24. Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Gianna

"Fuck!" I curse as another bump in the road jostles my broken arm. I didn't know it was possible to hate anyone as much as I hate my brother. I feel sick with my hatred of him.

I look in the rearview mirror and don't see anyone following me. There's nothing much out here other than derelict buildings, so it would be really obvious if I was being followed.

I'm not stupid. My brother is going to come after me, but Dom has offered him something so delicious that he's going to feast first.

I yank the car over onto the shoulder, crying out with pain yet again. I struggle to open the center console in the SUV with one hand and finally manage it. I feel around blindly, finally locating the slim shape of Dom's burner phone.

I pull it out and unlock the screen with the code that he said he used for both of our disposable phones.

Vince has been calling non-stop for hours now. The most recent call was about twenty minutes ago. I press the call button with shaking fingers.

"Dom!" Vince shouts into the phone as he answers the call. I cringe and hold the phone away from my ear.

"No," I say. My teeth are starting to chatter and I realize I might be going into shock. "It's Gianna."

"Oh my God," Vince says. "What's going on, Gianna. Where's Dom?"

"The Cobra has him," I say. "The Cobra is my brother."

"What?" Vince practically shouts into my ear again. I hold the phone away for another few seconds, getting irritated with all his yelling.

"I can't explain everything right now," I say. "Where are you?"

"We're not that far away now. Where are you?"

"I'm in Dom's car, about ten minutes down the road. He managed to convince my brother to let me go by offering himself up for execution."

I hear a lot of Italian curses and I smile in spite of myself. My uncles love to curse like this, but over things like spilled whiskey or a burger that someone dropped on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Vince finally asks me.

"Umm," I say. "Not really. I have a broken arm and some broken ribs. I think the baby is okay, thank God."

"Baby?" Vince echoes, sounding stupefied. "Dom's baby?"

I nod, then realize that's stupid since he can't see me. I must be getting more loopy than I thought. "Yes."

I hear a muffled huzzah from the other men in the car and I grin. Italian families love babies.

It's really nice to feel like someone is as happy about this baby as Dom and I are. I know my family will never approve. I probably won't see any of them ever again, but since they would probably want nothing to do with me now that I'm pregnant, it's just as well.

"I'm sending you a pinned location," Vince says to me. "Meet us there. One of my guys has some medical training and we have supplies with us. Let's see if we can get you patched up for the time being while we make a plan."

I pull the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker. I load the pinned address and tell the phone to take me there. It's not far away. "Thank you," I tell Vince sincerely. "Please hurry."

"We're already speeding so fast I'm getting car sick," he quips. "We won't be long."

I end the call and sit for a moment, trying to find the energy to put the SUV in drive and head to the location Vince sent to me.

I feel lightheaded and queasy, but the muddled feeling in my brain has calmed some, at least. I'm going to have to try and pace myself, or I'm going to end up passing out and then I won't be any good to Dom.

As I turn the car around and head back in the direction I just came from, I worry about Dom. I'm not sure what my brother is truly capable of.

Is he planning to torture Dom first before he kills him? While I don't want Dom to have to endure that, it would buy us some more time to save him.

At least I know what the interior of the warehouse is like so that Vince and his men don't have to go in totally blind.

Other than the handful of men who came into the room when Dom offered his deal to Will, I'm not sure how many other people are actually there with him. What if there is a huge army of men hiding in that nasty old building.

I tap the fingers of my uninjured arm on the steering wheel impatiently. Time is ticking and there's so little that I can do.

I suppose I can pray, so I do that much. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I know the words that you're supposed to say. After all, my family did force me to go to Catholic church throughout my childhood.

I'm open to literally anything that might help save Dom's life, and supernatural help is as welcome as the assistance of Vince and his men.

I pull into the parking lot at the address that Vince sent to me. It seems to be the parking area attached to a seedy old strip mall. I eyeball some sad, frayed-looking people walking between the buildings, but they don't even register that I've parked a brand-new, expensive car in the lot.

There probably won't be any trouble from the locals if the lack of interest in my presence is any indication.

I continue to drum my fingers on the steering wheel as I wait, trying to think up a plan to help Dom, and then dismissing each idea as a bad one. I'm starting to think about going back by myself to try and help him when another sleek, black SUV pulls into the lot. I watch it from the corner of my eye at first, unwilling to make eye contact if the car doesn't belong to Vince.

The car comes to a stop, and Vince climbs out onto the cracked pavement. I nearly sag with relief. I roll down the window and wait for him to approach me.

"Okay, give me the details," he says.

