Mac needed to find Melina.
Enzo’s son would get him there.
Mac took the stairs two at a time, and as he came to the very last step, he heard the tell-tale sound that led him down the hall toward the closed door at the very end. A retching, as if someone were violently throwing up.
Quite common with a heroin detox.
He tried the doorknob first, but unsurprisingly, found it locked. Addicts would do whatever they had to for a fix, even if that meant hurting themselves or someone else to get whatever they needed to get their drugs. Mac had suspected that Enzo would lock his son away, if only to assure the kid would stay in place long enough for his father to get a detox and rehab center on the phone that would take him in last minute.
Pulling his foot back, Mac let his boot slam into the door right under the knob. Wood cracked and splintered as the door gave way under the force of the kick, opening wide and slamming hard into the wall.
Mac wasted no time, rushing the room with his gun already out and pointed. He found Tyler, Enzo’s son, hunched over the toilet, drool and vomit smeared across his cheeks. The seventeen-year-old barely blinked at Mac when he pulled him away from the toilet, letting the kid fall on his back against the tiled floor.
Tyler stared up at Mac.
Defeat and acceptance stared him straight in the face.
“My dad’ll kill you,” Tyler mumbled.
It was a half-hearted effort.
Even Mac could tell the kid didn’t believe his own words.
“Get up and walk,” Mac told Tyler, “we’ve got business to do tonight, kid.”
Tyler blinked rapidly, mumbling something Mac couldn’t understand.
What he did hear, however, he didn’t like.
“Fuck you, Maccari,” the kid said.
“Well, we were going to do this the easy way,” Mac replied, shifting his aim ever so slightly before letting a round off. The bullet ripped into Tyler’s thigh, and the teenager howled as he grabbed for the new wound. “But the hard way is fine by me.”
Whatever it took to get his wife back.
Mac would do it.
A dull throbbing ache radiated from Melina’s broken wrist. But it paled in comparison to the sharp stabbing pain in her side. Every breath she took, no matter how small, was a struggle and a reminder of just how dire her situation really was. Melina had no idea where she was, not that it mattered. She had no phone and no way of reaching her husband.
Mac.
By now she was sure he’d returned home and discovered that all hell had broken loose.
What would he think when he found her gone?
Would he even begin to know where to look?
Yes.
He had to.
That’s what she just kept telling herself, because the alternative wasn’t worth fathoming.
She stretched as much as she could stand in an effort to keep the stiffness at bay that was threatening to take over her body. Her movement was limited though, because besides the injured ribs, her hands and feet were tied together.
She was shackled like a damn animal.
A lamb ready to be slaughtered, unable to fight back.
Melina blinked back tears. Things weren’t supposed to be like this. She shouldn’t be tied up in a cold, unfinished room waiting to be executed. She should be home enjoying a meal with her husband as they discussed the plans for the new house and their shared fears about becoming parents.
Somehow, someway she had to survive.
She had to give their child a fighting chance and Mac a little more time to find them.
The door to her prison opened and James stepped inside closing the door behind him before he came and stood over her.
“How are you feeling, Melina?”
“How do you think, cafone?”
James laughed. “I see my boy has been teaching you some Italian.”
“That’s not the only thing he taught me.”
“I’m sure it isn’t, but you know, forget about it. None of that really matters now.”
She couldn’t help but notice how cleaned up and straight James looked. It was no secret in Mac’s life that his father had been a drunk and abused drugs as well as women. But he did look clean in that moment.
“Why are you doing this? What could you possibly have to gain by causing all these problems for your son?”
Melina really could give less than two fucks as to why James had chosen to betray the son he claimed to love so much, but she had to keep him talking. It was the only way to save herself and her child.
“You’re an outsider. You will never understand how our life works.”
“What I understand, James, is that you are a world-class fuck up who made Mac’s life a lot harder than it needed to be. What I understand is that he has spent his whole life bearing the burden of being your son. Instead of you disappearing into the ether where you belong, you’re here ruining everything Mac has worked so hard for.”
James slapped her across the face.
Melina tasted blood, but she smiled at her father-in-law, concealing her hurt. “Struck a nerve, did I?”