13. Layla
Autumn's smile dropped instantly at the seriousness of my tone. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing is wrong," I assured her. "It's good news, but I wanted to give you a heads-up before we go upstairs so that you're prepared."
"Ok...," she replied uncertainly.
"Up you go, kiddo," Drew said as he lifted her onto the table so she was at eye level with us. He rubbed my back soothingly, picking up on my nerves and reluctance to give Autumn the good news.
"So you know how Tyler has been looking for your mom?" I started. Autumn nodded. "We found her."
Autumn's eyes lit up with excitement briefly before clouding. "If you found her, that means she left me on purpose."
"She didn't," I assured her. "Your mom was kidnapped and held against her will. She didn't want to leave you, sweet girl, just like you said."
The shadows left her eyes, but she still seemed to have reservations. "Does that mean that I have to go live with her now?"
"You'll both live here with us until you're ready to be on your own," I assured her.
That seemed to alleviate her worries, and she perked up. "When can I see her?"
"Right now, if you want to," Drew told her. "She's upstairs."
"She's here?!" Autumn exclaimed. I nodded, and she jumped off the table and ran out of the room.
"You ok?" Drew asked as the door closed behind her. I let him pull me into his arms and soaked up his comfort.
"Yeah, I'm a little sad, I guess. This is a good thing for Autumn, but I know that she's going to leave eventually, and I'm going to miss her," I admitted.
"Just because her mom is back in her life doesn't mean we can't still be part of it, baby. I don't think any of us could handle that," Drew replied.
He had a point. It would be awhile before Jennifer could take care of her alone. By then, Jennifer would probably become part of our little hodgepodge family as well. "You're right. I should focus on the positives. Autumn is going to have her mom back."
"That's right. Now, why don't we go upstairs and witness the happy reunion?" Drew suggested.
We went upstairs expecting to see Autumn and Jennifer embracing in the kitchen, but we didn't get that far. Autumn was sitting at the top of the stairs with her head in her hands, her tiny shoulders shaking as she cried.
"Hey, kiddo, what's wrong?" I asked as I sat beside her and pulled her into my arms. Drew knelt behind us and wrapped his arms around us both.
"What if she doesn't want me because I was bad in foster care and got sold?" the girl sobbed.
"Oh, my sweet baby," I replied, "Your mama loves you so much, sweety. It doesn't matter what you've had to do. And even if it did, you will always have a home with us. We will always be here for you. I promise."
"That's right," Drew agreed. "We love you, kiddo."
Autumn nodded, and when her tears had finally subsided to sniffles, I spoke again. "Do you want to know a secret that might help you feel less nervous about seeing your mom?"
"What's that?" she whispered.
"Your mom is just as scared that you won't want her after what she's been through," I confided.
Autumn leaned back to meet my eyes. "Really?" she asked with some wonder in her voice.
"Really," I confirmed. "Think you're ready to go see her now?"
"If you aren't," Drew said, "you don't have to do this today. We can wait until you are."
Autumn shook her head and stood. "No. I can do this. I want to see her. I'm just a little scared. You won't leave us alone, right?"
"Not unless you want us to," Drew assured her.
"Ok," Autumn replied. "Let's do this." She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, similar to how Jennifer had done when she faced Billy. There was no question they were mother and daughter. Her hand squeezed mine tightly as we approached the kitchen. Everyone was standing around the island. Cordy and the guys saw us approaching first. Jennifer's head was the last to turn, and when she laid eyes on her child, a sob tore from her chest.
She lunged toward Autumn, who jumped behind Drew in response. Jennifer froze and dropped to her knees. "Autumn?"
Autumn peeked out from behind Drew silently. Nobody moved, and we held our breaths as the pair studied each other carefully. Slowly, Jennifer spread her arms to invite Autumn to hug her.
"Mama!" Autumn sobbed, the sound so raw it felt like a piece of myself had been ripped out with it. Autumn dropped my hand and fell into her mother's arms, both sobbing uncontrollably as they embraced tightly.
