“Thanks.” I turned and quickly left, heading to Arturo’s.
Why were Lucas and Arturo meeting? Suddenly everything seemed like a conspiracy. Maybe they had something to do with Kaley leaving. Maybe they had somehow forced her to go back to the Russians. I knew Arturo and some of the other captains were cowards, but I didn’t think they were this bad. Things were just heating up, and they were already turning tail and running away. They’d forced her; it had to be that.
I made it to Arturo’s and knocked. After a second, the door opened a crack.
Lucas looked out at me. “Vince?”
“We need to talk.”
Lucas sighed. “Yeah, okay. Come in.”
I stepped inside. Arturo was sitting at his desk, smoking a cigar. A half-empty glass of whisky was sitting on the side table next to where Lucas was sitting. I stood in front of the two of them and crossed my arms.
“How’d you do it?” I asked them.
“Do what, Vincent?” Arturo replied.
“How did you force her to leave?”
Lucas raised his hands. “Vince—”
“No. Fuck that. I know you bastards have wanted her gone for a while. What’d you use to get her to leave?”
“Vincent,” Arturo said firmly, “we didn’t make the girl leave.”
I paused. “What?”
“Man, we were trying to keep her here,” Lucas said. “I honestly don’t know how she slipped away.”
“You really didn’t kick her out,” I said to him flatly.
“No, Vincent, we didn’t,” Arturo said. “Now calm yourself and speak plainly with us.”
I took a deep breath, gathering myself. I was ready to flip the fucking desk on top of Arturo, that old fuck, but I needed to get myself together and remember who I was dealing with.
“Okay,” I said. “Okay. So she left on her own.”
“She slipped out, but we haven’t figure out how yet,” Lucas said.
“The girl is an important symbol,” Arturo said. “We wanted to keep her. You know that.”
“Why would she go back to her family?” I asked.
“We were hoping you could tell us that. We only realized she was gone a half hour ago when her security card was found in a trash bin,” Lucas said.
“I don’t know why she’d go back to them,” I said. “I really don’t.”
“Think,” Arturo said. “She never mentioned leaving? Never had complaints?”
“She felt unsafe here, but that was reasonable,” I said. “I moved her into my room to try and help that.”
Lucas nodded. “What else?”
“She got a call this morning,” I said, remembering. “She seemed weird after that.”
“Maybe that call had something to do with it.”
“Shit,” I said. “Fuck. I should have pressed her.”
Lucas put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s fine. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.”
“I have to get her back.”
“No,” Arturo said firmly.
“I can do it myself. I don’t need to put anyone else in danger.”
“No,” Arturo said again. “We are not escalating this. We’ll see what the Russians say first before we try anything like that.”
Fuck. I clenched my jaw but didn’t say anything. I wanted to get out there right away and start cracking skulls to get her back.
Her and Alexei, my son. It wasn’t just Kaley that I wanted, I realized. It was Alexei. I was just beginning to feel like maybe I could really be a father, maybe I really could do it for real. And then he was taken away from me?
Fuck that.
“Come on,” Lucas said. “We’ll get a drink, calm you down.”
“Fine,” I grunted.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Vincent,” Arturo said.
“Yes, sir.”
But as Lucas and I moved out of the room, I was already planning my next move.
I wasn’t going to lie back and take this. Kaley probably had her reasons, but her reasons were wrong. She should have talked to me, should have come to me first. But she clearly wasn’t ready to do that, even if we were getting closer and closer every day.
No, I needed to make my own play. I couldn’t wait for help or for her to say something.
I was going to get my fucking woman and my fucking son back.
33
Kaley
Several hours earlier
“If you come back, they won’t hurt you or the baby,” Soph said.
“Really?” I whispered. “How can I trust that?”
“Listen to me,” Soph said. “I promise. I swear. They want this war to end, and you can end it. Your dad himself told me to make this call.”
I bit my lip. “How can this be true?”
“It’s not worth the bloodshed,” Soph said. “Besides, they’re beginning to soften up about the kid.”
“I want to,” I whispered. Vince was just in the other room. I didn’t have time to talk too long. “But I’m worried.”
“Kaley, it’s me. You can trust me. Come home and it’ll be fine. You can keep Alexei and the war will be over, no more bloodshed.”
“What about Vince?”
“You can’t see him.”
“No. I can’t do that.”