Luca, and Mateo And yet, here we are.
It was just like they said—we should always be wary of the ones closest to us because sometimes they are the ones who tend to hurt us the most.
She let go of my hair, standing up right and crossing her hands together against her chest again. "It seems like I don't need to keep you alive any longer. Sin is finally giving us a chance. With you gone, he has realized that I would always be by his side, and only I deserve to be the queen and future donna of his empire. Not Luna or you, but me," she said, with a venomous smile on her face, and my heart broke at the thought of Sin being with her. Has he already moved on and forgotten about me? When I had phoned him for help, he sounded so worried. Was that all just in my head? Was I that less important for him to move on quickly?
I shake the thought off my head. I refuse to believe whatever comes out of this lunatic's mouth, for all we know, she might be lying, trying to hurt me even more with her false information.
"I guess it's here we finally part ways. I would love to say it was nice knowing you, but you and I both know that would just be lying through my teeth. You don't need to resent me too much; at least I’m sending you off to finally meet your parents again, just like you wanted."
She took out a gun from her bag, aiming it at me. My eyes were shut, so I guess this was my end. I let out a deep breath, enduring the pain.
"Good bye, Mani," she said. I heard the sound of the safety being turned on and a gunshot being fired.
Bang
I waited for the pain to come, but nothing did. I peeled open my lips to find Zoey laying on the floor, unconscious. I looked in front of me, and there stood Sin. A smile graced my face; my vision became blurry, and I blacked out, allowing the darkness.