I blinked back my tears at the happy reunion. This was what we wanted for Autumn, and I was so happy we could do this for her. Little girls needed their moms. I understood that absence more than most. Cordy was openly crying, and as I looked at my guys, I could see they were also struggling to control their emotions. "Come on," I said to Drew, grabbing his hand and tugging him around Jennifer and Autumn. "Let's give them a little space."
We joined the others, and I snagged a chocolate chip cookie from the tray, happy to see that they hadn't been tainted with oatmeal. Autumn and her mom hugged for a while before finally standing and joining us in the kitchen.
"Thank you so much for this," Jennifer said, releasing Autumn long enough to embrace me tightly. "I don't think that I could ever repay you."
I patted her back. "Just take care of Autumn, and we'll be even," I replied.
"I will," Jennifer promised.
Afew days later, I was in my office reviewing the shelter project's progress. The construction crew had just finished their work at the first shelter and were breaking ground on the second shelter tomorrow. Now, it was the interior decorating crew's turn, and the lead designer had promised me that they should have everything done within two weeks, meaning I had a grand opening to plan.
My phone dinged, and my heart skipped a beat when I picked it up and saw it was from Anton. We still hadn't heard anything from him directly or chatter on the street after the raid. I knew he had to be planning something big, and as I clicked the link he had sent me, I braced myself for what it might lead me to. I gasped when the live feed loaded. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.
"What is it?" Tyler asked, instantly on edge.
"Get the rest of the guys," I whispered. "Now!"
Tears were already streaming down my face as I watched the tiny screen. Tyler quickly got on his phone and started calling the others, but his words cut off in shock as I shared my screen with the large TV on the wall.
"Oh, fuck. Just get to the office now!" Tyler yelled.
"This is live, isn't it?" I asked. I knew the answer already, but part of me needed to hear Tyler say it.
"It is," Tyler replied grimly.
"We're just going to give you a few minutes to get everyone together before we get started, Layla," Anton said off-camera. "This is something that will be really impactful for Colton and Zach. I wouldn't want them to miss anything."
"Bastard," I replied, not that he could hear me. I stared at the screen, still in shock at what I saw and wishing I wasn't. "Molly, you should leave." She grabbed her stuff and bolted from the office.
Sean and Drew entered the office, their surprised and horrified faces mirroring mine. Zach followed them in, and my heart broke in two when he saw the screen.
"Pop?!" He stood beneath the TV as if getting a closer view would change the fact that his and Colton's dad was tied naked to a table. He was already a little bloody from what I would assume was his capture, but other than that, he looked strong. He was staring ahead defiantly, but I knew it wouldn't last long—even the strongest cave to torture eventually. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that torture was exactly what Anton had in mind.
"Where is this?" Zach demanded.
I looked at Tyler, and he shook his head. "I haven't been able to track the source yet."
"Ok, I've given you enough time," Anton said. "Let's get this party started. I struggled with the appropriate response to your raid on my warehouse. I wanted to make it hurt. I thought about capturing one of your men, but that's been difficult since you rarely seem to go out alone. Then I thought about it and realized I didn't need to go after one of them to hurt you; I just needed to go after someone they cared about."
Matteo entered the screen with a knife in his hand, and I braced myself for what was about to happen, helpless to stop it. Papa Carmine didn't deserve this, and it was all my fault. I was the one who insisted on continuing to push Anton, and this was the price. Papa Carmine grunted as Matteo dragged the knife down his chest, a deep cut marking its trail.
"Maybe after this, you'll heed my warnings and leave my city for good. Or maybe some of your men will realize they're on the wrong side. I can't imagine a scenario where they don't lay the blame for Carmine's death at your feet."
"Don't you listen to them, Layla Girl," Carmine said. "You're doing the right thing. Your father would be proud of you. I'm proud of you— you and my boys."
"That's a sweet sentiment," Anton sneered. "Too bad it doesn't mean shit." Matteo continued to carve into Carmine's skin, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth from biting his cheek to keep from shouting.
"Layla," Zach rasped. "We have to do something."
"I don't know what," I replied. Tears continued to stream down my face as I grabbed my laptop and sat beside Tyler. "Where are you? Maybe we can crack it together."