I relay everything that I know about the warehouse and how many people might be there helping my brother. I tell Vince about the deal that Dom offered him as well.

I also share the meager amount of information that we collected about my brother's contacts in Atlantic City.

"That's helpful, thanks," Vince says. He eyes me for a moment. "You don't look so good. Hang on a moment." He walks away and gestures to someone in the car. Another man in a slick, black suit gets out of the car holding a small medical bag. He walks up to the driver's side window.

"Hi there," he says to me. His face is young and friendly-looking. I instantly relax. "Want to hop out and we'll try and get you patched up a little bit?"

I nod. "Yes. Thank you." I painfully move my seatbelt, and then wiggle down out of the seat. I lean against the car, breathing hard and in pain.

"I'm Carter," the young man says to me as he examines me gently.

"Gianna," I say unnecessarily as I watch his long fingers feeling along the length of my broken arm. I cry out a little as his fingers press over one of the breaks in the arm.

"Sorry," he says to me quietly. He looks so regretful that I just shake my head.

"Not your fault," I tell him.

"Who does this to their sister?" Vince grumbles, coming to stand by us.

"A very bad person," I say through clenched teeth. Carter helps me to get into a sling, and he gives me some pain medication to take that he says is safe for the baby.

"It's not going to do a lot for you, I'm afraid," Carter tells me as I gulp the pills down. "We can't risk the baby being harmed by stronger pain medications."

I nod. "That's okay. I've been coping so far. So, what's the plan?"

Vince sighs. "We've come up with a plan to get in there from various different entrances. The trouble is that we don't know how many men are in there, so we will have to move carefully. We're good at what we do, but we can't hold off an army on our own."

I nod. "I can distract him," I say to Vince.

He immediately shakes his head no. "Dom wouldn't want that, and you need to think about the baby. Besides, you'd only be a distraction to Dom if you showed back up demanding to talk to your brother."

"Well, at least let me go back with you," I say stubbornly. "I can help, I know it. I know my brother. That has to count for something."

Vince looks skeptical, but I think he can tell how strongly I feel about this. He finally nods tightly. "Okay, let's get going, then."

I move to get back into the driver's seat, but Carter touches my shoulder. "Let me," he says and I gratefully hand him the car keys. Driving when you are in tons of pain and with one hand is not a lot of fun.

I lean my head back against the headrest and let the swaying of the car lull me into a sense of peace and safety as we drive. I place my hands on my belly, wishing I could explain to the tiny life inside of me that we will be okay.

I'm just not even sure that I believe it, is the trouble. Life without Dom looms like a vast, empty void to me. I can't even face the thought of him dying today. My brain just keeps skittering away from the idea like a frightened rabbit.

"Dom's going to be a great dad," Carter says to me out of the blue.

I crack an eye open and look at his profile. Carter is handsome in a pretty sort of way. I like his quiet, calm energy. I know now that he's one-hundred percent not the kind of guy that I'm into, but he will make someone an excellent partner someday.

"He thinks he will be terrible at being a father," I say back.

Carter laughs. "He's really hard on himself. He's a good guy. We all like him."

For some reason, Carter's certainty fills me with hope, for Dom and for the baby. I didn't realize just how much Dom's own gloominess about his ability to love people has affected my own feelings about us having a baby.

"You should tell him that," I say to Carter.

He glances over at me. "Yeah. I will do that."

I don't add the thought that flashes through my mind. I don't add the ifs, ands, and buts that rise inside me. There's no time for that kind of negativity.

All of us need to be as positive as we can. My favorite horoscopes are always going on and on about how you need to manifest what you want into this world. I have never manifested so hard in my life.

Carter parks the car outside the warehouse and smiles at me again. "Hang out for a bit, okay? We'll get Reaper out of there."

I nod and smile pleasantly. I need Carter and all of the men that Vince brought with him to think that I'm going to do as they say. I have other intentions.

Carter gets out of the car and walks a short distance away to talk to Vince and the other men. I watch them for a moment as they plan, then get out of the car. They haven't noticed me yet, so I duck down behind the vehicle a little.

I cast one more cautious look over the hood of the car, then dash toward the warehouse door. It's still open, and I duck inside just as I hear Vince shout my name.

I barrel down the hallway toward the sound of Will's voice. This warehouse building traps sound and echoes it back at you, but I'm positive that he's in a room off the main hallway. Most of the rest of the building seems to be in very rough shape, so it makes sense that he would have chosen one of the few, intact rooms for his mock execution.

"I'm coming, Dom," I say under my breath, ignoring the sharp pain lancing through my ribs. "The baby and I are coming to help."