"The signal keeps bouncing around the country," he replied. "They have so many relays that I don't know if we can follow them in time."
"They have to be somewhere in the city, right? What if we go fishing with the cellphone towers? Is that a possibility?"
"It would take too long to hack into them, even for us," Tyler replied. I knew what he was trying to tell me. There wasn't any way for us to stop this, no way for us to save Papa Carmine.
"Where's Colt?" I asked.
"I'll go get him," Sean said, quickly leaving the office. Colton shouldn't have to watch this, but he needed to be here.
"Take his ears," Anton instructed.
Sal entered the screen with Matteo, and together, they sliced Carmine's ears off. This time, he couldn't hold his scream in, the sound echoing around the office.
"God dammit," Zach yelled, punching the wall before falling to his knees. I went to him, wrapping my arms around his shaking body. At my touch, he wrapped himself around me, clinging to me as he cried silently.
"Oh no," Drew whispered.
My eyes darted to the screen, and I saw they had rolled a car battery beside Carmine. Fuck. This wasn't going to be pretty, and I silently hoped that they fucked up and killed him accidentally. That would be the best thing for Carmine at this point. But Matteo and Sal weren't amateurs, and I knew he wouldn't be that lucky.
"What the fuck is so urgent?" Colton asked as he entered the room. He noticed Zach and me on the floor first, and he looked concerned until his eyes traveled to the screen, and the blood drained from his face. "Dad?" My heart shattered completely as he stumbled forward and dropped beside Zach. Zach wrapped an arm around him, and they clung to each other as the horror unfolded before us.
Matteo clamped a jumper cable into Carmine's stomach, and it took all of my effort not to look away as the second one was attached to his bicep. As much as I didn't want to witness this, Carmine deserved for his death to be witnessed by people who cared for him. He was owed that honor, no matter how painful it was for us. Nothing happened for a moment, and I thought maybe they had fucked something up, and then I heard Anton say, "Flip the switch."
Having the battery on a switch meant they could control the electrical current without the risk of being shocked. As volts of electricity were pumped into his body, Carmine's screams became inhuman as his body arched off the table. It seemed to stop as soon as it started, but I couldn't feel relieved. More would come before they were done.
"He has a heart condition," Colton whispered. "Maybe his heart will give out." Wishing for something like that to happen to your father wasn't right. It wasn't fair. It was the best we could hope for.
As Sal came into view, smoke rose from the contact points on the jumper cables. He had a box of salt in his hands and sprinkled it over Carmine's body, rubbing it into his cuts. The worst part about watching this was that there wasn't a point to this torture. They weren't trying to get information from him. The sole purpose was to cause as much pain as possible for us to witness.
Carmine continued to moan, his voice now hoarse. Amongst the moans, we heard him say. "Colton," shortly followed by, "Zach."
"What's that, old man?" Anton taunted. "Did you have something to say to your sons? You better speak up now. I think Matteo plans to take your tongue soon."
I couldn't help but draw similarities between their torture and the ways we tortured Rocco and Leo. Zach met my eyes, and I could see he was thinking something similar. Guilt surrounded me like a blanket, and I couldn't keep myself from wrapping it tightly around my body. If I had stayed gone, maybe Papa Carmine wouldn't have been subjected to this.
Anton moved the camera closer so that Carmine's face filled the screen. From this view, the toll the torture was taking on him was more evident. "Colton," he rasped. "There has never been a father prouder of his son than I am of you. Never doubt that. You are a good man. A decent man. Take care of your family. Take care of Layla. Don't you dare let her feel responsible for my death. These traitors and this pompous fuck nut are the ones responsible. I'm an old man. I lived my life. I made it to the other side, and this is a fitting way to go. I wouldn't want to go silently in my sleep."
Tears streamed down Colton's face as he listened to his father's final goodbye. There wasn't a dry face in the room as Carmine continued.
"Zachary. My boy. I am equally as proud of you. You may not have been born to me, but I never considered you less than my son. You've grown into a fine young man, even if you act like you have a couple of screws loose sometimes." A laugh burst from Zach's chest, chillingly humorless. "You got dealt a bad hand early on, but I hope I was able to make up for it in the end. I love you both so much. Thank you for letting me be your father."
"Layla Girl, Drew, Tyler, take care of my boys. Don't let them lose themselves. And don't you dare second guess what you're doing. They want my death to scare you away. Don't let me die in vain. You stay right where you belong, and you fight. Take this bastard and the traitors down. Do better by this city than we ever did. Your father and I often sat together late at night discussing you kids, and he always said that you were the very best of us and that the five of you would make the changes needed to better the world that the rest of us were too cowardly and selfish to do. Make us proud. We'll be watching over you."
"That was such a touching moment. It was complete bullshit but very touching," Anton mocked.
Carmine glared at Anton. "Just because your father never loved you doesn't make my love for them bullshit. Maybe if he had ever loved you, you wouldn't have become a complete idiot and utter disappointment."
Anton yelled in frustration, his hand flying across the camera view as he backhanded Carmine. "You don't know a fucking thing about my relationship with my father!"
Carmine chuckled. "Seems I hit a nerve," he commented.
"Let's fucking finish this," Anton growled as he moved out of the way.
Sal and Matteo came back into view, and Zach shifted me so I could sit on his and Colt's laps. Our arms were tangled together as we clung to each other and braced for the worst.
It couldn't be that easy, though, and for fifteen more minutes, we had to watch as they first removed his tongue before continuing to cut Carmine up until there wasn't a patch of visible skin that wasn't bleeding from deep cuts. Finally, Sal dragged a knife across his throat, and we had to listen to the gurgling sounds of his final breaths as the life drained from his body. A sob caught in my throat as I cried for Carmine and for my guys, who were shaking with rage and agony from watching their father's murder.
As if he was filming a movie, Anton moved the camera in close, cataloging all of the damage done to Carmine's body before flipping the camera around to show himself finally. "I have to say, I understand why you guys have been torturing everyone. You must fuck like rabbits afterward. It was exhilarating and makes me want to go out and find someone to fuck. But don't worry darling, I'll be pretending that it's you I'm fucking. I'll send you the address once we clear out of here so you can collect the body. Hopefully, you have realized that abandoning Atlantic City is in your best interest, or I'll have to find someone else you care about."
The video cut off, and we sat in shell-shocked silence until Colton suddenly stood, ripped the TV off the wall, and roared, throwing it across the room. "Matteo and Sal's lives are mine," he growled.
"Ours," Zach said, standing and pulling me up.
"They're all yours," I promised.
"I wasn't fucking asking," Colton growled before storming out of the room. I watched him leave at a loss for words.
"He isn't angry with you, LG," Zach said softly. "I'm gonna go after him before he destroys more of the house. Let us know when Anton sends that address."
"Tyler, we should follow them. Zach isn't exactly known for his impulse control," Drew said. Tyler nodded and kissed me as he passed, leaving me and Sean alone in the office.
I braced my hands on the conference table and hung my head. My vision blurred as tears fell onto the table. Hadn't we lost enough? Now, we had to add Papa Carmine to the list of casualties. When would it end? How many more would I lose? Sean walked around the table and pulled me into his arms. I burrowed into his chest, seeking the comfort he offered and wishing that I could live in his safe embrace.
"This isn't your fault, Stór," Sean whispered.
"Isn't it?" I asked. "Maybe you're right, and we should just leave before we lose anyone else."
"I wasn't right," he argued. His tone was soft, but the conviction within his words was hard as steel. "I was a fucking idiot. This city needs you, and it was foolish of me to think that we could walk away from it. This is where you belong, where we belong, and we will win this war together."
The piece of my heart that had been flitting about inside me like an anxious butterfly settled into his declaration. I knew he wanted to be here with me, but I wasn't sure until he said the words and declared his dedication to this life.
I tilted my head back to look at his beautiful face, staring into his blazing blue eyes and seeing the pain he felt because the rest of us were hurting. "I love you so fucking much, Sean. I hope you know that."
"I love you too, Stór: you and the guys. You're my family, and we're going to fix this together," he promised.
I stiffened when I heard my phone ding. I was going to have to change the sound it made. This one now filled me with anxiety and dread. I picked my phone up and checked the message. "We have an address," I said softly. "Let's go."
Ididn't realize how heavily I relied on my guys to figure out the logistics of things until they couldn't, and I had to be the one to keep a calm head. Colton and Zach wanted to race to the location immediately, and I hated that I had to hold them back and make them wait until I could send a team in to check the area and ensure it wasn't a trap. Colton was not pleased and was currently giving me the cold shoulder. Once the team gave us the green light, we jumped in the car to meet them. I had also called the funeral home to have them meet us there to transport the body. When we arrived at the abandoned building Anton had used to torture Papa Carmine, Colton and Zach had exited the car before it had stopped entirely.
"The building is secure, boss," the man stationed at the door advised me when I ran after them.
"Thank you," I replied quickly. When I reached the only open door in the hallway, I slowed, not wanting to intrude on their moment but wanting to support them in their loss any way that I could. The scene before me ripped away a piece of my soul. They were bent over Carmine's lifeless and bloody body, sobbing. "Nobody comes in here," I said to the rest of my guys before stepping into the room and closing the door. This moment wasn't for anyone else but them.
I looked around the room quietly while they mourned their loss and spotted the camera in the corner. Oh, fuck no. Anton didn't get to witness their grief. I lifted the camera so that it was pointed at me. "You fucked up, Anton. You, Matteo, and Sal. If you thought this would intimidate us, you were sorely mistaken. All it's done is fuel the fire behind our bloodlust. Matteo and Sal, I suggest you run. Run as far as you can because when we catch you, the pain you will endure will be immeasurable. That's a fucking promise. And as for you, Anton. Your time will come. I'm not going anywhere, and if I were you, I'd be scared. You crossed a line, and you'll live long enough to regret your choices."
I slammed the camera against the table, breaking it, and then checked the rest of the room to make sure there weren't any other cameras left behind. When there was a knock on the door, I cracked it open to see who it was.
"The funeral home is here," Tyler advised me softly.
"Ok. Give us five more minutes, and then I'll let them in," I replied. I closed the door and turned back to my men. "The funeral home is here," I relayed.
"They can fucking wait," Colton growled.
I sighed quietly. He would be a beast to deal with until he collected his pound of flesh. I couldn't fault him for it, but I did wish that he would be a little less growly with me. "We need to let them take care of him now, Colt," I replied gently.
He sighed, his shoulders falling. "Fine." Zach moved around the table and hugged him tightly. I gave the brothers their moment before turning back to the door and letting the men in here to transport the body into the room. Tyler, Drew, and Sean followed them in, making a beeline for Zach and Colt to join their group hug. I oversaw the removal of the body.
"One second," I said quietly when they went to zip up the body bag. I stepped up to Papa Carmine and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. "I'm so fucking sorry for this, Papa. You deserved better, but we will avenge your death. I promise." I finished zipping the bag and nodded to the men so that they could roll him away. They would take him back to the funeral home and get him cleaned up and presentable. We would have to go to his place and get one of his suits for them to dress him in. I'd also have to see what Colt and Zach wanted to do about the funeral. But not tonight. Tonight, we would lick our wounds and comfort each other. Tomorrow, the hunt would be on. With any luck, I'd have Matteo and Sal in our interrogation room before the sun set tomorrow.
The ride home was quiet, and when I reached for Colton's hand, he pulled it away. The sting of rejection was sharp, and I knew we needed to clear the air sooner rather than let it fester between us. "Can you guys give me and Colton a moment?" I said when we pulled into the drive. "We won't be long. Ryan and Keith, you too. Just park it here for now."
When we were alone, I moved to the seat across from Colt and stared at him until he finally met my eyes. The pain and anger swirling within his baby blues was enough to take my breath away, but I pushed past it.
"I know you're mad at me," I said quietly, masking my pain over his behavior as best I could. "You have every right to be. My decisions got us here, but pushing me away isn't going to change that."